and
scabbard glistening with precious stones, boots with golden spurs,
helmet ornamented with an aigrette of brilliant diamonds, Feofar
presented an aspect rather strange than imposing for a Tartar
Sardana-palus, an undisputed sovereign, who directs at his pleasure the
life and fortune of his subjects.

When Ivan Ogareff appeared, the great dignitaries remained seated on
their gold-embroidered cushions; but Feofar rose from a rich divan which
occupied the back part of the tent, the ground being hidden under the
thick velvet-pile of a Bokharian carpet.

The Emir approached Ogareff and gave him a kiss, the meaning of which he
could not mistake. This kiss made the lieutenant chief of the council,
and placed him temporarily above the khodja.

Then Feofar spoke. "I have no need to question you," said he; "speak,
Ivan. You will find here ears very ready to listen to you."

"Takhsir," answered Ogareff, "this is what I have to make known to you."
He spoke in the Tartar language, giving to his phrases the emphatic turn
which distinguishes the languages of the Orientals. "Takhsir, this is
not the time for unnecessary words. What I have done at the head of your
troops, you know. The lines of the Ichim and the Irtych are now in
our power; and the Turcoman horsemen can bathe their horses in the now
Tartar waters. The Kirghiz hordes rose at the voice of Feofar-Khan. You
can now push your troops towards the east, and where the sun rises, or
towards the west, where he sets."

"And if I march with the sun?" asked the Emir, without his countenance
betraying any of his thoughts.

"To march with the sun," answered Ogareff, "is to throw yourself towards
Europe; it is to conquer rapidly the Siberian provinces of Tobolsk as
far as the Ural Mountains."

"And if I go to meet this luminary of the heavens?"

"It is to subdue to the Tartar dominion, with Irkutsk, the richest
countries of Central Asia."

"But the armies of the Sultan of St. Petersburg?" said Feofar-Khan,
designating the Emperor of Russia by this strange title.

"You have nothing to fear from them," replied Ivan Ogareff. "The
invasion has been sudden; and before the Russian army can succor them,
Irkutsk or Tobolsk will have fallen into your power. The Czar's troops
have been overwhelmed at Kolyvan, as they will be everywhere where yours
meet them."

"And what advice does your devotion to the Tartar cause suggest?" asked
the Emir, after a few moments' silence.

"My a