proceeded in his new character to fulfil his political mission with the
Khan of the Kalmucks. So artfully did he prepare the road for his
favorable reception at the court of this prince, that he was at once and
universally welcomed as a public benefactor. The pensions of the
councillors were so much additional wealth poured into the Tartar
exchequer: as to the ties of dependency thus created, experience had not
yet enlightened these simple tribes as to that result. And that he
himself should be the chief of these mercenary councillors, was so far
from being charged upon Zebek as any offence or any ground of suspicion,
that his relative the khan returned him hearty thanks for his services,
under the belief that he could have accepted this appointment only with
a view to keep out other and more unwelcome pretenders, who would not
have had the same motives of consanguinity or friendship for executing
its duties in a spirit of kindness to the Kalmucks. The first use which
he made of his new functions about the khan's person was to attack the
court of Russia, by a romantic villany not easily to be credited, for
those very acts of interference with the council which he himself had
prompted. This was a dangerous step; but it was indispensable to his
further advance upon the gloomy path which he had traced out for
himself. A triple vengeance was what he meditated: 1. Upon the Russian
cabinet, for having undervalued his own pretensions to the throne; 2.
Upon his amiable rival, for having supplanted him; and, 3. Upon all
those of the nobility who had manifested their sense of his weakness by
their neglect, or their sense of his perfidious character by their
suspicions. Here was a colossal outline of wickedness; and by one in his
situation, feeble (as it might seem) for the accomplishment of its
humblest parts, how was the total edifice to be reared in its
comprehensive grandeur? He, a worm as he was,--could he venture to
assail the mighty behemoth of Muscovy, the potentate who counted three
hundred languages around the footsteps of his throne, and from whose
"lion ramp" recoiled alike "baptized and infidel,"--Christendom on the
one side, strong by her intellect and her organization, and the
"barbaric East" on the other, with her unnumbered numbers? The match was
a monstrous one; but in its very monstrosity there lay this germ of
encouragement,--that it could not be suspected. The very hopelessness of
the scheme grounded his hope; and he resolved to execute a vengeance
which should involve as it were, in the unity of a well-laid tragic
fable, all of whom he judged to be his enemies. That vengeance lay in
detaching from the Russian empire the whole Kalmuck nation and breaking
up that system of intercourse which had thus far been beneficial to
both. This last was a consideration which moved him but little. True it
was that Russia to the Kalmucks had secured lands and extensive
pasturage; true it was that the Kalmucks reciprocally to Russia had
furnished a powerful cavalry; but the latter loss would be part of his
triumph, and the former might be more than compensated in other
climates, under other sovereigns. Here was a scheme which, in its final
accomplishment, would avenge him bitterly on the czarina, and in the
course of its accomplishment might furnish him with ample occasions for
removing his other enemies. It may be readily supposed, indeed, that he
who could deliberately raise his eyes to the Russian autocrat as an
antagonist in single duel with himself was not likely to feel much
anxiety about Kalmuck enemies of whatever rank. He took his resolution,
therefore, sternly and irrevocably to effect this astonishing
translation of an ancient people across the pathless deserts of Central
Asia, intersected continually by rapid rivers rarely furnished with
bridges, and of which the fords were known only to those who might think
it for their interest to conceal them, through many nations inhospitable
or hostile,--frost and snow around them (from the necessity of
commencing their flight in the winter), famine in their front, and the
sabre, or even the artillery, of an offended and mighty empress hanging
upon their rear for thousands of miles. But what was to be their final
mark, the port of shelter, after so fearful a course of wandering? Two
things were evident: it must be some power at a great distance from
Russia, so as to make return even in that view hopeless, and it must be
a power of sufficient rank to insure them protection from any hostile
efforts on the part of the czarina for reclaiming them or for chastising
their revolt. Both conditions were united obviously in the person of
Kien Long, the reigning emperor of China, who was further recommended to
them by his respect for the head of their religion. To China, therefore,
and, as their first rendezvous, to the shadow of the great Chinese Wall,
it was settled by Zebek that they should direct their flight.
