behind which they could speak
in bolder language to the Russian empress and claim better terms. He
did not venture as yet to hint at his startling plan of a migration to
far-off China.

The simple minded Tartars, made furious by his skilful oratory, accepted
his plan by acclamation, and returned home to push with the utmost haste
the preparations for their stupendous task. The idea of a migration _en
masse_ did not frighten them. They were nomads and the descendants of
nomads, who for ages had been used to fold their tents and flit away.

The Kalmuck villages extended on both sides of the Volga. A large
section of the horde would have to cross that great stream, and this
could be done with sufficient speed only when its surface was bridged
with ice. For this reason midwinter was chosen for the flight, despite
the sufferings which must arise from the bitter Russian cold, and the
5th of January was appointed for religious reasons by the leading Lama
of the tribe. The year had been selected by the Great Lama of Thibet,
the head of the Buddhist faith, to which the Kalmucks belonged, and to
whom the conspirator had appealed.

Despite the secrecy and rapidity of the movement, tidings of it reached
the Russian court. But the Russian envoy who dwelt among the Kalmucks
was quite deceived by their wiles, and sent word to the imperial court
that the rumors were false and nothing resembling an outbreak was in
view. The governor of Astrachan, a man of more sense and discernment,
sent courier after courier, but his warnings were ignored, and the fatal
5th of January came without a preventive step being taken by the
government. Then the governor, learning that the migration had actually
begun, sprang into his sleigh and drove over the Russian snows at the
furious speed of three hundred miles a day, finally rushing into the
imperial presence-chamber at St. Petersburg to announce to the empress
that all his warnings had been true and that the Kalmucks were in full
flight. Other couriers quickly confirmed his words, and the envoy paid
for his blindness by death in a dungeon-cell.

Meanwhile the banks of the Volga had been the locality of a remarkable
event. At early dawn of the selected day the Kalmucks east of the stream
began to assemble in troops and squadrons, gathering in tens of
thousands, a great body of the tribe setting out every half-hour on its
march. Women and children, several hundred thousand in number, were
placed on w