bull-dog; a
_worthy_ foe, despite the fact that he burns, pillages, violates,
murders, destroys, and tortures in cold blood. What if Bella were in
one of these Bulgarian villages when given over to the tender mercies of
a troop of Bashi-Bazouks?"

Nicholas had his left hand on the reins and resting on the pommel of his
saddle as I said this. He turned and looked at me with a face almost
white with indignation.

"Jeff, how _can_ you suggest? Bashi-Bazouks are devils--"

"Well, then," said I, interrupting, "let us suppose Cossacks, or some
other of your own irregulars instead--"

I stopped, for Nicholas had vaulted on his horse, and in another second
was flying at full speed over the plain. Perhaps I was hard on him, but
after the miseries I witnessed that day I could not help trying to send
the truth _home_.

Time pressed now. The regiment to which I was attached had received
orders to march. I galloped off in search of it. At first I had
thought of making a hurried search for Lancey or the scout, but gave up
the idea, well content to have heard that the former was alive.

The Turks at this time were advancing under Mahomet Ali Pasha on the
position occupied by the Russians on the Lom river. As I joined my
regiment and reported myself, I heard distant cannonading on the left,
and observed troops moving off in all directions. We soon got the order
to march, and, on going to the top of a small eminence, came in sight of
the field of action.

To my unaccustomed eyes the country appeared to be alive with confused
masses of moving men, from some of which masses there burst at intervals
the rolling smoke of rifle-firing. Of course I knew that there was
order and arrangement, but the only order that impressed itself on me
was that of the Russian regiment at my side, as the men strode steadily
forward, with compressed lips and stern yet eager glances.

The Turkish troops had moved out and taken up a position on the face of
a hill under cover of some woods. As battalion after battalion marched
away, I, for the first time, became impressed with the multitudes of men
who constitute an army, and, at the same time, with the feeling that
something like a pitched battle was about to be fought. From the
elevated position on which we stood, I could see that numbers of Russian
cavalry were prowling about over the plain, as if watching the movements
of the enemy. The intention of the Turks soon became evident, for the