middling stature, but of athletic frame, and was clothed in a shirt of
linked mail, his head protected by a helmet, and in full warlike
equipment, and followed by five noúkers. By their dusty dress, and the
foam which covered their horses, it might be seen that they had ridden
far and fast. The first horseman, fixing his eye on the soldiers,
advanced slowly along the piles of muskets, upsetting the two pyramids
of fire-arms. The noúkers, following the steps of their master, far from
turning aside, coolly rode over the scattered weapons. The sentry, who
had challenged them while they were yet at some distance, and warned
them not to approach, seized the bit of the steed bestridden by the
mail-coated horseman, while the rest of the soldiers, enraged at such an
insult from a Mussulman, assailed the party with abuse. "Hold hard! Who
are you?" was the challenge and question of the sentinel. "Thou must be
a raw recruit if thou knowest not Sultan Akhmet Khan of Avár,"[27]
coolly answered the man in mail, shaking off the hand of the sentry from
his reins. "I think last year I left the Russians a keepsake at Báshli.
Translate that for him," he said to one of his noúkers. The Aváretz
repeated his words in pretty intelligible Russian.

[27] The brother of Hassan Khan Djemontái, who became Khan of
Avár by marrying the Khan's widow and heiress.

"'Tis Akhmet Khan! Akhmet Khan!" shouted the soldiers. "Seize him! hold
him fast! down with him! pay him for the affair of Báshli[28]--the
villains cut our wounded to pieces."

[28] The Russian detachment, consisting on this occasion of
3000 men, was surrounded by 60,000. These were, Ouizmi
Karakaidákhsky, the Aváretzes, Akoushínetzes, the Boulinétzes
of the Koi-Soú, and others. The Russians fought their way out