men, but he returned with hardly seventy. The remainder, about 2,000
men, remained on the field. At any rate, they no longer asked for food!
A few hundred hussars, however, cut their way through and carried to St.
Petersburg the news of what Czar Peter III. (who had now risen for the
seventh time from his grave) was doing! The Czarina commenced to get
tired of her adorer's conquests, so she called together her faithful
generals, and asked which of them thought it possible to undertake a
campaign in the depth of the Russian winter into the interior of the
Russian snow deserts. This did not mean playing at war, nor a triumphal
procession. It meant a battle with a furious people who, in forty years'
time, would trample upon the most powerful European troops. There were
four who replied that in Russia everything was possible which ought to
be done. The names of these four gentlemen were: Prince Galiczin,
General Bibikoff, Colonel Larionoff, and Michelson, a Swedish officer.
Their number, however, was soon reduced to two at the very commencement.
Larionoff returned home after the first battle of Bozal, where the
rebels proved victorious, whilst Bibikoff died from the hardships of the
winter campaign.

Galiczin and Michelson alone remained. The Swede had already gained fame
in the Turkish campaign from his swift and daring deeds, and when he
started from the Fort of Bozal against the rebels his sole troops
consisted of 400 hussars and 600 infantry, with four guns. With this
small force he started to the relief of the Fort of Ufa. Quickly as he
proceeded, Csika's spies were quicker still, and the rebel leader was
informed of the approach of the small body of the enemy. As he expected
that they only intended to reinforce the garrison of Ufa, he merely sent
against them 3,000 men, with nine guns, to occupy the mountain passes
through which they would march on their way to Ufa. But Michelson did
not go to Ufa as was expected. He seated his men on sledges, and flew