Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. Departure for Petersburg—fellow-travellers—night adventures—Livonian peasants—their mode of living—loves— marriages—houses—the girl and the wife—political condition—progress towards liberty—mode of letting the lands —nobles—arrival at Dorpat—Esthonian women—miserable village—lake Peipus—Russian colony—Narva, and the fall of the Narova—night-scene on the river Laga—system of territorial banks—arrival at St. Petersburg. Notwithstanding the constant intercourse between Riga and St. Petersburg, the diligence goes only once a week. It is, therefore, always full; and as, at this season more especially, owing to the bad state of the roads, it is a mode of conveyance chosen even by those who usually travel in their own carriages, the stranger should not lose a moment in securing his seat. I was fortunate in my fellow-travellers. Among the rest, we had the pastor Sarae, a Lutheran priest of Moldavia, so far on his way to solicit the FELLOW TRAVELLERS. 31 protection of the emperor for his church. This he would, no doubt, readily obtain; for the Russians, like the ancient Romans, unite in a remarkable degree, the extremes of tolerance and superstition. There was, also, M. Hartung, a German, whose business in the metropolis was to teach the Guards to shoot. He had invented a very simple machine, by means of which an officer, standing behind a soldier about to fire, can direct his aim with unfailing accuracy. M. Hartung considered that a few lessons given in this manner would be worth half a lifetime of practice in the ordinary way; and the emperor seems also to have judged favourably of the plan, having bestowed a pension and an order upon the inventor. Hartung was a gunsmith, and is a simple, peaceable man, with no more thought of blood in his mind than an angler ...