enemies obscurely ascertained, and hardships too vaguely
prefigured, which mark the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses--the
anabasis of the younger Cyrus, and the
subsequent retreat of the ten thousand, the Parthian
expeditions of the Romans, especially those of Crassus 25
and Julian--or (as more disastrous than any of them,
and, in point of space, as well as in amount of forces,
more extensive) the Russian anabasis and katabasis of
Napoleon. 3dly, That of a religious _Exodus_, authorized
by an oracle venerated throughout many nations of Asia, 30
--an Exodus, therefore, in so far resembling the great
Scriptural Exodus of the Israelites, under Moses and
Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar distinction of carrying
along with them their entire families, women, children,
slaves, their herd of cattle and of sheep, their horses and
their camels.

This triple character of the enterprise naturally invests
it with a more comprehensive interest; but the dramatic
interest which we ascribed to it, or its fitness for a stage 5
representation, depends partly upon the marked variety
and the strength of the personal agencies concerned, and
partly upon the succession of scenical situations. Even
the steppes, the camels, the tents, the snowy and the sandy
deserts are not beyond the scale of our modern representative 10
powers, as often called into action in the theatres
both of Paris and London; and the series of situations
unfolded,--beginning with the general conflagration on
the Wolga--passing thence to the disastrous scenes of
the flight (as it _literally_ was in its commencement)--to 15
the Tartar siege of the Russian fortress Koulagina--the
bloody engagement with the Cossacks in the mountain
passes at Ouchim--the surprisal by the Bashkirs and
the advanced posts of the Russian army at Torgau--the
private conspiracy at this point against the Khan--the 20
long succession of running fights--the parting massacres
at the Lake of Tengis under the eyes of the Chinese--and,
finally, the tragical retribution to Zebek-Dorchi at
the hunting lodge of the Chinese Emperor;--all these
situations communicate a _scenical_ animation to the wild 25
romance, if treated dramatically; whilst a higher and a
philosophic interest belongs to it as a case of authentic
history, commemorating a great revolution, for good and
for evil, in the fortunes of a whole people--a people semi-b