"Roar, winter torrent, and sullenly dash! But where is the brave one--the swift lightning-flash? Soft star of my soul, my mother, Sleep, the fire let ashes smother; Gaze no more, shine eyes are weary, Sit not by the threshold stone; Gaze not through the night-fog dreary, Eat thine evening meal alone, Seek him not, O mother, weeping, By the cliff and by the ford: On a bed of dust he's sleeping-- Broken is both heart and sword!" SECOND SEMICHORUS. "Mother, weep not! with thy love burning: This heart of mine beats full and free, And to lion-blood is turning That soft milks I drew from thee; And our liberty from danger Thy brave son has guarded well; Battling with the Christian stranger, Call'd by Azrael, he fell; From my blood fresh odours breathing Fadeless flowers shall drink the dew; To my children fame bequeathing, Brethren, and revenge to you!" CHORUS. "Pray, my brethren, ere we part; Clutch the steel with hate and wrath! Break it in the Russian's heart-- O'er corpses lies the brave man's path! Fame to us, death to you, Alla-ha, Alla-hu!" Struck by a certain involuntary awe, the Chasseurs and Kazáks listened in silence to the stern sounds of this song; but at last a loud _hurrah_ [25] resounded from both sides. The Teherkéss, with a shout, fired their guns for the last time, and breaking them against the stones, they threw themselves, dagger in hand, upon the Russians. The Abréks, in order that their line might not be broken, bound themselves to each other with their girdles, and hurled themselves into the mêlée. Quarter was neither asked nor given: all fell before the bayonets of the Russians. "Forward! follow me, Ammalát Bek," cried Djemboulat, with fury, rushing into the combat which was to be his last--"Forward! for us death is liberty." But Anmalát heard not his call; a blow from a musket on the back of the head stretched him on the earth, already sown with corpses, and covered with blood. [Footnote 25: "Hurrah" means _strike_ in the Tartar language.] CHAPTER. V. LETTER FROM COLONEL VERHOFFSKY TO HIS BETROTHED. _From Derbénd to Smolénsk. October_, 1819.