beleff
(translated). London, 1881.]

A curious incident, told to Lord Curzon, illustrates the dread in which
Russian troops have since been held. At the opening of the railway to
Askabad, five years later, the Russian military bands began to play. At
once the women and children there present raised cries and shrieks of
dread, while the men threw themselves on the ground. They imagined that
the music was a signal for another onslaught like that which preluded
the capture of their former stronghold[336].

[Footnote 336: _Russia in Central Asia in 1889_. By the Hon. G.N. Curzon
(1889), p. 83.]

This victory proved to be the last of Skobeleff's career. The Government
having used their knight-errant, now put him on one side as too
insubordinate and ambitious for his post. To his great disgust, he was
recalled. He did not long survive. Owing to causes that are little
known, among which a round of fast-living is said to have played its
part, he died suddenly from failure of the heart at his residence near
Moscow (July 7 1882). Some there were who whispered dark things as to
his militant notions being out of favour with the new Czar, Alexander
III.; others pointed significantly to Bismarck. Others again prattled of
Destiny; but the best comment on the death of Skobeleff would seem to be
that illuminating saying of Novalis--"Character is Destiny." Love of
fame prompted in him the desire one day to measure swords with Lord
Roberts in the Punjab; but the coarser strain in his nature dragged him
to earth at the age of thirty-nine.

The accession of Alexander III., after the murder of his father on March
13, 1881, promised for a short time to usher in a more peaceful policy;
but, in truth, the last important diplomatic assurance of the reign of
Alexander II. was that given by the Minister M. de Giers, to Lord
Dufferin, as to Russia's resolve not to occupy Merv. "Not only do we not
want to go there, but, happily, there is nothing which can require us to
go there."

In spite of a similar assurance given on April 5 to the Russian
ambassador in London, both the need and the desire soon sprang into
existence. Muscovite agents made their way to the fruitful oasis of
Merv; and a daring soldier, Alikhanoff, in the guise of a merchant's
clerk, proceeded thither early in 1882, skilfully distributed money to
work up a Russian party, and secretly sketched a plan of the fortress.
Many chiefs and traders opposed Russia bitterly, for our bri