Skobeleff and the Slavonic cause

Preface

Skobeleff's biography has not yet been written, and the materials upon which I found this poor tribute to the memory of our Slavonic hero are very incomplete. I cannot pretend to have produced more than a short sketch, and a most imperfect one, of the brief but glorious career of him who has already become a legendary hero of the Slavs.

The cause for which SkobelefF fought in Bulgaria was a very precious one to me as to thousands of Russians. On my present visit to England I was happy to see that the generous sympathy expressed in this country at the moment of SkobelefF's death still existed, and that many of my English friends were still anxious to learn ' something more ' of him. That is precisely what I venture to offer.

Even that humble task I have undertaken with much diffidence. Written under the pressure of many troubles, far away from those whose ample

VI PREFACE.

knowledge of Skobeleff and his work could guide my pen and my reminiscences, I am painfully impressed with the shortcomings of this book. But, with all its imperfections, I venture to trust that it will enable Englishmen to realise something of the character of my famous countryman, as well as of the cause to the service of which he dedicated his life, and without which he could never have been entirely our own Skobeleff.

London : December, 1882.

Part I. Skobeleff As Soldier

CHAPTER PAGE

I. BIETH AND EDUCATION . . . . .3

II. IN CENTEAL ASIA 10

III. THE CROSSING OF THE DANUBE 33

IV. PLEVNA 43

V. IN CAMP AND IN FIELD . . . . . .110

VI. THE PASSAGE OF THE BALKANS 148

VII. IN SOUTHEBN BULGARIA 176

Part II. Skobeleff In Politics

I. THE SLAVONIC CAUSE 223

II. THE ST. PETERSBURG SPEECH ... 253

III. SKOBELEFF IN PARIS

IV. RUSSIA AND GERMANY . . . .

V. RUSSIA AND AUSTRIA ... . .

VI. RUSSIA AND ENGLAND

VII. SKOBELEFF AND CONSTITUTIONALISM

VIII. DEATH ..... •

APPENDICES.

APPENDIX A.

PAGE

skobeleff's orders of the day 393

APPENDIX B.

BARON FREDERICKS ON RUSSIAN INSTITUTIONS AND RUSSIAN

NIHILISTS . . . 401

APPENDIX C.

LETTER FROM WIDDIN ON THE BURIAL OF THE REMAINS OF

NICHOLAS KIR^EFF ....... 407

POETRAIT.

SKOBELEFF SOON AFTER GEOK TEP^ . . . Frontispiece

PAET I.

SKOBELEFP AS SOLDIEE.

3. CROSSING OF THE DANUBE.

6. PASSAGE OF THE BALKANS.

Chapter I. Birth And Education

Skobeleff born 1843— Pronunciation of Skobeleff— The Skobeleff family — His parents- — Russian women — Home-training — His first tutor — Sent to a Paris pension — M. Girarde — At St. Petersburg University — Joins the army^In Poland — Dano-German war — Central Asia.

Michael Dmitrievitch Skobelefe^ was born at St. Petersburg on September ^f, 1843. His grandfather, as he used frequently to remind his troops, had been a private soldier, and won his rank as general by his own sword. His great-grandfather, Nikita, was a sergeant in the army at the close of last century. Beyond his great-grandfather Skobeleflf did not trace his pedigree. ' Family never made men great,' was his democratic remark ; but the soldierly instinct which he inherited from his ancestors contributed not a little to the success of his career. His grandfather, Ivan, did not win his promotion easily. He was

^ Skobeleff's name is accented on the first syllable. In the majority of Russian three-syllabic names the accent falls on the second : Romdnoff, Souvdroff, Derjavine, Pojdrsky, Aksakoff, Lobdnoif, &c.; but some have the accent upon the third syllable, as Chomiakdff, GortchakdfF, &c., and others on the first, as Skdbeleif, Kdusheleff, &c.

