Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1889-01-24

In it? No traveller passes this way without
signing himself many times TO keep the
spirit Of evil aloof. But they dare not speak
or murmur against Kuniclsi's will, for in time
Of war the Attaman is OmnipOtent and his
word is held sacred as the word Of God him
self.
And the snow creeps on stealthiy, wrap
ping everything around in white and weav-
ingmauya shrUud aud winding sheet The
whole valley is stepped in a dense white
mist, and the icicles hang thickly clustered
along the black rock walls where never a
ray OF sunshine can penetrate to melt them
away. At night the wolf. growing bolder,
looks down from the heights nc the sleeping
army, Withhis eyes full of green and greedy
IRE; and the birds Of prey hover overhead
and weary rot OF waiting, for they are pa
tent as they are cruel and they know that
their time must come at last
The army itself has sunk into Winter
torpor a general gloom peryades the camp.
There IS 30 more singing agd dancing, no
more feasting or rejoicing. Moody and shly-
ering the men crouch together, watching
with apathetic eye the fate Of those who
daily fall lifeless beside them, struck to the
heart by the Winters Icy poniard.
Then at last come the scouts, and report
that a large horde of Tartars have been dis
tinguished lowering on the HORIZON. New
life Is diiIused into responding ranks; the
prospect Of an encounter warns each heart
and cheers each spirit; for in warfare moth
ing Is 50 hard to bear as suspense and mac
ton, and the bravest men that do not quail
before fire or steel lose courage if obliged to
await their fate with folded arms.
At the head Of his troops the Attaman adj
vances into the plain and rslges them for
battle, but the willy enemy keeps out Of
reach, and eyades an encounter with the
K0saks, who are obliged atnightfall toreturn
to the valley without having fired a shot or
crossed a sword.
The snow is falling fast as they regain the
camp, and all night long it comes down 81
lently in large white flakes plotting out all
marks on the landscapes, and filling up each
footprint Of man or beast with soft white fur,
till at day break, when the kosaks again adj
vance to seek the foe, an mbroken white
surface lies before them.
Thus they proceed through the silent val
ley, seeing not hundred PAGES before them
for the dense white mist which the torpid
Winter sun has not had the strength to dis
perse. They can see naught but gray point
ed rocks on all sides Of them--gray rocks to
the front to the right, and to the left of them,
all looming at them coldly through the fog.
But now the gray rocks in front seem to as
sumo other shapes; they grow at once more
distinct and more fantastic in appearance.
No longer mere rocks they look like phan-
toms; no longer mere phantOms, they look
like men-like TartaIsl
II is but too true; the vast hordes are rang
ed in a semicircl5 awaiting them, and be-
hind these are Tartars also-Tar,ars every
where closing round them!
The white pennon dcnoting the presence
of the Khan is flying overhead, and the shrill
note Of the tabaszana Ga musical instrumenO
resounds from the rocks, while a hailstOrm
of poisoned arrows comes pouring in on the
Kosaks.
They adjust their guns and prepare to
make "a desperate resistance. Fifty times
are they forced back, but fifty times do they
advance again. Inch by inch do they fight
their way to the entrance of the valley, and
at last they reissue from it, victorious indeed,
but with the loss of live thousand brave men.
They leave the cursed valley heapod with
the bodies Of the slain, both men and horses,
a terrible and hideous sight Here lie the
Kosai and the Tartar clutchng each other
in the last death struggle; there grinning
head has rolled away from its trunk; dying
horses neigh piteously as the rabid yultme
bears down upon them, and everywhere the
snow has disappeared melted away by the
warm blood and the smoking CorpSes.