ur governors, I became full of energy to shake off the yoke, and these
feelings turned my thoughts from the sacred profession to which I was
destined. About this time war broke out between Persia and Russia, and
our village lying in the track of the armies marching to the frontiers,
I felt that my family would require every protection possible, and
that I should be more usefully employed with them than in a cloister.
Accordingly, but a short time before taking priest's orders, I left my
friends at Etchmiazin, and returned to my father's house. I was welcomed
by every one. Already had they felt the horrors of war; for marauding
parties of both Persians and Russians (both equally to be feared)
had made their appearance, and molested the peaceable and inoffensive
inhabitants of ours and the neighbouring villages. This frontier
warfare, in its general results, was of no great utility to either
of the powers at war, yet to those who inhabited the seat of it, its
consequences were dreadful. We were continually harassed either by the
fears of the invading enemy, or by the exactions and molestations of the
troops of our own government. Our harvests were destroyed, our cattle
dispersed, and ourselves in constant danger of being carried away
prisoners. Anxious to preserve our property, and our only resource to
keep us from starvation, we continued to till our fields, but went to
work with swords by our sides, and guns ready loaded slung at our
backs; and when a stranger appeared, whoever he might be, we immediately
assembled and made a show of defence. By this means, for several years,
we managed, with great difficulty and perseverance, to get in our
harvest, and, by the blessing of Providence, had enough to subsist
upon. But here I must begin some of those particulars which relate to my
individual history.

'About two years ago, when securing our harvest, I had gone out long
before the dawn to reap the corn of one of our most distant fields,
armed and prepared as usual. I perceived a Persian horseman, bearing
a female behind him, and making great speed through a glen that wound
nearly at the foot of a more elevated spot, upon which I was standing.
The female evidently had been placed there against her will, for as soon
as she perceived me she uttered loud shrieks, and extended her arms. I
immediately flew down the craggy side of the mountain, and reached the
lowermost part of the glen time enough to intercept the horseman's road.