eat.

Alcide Jolivet, his useless dispatch in his hand, had run to Blount,
stretched on the ground, and had bravely lifted him on his shoulders,
with the intention of flying with him. He was too late!

Both were prisoners; and, at the same time, Michael, taken unawares
as he was about to leap from the window, fell into the hands of the
Tartars!

END OF BOOK I

BOOK II

CHAPTER I A TARTAR CAMP

AT a day's march from Kolyvan, several versts beyond the town of
Diachinks, stretches a wide plain, planted here and there with great
trees, principally pines and cedars. This part of the steppe is usually
occupied during the warm season by Siberian shepherds, and their
numerous flocks. But now it might have been searched in vain for one of
its nomad inhabitants. Not that the plain was deserted. It presented a
most animated appearance.

There stood the Tartar tents; there Feofar-Khan, the terrible Emir
of Bokhara, was encamped; and there on the following day, the 7th
of August, were brought the prisoners taken at Kolyvan after the
annihilation of the Russian force, which had vainly attempted to oppose
the progress of the invaders. Of the two thousand men who had engaged
with the two columns of the enemy, the bases of which rested on Tomsk
and Omsk, only a few hundred remained. Thus events were going badly,
and the imperial government appeared to have lost its power beyond the
frontiers of the Ural--for a time at least, for the Russians could not
fail eventually to defeat the savage hordes of the invaders. But in
the meantime the invasion had reached the center of Siberia, and it
was spreading through the revolted country both to the eastern, and
the western provinces. If the troops of the Amoor and the province of
Takutsk did not arrive in time to occupy it, Irkutsk, the capital of
Asiatic Russia, being insufficiently garrisoned, would fall into the
hands of the Tartars, and the Grand Duke, brother of the Emperor, would
be sacrificed to the vengeance of Ivan Ogareff.

What had become of Michael Strogoff? Had he broken down under the weight
of so many trials? Did he consider himself conquered by the series
of disasters which, since the adventure of Ichim, had increased in
magnitude? Did he think his cause lost? that his mission had failed?
that his orders could no longer be obeyed?

Michael was one of those men who never give in while life exists. He was
yet alive; he still had the imperial letter safe; his di