ameliorating the
condition of the unhappy prisoners. He had frequently urged on the
authorities that the manacles employed were too heavy for persons of
ordinary strength, but they would not listen to him. At length, the
better to be able to explain the suffering inflicted on the poor
wretches, he had them put on his own limbs, and trudged the whole of the
first day's march alongside the party of exiles. The state to which
even this one day's march reduced him was so strong an argument in
favour of his assertion, that he won his cause; and after that the
chains, except of the greater criminals, were much lightened.

A few carts, containing stores and some prisoners who were unable to
walk, followed the melancholy cortege.

"In England many guilty ones escape punishment, but in this country many
innocent ones suffer, I fear," observed Cousin Giles as they returned to
their hotel, very tired after their morning's walk.

The travellers were told, that persons of rank condemned for political
offences are carried off secretly by the police in closed carriages,
without the power of communicating with their friends; that frequently
they thus disappear, and no one knows whither they are gone. A small
dark carriage, with thick blinds, may be seen, strongly guarded by
horse-soldiers, proceeding towards Siberia, but no one knows whom it
contains.

The travellers attended the service in the British chapel, where Mr
Gray officiates, and they were surprised to find it so well filled.
There were several persons in Russian uniforms--Englishmen, or the sons
of Englishmen, in either the military or civil service of the Czar, who
are allowed to worship God after the mode of their fathers. By the laws
of Russia no Russian may change his religious profession, but any
stranger entering the country may worship according to his belief--as
may his descendants, although they become naturalised Russians. If,
however, a stranger marries a Russian woman, the children of the
marriage must belong to the Greek Church. Laws, however, cannot change
the mind; and not only has the Greek Church been split into numerous
bodies of sectarians, but there are many who totally dissent from it, an
account of whom our friends afterwards heard.

Sunday they made a day of rest.

Monday morning they again commenced sight-seeing. The first place they
visited was the building near the Kremlin having the most extensive roof
without arches in the world, an