[10] The translator recently met in society a Russian officer,
who had served with distinction in the country which forms the
scene of "Ammalát Bek." This gentleman had intimately known
Marlínski, and bore witness to the perfect accuracy of his
delineations, as well of the external features of nature as of
the characters of his _dramatis personæ_. The officer alluded
to had served some time in the very regiment commanded by the
unfortunate Verkhóffsky. Our fair readers may be interested to
learn, that Seltanetta still lives, and yet bears traces of her
former beauty. She married the Shamkhál, and now resides in
feudal magnificence at Tarki, where she exercises great sway,
which she employs in favour of the Russian interest, to which
she is devoted.

The picturesqueness as well as the fidelity of his description will, it
is hoped, secure for the tale a favourable reception with a public
always "_novitatis avida_," and whose appetite, now somewhat palled with
the "Bismillahs" and "Mashallahs" of the ordinary oriental novels, may
find some piquancy in a new variety of Mahomedan life--that of the
Caucasian Tartars.

The Russian language possessing many characters and some few sounds for
which there is no exact equivalent in English, we beg to say a word upon
the method adopted on the present occasion so to represent the Russian
orthography, as to avoid the shocking barbarisms of such combinations as
_zh_, &c. &c., and to secure, at the same time, an approach to the
correct pronunciation. Throughout these pages the vowels _a, e, i, o,
y_, are supposed to be pronounced as in French, the diphthong _ou_ as in
the word _you_, the _j_ always with the French sound.