very, prepared for the
assault; when suddenly an unexpected attack of the Tcherkess, who had
driven in the Russian scouts and outposts, compelled the besiegers to
direct the fire of the redans against the furious mountaineers. A
thundering Allah-il-Allah, from the walls of Anapa, greeted their
encounter: the volleys of cannon and musketry arose with redoubled
violence from the walls, but the Russian grape tore asunder and arrested
the crowds of horsemen and infantry of the Tcherkess, as they were
preparing to throw themselves upon the batteries with their sabres; and
they, with furious cries of "Giaour, giaourla!" turned back, leaving
behind them the dead and wounded. In a moment the whole field was strewn
with their corpses and their disabled, who, staggering to their feet,
fell back, struck by the balls and grape-shot; whilst the cannon-shot
shattered the wood, and the grenades, bursting, completed the
destruction. But from the beginning of the action, till the moment when
not one of the enemy remained in sight, the Russians saw before them a
well-built Tcherkess on a white horse, who rode, at a slow pace, up and
down before their redans. All recognized in him the same horseman who
had leaped over the trenches at mid-day, probably in order to induce the
Tcherkess to fall upon the Russians from the rear, at the moment when
the now unsuccessful sortie was to be made from the gate. Crashing and
thundering danced the grape-shot around him. His horse strained at the
bridle; but he, looking calmly at the batteries, rode along them as if
they were raining flowers upon him. The artillerymen ground their teeth
with vexation at the unpunished daring of the cavalier: shot after shot
tore up the earth, but he remained unhurt as if enchanted. "Give him a
cannon-ball!" shouted a young officer of artillery, but lately released
from the military college, who was above all enraged at their want of
success: "I would load the gun with my head, so glad would I be to kill
that bragger: it is not worth while to waste grape upon one
man--grape--look out! a cannon-ball will reach the guilty!" So saying,
he screwed up the quoin and levelled the gun, looking through the sight;
and having exactly calculated the moment when the horseman would ride
through the line of aim, he stepped aside and ordered the fatal fire.

For some moments the smoke enveloped the battery in darkness: when it
floated away the frightened horse was dragging the blood-stai