Tl 2 covered with horrible scars, and he left at least one limb on the field of battle. Ivan Skobeleff was a general of infantry, and at one time governor of the fortress of St. Petersburg. He was more than a general ; he was also a dramatic author, and in his day, his plays, specially written for military audiences, were very popular in the army.

Skobeleff 's love for poetry, like his genius for war, was hereditary.

Ivan Skobeleff had two daughters and eight sons. Most of his children died in infancy. One of the daughters married the aide-de-camp of the Emperor, Colonel Opotchinine, grandson of the celebrated Prince Koutousoff- Smolensky. His seventh son, Dmitry, became a cavalry lieutenant-general, distinguished himself in the campaign against the Turks in Asia Minor, and received the Order of St. George of the fourth class.

Dmitry Skobeleff mari'ied the beautiful and graceful Miss PoltavtsefF. They had one son and three daughters. The eldest married Prince Bel6sselsky- Belosersky ; the second, M. Scheremeteff ; and the third, the Prince Eugene Romanoffsky, son of the Grand Duchess Mary and the Prince of Leuchtenberg, and first cousin of the Emperor.

Dmitry Skobeleff was a Russian of the Russians. Stern, severe, respectful to old traditions, but kindhearted and passionately attached to his brilliant son. There existed between them to the last hour the most perfect sympathy and affection. But I think

tlie moulding influence of his life was that of his mother.

I hope I may be pardoned for confessing that it often struck me that the Russian women have qualities which are less frequent in women of many other countries. They are more idealistic and self-sacrij&cing, more real and less conventional. There are exceptions, of course ; besides I am, probably, very partial. But the number of superior women who impress me, as I used to be impressed by the intelligence of George Eliot, is, I think, greater in Russia than in many other parts of the world.

I did not know Madame SkobelefF intimately enough to speak of all her qualities from personal observation. She chiefly lived at St. Petersburg, I at Moscow ; but the latter events of her life proved of what she was capable. She was very fond of her children, and from her Skobeleff learned to love poetry, of which he was passionately fond. His favourite modern poets were Byron and Schiller. It was under the superintendence of his mother that he learnt to love to read, but his first tutor was a German.

This good man was a severe martinet, who flogged his pupil for the least fault. Skobeleff^, who, from his youngest days, was of an mdependent, passionate, and extremely active temperament, was irritated at this treatment, and a bitter feud grew up between the tutor and the boy. Skobeleff" played no end of tricks upon his master, and the latter retaliated in liis own way. Matters came to a crisis when the young Michael was twelve years old. He had ridden off one day to pay a visit to a little girl of his own age, to whom in boyish fashion he was paying his court, when the hated tutor appeared and slapped the face of his truant scholar in the very presence of his lady-love. The poor boy, blinded with passion, struck out at him with all his might.

After that fracas the father saw that it Avas of no use persisting with the German tutor, who, with all his cruelty, could not reduce the child to order.

He dismissed the German, and sent his son to a boarding school in Paris, kept by M. Desire Girard^. The change for young SkobelefF was indescribable. He found sympathy in place of brutality, kindness for cruelty, and constant incentives to diligence in place of the savage blows of his German pedagogue. M. Girarde soon won the love and confidence of his pupil. The turbulent young Russian became the most devoted and assiduous of scholars, and a lifelonoaffection grew up between them which was onty terminated by the death of the younger. Even to the last Skobelefi", the hero of a hundred combats, and the idol of the Slavonic world, never ceased to speak wdth the reverence and humility of a pupil of his old teacher. Girarde followed him to St. Petersbu.rp: and has remained attached to the family ever since He was with him in Bulgaria during the war, and

AT THE UNIVERSITY: IN POLAND. 7

followed him to Paris on the famous visit which created so much excitement in Europe.^

Girarde used to say that, if Skobeleff had not become a soldier, he would have been a scholar, so devoted was he to learning, and so remarkable his mastery over books and languages. Girarde taught Skobeleff to make a religion of duty. It was a good lesson, and one which he never forgot.

