Look, said he, and listen! Ah! wretches, cried I, oppressed with grief, these columns of flame! these insects! oh! Genius, they are men.

These are the ravages of war! These torrents of flame rise from towns and villages! I see the squadrons who kindle them, and who, sword in hand overrun the country: they drive before them crowds of old men, women, and children, fugitive and desolate: I perceive other horsemen, who with shouldered lances, accompany and guide them.

I even recognize them to be Tartars by their led horses,* their kalpacks, and tufts of hair: and, doubtless, they who pursue, in triangular hats and green uniforms, are Muscovites.

Ah! I now comprehend, a war is kindled between the empire of the Czars and that of the Sultans.
* A Tartar horseman has always two horses, of which he leads one in hand.

The Kalpeck is a bonnet made of the skin of a sheep or other animal.