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without bread, and for a whole week without finding a single human habitation.

At Onega he thought it useless, after his experiences at Archangel, to lose time in seeking shipping, and on careful consideration he took the route leading through the government of Olonetz to the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic. His character His character of Bohomolet was his safe-conduct, his civis Romanus sum. Although the country he traversed was very poor; although he marched over immense distances, through forests and marshes, necessarily avoiding hostelries and towns, always with his heart in his mouth,-his sufferings were not so severe as in his journey over the Ural Mountains, for it was now summer time, and at night leaves from the trees formed a natural bed for him. Once he found himself in a ridiculous predicament. In a hut where he asked for food, some tolokno was offered to him. He had heard much of this national dish, but had never tasted it. His confusion was great when a cup of cold water, a basin of a dark meal, and a spoon, were set down before him. How to eat the mess was the question. He fidgeted; he spoke at random; he dreaded to display his ignorance, until the hostess inquired whether he was waiting for kvass. "Yes," he said, and his embarrassment ended by her pouring the kvass in the basin, stirring it with the spoon until the mass bubbled up, filling the vessel, and forming a kind of cold porridge. The dark powder was oatmeal, and the dish appeared far from bad to a hungry man.

The government of Olonetz is interspersed by numerous canals, connecting together various rivers and lakes, like those of Onega, Ladoga, Vytiegra, and others. Numerous guardhouses are found there, and they are frequently garrisoned by Poles incorporated in the Russian army. A painful sight encountered by Piotrowski was that of a

convoy of Jewish children, which were stolen from their parents to serve

thenceafter to recruit the armies and man the navy of the Tzar. Those miserable boys between ten and fifteen years old, with their heads shaved, with tearful eyes, were chased on by their escort like sheep, and many of them continually perished on the road.

At Vytiegra, Pietrowski was accosted by a peasant, who asked whither he was going. On hearing that it was a Bohomolet proceeding to Novgorod and Kiow, the moujik said, "I am your man, then. I will take you to St. Petersburgh; my boat is small, and I have only one horse, and you shall help me to row." The fugitive had never contemplated going to St. Petersburgh, but since he had left Archangel he had no settled plans. He thought a large town. safer than a small one, and the capital would offer more means of egress than any other place. So a bargain was struck. A passage and food was to be given to the presumed Bohomolet in exchange for his food. In the evening they started. From Vytiegra, over the lake of Onega, the river Svir, the lake of Ladoga, and the Neva, they were to reach to the very walls of St. Petersburgh.

On the boat at first there were only the master, his son, and Piotrowski. They rowed day and night, and whenever practicable the horse was landed and made to draw the little vessel. Innumerable crafts of every description crowded the waters, and were floating towards the capital. Although the boat to which Piotrowski had confided his fortunes was small, the master did not refuse to carry as many passengers as he could obtain. On one occasion the fugitive had to fish a drunken wretch who had tumbled into the river, which he did quite as much to avoid the inquiries of the police as out of philanthropy.

As they were nearing their destination, Piotrowski was becoming more

and more anxious as to the probable end of his journey. Fortunately a peasant woman, who had been taken on board, and who was going to visit her daughter, a laundress at St. Petersburgh, was much taken with the supposed Bohomolet. She placed herself under his protection, and offered her services. When they stopped before the Newskoi Perspective, in the capital, the peasant woman told him that she had sent for her daughter, who would seek a lodging for him. The offer was gratefully accepted, and when the laundress arrived, they landed without any inquiry being made as to their papers, and proceeded to a low lodging house, tenanted by poor workmen and other characters less respectable, where the laundress resided, and where a room was found for him. When he was asked who he was by the landlady, he repeated his usual story and exhibited his pass, which she fortunately could not read. With trembling heart, he stated his desire to go to the police, but the woman told him it was unnecessary if he were only going to stay two or three days, and, moreover, she would have to go with him, which really was too much trouble, and she could not afford the time for a lodger who was only going to remain so brief a period. Delighted at the turn taken by events, Piotrowski acquiesced gladly; he, however, refused to go out to witness the illuminations. on the occasion of the wedding of the Grand Duchess Olga, daughter of the Emperor, with the Prince of Wurtemburg, as he did not wish to expose himself to unnecessary risk.

On the morrow he strolled through the city, and his first care was to proceed along the quays on the Neva, examining all the placards announcing the departure of steamers. He was obliged to read by stealth, for a moujik was not supposed to be a scholar. He examined slowly the vessels, and found

that one was the Emperor's yacht, another the steamer of the Empress, a third of the Grand Duke Michael, and so on. At last he halted at the foot of two gigantic sphinxes before the museum, and his eyes fell on a steamer, wherein it was announced in large letters that the vessel would sail on the following day for Riga. On deck there was a man standing about, with a red shirt over his blue trousers, but Piotrowski did not dare to address him. The evening was approaching, and the Pole continued transfixed to the spot, until the seaman shouted to him whether he wished to go to Riga.

