626 A RETREAT BY NIGHT.

tents, as if they were resolved to besiege us; and this little camp
they had pitched upon the open plain, at about three-quarters of
a mile from us. We were indeed surprised at this discovery; and
now, I confess, I gave myself over for lost, and all that I had.
The loss of my effects did not lie so near me, though they were
very considerable, as the thoughts of falling into the hands of such
barbarians, at the latter end of my journey, after so many diffi-
culties and hazards as I had gone through, and even in sight of
our port, where we expected safety and deliverance. As for my
partner, he was raging. He declared that to lose his goods would
be his ruin; and he would rather die than be starved: and he was
for fighting to the last drop.

The young lord, as gallant as ever flesh showed itself, was for
fighting to the last also; and my old pilot was of the opinion we
were able to resist them all in the situation we were then in. And
thus we spent the day in debates of what we should do. But to-
wards evening, we found that the number of our enemies still
increased, perhaps as they were abroad in several parties for prey.
The first had sent out scouts to call for help, and to acquaint them
of the booty; and we did not know but by the morning they
might still be a greater number. So I began to inquire of those
people we had brought from Tobolski if there was no other or
more private ways by which we might avoid them in the night,
and perhaps either retreat to some town, or get help to guard us
over the desert.

The Siberian, who was servant to the young lord, told us, if we
designed to avoid them, and not fight, he would engage to ,carry
us off in the night, to a way that went north towards the Petrou,
by which he made no question but we might get away, and the
Tartars never the wiser. But, he said, his lord .had told him he
would not retreat, but would rather choose to fight. I told him
he mistook his lord; for that he was too wise a man to love fighting
for the sake of it; that I knew his lord was brave enough by what
he had showed already; but that his lord knew better than to de-
sire to have seventeen or eighteen men fight five hundred, unless an
unavoidable necessity forced them to it; and that if he thought it
possible for us to escape in the night, we had nothing else to do