us by Avicenna and other learned men of the tenth century, is regarded as the center of Mussulman science, and ranks among the most celebrated cities of Central Asia. Samarcand, which contains the tomb of Tamerlane and the famous palace where the blue stone is kept on which each new khan must seat himself on his accession, is defended Mateo Kovacic Drakter by a very strong citadel. Karschi, with its triple cordon, situated in an oasis, surrounded by a marsh peopled with tortoises and lizards, is almost impregnable, Is-chardjoui is defended by a population of twenty thousand souls. Protected by Joao Moutinho Drakter its mountains, and isolated by its Juan Iturbe Drakter steppes, the khanat of Bokhara is a most formidable state; and Russia would need a large force to subdue it.
The fierce and ambitious Feofar now governed this corner of Tartary. Relying on the other khans — principally those of Khokhand and Koondooz, cruel and rapacious warriors, all ready to join an enterprise so dear to Tartar instincts — aided by the chiefs who ruled all the hordes of Central Asia, he had placed himself at the head of the rebellion of which Ivan Ogareff was the instigator. This traitor, impelled by insane ambition as much as by hate, had ordered the movement so as to attack Siberia. Mad indeed he was, if he hoped to rupture the Muscovite Empire. Acting under his Manuel Locatelli Drakter suggestion, the Emir — which is the title taken by the khans of Bokhara — had poured his hordes over Los Angeles Kings the Russian frontier. He invaded the government of Semipolatinsk, and the Cossacks, who were only in small force there, had been obliged to retire before him. He had advanced farther than Lake Balkhash, gaining over the Kirghiz population on his way. Pillaging, ravaging, enrolling Blank Drakter those who submitted, taking prisoners those who resisted, he marched from one town to Marquinhos Drakter another, followed by those impedimenta of Oriental sovereignty which may be called his household, his wives and his slaves — all with the cool audacity of a modern Ghengis-Khan. It was impossible to ascertain where he now was; how Salvatore Sirigu Drakter far his soldiers had marched before the news of the rebellion reached Moscow; or to what part of Siberia the Russian troops had been forced to retire. All communication was interrupted. Had the wire between Kolyvan and Tomsk been cut by Tartar scouts, or had the Emir himself arrived at the Yeniseisk provinces? Was all the lower part of Western Siberia in a ferment? Had the rebellion already spread to the eastern regions? No one could say. The only agent which fears neither cold nor heat, which can neither be stopped by the rigors of winter nor the heat of Roman Weidenfeller Drakter summer, and which flies with the rapidity of lightning — the electric current — was prevented from traversing the steppes, and it was Lucas Vazquez Drakter no longer possible to warn the Grand Duke, shut up in Irkutsk, of Simon Mignolet Drakter the danger threatening him from the treason of Ivan Ogareff.
A courier only could supply the place of Eren Derdiyok Drakter the interrupted current. It would take this man some time to traverse the five thousand two hundred versts between Moscow and Irkutsk. To pass the ranks of the rebels and invaders he mustlinks:
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