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

THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.133

of hundreds of peasants, exiled in a mass to Siberia. The lords of these deserted villages are ruined ; for in estates of this kind, it is the men who constitute the wealth of the proprietor. The rich domains of the

Prince have become a dreary solitude. Fedor,

with his mother and his wife, have been compelled to follow the inhabitants of their desolate village.

Xenie was present at the departure of the exiles, but she did not say adieu, for this new misfortune had not restored to her the light of reason.

At the moment of departing, an unexpected event cruelly aggravated the grief of Fedor and his family. His wife and mother were already in the cart, and he was about to follow them, to quit Vologda for ever ; but he saw only Xenie, he suffered only for his sister, an orphan, deprived of reason, or at least of memory, and whom he was going to abandon among the still warm ashes of their native hamlet. Now that she had need of the kindest aid, strangers were going to be her only protectors. The bitter feeling of despair which this thought produced, stopped his tears. A piercing cry, proceeding from the cart, recalled him to the side of his wife, whom he foimd fainting ; — one of the soldiers was taking away his child.

" What are уогг going to do?" cried the distracted father.

" To place it there by the way-side that they may bury it; do you not see that it is dead ?" replied the Cossack.

" I will carry it myself!"

" You shall not touch it."

At this moment, other soldiers attracted by the noise, seized Fedor, who, yielding to irresistible force,