THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 8 1 



when on a sudden the gate opened, and a troop of chimney- 

 sweepers rushed in, whom my host informed me were 

 his own servants, I looked for an excuse to leave as soon 

 as possible the house of the chimney-sweeper ; and after- 

 wards I was informed that this profession is a very lucrative 

 one in Russia, and that those who follow it are generally 

 rich and respectable men. 



Of what further occurred to me after my return to St. 

 Petersburgh, I have nothing to relate, for I left the capital 

 immediately after my arrival there, and set off for Moscow. 

 The arrangement of my affairs having now been complet- 

 ed, I felt no stronger desire than that of again seeing 

 my native country. It was in the winter season, and the 

 ground was covered with snow, when about the middle of 

 November, I left the old and venerable capital of Russia. 

 I had my own carriage, and passed through the govern- 

 ments of Tulai, Orel, Kiew, Volhynia and Bukowina, and 

 also through Czernowitz, Dorna, and Bistritz, to Kronstadt, 

 my dear and beloved native town, where I arrived on 

 Christmas-eve, in the year 1834, by the same road on which 

 I had twenty years before left my home, full of lofty 

 idea", and impelled by my desire to see the Eastern world. 



The season during my journey was inconvenient for 

 me, as it would have been for any one in my situation. 

 Although I had no longer to struggle against wild beasts 

 and Arab robbers, yet the severe cold was almost insup- 

 portable, and still more so were the vexations and extor- 

 tions I had everywhere to endure from greedy Polish 

 Jews, and cunning treacherous servants. But even at the 

 moment, when I had already left the Austrian frontier 

 behind me, and fancied I saw my native land, I was near 

 losing my life. It was in the middle of December when 

 I ascended one of those snow-covered Carpathian summits, 

 a short time before sunset. I had alighted from my 

 carriage on account of the steepness of the road, when the 

 vehicle suddenly overturned, and was precipitated down 

 a tremendous precipice, toeether with the three horses and 

 the coachman, and there they remained all the night long. 



