tions he obtained the merit of the _gazie_, or holy war; and
the Prince of Tiflis became his proselyte and friend.

A just retaliation might be urged for the invasion of Turkestan, or the
Eastern Tartary. The dignity of Timur could not endure the impunity of
the Getes: he passed the Sihun, subdued the kingdom of Kashgar, and
marched seven times into the heart of their country. His most distant
camp was two months' journey to the northeast of Samarkand; and his
emirs, who traversed the river Irtysh, engraved in the forests of
Siberia a rude memorial of their exploits. The conquest of Kiptchak, or
the Western Tartary, was founded on the double motive of aiding the
distressed and chastising the ungrateful. Toctamish, a fugitive prince,
was entertained and protected in his court; the ambassadors of Auruss
Khan were dismissed with a haughty denial, and followed on the same day
by the armies of Zagatai; and their success established Toctamish in the
Mongol empire of the North.

But, after a reign of ten years, the new Khan forgot the merits and the
strength of his benefactor--the base usurper, as he deemed him, of the
sacred rights of the house of Genghis. Through the gates of Derbent he
entered Persia at the head of ninety thousand horse: with the
innumerable forces of Kiptchak, Bulgaria, Circassia, and Russia, he
passed the Sihun, burned the palaces of Timur, and compelled him, amid
the winter snows, to contend for Samarkand and his life. After a mild
expostulation and a glorious victory the Emperor resolved on revenge;
and by the east and the west of the Caspian and the Volga he twice
invaded Kiptchak with such mighty powers that thirteen miles were
measured from his right to his left wing. In a march of five months they
rarely beheld the footsteps of man; and their daily subsistence was
often trusted to the fortune of the chase. At length the armies
encountered each other; but the treachery of the standard-bearer, who,
in the heat of action, reversed the imperial standard of Kiptchak,
determined the victory of the Zagatais and Toctamish--I speak the
language of the _Institutions_--gave the tribe of Toushi to the wind of
desolation. He fled to the Christian Duke of Lithuania, again returned
to the banks of the Volga, and, after fifteen battles with a domestic
rival, at last perished in the wilds of Siberia.

The pursuit of a flying enemy carried Timur into the tributary provinces
of Russia; a duke of the reigning family