His parents, wishing him to finish his education in Eussia, brought him to St. Petersburg. The St. Petersburg University was in 1861 infected with foolish and subversive ideas. The students fancied it would be much better to arrange political demonstrations than to study their lessons. Skobeleff was too well trained and too intelligent not to see the folly of all these disorders, and never lost his own ground. He remained from the first to the last true to his duty, to his Tzar, and his country. But the disorders continuing, the Government was forced to close the University, and Skobeleff's university studies were cut short before their time.

He then entered the army as first ensign in a horse regiment of the Guards. In 1863 he was made an officer, and went off with this regiment to Poland, where an insurrection was breaking out. He was

' Mr. Rose, writing in the Fortnightly Bemew, Oct. 1882, on the 'Russian Bayard,' speaks thus of Girarde : — 'I had frequent opportunities of meeting with this excellent man. Possessing little of the sprightliness of his race, he was reserved, shy, and unobtrusive in the presence of strangers, but en famille frank and animated in conversation, which displayed, though not pedantically, his profound learning and varied reading ' (p. 406).

stationed with the hussars at Grodno, and had his first experience of actual fighting in the affair of Mekhoff. At Mekhoff, and throughout the whole of the campaign, Skobeleff, although only twenty years old, displayed such remarkable courage and ability as to win high praise from his commander. He received a sword of honour for the gallantry which he displayed at the successful action in the forest of Radkovitz, when the band of Shemiote was dispersed. He remained in Poland till the insurrection was at an end, and then, there being nothing more to do, he returned to St. Petersburg and entered the staff academy, where he distinguished himself by his vmcommon abilities.

In 1864 he had his first experience of regular warfare us a spectator, when he followed the course of the Dano- German campaign, and witnessed the first success of the needle-gun. He then returned t(5 St. Petersburg, finished his course, and afterwards went on active service in Central Asia.

Skobeleff was drawn to Central Asia, not only by the opportunity which it afi"orded for an adventure and of distinction, but because, unlike many military authorities, he thoroughly believed that the art of war could nowhere be so well learnt as in active warfare, even against insignificant foes.

' The first essential,' he used to say, ' to a general or to any officer, is the habit of being accustomed to danger* and the responsibility of command under fire.' These habits, he held, were acquired in irregular war

CENTRAL ASIAN WARFARE. 9

in Central Asia, in Algeria, in Afghanistan. Having once acquired them, a general has secured one great secret of success in regular war, and which more than counterbalances the danger that his previous experience will encourage him to take undue liberties with his foes.

Chapter II. In Central Asia

Central Asia as a school of arms — Skobelefl' in Samarkand in 1869 — At Krasnovodsk — The march on Khiva — His first wound — First to enter Khiva — A reconnaissance in the desert — Mission to Khokand — The Khan and his treasure carts — The battle of Makhram — Annexation of Namangan — Revolt of Abdurrahman — Capture of Andijan — A night attack on his pursuers — Khokand in revolt — Second capture of Andijan — Annexation of Khokand — Governor of Ferghana — His career in Central Asia — Slandered and vindicated.

What India is to England and Algeria to France, Central Asia is to us — a school of arms, a training ground for soldiers, where a handful of AVesterns hold sway amidst millions of Asiatics. These vast regions conquered for civilisation by European arms of precision, secured from anarchy by European habits of administration, offer an irresistible attraction to ambitious and restless youth.

To Turkestan, therefore, Skobeleff" hastened as soon as he had completed those military studies of which he was destined to make such excellent use in later years. He had learned the art of war theoretically in the Academy of St. Petersburg. He went to complete his studies by practical experience in the rough apprenticeship of Central Asian warfare.

