to occupy important points,
was carried out actively during 1857; and in the next summer three
separate columns, under one supreme command, drove back Shamil's
bands, and took up strong positions in the heart of his country. The
inhabitants, severely harried by the Murids, who maltreated
ferociously all villages that would not join them, took refuge under
Russian protection; and though Shamil made several bold attempts to
break through the circle that was gradually encompassing him, he was
compelled to abandon Veden, so long his home, which was taken in April
1859. The forest tracts were now entirely under Russian control, and
the highland tribes were rapidly surrendering to the Russian
commanders, whose strategy it was to avoid frontal attacks upon large
bodies prepared to fight behind entrenchments, but to make resistance
impossible by enveloping movements. In the mountains, which had so
long defied the armies of the Czar, the local chiefs and their
clansmen were now falling away from Shamil, who was forced to retreat
hastily with a few hundred followers to his stronghold at Gooneeb,
where he entrenched himself for a final stand, knowing well that
defence was hopeless, yet resolved to die fighting. But his men were
almost exterminated by the overpowering numbers which the Russians
threw upon the fortifications in their assault. When the outworks had
fallen, and the place was practically won, the Russian commander, who
desired to capture Shamil alive, suspended the final rush upon the
spot where he still held out, and sent him a message that his life
would be spared on surrender. He yielded, and rode out to meet the
Russian lines; but a burst of cheering from the Russian soldiers at
sight of him so startled him that he went back. A Russian officer
persuaded him to turn again.

'Followed by about fifty of his Murids, the sole remnant of his
once mighty hosts, he rode towards where Bariatinsky, surrounded by
his staff, sat waiting on a stone. Shamil dismounted and was led to
the feet of his conqueror, who told him that he answered for his
personal safety and that of his family; but he had refused terms
when offered, and all else must now depend on the will of the
emperor. The stern Imam bowed his head in silence and was led off
captive. Next day he was sent to Shoura, and thence to Russia,
where later on his family was allowed to join him.'

In the foregoing pages we have ru