and ranks among the most
celebrated cities of Central Asia. Samarcand, which contains the tomb
of Tamerlane and the famous palace where the blue stone is kept on which
each new khan must seat himself on his accession, is defended by a very
strong citadel. Karschi, with its triple cordon, situated in an oasis,
surrounded by a marsh peopled with tortoises and lizards, is almost
impregnable, Is-chardjoui is defended by a population of twenty thousand
souls. Protected by its mountains, and isolated by its steppes, the
khanat of Bokhara is a most formidable state; and Russia would need a
large force to subdue it.

The fierce and ambitious Feofar now governed this corner of Tartary.
Relying on the other khans--principally those of Khokhand and Koondooz,
cruel and rapacious warriors, all ready to join an enterprise so dear
to Tartar instincts--aided by the chiefs who ruled all the hordes of
Central Asia, he had placed himself at the head of the rebellion of
which Ivan Ogareff was the instigator. This traitor, impelled by insane
ambition as much as by hate, had ordered the movement so as to attack
Siberia. Mad indeed he was, if he hoped to rupture the Muscovite Empire.
Acting under his suggestion, the Emir--which is the title taken by the
khans of Bokhara--had poured his hordes over the Russian frontier. He
invaded the government of Semipolatinsk, and the Cossacks, who were
only in small force there, had been obliged to retire before him. He had
advanced farther than Lake Balkhash, gaining over the Kirghiz population
on his way. Pillaging, ravaging, enrolling those who submitted, taking
prisoners those who resisted, he marched from one town to another,
followed by those impedimenta of Oriental sovereignty which may be
called his household, his wives and his slaves--all with the cool
audacity of a modern Ghengis-Khan. It was impossible to ascertain where
he now was; how far his soldiers had marched before the news of the
rebellion reached Moscow; or to what part of Siberia the Russian troops
had been forced to retire. All communication was interrupted. Had the
wire between Kolyvan and Tomsk been cut by Tartar scouts, or had the
Emir himself arrived at the Yeniseisk provinces? Was all the lower part
of Western Siberia in a ferment? Had the rebellion already spread to the
eastern regions? No one could say. The only agent which fears neither
cold nor heat, which can neither be stopped by the rigors of winter nor
the heat of summer,