This was Prince, then Count Woronzoff. Having served like General Neidhart in the French and Polish wars, he had afterward, as governor of the Crimea, acquired such a degree of popularity as had not been enjoyed before since the days of Potemkin, the favorite of Catherine. The owner of forty thousand serfs, and said to be the handsomest Russian living after Nicholas himself, he possessed also the highest order of administrative talent, a complete knowledge of the art of war, and the most heroic qualities of character. Fully appreciating his worth the emperor in calling him to the command of the army of the Caucasus, invested him with such extraordinary powers as procured for him among the Circassians the title of "the Russian half-king." The power of life and death over the natives was given him; he was authorized to put officers in the army of every grade on trial for offences; could remove and appoint all civil functionaries up to the sixth grade; and could bestow various military honors and rewards without the confirmation of the emperor. This was indeed a generous gift of power,--and that simply for the sake of putting down the chieftain of a few rude tribes in the mountains. But after having made it, the emperor became desirous once more of striking a blow such as should justify this change of administration, avenge the disaster of the expedition against Dargo, and even put an immediate end to the war. Nothing short of the capture of this same Dargo would answer his purposes. Such an undertaking was indeed contrary to the best judgment and wishes of the new commander; but expressly to gratify his sovereign, as he said, Woronzoff finally consented to lead another Russian column into the forests of Itchkeria. It was in the summer of 1845, and only a few months after Woronzoff's arrival in the mountains. With a force of ten thousand infantry and a few hundred Cossacks, he set out for Dargo, taking instead of the northern track previously followed by General Grabbe, the route by the river Koissu and through the district of Andi. On their march to its principal aoul, called also Andi, the Russians were not attacked by the mountaineers, though closely watched by them. Here and there small parties would appear in the distance, but they seemed to be disposed, as usual, to spare their powder, and contented themselves with occasionally rolling down stones upon the heads of their adversaries as they passed through the narrower defiles. The column therefore advanced with good spirits, having full rations, confiding in their new leader, and rather underrating than dreading an enemy who attacked them with stones instead of bullets.