Next came the question of time, _When_ should the flight commence? and,
finally, the more delicate question as to the choice of accomplices. To
extend the knowledge of the conspiracy too far was to insure its
betrayal to the Russian government. Yet at some stage of the
preparations it was evident that a very extensive confidence must be
made, because in no other way could the mass of the Kalmuck population
be persuaded to furnish their families with the requisite equipments for
so long a migration. This critical step, however, it was resolved to
defer up to the latest possible moment, and, at all events, to make no
general communication on the subject until the time of departure should
be definitely settled. In the mean time Zebek admitted only three
persons to his confidence,--of whom Oubacha, the reigning prince, was
almost necessarily one; but him, from his yielding and somewhat feeble
character, he viewed rather in the light of a tool than as one of his
active accomplices. Those whom (if anybody) he admitted to an unreserved
participation in his counsels were two only,--the great _lama_ among the
Kalmucks, and his own father-in-law, Erempel, a ruling prince of some
tribe in the neighborhood of the Caspian Sea, recommended to his favor
not so much by any strength of talent corresponding to the occasion, as
by his blind devotion to himself and his passionate anxiety to promote
the elevation of his daughter and his son-in-law to the throne of a
sovereign prince. A titular prince Zebek already was; but this dignity,
without the substantial accompaniment of a sceptre, seemed but an empty
sound to both of these ambitious rivals. The other accomplice, whose
name was Loosang-Dchaltzan, and whose rank was that of lama, or Kalmuck
pontiff, was a person of far more distinguished pretensions. He had
something of the same gloomy and terrific pride which marked the
character of Zebek himself, manifesting also the same energy,
accompanied by the same unfaltering cruelty, and a natural facility of
dissimulation even more profound. It was by this man that the other
question was settled as to the time for giving effect to their designs.
His own pontifical character had suggested to him, that in order to
strengthen their influence with the vast mob of simple-minded men whom
they were to lead into a howling wilderness, after persuading them to
lay desolate their own ancient hearths, it was indispensable that they
should be able, in cases of extremity, to plead the express sanction of
God for their entire enterprise. This could only be done by addressing
themselves to the great head of their religion,--the dalai lama of
Tibet. Him they easily persuaded to countenance their schemes; and an
oracle was delivered solemnly at Tibet, to the effect that no ultimate
prosperity would attend this great exodus unless it were pursued through
the years of the _tiger_ and the _hare_. Now, the Kalmuck custom is to
distinguish their years by attaching to each a denomination taken from
one of twelve animals, the exact order of succession being absolutely
fixed; so that the cycle revolves, of course, through a period of a
dozen years. Consequently, if the approaching year of the _tiger_ were
suffered to escape them, in that case the expedition must be delayed for
twelve years more; within which period, even were no other unfavorable
changes to arise, it was pretty well foreseen that the Russian
government would take the most effectual means for bridling their
vagrant propensities by a ring fence of forts, or military posts, to
say nothing of the still readier plan for securing their fidelity (a
plan already talked of in all quarters) by exacting a large body of
hostages selected from the families of the most influential nobles. On
these cogent considerations, it was solemnly determined that this
terrific experiment should be made in the next year of the _tiger_,
which happened to fall upon the Christian year 1771. With respect to the
month, there was, unhappily for the Kalmucks, even less latitude allowed
to their choice than with respect to the year. It was absolutely
necessary, or it was thought so, that the different divisions of the
nation, which pastured their flocks on both banks of the Wolga, should
have the means of effecting an instantaneous junction, because the
danger of being intercepted by flying columns of the imperial armies was
precisely the greatest at the outset. Now, from the want of bridges or
sufficient river craft for transporting so vast a body of men, the sole
means which could be depended upon (especially where so many women,
children, and camels were concerned) was _ice_; and this, in a state of
sufficient firmness, could not be absolutely counted upon before the
month of January. Hence it happened that this astonishing exodus of a
whole nation, before so much as a whisper of the design had begun to
circulate amongst those whom it most interested, before it was even
suspected that any man's wishes pointed in that direction, had been
definitively appointed for January of the year 1771; and, almost up to
the Christmas of 1770, the poor, simple Kalmuck herdsmen and their
families were going nightly to their peaceful beds without even dreaming
that the _fiat_ had already gone forth from their rulers which
consigned those quiet abodes, together with the peace and comfort which
reigned within them, to a withering desolation, now close at hand.
