stant provinces of Central Asia. After passing through the principal
Siberian cities, the Grand Duke, who traveled en militaire rather than
en prince, without any parade, accompanied by his officers, and escorted
by a regiment of Cossacks, arrived in the Trans-Baikalcine provinces.
Nikolaevsk, the last Russian town situated on the shore of the Sea of
Okhotsk, had been honored by a visit from him. Arrived on the confines
of the immense Muscovite Empire, the Grand Duke was returning towards
Irkutsk, from which place he intended to retake the road to Moscow,
when, sudden as a thunder clap, came the news of the invasion.

He hastened to the capital, but only reached it just before
communication with Russia had been interrupted. There was time to
receive only a few telegrams from St. Petersburg and Moscow, and with
difficulty to answer them before the wire was cut. Irkutsk was isolated
from the rest of the world.

The Grand Duke had now only to prepare for resistance, and this he
did with that determination and coolness of which, under other
circumstances, he had given incontestable proofs. The news of the
taking of Ichim, Omsk, and Tomsk, successively reached Irkutsk. It was
necessary at any price to save the capital of Siberia. Reinforcements
could not be expected for some time. The few troops scattered about in
the provinces of Siberia could not arrive in sufficiently large numbers
to arrest the progress of the Tartar columns. Since therefore it was
impossible for Irkutsk to escape attack, the most important thing to be
done was to put the town in a state to sustain a siege of some duration.

The preparations were begun on the day Tomsk fell into the hands of the
Tartars. At the same time with this last news, the Grand Duke heard that
the Emir of Bokhara and the allied Khans were directing the invasion
in person, but what he did not know was, that the lieutenant of these
barbarous chiefs was Ivan Ogareff, a Russian officer whom he had himself
reduced to the ranks, but with whose person he was not acquainted.

First of all, as we have seen, the inhabitants of the province of
Irkutsk were compelled to abandon the towns and villages. Those who
did not take refuge in the capital had to retire beyond Lake Baikal, a
district to which the invasion would probably not extend its ravages.
The harvests of corn and fodder were collected and stored up in the
town, and Irkutsk, the last bulwark of the Muscovite power in the
Far East