Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

128THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.

eager to behold the spectacle, flocked from all parts to this place of rendezvous.

The troop who guarded him formed a circle around their prey, and displayed in the light of the conflagration their loathsome banners. Great God! what colours ! They were the mangled remains of the first victims, earned upon pikes and sabres. Heads of women with flowing hair, pieces of human bodies stuck upon pitch-forks, mutilated infants, gory bones. The scene seemed peopled with hideous phantoms, winch it might have been supposed had escaped from hell, to assist in the orgies of the last inhabitants of earth.

This pretended triumph of liberty was like the aspect of some great convulsion of nature. The flames and crash of the timbers of the castle resembled the eruption of a volcano. The revengeful passions of the people were like the lava, which, long boiling silently in the womb of the earth, had at length found vent, and spread in torrents on every side. Confused murmurs might be heard among the crowd, but no voice could be distinguished, unless it wras that of the victim whose curses and imprecations rejoiced the hearts of the executioners. These monsters were, for the most part, men of remarkable beauty; all had a manner and bearing that was naturally noble and gentle; they seemed more like evil angels, whose faces yet retained their pristine glory, than human beings. Fedor himself much resembled his persecutors. All the Russians of pure Slavonian race show by their faces that they are of the same family; even when engaged in exterminating each other it can be