a personal interest in 15 the moving characters, with fine dramatic contrasts, as belongs to “Venice Preserved” or to the “Fiesco” of Schiller. 2dly, That of a great military expedition offering the same romantic features of vast distances to be traversed, vast reverses to be sustained, untried routes, 20 enemies obscurely ascertained, and hardships too vaguely prefigured, which mark the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses—­the anabasis of the younger Cyrus, and the subsequent retreat of the ten thousand, the Parthian expeditions of the Romans, especially those of Crassus 25 and Julian—­or (as more disastrous than any of them, and, in point of space, as well as in amount of forces, more extensive) the Russian anabasis and katabasis of Napoleon. 3dly, That of a religious Exodus, authorized by an oracle venerated throughout many nations of Asia, 30 —­an Exodus, therefore, in so far resembling the great Scriptural Exodus of the Israelites, under Moses and Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar distinction of carrying along with them their entire families, women, children, slaves, their herd of cattle and of sheep, their horses and their camels.

This triple character of the enterprise naturally invests it with a more comprehensive interest; but the dramatic interest which we ascribed to it, or its fitness for a stage 5 representation, depends partly upon the marked variety and the strength of the personal agencies concerned, and partly upon the succession of scenical situations.  Even the steppes, the camels, the tents, the snowy and the sandy deserts are not beyond the scale of our modern representative 10 powers, as often called into action in the theatres both of Paris and London; and the series of situations unfolded,—­beginning with the general conflagration on the Wolga—­passing thence to the disastrous scenes of the flight (as it literally was in its commencement)—­to 15 the Tartar siege of the Russian fortress Koulagina—­the bloody engagement with the Cossacks in the mountain passes at Ouchim—­the surprisal by the Bashkirs and the advanced posts of the Russian army at Torgau—­the private conspiracy at this point against the Khan—­the 20 long succession of running fights—­the parting massacres at the Lake of Tengis under the eyes of the Chinese—­and, finally, the tragical retribution to Zebek-Dorchi at the hunting lodge of the Chinese Emperor;—­all these situations communicate a scenical animation to the wild 25 romance, if treated dramatically; whilst a higher and a philosophic interest belongs to it as a case of authentic history, commemorating a great revolution, for good and for evil, in the fortunes of a whole people—­a people semi-barbarous, but simple-hearted, and of ancient descent. 30

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