The Circassian Chief: A Romance of RussiaKingston, William Henry Giles
History
The Circassian Chief: A Romance of Russia
Kingston, William Henry Giles
Caucasus -- History -- Juvenile fiction
He was long remembered by that kind-hearted and simple race, in whose
breasts enmity retains a slighter hold than gratitude and affection.
The caravan had proceeded for about the space of an hour, along the
road, when an alarm was given, that a party of mounted police were
galloping after them. The emissaries of justice were soon among the
wagoners, calling loudly to them to stop, striking at them with their
thick whips, and demanding a culprit, who had escaped their vigilance.
Though the sturdy carters could easily have overpowered their brutal
assailants, not one attempted to make any resistance; but the young
peasant reaped the reward of his address and wit, in conciliating them,
for they one and all denied any knowledge of the person described, nor
could additional blows gain any further information from them. The
police, after bestowing a few parting stripes, returned the way they
came; many a muttered curse followed them, the honest carters rejoicing
that their friend had escaped, and piously crossing themselves, offered
up many a hearty prayer for his ultimate escape.
The peasant drove on, till he caught sight of the Gipsy encampment of
our former friends, between whose tented walls he forthwith entered, and
was received with a shout of congratulation by its swarthy inhabitants.
The Zingani chief went forward to welcome the new-comers; a cry of
pleasure escaping Azila, who timidly followed her father, as the wounded
man was lifted from his conveyance; and he with the seeming peasant,
throwing off their disguises, discovered to their assembled friends,
Ivan and the young Gipsy Javis.
The chief warmly welcomed Ivan, and congratulated Javis on the
successful commencement of his undertaking, to which Azila added her own
thanks. Ivan was then conducted to the principal tent, where the old
crone Hagar, took the wounded man again under her surgical care, and
from the effects of her healing remedies, he soon experienced relief.
The chief took a seat by his side. "My daughter," said he, "could not
venture again into the city, to aid your escape as she wished, having as
we have reason to know, been already suspected by the police of being
concerned in the late conspiracy; and as you well know, suspicion is
sufficient to condemn a person in this country, of a political crime."
"I trust, my friend, to be soon able to relieve you from the danger you
run in sheltering me," said Ivan.
"Not until you are sufficiently recovered to undertake the journey, will
we allow you to depart," answered the Gipsy, "and then I have hopes,
that by the talents and ingenuity of Javis, you will entirely escape
from the power of your enemies."
While this conversation was going forward, a man who had been sent out
as a scout, hastened into the tent, to say that he had seen a party of
the police, galloping on the high road towards the south, in the
direction the caravan had taken which Javis had just left.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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