REVELATIONS OF SIBERIA.

CHAPTER I.

Journey from Kiov to Tobolsk-Departure-Prostration -Government instructions-Tula-Veteran soldier -Iron-works-Russian currency-Murom ForestNijny Novgorod-Its fair.

ON the 11th of March, old style, 1839, I left Kiov. The sun was shining in all his brilliancy, yet the cold was intense, and no signs of the approach of spring were as yet visible. We passed the Dnieper which was still icebound, in a sledge, by the road leading to Orel, and thus I set out on my long journey.

No sooner had we crossed the Dnieper, than the post-horses commenced a gallop. I still tried to catch one more glimpse of Kiov, gazing

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towards that ancient city again and again. At last it vanished in the dimness of distance, and then, unconscious of all around me, I could neither see nor hear anything. The only outward impressions that I was yet capable of receiving were the continuous ringing of the bells on the post-horses, ceaselessly tinkling in my ear, and the violent jerks and jolts when the sledge was tumbling up and down, over ruts and deep snow-holes on the road. These interruptions in some degree aroused me for a time from my state of abstraction and complete torpor; but at last even they ceased to produce the slightest impression on me. Arrivals at the station-houses, relays of horses, and numberless upsettings of the sledge, did indeed remind me at times of external objects; but then, an excruciating headache, an acute pain in all the joints of my body, and the shortness of time in which post-horses were again fastened to the sledge, did not allow me an instant for observation; for no sooner had the bells begun to tinkle, than the sledge was again on its rapid breath-stifling course, leaping in and out of holes and hollows, tumbling over ruts, and thus, without interruption, continuing on-on

-on-from day till night, from night till day, without a single intermission.

Com

At the commencement, I found my journey quite intolerable, as I could never sleep in travelling. Hence it may be imagined that my weariness was extreme, and that a few hours of rest had become absolutely necessary to recruit my failing strength. After travelling for two days and nights, on arriving at a station for the relay of horses, I alighted from the sledge and entered the post-house. pletely exhausted, I sank on the nearest bench, hoping to procure some repose, though it were only for one short hour. But from the agony of my mind, all my endeavours to snatch a little sleep proved ineffectual, for although my body was, from sleeplessness, in a wretched state of prostration, my mind, to my great distress, continued all the while active, and kept me awake.

While I was undergoing such indescribable torture, my guard entered the room, and with an authoritative air insisted that I should immediately rise, as he had no time to lose on my journey, and I might very well take my rest in the sledge. Irritated at his peremp

tory tone-not unlike a steed when made restive-I refused to obey, and, indeed, from my extreme debility, I could not instantly rise from the place where I had hoped I should be enabled to get a moment's rest. The master of the post, an old superannuated officer of the Russian army, and a Russian by birth, looked with pity on my wretched condition, and mistrusting my guard, demanded to see his instructions. On perusing the document, he immediately perceived that the guard was abusing his power, as, on account of my sex and my age, the Government instructions had been framed in a considerate manner, and I, evidently, was not consigned to my escort, without restraint being imposed on them, mitigating to some extent, and as circumstances might require, the severity of ordinary regulations. The document containing these instructions, the humane officer read aloud in my presence, that I might under stand my position. Thus accidentally, and for the first time, I was informed exactly what were my obligations, and how far I was protected. Henceforward I could travel more comfortably, and more at my ease; and as often as I felt much fatigued,

I made my escort halt, to allow me pose.

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This was but the beginning of my journey; yet when I retraced in my mind the distance I had traversed, and the fatigue I experienced on the route when I looked back, and onward, comparing the distance already completed with the immense space that still lay before me, 1 felt despondent beyond expression. I thought of the trials which might be awaiting me on the road, and my courage sank. Yet there is nothing to which man may not, in the end, be accustomed; nothing which he may not be brought to endure. Ere a week had elapsed, my ardent imagination had considerably cooled, and become more hopeful. My frame, also, had lost much of its former susceptibility, and I could easily bear up against fatigue. Now I calmly resumed my seat in the sledge, without betraying the least sign of impatience, without fretting, without any aversions; but, as if such was my daily business, and had long been the ordinary routine of my life.

I had no curiosity respecting the country through which we passed, or impatience to change one spot for another peculiarities pos