SAMARKAND AND KRASNOVODSK. 11

It was in the year 1869, when he was twentysix years of age, that he began his military career in Asia, under General Abramoff, a gallant and active officer who raised himself from the position of a subcaptain to that of Governor of Samarkand, where he greatly distinguished himself by his bravery, energy, and justice. It was a good school for the young Skobeleff to serve under such a commander, and he learned his first lessons of Oriental war in Abramoff' s expedition on the borders of Bokhara.

Soon afterwards he was removed from General Abramoff's command and attached to the troops under the command of Colonel StoMtoff, at Krasnovodsk. Colonel StoletofF is the officer whose visit to Shere Ali in 1878 had such disastrous consequences, both for the Afghans and for the .English.

StoletofF placed him in command of a detachment of cavalry, and entrusted him with several important reconnaissances.

He was not long in developing those extraordinary faculties of observation which served him so well in his after life. Nothing escaped his vigilant eye. He discovered wells, before unknown, in sandy steppes ; he mapped out new caravan routes ; he sketched valuable plans, and made many geographical discoveries in the then unknown regions between the Caspian and the Aral.

After doing good service at Krasnovodsk, he returned to St. Petersburg, and was attached to the staff of the Guards. His promotion was rapid : in

1872 being named aide-de-camp to the chief of the staff of the 22nd division of infantry with the rank of captain. Some months afterwards he was appointed to the command of a battalion in the Stavropol regiment by order of the commander of the army in the Caucasus.

When SkobelefF returned to Central Asia, he found everything being put in train for the Khivan expedition. Four columns were to converge from different points upon the robber Khanate. General Verevkine commanded the column which started for Orenburg, General Lomakine led a third column for Mangishlak on the Caspian, while the fourth, under Colonel MarkosofF, started from Tchikishlar.

The expedition set off in March, 1873. Altogether we put 14,000 men into the jfield, of whom 3,500 were Cossacks, with fifty-four guns, not including some ten or twelve mitrailleuses, rocket tubes and mortars, and nearly 20,000 camels. Colonel Markosoff's column started on March ^f , and recoUed from the waterless steppe on May ^ at Ivrasnovodsk, without camels or provisions, with every man ill.

The northern column, to which SkobelefF was attached, was more fortunate. Its formation was an afterthought. General Kaufmann at first was opposed to the advance from Orenburg or the Caspian, but he yielded, and on ^^^ the order was given to the army of the Caucasus to prepare a detachment for an advance on Khiva from Mangishlak, on the Caspian.

THE KHIVAN EXPEDITION. 13

The order was joyfully received, and on April ^ Colonel Lomakine had a small, but compact, body of men ready to start. It consisted of 2,000 men, with six guns. Skobeleff, now a lieutenantcolonel, marched at the head of the vanguard, leading the way across a desert hitherto unknown to our soldiers. The heat was intense. The thermometer stood sometimes at 149 degrees Fahrenheit, and the Kirghiz, believing it impossible for Europeans to traverse a region which at that period of the year even desert-born nomads found insupportable, oflfered no serious opposition to our troops.

In twenty-nine days Colonel Lomakine's column had marched 400 miles of desert, for the most part unexplored. The last seven days they had made forced marches, but they effected their junction with General Yerevkine at Kungrad in good time and excellent spirits.

It was in this march across the steppe that Skobeleff received his first wound. Riding as usual in advance of the column, he galloped with a dozen Cossacks up to an encampment of the Kirghiz Tartars. He was received with a volley of musket balls. Nothing daunted, young Skobeleflf, followed by his twelve brave followers, charged the Kirghiz.

There were 100 of them, with 180 camels and a large store of provisions. After a desperate struggle, they fled across the steppe, but not before they had inflicted six slight wounds with spears and sabres upon Skobeleff. Fortunately the wounds, although li IN CENTRAL ASIA.

numerous, Avere not severe, and the next day he was on horseback heading the advance of his column across the plain.

