LITHUANIA AND ITS PEOPLE. 103 



management-, of everything else in this country, is in the 

 hands of Jews. But, if the preservation of order be 

 part of the contract, it was certainly set at nought this 

 day. There may have been officers present, whose 

 duty it was to preserve order, but I could not see any. 

 Indeed, it would have required a regiment of police- 

 men to have withstood the pressure of the eager 

 multitude. 



'Once across the bridge, our pace was a continual 

 gallop. Even a steep hill, which we had to ascend 

 soon after leaving the river, and heavy roads, made still 

 heavier by muddy heaps of half-melted snow, had no 

 effect in slackening the speed of the poor horses. The 

 driver was unceasingly employed in shouting to them, 

 or in lashing their jaded sides with a rope whip. The 

 first stage, about fifteen English miles, through a hilly 

 country, was completed in less than an hour and a half ; 

 the second, about the same distance, was traversed in 

 about the same time, over a somewhat better road, and 

 the country was more flat. Our luncheon, at the end of 

 the first stage, consisted of brown bread and cheese with 

 caviar and claret. There was a long building by the 

 road-side, which served as a stable for the post-horses, 

 four of which aie required always to be kept in readiness 

 for any emergency. Boards were laid in a sloping form 

 for the horses to lie upon, but covered with a very scanty 

 littering of straw ; and little or no pains appeared to be 

 taken to keep either stables or horses clean. 



'We passed some good-looking farm-houses, in the 

 second stage of our journey, and also some rich-looking 

 fen land, which reminded me of the best parts of the 

 border country of Norfolk and Lincolnshire.' 



They made a round of visits to the relatives of the 

 Count. All is described, with notices of the domestic 

 habits of the families visited, with a naivete which shows 

 that nothing political, much less anything treasonable, was 

 in their thoughts. 



