The aul was already in the possession of our men, and not a soul of the
enemy remained in it when the general with his suite, to which I had
joined myself, entered it.
The long neat huts or _saklí,_ with their flat earthen roofs and red
chimneys, were situated on rough, rocky hills, between which ran a
small river. On one side were seen the green gardens, shining in the
clear sun-light, with monstrous pear-trees, and the plum-trees, called
_luitcha._ The other side bristled with strange shadows, where stood
the high perpendicular stones of a cemetery, and the tall wooden poles
adorned at the ends with balls and variegated banners. These were the
tombs of jigits.
The army stood drawn up within the gates.
After a moment the dragoons, the Cossacks, the infantry, with evident
joy were let loose through the crooked streets, and the empty aul
suddenly teemed with life. Here a roof is crushed in; the axe rings on
the tough trees, and the plank door is broken down; there hay-ricks,
fences, and huts are burning, and the dense smoke arises like a tower
in the clear air. Here a Cossack is carrying off sacks of flour, and
carpets; a soldier with a gay face lugs from a hut a tin basin and a
dish-clout; another with outstretched arms is trying to catch a couple
of hens, which cackling furiously fly about the yard; a third is going
somewhere with a monstrous _kumgan_ or pitcher of milk, and drinking
as he goes, and when he has had his fill smashes it on the ground with
a loud laugh.
The battalion which I had accompanied from Fort N---- was also in the
aul. The captain was sitting on the roof of a hut, and was puffing
from his short little pipe clouds of smoke of _sambrotalicheski tabák_
with such an indifferent expression of countenance that when I saw him
I forgot that I was in a hostile aul, and it seemed to me that I was
actually at home with him.
"Ah! and here you are?" he said as he caught sight of me.
The tall form of Lieutenant Rosenkranz flashed here and there through
the aul. Without a moment's pause he was engaged in carrying out
orders, and he had the appearance of a man who had all he could do.
I saw him coming out of a hut, his face full of triumph; behind him
two soldiers were dragging an old Tatar with his arms tied. The old
man, whose garb consisted merely of a many-colored _beshmét_ torn in
tatters, and ragged drawers, was so feeble that it seemed as if his
bony arms, tightly tied behind his misshapen back, were almost falling
from his shoulders; and his crooked bare legs moved with difficulty.
His face, and even a part of his shaven head, were covered with deep
wrinkles; his distorted toothless mouth, encircled by gray clipped
mustache and beard, incessantly mumbled as though whispering something;
but his handsome eyes, from which the lashes were gone, still gleamed
with fire, and clearly expressed an old man's indifference to life.
Rosenkranz through an interpreter asked him why he had not gone with
the others.
"Where should I go?" he replied, calmly looking away.
"Where the rest have gone," suggested some one.
"The jigits have gone to fight with the Russians, and I am an old man."
"Aren't you afraid of the Russians?"
"What will the Russians do to me? I am an old man," he repeated,
carelessly glancing at the circle surrounding him.
On the way back, I saw this old man without a hat, with his hands still
tied, jolting behind a mounted Cossack, and he was looking about him
with the same expression of unconcern. He was necessary in an exchange
of prisoners.