After reachmg Kungrad, Colonel Lomakine's troops were joined to the Orenburg column under General Yerevkine. The united forces, numbering 5,000 men, with 10,000 camels, left Kungrad on ^^47' and marched on Khiva. They had, on their way, repeated encounters with Khivan troops, in all of which Skobeleff displayed his usual gallantry. On ^^* they arrived in the neighbourhood of the northern gate of the capital of the Khanate, and there they halted, waiting for General Kaufmann.

After two days General Verevkine determined to attack. The town was bombarded on j^^' and the bombardment was continued the next day. SkobeleiF was then ordered to storm the north gate. He had only two companies under his orders, but he fulfilled his mission with such skill and audacity that he succeeded in forcing his way in the city. He was the first within the walls. He cleared the streets with rockets, penetrated to the palace, and carried off three cannon to his camp. General Kaufmann then entered from the south, and was acclaimed as conqueror of Khiva. The honour of this campaign was, however, shared by the northern columns, and in these columns no one distinguished himself so much as Lieutenant- Colonel Skobeleff who was then only in his thirtieth year.

Before any troops withdrew from the Khanate for

MISSION TO KHOKAND. 15

however strange it may appear to those who constantly accuse us of breaking our word in annexing Khiva, there is not one Russian soldier in Khiva to this hour — Skobeleff volunteered to go on the first of those madcap expeditions of his which made him so famous.

Colonel Markosoff's expedition had failed to penetrate the desert between Tchikishlar and Khiva. SkobeleiF undertook to make a reconnaissance of the region over which Colonel Markosoff's column had found it impossible to advance. General Kaufmann gave him permission, and on August ^, he started from Zmukshir, and attended only by three Turkoman guides he penetrated the steppes as far as Ortakuya. Seven days afterwards he returned to Khiva, having ridden 378 miles across a hostile country, without escort, never knowing where he would find water for himself or his horse. This exploit made a great sensation, and, in recognition of his bravery and darmg, he was appointed aide-de-camp to the Emperor, and decorated with a St. George's cross of the 4th class, the first decoration, and perhaps the most prized, of the twenty-nine which were borne behind his bier on that day of sorrow when all Moscow followed Russia's hero to his last resting-place.

In the following years SkobeleiF was in Turkestan, and trouble being anticipated in Kashgar, an embassy was sent to Khokand to secure the passage of our troops through the Khanate. The envoy, M. Veinberg, was accompanied by Colonel Skobeleff and twenty Cossacks as escort. The special mission with which Skobeleff was charged was the exploration of the pass of Terek Davan, leading from Khokand to Kashgar.

Our mission arrived at Khokand on July ^f, 1875, just as the rebellion of Abdurrahman Aftobatcha was breaking out against Khudayar Khan, the cruel and worthless ruler of Khokand. During the few days that the Veinberg- Skobeleff mission remained at Khokand, Skobeleff found an opportunity of making a very thorough examination of the city and its defences. This task was accomplished under great difficulties. The population was very excited. Every day fresh bands went off to join Abdurrahman. A holy war was on the point of being proclaimed. But, cool, collected, and indifferent as he ever was to danger, Skobeleff completed a detailed plan not only of Khokand and all its fortifications, but of all the country for seven miles round. Hardly had the work been accomplished, when the country rose in rebellion, and the Khan determined to fly.

When Skobeleff was in Khokand, he read in the gardens of the Khan the account of the destruction of the British army when in the defiles leading from Cabul in 1842. At any moment that might be his fate. The Kirghiz of the Khokand were not less hostile than the Cabulees. Eussia, perhaps, even more than England — in Mr. Gladstone's fine phrase ■ — ever carries aloft the torch of civilisation amid

MISSION TO KHOKAND. 17

barrels of gunpowder, and at Khokand in that year tlie gunpowder was lying loose on every side.

