Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 19, 2025
"In the latter respect they were more successful than in the former, and I regret to say that atheism made immense strides among the educated class. They had some profound thinkers among them: Tchernyshevsky, Dobroluboff, Mikhailoff, besides Herzen and Ogareff, the two men who brought out the Kolokol in London in the Russian language, and by their agents spread it broadcast over Russia.
Ogareff gave a military salute, not forgetting that he was a captain of the couriers of the Czar, and retired. Ogareff had so far played his unworthy part with success. The Grand Duke's entire confidence had been accorded him. He could now betray it whenever it suited him. He would inhabit the very palace. He would be in the secret of all the operations for the defense of the town.
It was under the garb of a Zingari, mingling with the band of Sangarre, that Ivan Ogareff had been able to leave the town of Nijni-Novgorod, where he had gone to seek his confidants. Sangarre and her Zingari, well paid spies, were absolutely devoted to him.
Feofar's lieutenant did not make them wait, and before five o'clock the trumpets announced his arrival. Ivan Ogareff the Scarred Cheek, as he was already nick-named wearing the uniform of a Tartar officer, dismounted before the Emir's tent.
Marfa, standing before Ivan Ogareff, drew herself up, crossed her arms on her breast, and waited. "You are Marfa Strogoff?" asked Ogareff. "Yes," replied the old Siberian calmly. "Do you retract what you said to me when, three days ago, I interrogated you at Omsk?" "No!" "Then you do not know that your son, Michael Strogoff, courier of the Czar, has passed through Omsk?" "I do not know it."
"When will the old woman speak?" "When we reach Tomsk." "And we shall be there " "In three days." A strange gleam shot from Sangarre's great black eyes, and she retired with a calm step. Ogareff pressed his spurs into his horse's flanks, and, followed by his staff of Tartar officers, rode towards the Emir's tent. Feofar-Khan was expecting his lieutenant.
His emotion showed the extreme importance he attached to the possession of this letter. Sangarre was not at all put out by the urgency with which Ogareff repeated his question. "I am not mistaken, Ivan," she said. "But, Sangarre, there are thousands of prisoners; and you say that you do not know Michael Strogoff."
Ivan Ogareff, being entirely free in his movements, began to study Irkutsk, the state of its fortifications, their weak points, so as to profit subsequently by his observations, in the event of being prevented from consummating his act of treason. He examined particularly the Bolchaia Gate, the one he wished to deliver up. Twice in the evening he came upon the glacis of this gate.
When Michael Strogoff arrived on the banks of the Irtych, Ivan Ogareff was already master of Omsk, and was pressing the siege of the upper quarter of the town all the more eagerly because he must hasten to Tomsk, where the main body of the Tartar army was concentrated.
"Indeed I must," replied Michael. "It is reported also that Colonel Ogareff has succeeded in passing the frontier in disguise, and that he will not be slow in joining the Tartar chief in the revolted country." "But how do they know it?" asked Michael, whom this news, more or less true, so directly concerned. "Oh! as these things are always known," replied Alcide; "it is in the air."
Word Of The Day
Others Looking