circuitous route would carry them to the Torgau at a point
unfitted for the passage of their heavy baggage. The
defile in the hills, therefore, it was resolved to gain; and
yet, unless they moved upon it with the velocity of light 30
cavalry, there was little chance but it would be found
preoccupied by the Cossacks. They, it is true, had
suffered greatly in the recent sanguinary action with the
defeated _ouloss_; but the excitement of victory, and the
intense sympathy with their unexampled triumph, had
again swelled their ranks, and would probably act with
the force of a vortex to draw in their simple countrymen
from the Caspian. The question, therefore, of preoccupation
was reduced to a race. The Cossacks were marching 5
upon an oblique line not above 50 miles longer than
that which led to the same point from the Kalmuck
headquarters before Koulagina; and therefore, without
the most furious haste on the part of the Kalmucks, there
was not a chance for them, burdened and "trashed"[6] as 10
they were, to anticipate so agile a light cavalry as the
Cossacks in seizing this important pass.

Dreadful were the feelings of the poor women on hearing
this exposition of the case. For they easily understood
that too capital an interest (the _summa rerum_) 15
was now at stake to allow of any regard to minor interests,
or what would be considered such in their present
circumstances. The dreadful week already passed--their
inauguration in misery--was yet fresh in their
remembrance. The scars of suffering were impressed 20
not only upon their memories, but upon their very persons