It was General Hetmann's brilliant victory of Mount Acolias, which, in his then extremity, cut Mukhtar's army in two, Sazereff's division intercepting those who retreated on Kars, when 7000 prisoners and four guns fell into the hands of the Muscovites, the Turkish right wing being driven from its position on the Aladja Dagh, and confusion reigning triumphant. Mukhtar, having now nothing left to him, rushed back into Kars. This movement was followed by that long-drawn-out effort, that hope against hope, which still led the Turkish General to hold on; and then-well, then came the drop scene: Kars-the great corner-stone of the quadrilateral, one of the strongest fortresses in the world-fell.

All who could made off in hot haste for Erzeroum, this being the next point to which the retiring Moslems clung. True, should they not be intercepted, they still had the KopDagh, perhaps the finest military point in the country, to call their own; from which, however, if once dislodged, all would be lost. Such was the condition of affairs when Mukhtar retreated from Kars on Erzeroum.

Nor was it long before the capitulation of the former place was followed by that of the latter. Thus on those battlements so toughly contested against tremendous odds, where the Crescent and the Star had proudly floated, the Russian Eagle eventually fluttered in the breeze.

Thus rounding off events, however, I have, from an historic point of view, anticipated them by several months, for it must be remembered that the Manchester Guardian, the Scotsman, and myself were, when this leap into futurity was made, just starting from Kars, ensemble to join respectively the Russian and Turkish forces in Europe. Let us hasten, therefore, to resume the thread of our narrative.

It was our second night out; we had travelled since dawn on our return from Kars to Erzeroum. As we rested under the shadow of some overhanging rocks, the fertile valley below —for we were now at a great elevation-looked like a manycoloured Turkish carpet spread out before us, and with the assistance of a map and compass we were glad to find that our route for some distance lay in that promising direction, and still more so that at no very great distance we could see through our field-glasses a village, probably some six or seven miles off, about which a thin thread, like a tributary of the Araxes, might

be seen winding. Indeed, this last discovery acted as a special impetus to push forward. Suffice it to say, in course of time we reached the main stream, the Araxes itself, so glorified by Xenophon, and so enjoyed by us as we bathed in its cool inviting depths, quite innocent of the innumerable watersnakes which are said to abound there. Coming within touch of a luxury so seldom met with in our travels, the temptation was too great; we could not resist it.

But, O ye gods, that dip! The penalty we had to pay for cleanliness! It came with a vengeance, and we were not prone, from that time, to wonder at the native antipathy to

water.

Of course, to be able to wash was a blessing only to be enjoyed at such very rare intervals, that the various animalculæ which owed their existence to us lost their cunning in a few days, and after a night or two of 'khan life' became, even to Britishers, quite endurable. Not that the irritating armies made for 'fresh woods and pastures new ;' far from it. They, so to speak, seemed to ruminate upon the dusty humanity they had so recently and so vigorously attacked. But oh, what 'a change comes o'er the spirit of their dream,' when the traveller has availed himself of his very exceptional chance of a dip. With a clean, clear course before them, fresh, healthy (muscular) undulating pasture lands on which to graze, it may be faintly imagined—only faintly--on putting on one's clothes again, what an awful condition of active operation at once commences—maddening titillation would hardly be the term

for it.

As time wore on, every moment brought us nearer to that haven where the rest and refreshment we so much needed were, we hoped, to be found. So, hungry as hunters, we hastened forward, past what had been tobacco plantations, fields of wheat and other grain, now all churned into a muddy conglomerate by the artillery and cavalry which had but recently preceded us; at length, with a weary sigh of relief, we approached the outskirts of the long-looked-for village.

Strange! No barking of dogs announced our arrival-no open-mouthed natives came out to stare-no village idiot came with his incredulous glances to scrutinise us. No; not a sound. All was quiet as the grave, for not only was that village a deserted one, but one that had been completely ran

sacked by Cossacks, who had left behind them many traces of their cruel passage through it.