SkobelefF was early initiated in the danger of government in the Khanate. A very few days after his first arrival in Khokand, he had to fly with the Khan, and Skobeleff often amused his friends around the camp-fires in Bulgaria by telling the story of their escape. It was a Central Asian version of the old story of the peasant whose sledge was pursued by the wolves.

The Khan set out from Khokand with a military escort of a small army which revolted piecemeal as it marched along, and announced its desertion by salvos of musket balls. The Russian mission was attended by fifty Cossacks, but for whom neither the Khan nor his ambassadors would ever have reached the frontier. The difficulty of escape was enormously increased by the presence of the harem of the fugitive, and a cortege of no fewer than eighty carts of silver and other treasure. The revolted army, after fraternising with the insurgents, set off in pursuit of its sovereign. Skobeleff and his fifty Cossacks with difficulty held the thousands of pursuers at bay. They were being driven in by numbers, when a happy thought occurred to the Khan. He ordered a waggon of silver to be unyoked, and the contents dropped in the road of the insurgents. It had the desired effect. As soon as the Kirghiz saw the money, they stopped to pick it up, and fought with each other for the spoil. In the meantime the Khan was hurrying northwards as fast as lie could drag liis treasure. Once more his subjects were on his trail. Again was the same expedient resorted to, and with equal success. Before they reached the frontier no fewer than sixty carts had been sacrificed in succession. When at last the Khan had reached Russian territory, he had only twenty cartloads left. With these, however, he was by no means badly off, and he has contrived to live very comfortably at Orenburg on the wreck of his fortune. But for the ready wit of the Khan, it is quite possible that Skobeleff's career would have closed almost before it had begun ; as it was, however, he escaped safely, and was able to make good use of his experience in the subsequent campaign.

The situation was then not unlike that which threatened Englishmen during the mutiny of the Sepoys. All Turkestan threatened to rise. Our envoys had narrowly escaped from a violent death. Khokand was in open insurrection. In Tashkend every Russian went armed. The clerks in the government oflBLces wrote with loaded muskets on their desks. A holy war was near at hand, and all the fanaticism of Asia was in danger of being let loose upon us.

The rather cold but no less impartial authority of M. Schuyler maintains that all this terrible crisis was brought upon us almost entirely by England's meddling two years before. The natives would have welcomed the annexation of the provinces as a means

THE REVOLT OP THE KHOKANDEES. 19

of relieving them from their detested Khan. ' General Kolpakovsky,' says M. Schuyler, ' saw this, and telegraphed to St. Petersburg for permission to intervene. But the diplomatic storm with regard to that occupation of Khiva was then in full blast, and permission was refused.' ^ The result was a gradual increase of bitterness against the Khan, and indirectly against Russia because she did not interfere with the Khan. Thus we had a war with all its horrors to wage because English diplomacy would be meddling with what it had no moi'e business to concern itself than Russia had to interfere in the annexation of the Punjab. Yet Russians cherish no ill-will to England, while Englishmen pursue Rixssia with all manner of absurd and unjust suspicions. It is as true of nations as of individuals that it is only the injured who forgive ; they never pardon who have done the wrong.

The insurrection, however, broke out. Khokand was besieged, and Andijan and Hodjent.

General Kaufmann took the field with 4,500 men, of whom 1,500 were cavalry under the command of Colonel Skobeleff. The expedition started on ^"g"^*^ ^'' for Makhram, where the Khokandians were

September 1 ^

massed in force. After two days of marching our little army encamped at Karatchkum, and next day the battle was delivered which decided the destiny of Khokand.

It is very strange, but it is on Skobeleff's own

' Turkestan, vol. ii. p. 279.. c 2 word we have it, tliat our success at Makhram was largely due to the success which England obtained at the battle of Ferozeshah.

