Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/248

 lasted for eight weeks, the Imperial army broke up from before Erivan, and General Paskiewitch, leaving that stronghold behind him, marched on Nakhtchivan, after having sent his sick and wounded men to the Monastery of Etchmiadzeen. Thus for the third time the troops of the Czar failed in their efforts to take the fortress of Erivan.

On the 12th of July the Russian moveable force, consisting of 18,000 men and thirty pieces of ordnance, marched from Nakhtchivan to Abbassabad, a fortress on the northern bank of the Araxes, a little lower on the stream. This place was held by 3,000 men and was well supplied with provisions. Abbassabad had been fortified by a French engineer and was capable of presenting considerable obstacles to the besieging army. But treachery lurked within its battlements, over which the Russian eagles were destined soon to wave their wings. The chief of the tribe of Kangerloo had been won over to the cause of the Russians, and he only awaited a fitting opportunity for delivering up the place into their hands. On the night of the 14th of July an attempt was made to carry Abbassabad by escalade, but the assailants were repulsed with heavy loss. The fort was then closely invested by the Russians, who were in turn watched by the troops of Abbass Meerza; by those of Hassan Khan; and by those of the Asef-ed-Dowleh; the last-mentioned person being put to flight in an affair which took place on the 16th of July. On that occasion Hassan Khan crossed the Araxes with his cavalry and attacked the Russian outposts, but he was driven back by the infantry and pursued by the cavalry and by a number of foot-soldiers who were conveyed over the stream at the backs of their mounted comrades, each