"Yes," was the eager reply; "but a poor man like me cannot afford to go by steamer. We poor people-"

"Well, we shall not be hard on a moujik: we will take you cheap."

A trifling sum was asked, which Piotrowski agreed to pay; but as he appeared to hesitate, the other inquired what was the matter.

"Well, it is my passport that I am thinking about. I have only arrived to-day, and I must go to the police with it.'

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"The police !" rejoined the sailor; "they will keep it three days, and the boat leaves to-morrow."

"What shall I do, then ?" "Why, go without a visé.” "And if I should get into trouble ?"

"You fool! what should a moujik know of these things: let me see it."

And Piotrowski, with much ado, pulled out a handkerchief after the manner of Russian peasants, and, carefully unfolding it, he produced his paper. It was not necessary to open it.

"That will do," exclaimed the seaman; be here to-morrow at seven, and wait for me.

Piotrowski, elated with hope, was punctual. The same man called him quietly aside, and took his money. Soon after he brought him his ticket, and said, playfully, "Be silent, moujik, and it will do."

The bells struck three times; the feet until the second ditch was reachgangway was crowded with passen- ed. He was then perceived and gers going on board. Piotrowski several muskets were fired against was pushed in among them, and in him. He continued to advance ; a few minutes the vessel was steam- he glided into the third ditch; climbing out to sea. ed on to the other side, and rushed forward at full speed until he dropped from exhaustion in a wood. He was in Prussia.

When Piotrowski reached Riga, he ceased to be a Bohomolet, and he became stchetmink, an itinerant buyer of hogs' bristles, many of which class wander about Lithuania and Ukraine, making purchases at farm-houses, for the account of Riga merchants. In this character, he started from that city, and gradually worked his way through Courland and Lithuania, until he reached the Prussian frontier. He walked, as usual, throughout the journey, sleeping in the fields among the corn, or in the woods. He had now discarded his heavy outer trousers, and he had exchanged his sheepskin overcoat for a light summer garment, still retaining, in true Russian fashion, notwithstanding the warm weather, his tunic of the same material. carefully eschewed betraying his origin, even in his own country, and he avoided even the appearance of understanding Polish.

He

He determined to cross the frontier between the Polonga and Kurszani; and he ascertained from a Russian soldier, that the line dividing Prussia from Russia was less carefully guarded by day than by night, when the sentinels were doubled, and at half distances. At all times, however, these had orders to fire on any fugitive or other individual attempting to pass the line; and it appears that the Prussians were less zealous than the Russians.

At two o'clock in the day, after commending his soul to God, and putting his dagger between his teeth, he crept along a corn-field. When the two sentinels nearest to him on each side, and about a quarter of a mile distant, had turned their shoulders to him, he leapt from the wall into the first of the three ditches forming the frontier. He then crawled on his hands and

When he found himself safe, his first thought was to part with the last vestige of the moujik-his huge beard. He hung a small lookingglass against a tree; he pulled out a razor, and a piece of soap he had provided himself with, and in that primitive fashion he shaved himself, not without hacking about his face. painfully. After a night's rest he proceeded on his journey, avoiding the towns, and especially the police; for an extradition treaty between Russia and Prussia had been signed, and he knew that if captured he would run great risk of being given up to the Government of the Tzar. His object was to reach Posen, where he could obtain temporary safety and assistance; and he was not aware that an extensive conspiracy had been discovered in that province, rendering the Prussian authorities doubly alert. He travelled by day, and rested in the open air at night. Passing through Memel and Tilsit, he reached Konigsberg on the 27th July, with the intention of proceeding by steamer to Elbing. to Elbing. After wandering about the town, tired and exhausted, he lay down among some ruins. Nature asserted its sway, and he was roused from his slumbers by a violent shake. It was a Prussian night watchman. watchman. All attempted explanations were in vain. Piotrowski endeavoured to resist, but assistance was summoned, and he was taken to the nearest police-station.

To be wrecked in port is hard indeed. To have escaped from Katirga; to have slept for months on the bare snow; to have trudged along like a moujik; endured pri

vations like an Ostiack; existed like a savage; lived like a Bohomolet; and after having struggled and surmounted all, to be caught by a Prussian policeman! When interrogated by the police-magistrate, he stated he was a French workman, returning from Russia, who had lost his papers. But his explanations were not believed, and he was imprisoned in the Blue Tower. No No doubt this was far from being as terrible as the Russian prisons; yet he was seriously anxious as to the result. At the end of a month, he was told that the various addresses he had furnished were proved to be false, and that the worst suspicions existed against him. At last, Piotrowski deemed it advisable to reveal his true story before a high functionary, and M. Fleury, a Frenchman, who had resided thirty years in Konigsberg. The surprise, the astonishment of the auditors knew no bounds at the revelation. "Unhappy man!" M. Fleury exclaimed, "why did you not state the truth before? We shall have to deliver you up to Russia, in accordance with the extradition treaty."