Meantime war raged on a great scale between Russia and the sultan; and,
until the time arrived for throwing off their vassalage, it was
necessary that Oubacha should contribute his usual contingent of martial
aid; nay, it had unfortunately become prudent that he should contribute
much more than his usual aid. Human experience gives ample evidence that
in some mysterious and unaccountable way no great design is ever
agitated, no matter how few or how faithful may be the participators,
but that some presentiment--some dim misgiving--is kindled amongst those
whom it is chiefly important to blind. And, however it might have
happened, certain it is that already, when as yet no syllable of the
conspiracy had been breathed to any man whose very existence was not
staked upon its concealment, nevertheless some vague and uneasy jealousy
had arisen in the Russian cabinet as to the future schemes of the
Kalmuck khan; and very probable it is that, but for the war then raging,
and the consequent prudence of conciliating a very important vassal, or,
at least, of abstaining from what would powerfully alienate him, even at
that moment such measures would have been adopted as must forever have
intercepted the Kalmuck schemes. Slight as were the jealousies of the
imperial court, they had not escaped the Machiavelian eyes of Zebek
and the lama; and under their guidance, Oubacha, bending to the
circumstances of the moment, and meeting the jealousy of the Russian
court with a policy corresponding to their own, strove by unusual zeal
to efface the czarina's unfavorable impressions. He enlarged the scale
of his contributions, and _that_ so prodigiously, that he absolutely
carried to head-quarters a force of thirty-five thousand cavalry, fully
equipped. Some go further, and rate the amount beyond forty thousand;
but the smaller estimate is, at all events, _within_ the truth.
With this magnificent array of cavalry, heavy as well as light, the khan
went into the field under great expectations; and these he more than
realized. Having the good fortune to be concerned with so ill-organized
and disorderly a description of force as that which at all times
composed the bulk of a Turkish army, he carried victory along with his
banners; gained many partial successes; and, at last, in a pitched
battle, overthrew the Turkish force opposed to him, with a loss of five
thousand men left upon the field.
These splendid achievements seemed likely to operate in various ways
against the impending revolt. Oubacha had now a strong motive, in the
martial glory acquired, for continuing his connection with the empire in
whose service he had won it and by whom only it could be fully
appreciated. He was now a great marshal of a great empire,--one of the
Paladins around the imperial throne. In China he would be nobody, or
(worse than that) a mendicant alien, prostrate at the feet, and
soliciting the precarious alms, of a prince with whom he had no
connection. Besides, it might reasonably be expected that the czarina,
grateful for the really efficient aid given by the Tartar prince, would
confer upon him such eminent rewards as might be sufficient to anchor
his hopes upon Russia and to wean him from every possible seduction.
These were the obvious suggestions of prudence and good sense to every
man who stood neutral in the case. But they were disappointed. The
czarina knew her obligations to the khan; but she did not acknowledge
them. Wherefore? That is a mystery perhaps never to be explained. So it
was, however. The khan went unhonored; no _ukase_ ever proclaimed his
merits; and, perhaps, had he even been abundantly recompensed by Russia,
there were others who would have defeated these tendencies to
reconciliation. Erempel, Zebek, and Loosang the lama were pledged
life-deep to prevent any accommodation; and their efforts were
unfortunately seconded by those of their deadliest enemies. In the
Russian court there were at that time some great nobles preoccupied with
feelings of hatred and blind malice towards the Kalmucks, quite as
strong as any which the Kalmucks could harbor towards Russia, and not,
perhaps, so well founded. Just as much as the Kalmucks hated the Russian
yoke, their galling assumption of authority, the marked air of disdain,
as towards a nation of ugly, stupid, and filthy barbarians, which too
generally marked the Russian bearing and language,--but, above all, the
insolent contempt, or even outrages, which the Russian governors or
great military commandants tolerated in their followers towards the
barbarous religion and superstitious mummeries of the Kalmuck
priesthood,--precisely in that extent did the ferocity of the Russian
resentment, and their wrath at seeing the trampled worm turn or attempt
a feeble retaliation, react upon the unfortunate Kalmucks. At this
crisis it is probable that envy and wounded pride, upon witnessing the
splendid victories of Oubacha and Momotbacha over the Turks and
Bashkirs, contributed strength to the Russian irritation; and it must
have been through the intrigues of those nobles about her person who
chiefly smarted under these feelings that the czarina could ever have
lent herself to the unwise and ungrateful policy pursued at this
critical period towards the Kalmuck khan. That czarina was no longer
Elizabeth Petrowna; it was Catharine the Second,--a princess who did not
often err so injuriously (injuriously for herself as much as for others)
in the measures of her government. She had soon ample reason for
repenting of her false policy. Meantime, how much it must have
co-operated with the other motives previously acting upon Oubacha in
sustaining his determination to revolt, and how powerfully it must have
assisted the efforts of all the Tartar chieftains in preparing the minds
of their people to feel the necessity of this difficult enterprise, by
arming their pride and their suspicions against the Russian government,
through the keenness of their sympathy with the wrongs of their insulted
prince, may be readily imagined. It is a fact, and it has been confessed
by candid Russians themselves when treating of this great dismemberment,
that the conduct of the Russian cabinet throughout the period of
suspense, and during the crisis of hesitation in the Kalmuck council,
was exactly such as was most desirable for the purposes of the
conspirators; it was such, in fact, as to set the seal to all their
machinations, by supplying distinct evidences and official vouchers for
what could otherwise have been, at the most, matters of doubtful
suspicion and indirect presumption.
