the Ouzdens;
"you have thrice sworn not to plunder; and thrice have you broken
your oath. What is it that you seek? Lands? Flocks? Means to defend
the one or the other? But no! you are willing to accept presents
from the Russians as allies, and at the same time to guide the
Tcherkess to plunder our villages, and to plunder along with them.
Hang them!" said he sternly; "hang them up by their own thievish arkaus
(girdles)! Let them draw lots: the fourth shall be spared--let him
go and tell his countrymen that I am coming to teach them to keep
faith, and keep the peace, as I will have it."

The Ouzdens were conducted away.

There remained one Tartar bek, whom we had not remarked. This was a
young man of twenty-five, of unusual beauty, graceful as the
Belvidere Apollo. He bowed slightly to the commander-in chief as he
approached him, raised his cap, and again resumed his proud
indifferent expression; unshaken resignation to his fate was written
on his features.

The commander-in-chief fixed his stern eye upon his face, but the
young man neither changed countenance nor quivered an eyelash.

"Ammalat Bek," said Alexei Petrovitch, after a pause, "do you
remember that you are a Russian subject? that the Russian laws are
above you?"

"It would have been impossible to forget that," replied the Bek:
"if I had found in those laws a protection for my rights, I should
not now stand before you a prisoner."

"Ungrateful boy!" cried the commander-in-chief; "your father--you
yourself, have been the enemy of the Russians. Had it been during the
Persian domination of your race, not even the ashes would have
remained; but our Emperor was generous, and instead of punishing you
he gave you lands. And how did you repay his kindness? By secret
plot and open revolt! This is not all: you received and sheltered in
your house a sworn foe to Russia; you permitted him, before your eyes,
traitorously to slaughter a Russian officer. In spite of all this,
had you brought me a submissive head, I would have pardoned you, on
account of your youth and the customs of your nation. But you fled
to the mountains, and with Suleiman Akhmet Khan you committed
violence within the Russian bounds; you were beaten, and again you
make an incursion with Djemboulat. You cannot but know what fate
awaits you."

"I do," coldly answered Ammalat Bek: "I shall be shot."

"No! a bullet is too honourable a death for a brigand," cried the
angry general: "a cart with t