Skobeleif was an omnivorous reader, and he naturally read all the books bearing upon English warfai'e with the natives of India. He had a very retentive memory, and as he never campaigned without his books, he was constantly able to bring the experience of other wars to bear upon the work in hand. How the battle of Ferozeshah helped to win the battle of Makhram I must let Mr. Marvin tell in General SkobelefF's own words. After describing his interview with Skobeleflf in 1882, in St. Petersburg, Mr. Marvin says ^ : —

' Do you know the battle of Makhram ? ' asked SkobelefF. ' That was a splejidid battle and redounds to the glory of Kaufmann, whom I admire very much. Poor fellow ! his career is finished. Do you know that our operations at Makhram were suggested by Sir Hugh Gough's battle at Ferozeshah? Shall I bore you, Mr. Marvin, if I describe it on paper ? It is a most interesting thing. If you will have patience you will see what a great battle this Makhram was.'

While I was expressing my interest in the matter, Skobeleff was placing a pad of foolscap before him, and selecting a number of pencils from a series of thirty or forty, of various coloured leads, lying neatly on the table, all sharpened and ready for use. Drawing his chair close up to mine, he bent his head over the paper, and beo-an sketching the features of the ground at Makhram with wonderful rapidity. Although a mere sketch, he made a

' Tlic PMsdan Advance towards Ivdia, by C. Marvin, pp. 107-110.

THE BATTLE OF MAKER AM. 21

scale at the outset, and used tlie various coloui-ed leads to indicate clearly the positions of the troops and the features of the ground. There was no slurring of details at all; the names of the localities were inserted, and the numbers of the forces noted at the side. When it was complete, it was more finished than many of the sketches that have been published in the recent military works on our war in Afghanistan. While drawing the sketch, he described the battle-field with great spirit and minuteness ; he was never at a loss for a word, he stated his facts one after another without displacing their order, and never needed to explain his explanations.

Briefly, the battle of Makhram was as follows : — The fort occupied a position on the banks of the Syr Daria sufficiently close to a chain of mountains for the Khokandese to attempt to bar the Russian advance up the valley by running out a trench towards them, armed with sixty-eight cannon, all pointed towards the invaders, and by continuing the line of defence to the foot of the hills themselves, by stationing in the intervening ground a huge mass of cavalry. At the back of the fort, the settlement of Makhram, with its numerous gardens, was held by infantry; the fort itself was armed with guns, and the hills flanking the position were crowded with skirmishers. On the opposite side of the river the position was rendered unapproachable by swamps. On coming in sight of this barricade, held by 60,000 Khokandese, General Kaufmann reconnoitred the position with his staff. Although he had only a mere handful of troops, he decided to make an attack the next day, to prevent the enemy overrunning the country. Skobeleff may as well relate, in his own words, what followed : — ' Having surveyed the position, he turned to his staff and said : " Who knows anything about the battle of Ferozeshah ? " I had read all about it, but waited for the other officers to reply. No one knowing anything about it, I described the battle.' Here he drew a rough sketch of the Panjab and said : ' As you know, Mr. Marvin, Sir Hugh Gough, the father of the General in Afghanistan during the late war, pitched his camp alongside the enemy's at Ferozeshah, without reconnoitring the ground, and when they fired into it, he fought at once and lost several thousand men. The next day he reconnoitred the position, and found a hill on the back that enfiladed it. Marching thither, he infiicted a crushing defeat on the enemy with a loss only of eighteen men.' Turning again to the plan of Makhram, he said : ' There was a hill on the fiank to the rear of the Khokandese position which corresponded with that at Ferozeshah. It is now called the Peak of Kaufmann. The next day we marched straight in that direction, keeping all the way upon elevated ground alongside the mountains, until the enemy's position was outflanked. Then we changed front ; turned our back to the hills and our faces to Makhram, and, marching straight towards it, swept the enemy right into the river. The river was quite black with heads. Twenty thousand Khokandese perished. We lost only eighteen men. I commanded the cavalry that day. The account of Ferozeshah I read originally in French, but more recently in Malleson's " History of Afghanistan." Makhram was a splendid laurel for Kauf-