EN ROUTE FOK DAGHESTAN. 245 



Later on, we met two of these gentry on the 

 road, armed to the teeth and well mounted ; but 

 though they honoured us with a careful scrutiny, 

 our gleaming gun-barrels had a deterrent effect 

 upon them, and we drove on unmolested, though 

 our driver suffered a shock to his nervous system 

 which quite upset his merriment for the rest of the 

 drive. I am told that amongst these Tartar high- 

 waymen revolvers are quite common nowadays, 

 most of them possessing at least one of these 

 dangerous little tools. 



The conversation turning on the lawlessness of 

 the Caucasus, elicited from my servant a strange on 

 dit of Tiflis. So utterly corrupt had every branch 

 of the civil service in the Caucasus become some 

 three months previous to my arrival therein, that 

 the Emperor sent down his secret agent, K , 

 with orders to inspect the state of affairs in dis- 

 guise, with plenary powers of dismissal and punish- 

 ment with regard to civil officials. He was to 

 clean the Augean stable of Tiflis. Supported by 

 a band of detectives brought with him from St. 

 Petersburg, he soon became the terror of the town. 

 Common rumour had it that three of the worst 

 in high places died of sheer fright shortly after his 

 advent. This may not have been the cause of their 

 deaths, probably was not, but that they were lucky 

 enough thus to escape punishment by natural deaths 

 is historical. One of K -'s first acts was to try 