Nevertheless, in the face of all these arguments, and even allowing
their weight so far as not at all to deny the injustice or the impolicy
of the imperial ministers, it is contended by many persons who have
reviewed the affair with a command of all the documents bearing on the
case, more especially the letters or minutes of council subsequently
discovered, in the handwriting of Zebek-Dorchi, and the important
evidence of the Russian captive Weseloff, who was carried off by the
Kalmucks in their flight, that beyond all doubt Oubacha was powerless
for any purpose of impeding, or even of delaying the revolt. He himself,
indeed, was under religious obligations of the most terrific solemnity
never to flinch from the enterprise or even to slacken in his zeal; for
Zebek-Dorchi, distrusting the firmness of his resolution under any
unusual pressure of alarm or difficulty, had, in the very earliest
stage of the conspiracy, availed himself of the khan's well-known
superstition, to engage him, by means of previous concert with the
priests and their head the lama, in some dark and mysterious rites of
consecration, terminating in oaths under such terrific sanctions as no
Kalmuck would have courage to violate. As far, therefore, as regarded
the personal share of the khan in what was to come, Zebek was entirely
at his ease. He knew him to be so deeply pledged by religious terrors to
the prosecution of the conspiracy, that no honors within the czarina's
gift could have possibly shaken his adhesion; and then, as to threats
from the same quarter, he knew him to be sealed against those fears by
others of a gloomier character and better adapted to his peculiar
temperament. For Oubacha was a brave man, as respected all bodily
enemies or the dangers of human warfare, but was as sensitive and timid
as the most superstitious of old women in facing the frowns of a priest
or under the vague anticipations of ghostly retributions. But had it
been otherwise, and had there been any reason to apprehend an unsteady
demeanor on the part of this prince at the approach of the critical
moment, such were the changes already effected in the state of their
domestic politics amongst the Tartars by the undermining arts of
Zebek-Dorchi, and his ally the lama, that very little importance would
have attached to that doubt. All power was now effectually lodged in the
hands of Zebek-Dorchi. He was the true and absolute wielder of the
Kalmuck sceptre. All measures of importance were submitted to his
discretion, and nothing was finally resolved but under his dictation.
This result he had brought about in a year or two by means sufficiently
simple: first of all, by availing himself of the prejudice in his favor,
so largely diffused amongst the lowest of the Kalmucks, that his own
title to the throne, in quality of great-grandson in a direct line from
Ajouka, the most illustrious of all the Kalmuck khans, stood upon a
better basis than that of Oubacha, who derived from a collateral branch;
secondly, with respect to that sole advantage which Oubacha possessed
above himself in the ratification of his title, by improving this
difference between their situations to the disadvantage of his
competitor, as one who had not scrupled to accept that triumph from an
alien power at the price of his independence, which he himself (as he
would have it understood) disdained to court; thirdly, by his own
talents and address, coupled with the ferocious energy of his moral
character; fourthly,--and perhaps in an equal degree,--by the criminal
facility and good-nature of Oubacha; finally (which is remarkable
enough, as illustrating the character of the man), by that very new
modelling of the _sarga_, or privy council, which he had used as a
principal topic of abuse and malicious insinuation against the Russian
government, whilst in reality he first had suggested the alteration to
the empress, and he chiefly appropriated the political advantages which
it was fitted to yield. For, as he was himself appointed the chief of
the _sargatchi_, and as the pensions of the inferior _sargatchi_ passed
through his hands, whilst in effect they owed their appointments to his
nomination, it may be easily supposed that whatever power existed in the
state capable of controlling the khan, being held by the _sarga_ under
its new organization, and this body being completely under his
influence, the final result was to throw all the functions of the state,
whether nominally in the prince or in the council, substantially into
the hands of this one man; whilst at the same time, from the strict
league which he maintained with the lama, all the thunders of the
spiritual power were always ready to come in aid of the magistrate or to
supply his incapacity in cases which he could not reach.
