ISKINDER BEY. 217 



skill and energy that enabled the sturdy Arnaouts 

 and Albanians to baffle the ablest engineer in the 

 llussian service, General Schilders, and to sustain 

 the continuous assaults of his legions during the 

 thirty-nine days' siege. There being very little 

 stirring at head- quarters (Omer Pasha being en- 

 gaged in making '•'an appearance" before the Allied 

 Army), I preferred the excitement of the predatory 

 warfare that was being waged along the line of 

 the Danube to the dull routine of camp-life. Con- 

 stant skirmishing was then going on between the 

 Bashi-Bazouks — the most irregular of all Irregular 

 Horse— and the Cossacks, who often enough were 

 supported by other cavalry. 



Iskinder Bey, a celebrated free lance, said to be 

 of Hungarian origin, but a perfect cosmopolitan, 

 having a smattering of every known language, 

 and who had fought almost under every banner in 

 Christendom, was in command of a considerable 

 force of cavalry that formed part of the most ad- 

 vanced line of observation then extending along 

 the right bank of the Danube, from Widin to the 

 Sulina Mouth. 



