had scarcely got out of sight, when the camel that was left behind,
finding itself alone, sent forth the most frightful cries; by-and-by it
became furious; it turned round and round the stake, backed to the very
limit of the rope and of its long neck, made longer by painful extension,
and applied every effort to get rid of the wooden curl that was passed
through its nose: the spectacle of its struggle was really frightful. At
last it succeeded in breaking the cord, and then dashed off boundingly
into the desert. The horse and mule had also disappeared; they were
hungry and thirsty; and about the tent there was not a blade of grass,
not a drop of water. The well beside which we had encamped was perfectly
dry; in fact, it was nothing more than an old cistern which had probably
been for years useless.

Thus our little caravan, which for nearly two months had journeyed,
without once separating, through the desert plains of Tartary, was now
utterly dispersed; man and beast--all had disappeared. There remained
only M. Huc, solitary in his little linen-house, and a prey to the most
corroding anxieties. For a whole day he had neither eaten nor drunk; but
under such circumstances you do not ordinarily feel either hunger or
thirst; the mind is too full to give any place to the suggestions of the
body; you seem environed with a thousand fearful phantoms: and great
indeed were your desolation, but that you have for your safety and your
consolation, prayer, the sole lever that can raise from off your heart
the weight of sombre apprehensions that would otherwise crush it.

The hours passed on, and no one returned. As, in the obscurity of night,
persons might pass quite close to the tent, and yet not see it, M. Huc,
from time to time, ascended the adjacent hills and rocks, and, in his
loudest tones, called out the names of his lost companions, but no one
replied; all still was silence, and solitude. It was near midnight, when
at length the plaintive cries of a camel, apparently remonstrating
against being driven so fast, were heard in the distance. Samdadchiemba
soon came up. He had met several Tartar horsemen who had no tidings,
indeed, of M. Gabet, but from whom he learned that we had gone altogether
astray; that the road we were pursuing led to a Mongol encampment, in
precisely the contrary direction to Rache-Tchurin. "By day-break," said
Samdadchiemba, "we must raise the tent, and find the right path; we shall
there, n