But the time was now rapidly approaching for the mighty experiment. The
day was drawing near on which the signal was to be given for raising the
standard of revolt, and, by a combined movement on both sides of the
Wolga, for spreading the smoke of one vast conflagration that should
wrap in a common blaze their own huts and the stately cities of their
enemies over the breadth and length of those great provinces in which
their flocks were dispersed. The year of the _tiger_ was now within one
little month of its commencement. The fifth morning of that year was
fixed for the fatal day when the fortunes and happiness of a whole
nation were to be put upon the hazard of a dicer's throw; and, as yet,
that nation was in profound ignorance of the whole plan. The khan, such
was the kindness of his nature, could not bring himself to make the
revelation so urgently required. It was clear, however, that this could
not be delayed; and Zebek-Dorchi took the task willingly upon himself.
But where or how should this notification be made, so as to exclude
Russian hearers? After some deliberation, the following plan was
adopted: Couriers, it was contrived, should arrive in furious haste, one
upon the heels of another, reporting a sudden inroad of the Kirghises
and Bashkirs upon the Kalmuck lands at a point distant about one hundred
and twenty miles. Thither all the Kalmuck families, according to
immemorial custom, were required to send a separate representative; and
there, accordingly, within three days, all appeared. The distance, the
solitary ground appointed for the rendezvous, the rapidity of the march,
all tended to make it almost certain that no Russian could be present.
Zebek-Dorchi then came forward. He did not waste many words upon
rhetoric. He unfurled an immense sheet of parchment, visible from the
outermost distance at which any of this vast crowd could stand. The
total number amounted to eighty thousand: all saw, and many heard. They
were told of the oppressions of Russia; of her pride and haughty
disdain, evidenced towards them by a thousand acts; of her contempt for
their religion; of her determination to reduce them to absolute slavery;
of the preliminary measures she had already taken by erecting forts upon
many of the great rivers of their neighborhood; of the ulterior
intentions she thus announced to circumscribe their pastoral lands,
until they would all be obliged to renounce their flocks, and to collect
in towns like Sarepta, there to pursue mechanical and servile trades of
shoemaker, tailor, and weaver, such as the freeborn Tartar had always
disdained. "Then, again," said the subtle prince, "she increases her
military levies upon our population every year. We pour out our blood as
young men in her defence, or more often in support of her insolent
aggressions; and, as old men, we reap nothing from our sufferings nor
benefit by our survivorship where so many are sacrificed." At this point
of his harangue Zebek produced several papers (forged, as it is
generally believed, by himself and the lama), containing projects of the
Russian court for a general transfer of the eldest sons, taken _en
masse_ from the greatest Kalmuck families, to the imperial court. "Now,
let this be once accomplished," he argued, "and there is an end of all
useful resistance from that day forwards. Petitions we might make, or
even remonstrances; as men of words, we might play a bold part; but for
deeds, for that sort of language by which our ancestors were used to
speak, holding us by such a chain, Russia would make a jest of our
wishes, knowing full well that we should not dare to make any effectual
movement."
Having thus sufficiently roused the angry passions of his vast audience,
and having alarmed their fears by this pretended scheme against their
first-born (an artifice which was indispensable to his purpose, because
it met beforehand _every_ form of amendment to his proposal coming from
the more moderate nobles, who would not otherwise have failed to insist
upon trying the effect of bold addresses to the empress before resorting
to any desperate extremity), Zebek-Dorchi opened his scheme of revolt,
and, if so, of instant revolt: since any preparations reported at St.
Petersburg would be a signal for the armies of Russia to cross into such
positions from all parts of Asia as would effectually intercept their
march. It is remarkable, however, that, with all his audacity and his
reliance upon the momentary excitement of the Kalmucks, the subtle
prince did not venture at this stage of his seduction to make so
startling a proposal as that of a flight to China. All that he held out
for the present was a rapid march to the Temba or some other great
river, which they were to cross, and to take up a strong position on the
farther bank, from which, as from a post of conscious security, they
could hold a bolder language to the czarina, and one which would have a
better chance of winning a favorable audience.
These things, in the irritated condition of the simple Tartars, passed
by acclamation; and all returned homewards to push forward with the most
furious speed the preparations for their awful undertaking. Rapid and
energetic these of necessity were; and in that degree they became
noticeable and manifest to the Russians who happened to be intermingled
with the different hordes, either on commercial errands or as agents
officially from the Russian government,--some in a financial, others in
a diplomatic character.