There is a silence far more intense than that of the desert itself. A sea of sand provokes no suggestion of active life; but a village in peace times, with its merry hum of children's voices, its cocks, hens, ducks, oxen, sheep, goats, and barking dogs, is so much a centre of vitality, that this one to us seemed the very acme of desolation.

Here was a predicament for a posse of hungry men, made more ravenous by sheer anticipation of a meal; for only having here and there by the way obtained insufficient scraps since we started, we were now in an almost famishing condition. Two of our guards at once galloped off to scour the neighbourhood, and after a considerable time returned with two small loaves of black bread, secured-goodness knows how!

Hungry as these two brawny guards were, their sense of honour was curiously strained. They would not, either of them, probably have had any scruples about cutting a throat or robbing-brigandism seems innate in these regions-but to touch a crumb by the way under those circumstances was impossible; so the two loaves of black bread were brought intact and laid at our feet. These we divided amongst those guards, the arabaji, and Johannes; our three selves and Williams dividing a small pot of Liebig's essence of meat (our last) into equal parts with a penknife, from which we convinced ourselves we had gained sufficient sustenance to hold on.

'The way,' however, was not only long, but 'the wind was cold' that night as we dragged along wearily; and as the light merged into darkness, and we rode up hill and down dale, through mountain fastnesses and forest glades, nature began to assert herself unpleasantly in connection with that vacuum she is said to abhor. Nor was this all, for, a dense fog having risen, we found ourselves utterly at sea as to our whereabouts, and beyond the fact that we were in a neighbourhood where skirmishing Cossacks most probably might be, and where Kurd robbers most certainly were, we knew nothing. For some time we had lost the beaten track, and all we could realise was, that we were ascending higher and higher in an unpleasantly vague way, the sound of a swollen watercourse past which we had come becoming perceptibly fainter and fainter still as we did

H

SO.

Holmes's horse at last breaking down from sheer want of food and having to be led, and the one Johannes rode rapidly becoming more or less in the same condition, we decided to make a halt and go no farther that night.

Thus, exhausted, hungry, and wet through, we were indeed all round in a miserable condition; to convey an idea of which I cannot perhaps do better than quote a description of what followed, contributed by myself to the pages of Good Words.

CHAPTER V.

ON THE BRINK OF DESTRUCTION-A MIRACULOUS ESCAPEA MIDDLE-AGED SPIDER-A LOVELY LILIPUTIAN-A PROLIFIC LAND-CURIOUS CIPHER--SLAVERY-A CHARMING BARGAIN CONSUL ZOHRAB-POWER OF THE PRESSEATEN ALIVE-SITTING ON THE DAILY NEWS' -ERZEROUM-SIR ARNOLD KEMBALL-A HAREM EN DESHABILLE THE MERRY MAJOR-PITCHED FROM A PRECIPICESUPERSTITIONS-DOOMED-THE BEAUTY OF BAGHDAD.

SINCE I perfectly agree with that philosophic soul who once suggested the advisability of borrowing from oneself, by the temporary deposit of one's watch at one's 'uncle's,' as being a course far more independent than that of circumventing a friend or falling back upon an I O U, I cannot do better than continue this narrative, by submitting my original notes of the following experience—

It was now well into the night, and as the hours between that time and daylight could not be occupied by a continuance of those vague wanderings, we had to camp as best we could. This had to be done with some discretion, so that our whereabouts might not be discovered by any prowling Kurds or Circassian malcontents, who at any moment might come down in overwhelming numbers on our little troop; even the luxury of pipes being denied, lest the tell-tale spark should betray us. Thus we crept noiselessly along till we were enveloped in a tangled mass of long dank grass and lost in brushwood, each man carefully leading his horse with one hand, while in the other he held his six-shooter ready for emergencies.

'Half-an-hour had probably been thus occupied, and still no convenient place had been found, when Johannes' horse, utterly exhausted, fell by the way. This, accompanied by the distant sound of trickling water, which promised well for the morning,