This triple character of the enterprise naturally invests it with a more comprehensive interest; but the dramatic interest which we ascribed to it, or its fitness for a stage 5 representation, depends partly upon the marked variety and the strength of the personal agencies concerned, and partly upon the succession of scenical situations. Even the steppes, the camels, the tents, the snowy and the sandy deserts are not beyond the scale of our modern representative 10 powers, as often called into action in the theatres both of Paris and London; and the series of situations unfolded,--beginning with the general conflagration on the Wolga--passing thence to the disastrous scenes of the flight (as it _literally_ was in its commencement)--to 15 the Tartar siege of the Russian fortress Koulagina--the bloody engagement with the Cossacks in the mountain passes at Ouchim--the surprisal by the Bashkirs and the advanced posts of the Russian army at Torgau--the private conspiracy at this point against the Khan--the 20 long succession of running fights--the parting massacres at the Lake of Tengis under the eyes of the Chinese--and, finally, the tragical retribution to Zebek-Dorchi at the hunting lodge of the Chinese Emperor;--all these situations communicate a _scenical_ animation to the wild 25 romance, if treated dramatically; whilst a higher and a philosophic interest belongs to it as a case of authentic history, commemorating a great revolution, for good and for evil, in the fortunes of a whole people--a people semi-barbarous, but simple-hearted, and of ancient descent. 30 * * * * *