try in a large prison
near the city, till they amount to a sufficient number to form a
caravan. Our friends met the melancholy band; clanking their chains,
they moved along at a slow pace through the city. Numbers of people,
chiefly of the lower orders, rushed out of their houses, and presented
them with loaves of bread, biscuits, tobacco, sugar, money, and other
things likely to comfort them on their dreary pilgrimage. After they
had been thus exhibited to the public, they stopped at a wooden shed,
where they were to rest before taking their final departure. There were
about fifty of them, old men and youths, and even women, some of them
young, poor creatures, looking miserable, heart-broken, and forlorn.

The men were dressed in coarse linen shirts and trousers, and the high
boots generally worn by peasants. Half the head was shaved, and few
wore hat or cap to conceal the sign of their disgrace. Most of them
were heavily manacled, some few only being free of irons.

In the centre of the building was a platform, on which were piled up the
prisoners' knapsacks and bags of provisions. Round it the gang stood
grouped. While they were there, many persons entered to bring them
offerings of money and food. At one end of the platform was spread out
a large handkerchief, on which the gifts were placed. As each person,
after bowing to the saint which hung in front of the doorway, deposited
his or her piece of money or loaf of bread on the handkerchief, one of
the prisoners, who seemed to take the lead, cried out with a loud voice,
"Unhappy ones, thank the donors!" The whole party then bent their heads
at the same time, and replied, "Thanks be to you, kind and benevolent
sir," or "mother" if a matron was their benefactor. After this, the
visitors being requested to leave the shed, the gang was marshalled by
the man in command, who spoke in a savage voice to the prisoners, and by
his significant gestures was evidently in the habit of striking them.

The escort consisted of six mounted lancers and about thirty
foot-soldiers. At a sign they stepped out together, and, while many a
sob and groan was heard from the crowd, they commenced their six months'
dreary march towards Siberia at the rate of about twenty versts a day.

Russia has not been without its Howard; indeed, perhaps that great man
infused his spirit into the bosom of the benevolent Dr Haaz. He, like
Howard, devoted his means, his talents, and energies to