the Russian officer in beginning his
operations against the fort. The army with which he appeared before the
walls may not have been large in numbers when compared with the armies
of modern times, but, in all that makes a disciplined force formidable,
it was exceptionally well supplied. The artillery was in greater
strength than is usually considered necessary, and the expedition was
still more efficient in engineers and cavalry. The garrison of Ak Musjid
was, on the other hand, ill supplied, both in provisions and in
ammunition, and the fort itself presented, neither in its position nor
in its construction, any feature that an engineer officer would have
considered calculated to make it capable of sustaining the attack of
artillery for twenty-four hours. The Russian lines were constructed in
the most approved method; but twice were their approaches destroyed, and
twice their mines counter-mined. During twenty-six days the Russian
bombardment was fast and furious, and during all that time the
Khokandian defence was stubborn and persistent. But all the efforts of
the garrison to break through the beleaguering lines were unavailing,
and after so long a cannonade little more resistance could be expected
from ramparts which were pierced in several places by wide and gaping
breaches. The resolute commandant, who had done everything required by
the most exacting code of military honour, confessed that there was
nothing to be gained by a continued defence, and as it was known that
the Russians were making preparations for an early assault, a messenger
was despatched without delay to the Russian commander, expressing the
willingness of the garrison to capitulate on honourable terms. General
Perovsky, who had expected an easy triumph here, and possibly some more
extended triumph in farther regions, was indignant at the resistance
opposed to him by a paltry place like Ak Musjid, and received the
messenger from the fort with ill-concealed impatience. Scarcely
bestowing any attention on the letter, couched in humble terms as it
was, of the commandant, General Perovsky petrified the astonished
emissary with the declaration that on the morrow the fort would be taken
by assault. This arbitrary assertion of his power, which was carried
into practice, of course successfully, the next day, on an occasion when
magnanimity ought to have been shown by the successful general, does not
redound to the credit of the officer in question, and throw