n could again approach her her lover's arm was
around her waist, and amidst the shouts of the spectators they turned
towards the fort.

"Alas! this was the agreed signal amongst the Huzarehs, who, screened
by the undulations of the savannah or hidden in the watercourses, had
been anxiously awaiting the event. With a simultaneous shout they
rush in upon the unprepared multitude, and commence an indiscriminate
massacre; but short was their success, for a distant party of Uzbegs
were observed rapidly gallopping to the scene of action, and the
Huzarehs were compelled to retire, their spirit for vengeance yet
unslaked. The panic their sudden onslaught had caused was so great
that they might all have retired unmolested had not Azeem suddenly
recognized his sister amongst a group of females who were being
hurried towards the fort. Regardless of the almost certain death that
awaited him he rushed to embrace her, but hardly had he clasped her in
his arms when the chief of the harem drove his Persian dagger through
his back. At sight of this all thoughts of further revenge were
abandoned, and the Huzarehs hastily quitting the field made the best
of their way home, not without having, though at the expense of the
life of their leader, inflicted a severe punishment on the invaders of
their peaceful country,"[*]

[* Note: Clark, in his Travels in Russia and Tartary, describes the
ceremony of marriage among the Calmucks as performed on horseback.

"The girl is first mounted and rides off at full speed. Her lover
pursues, and if he overtakes her she becomes his wife, and the
marriage is consummated on the spot; after which she returns with him
to his tent. But it sometimes happens that the woman does not wish to
marry the person by whom she is pursued, in which case she will not
suffer him to overtake her; and we were assured that no instance
occurs of a Calmuck girl being caught, unless she has a partiality for
her pursuer. If she dislikes him she rides, to use the language of
an English sportsman, 'neck or nothing,' until she has completely
escaped, or until the pursuer's horse is tired out, leaving her at
liberty to return, and to be afterwards chased by some more favourite
admirer."]

Such was the old man's tale; whether the offspring of his fertile
imagination, or actually founded upon fact, so plausible did it
appear, and so much interested was I in his narration, that it became
forcibly imprinted on my memory, and I ha