1831.3 Affairs in General. 437 



poisonous powder, with orders to throw it into the wells ; and, with an 

 axe over his head, took an oath publicly in the church to the truth of 

 his statement. These circumstances, and the fact that the peasants, 

 when they forcibly entered the houses of the landowners, every where 

 found chlorate of lime, Avhich they took for the poisonous powder, 

 confirmed their suspicions, and drove the people to madness. In this 

 state of excitement, they committed the most apalling excesses. Thus, 

 for instance, when a detachment of thirty soldiers, headed by an en- 

 sign, attempted to restore order in Kluknau, the peasants, who were 

 ten times their number, fell upon them ; the soldiers were released, but 

 the ensign was bound, tortured with scissors and knives, then beheaded, 

 and his head fixed on a pike as a trophy. A civil officer in company 

 with the military was drowned, his carriage broken to pieces, and 

 chlorate of lime being found in the carriage, one of the servants was 

 compelled to eat it tiU he vomited blood, which again confirmed the 

 notion of poison." 



When the cholera broke out in St. Petersburgh, the mob could find 

 no better contrivance for its extirpation, than murdering the physicians ; 

 who, they declared, were hired by the government to poison the pa- 

 tients in the hospitals, and it was not till after they had proved their 

 science, by tearing some of the unfortunate doctors into fragments, that 

 some battalions of the guards put a stop to this summary justice. 



But the true state of popular wisdom is not to be looked for in great 

 cities, where there are battalions of guards ready to turn out with fixed 

 bayonets, but in the rural districts, where life is pastoral and pure, 

 where the vices of cities dare not venture, and where the shepherds and 

 shepherdesses have it all their own way. For example : — 



" On the attack of the house of the Lord at Kluknau, the Countess 

 saved her life by the most piteous entreaties ; but the chief bailiff, in 

 whose house chlorate of lime was unhappily found, was killed, together 

 Avith his son, a little daughter, a clerk, a maid, and two students who 

 boarded with him. So the bands went from village to village ; wherever 

 a nobleman or a physician was found, death was his lot ; and in a short 

 time it was known that the high constable of the county of Zemplin, 

 several counts, nobles, and parish pi'iests had been murdered. A cler- 

 gj'man was hanged because he refused to take an oath that he had thrown 

 poison into the wells ; the eyes of a countess were put out, and innocent 

 children cut to pieces. Count Czarki, having first ascertained that his 

 family was safe, fled from his estate at the risk of his life, but was 

 stopped at Kirchtrauf, pelted with stones, and wounded aU over, torn 

 from his horse, and only saved by a worthy merchant, who fell on him, 

 crying, ' Now I have got the rascal.' He drew the Count into a neigh- 

 bouring convent, where his wounds were dressed, and a refuge afforded 

 him. The secretary, who accompanied him, was struck from his horse 

 with an axe, but saved in a similar manner, and in the evening conveyed 

 with his master to Leutschaw. The steward of Count Czarki was killed, 

 his chief bailiff bound, thrown on the ground, and half beaten to death ; 

 after wliich, he was dragged to a smithy and bound to a bench, and the 

 soles of his feet burnt with irons, which peasant women made red hot. 

 The entreaties of the wife and sister of the bailiff seemed only to increase 

 the rage of his tormentors. But enough of these horrible scenes ! 

 Those here mentioned (and they are but a few from tlie counties of 

 Zips and Zemplin) will suffice to give an idea of the mad rage of a 