His only hope of safety was in petitioning Count Eulenburg, President of the Regency, a generous and noble-minded man, upon whom all depended. He did so, and he also wrote to Paris to procure certificates of identity. Moreover, he learnt that much rested on the fact as to whether he was connected or not with the Posen conspiracy. His mental sufferings were great at this

time, and his anxiety, as may be imagined, was intense. Ten days afterwards a reply came from Count Eulenburg, vague, but not altogether discouraging. During this time investigations were being made as to the Posen affair, of which, of course, he knew himself innocent.

Meanwhile, much agitation was caused at Konigsberg by the news of his arrest, and general sympathy was expressed on his behalf. The idea of delivering up a political refugee who had escaped from so many dangers, was repugnant to the good citizens of Konigsberg, and one of them, Herr Kamke, a merchant, went so far as to offer to become bail for the prisoner. After many formalities, Piotrowski was released, and he then accepted the hospitality of Herr Kamke, whose family eagerly welcomed him, and treated him as if he had been a long-lost son. He might then have left the city, but he wished to show his gratitude to his friends by remaining a few days with them. For a week Piotrowski was lionised by the worthy citizens. At the expiration of that period he was summoned before the police, and he was informed that orders from Berlin had arrived for extradition, but that he would be allowed to escape if he did so quickly. So, with ample means and credentials, he quitted his excellent hosts; and, on the 22nd September, 1846, Piotrowski set his foot in Paris, poorer in hopes if richer in experience than when he left that city four years before.

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THE LATE CHIEF-JUSTICE LEFROY.1

THE biography of this distinguished member of the Irish Bar will doubtless be warmly welcomed by all who take interest in things connected with practical jurisprudence on our side of the Channel since the close of last century. It will be, perhaps, received with the greater cordiality by those whose fathers, as well as themselves, have unflinchingly struggled to maintain the cause of Conservatism in Church and State, especially if imbued with an evangelical spirit. For the Right Honourable Thomas Langlois Lefroy was from his youth a serious and indefatigable student of his Bible, an unwearied meditator on the relations between his CREATOR and himself, and a faithful doer of the work which he believed he was appointed to perform.

Mr. Lefroy won his way by his abilities and steadiness from the rank of barrister to that of Chief-Justice. In the opinion of his friends, he should have enjoyed the style and dignity of Lord Chancellor many years since. He studied hard, gave himself but moderate relaxation, experienced the harassing existence of a lawyer in good practice, both in the metropolitan law-courts and on circuit, and, later, the anxious cares and responsibilities of a judge. If we add his parliamentary labours, it might naturally be supposed that the wear and tear of such an existence, crowded with every imaginable annoyance and disturbance, would have limited his years to the space long ago laid down by the sage. But he had learned to look on all worldly concerns as things which should be engaged in, with care indeed, but not with harrowing anxiety. They were mere means to an end,

and that the only one worthy of a Christian's real anxiety, namely, conscientiously discharging his duty to his Creator, and thereby insuring his salvation. Thus, his life being regulated by the dictates of reason and religion, and spent in alternate healthy exercise and rest, not in anxious, fitful, and ill-regulated efforts, was prolonged to the very advanced term of ninety-three year.

Thomas Langlois Lefroy, son of Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Lefroy, of the Light Dragoons, was born in Limerick (?), on the 8th of January, 1776. At the age of fourteen he endured a long imprisonment in the "Fly" stage-coach; but as every human trial has its limits, at the end of three days he happily exchanged his cribbed and cabined condition for comfortable apartments in Trinity College, Dublin.

An intimacy which ensued between him and a fellow-student, Mr. Paul, of Silver Spring, Wexford, led to visits at that gentleman's family residence, and to a tender attachment between himself and Miss Paul, and subsequently to their marriage, in 1797, and, as the story books say, to their conjugal happiness ever after, i.e., a respectable term of years. He was called to the bar in Easter Term of the same year, but did not begin to attend the courts till 1800, devoting the interim to severe legal studies. In November, 1801, he made his first speech in the courts, and greatly gratified his family and friends by the judgment and ability which it evinced. He pleaded with great success both in the Four Courts and on the circuit for a few years, and then entirely devoted himself to home practice in the Court of Equity. Soon after his marriage he

Memoir of Chief-Justice Lefroy. By his Son, Thomas Lefroy, M.A., Q.C. Dublin: Hodges, Foster, and Co. 1871.

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