sit the
village for an entirely different affair. As soon as he had been told
briefly what had happened he took the matter in hand and showed himself
equal to the occasion. Unlike the majority of Russian officials he
disliked lengthy procedure, and succeeded in making the case quite clear
in a very short time. There had been, he perceived, no attempt to murder
or anything of the kind. The station-keeper and his two post-boys, who
had no right to be in the traveller's room, had entered with threatening
mien, and when they refused to retire peaceably, my friend had fired
two shots in order to frighten them and bring assistance. The falsity of
their statement that he had fired at them as they entered the room was
proved by the fact that the bullets were lodged near the ceiling in the
wall farthest away from the door.

I must confess that I was agreeably surprised by this unexpected turn
of affairs. The conclusions arrived at were nothing more than a simple
statement of what had taken place; but I was surprised at the fact that
a man who was at once a lawyer and a Russian official should have been
able to take such a plain, commonsense view of the case.

Before midnight we were once more free men, driving rapidly in the
clear moonlight to the next station, under the escort of a fully-armed
Circassian Cossack; but the idea that we might have been detained for
weeks in that miserable place haunted us like a nightmare.

CHAPTER II

IN THE NORTHERN FORESTS

Bird's-eye View of Russia--The Northern Forests--Purpose of
my Journey--Negotiations--The Road--A Village--A Peasant's
House--Vapour-Baths--Curious Custom--Arrival.

There are many ways of describing a country that one has visited. The
simplest and most common method is to give a chronological account of
the journey; and this is perhaps the best way when the journey does
not extend over more than a few weeks. But it cannot be conveniently
employed in the case of a residence of many years. Did I adopt it, I
should very soon exhaust the reader's patience. I should have to take
him with me to a secluded village, and make him wait for me till I had
learned to speak the language. Thence he would have to accompany me to
a provincial town, and spend months in a public office, whilst I
endeavoured to master the mysteries of local self-government. After
this he would have to spend two years with me in a big library, where I
studied the history and literature of the cou