note 333: This officer wrote to the _Globe_ on January 25, 1881,
stating that he had fortified two other posts east of Denghil Tepe. This
led Skobeleff to push on to Askabad after the capture of that place; but
he found no strongholds. See Marvin's _Russian Advance towards
India_, p. 85.]

[Footnote 334: Parl. Papers, Central Asia, No. 1 (1880), pp. 167-173,
182.]

The next year witnessed the advent of a great soldier on the scene.
Skobeleff, the stormy petrel of Russian life, the man whose giant frame
was animated by a hero's soul, who, when pitched from his horse in the
rush on one of the death-dealing redoubts at Plevna, rose undaunted to
his feet, brandished his broken sword in the air and yelled at the enemy
a defiance which thrilled his broken lines to a final mad charge over
the rampart--Skobeleff was at hand. He had culled his first laurels at
Khiva and Khokand, and now came to the shores of the Caspian to carry
forward the standards which he hoped one day to plant on the walls of
Delhi. That he cherished this hope is proved by the Memorandum which
will be found in the Appendix of this volume. His disclaimer of any such
intention to Mr. Charles Marvin (which will also be found there) shows
that under his frank exterior there lay hidden the strain of Oriental
duplicity so often found among his countrymen in political life.

At once the operations felt the influence of his active, cheery, and
commanding personality. The materials for a railway which had been lying
unused at Bender were now brought up; and Russia found the money to set
about the construction of a railway from Michaelovsk to the Tekke
Turkoman country--an undertaking which was destined wholly to change the
conditions of warfare in South Turkestan and on the Afghan border. By
the close of the year more than forty miles were roughly laid down, and
Skobeleff was ready for his final advance from Kizil Arvat towards
Denghil Tepe.

Meanwhile the Tekkes had gained reinforcements from their kinsmen in the
Merv oasis, and had massed nearly 40,000 men--so rumour ran--at their
stronghold. Nevertheless, they offered no serious resistance to the
Russian advance, doubtless because they hoped to increase the
difficulties of his retreat after the repulse which they determined to
inflict at their hill fortress. But Skobeleff excelled Lomakin in skill
no less than in prowess and magnetic influence. He proceeded to push his
trenches towards the stronghold, so that