HOPES DISAPPOINTED. 55 



sentence that gave them birth. At the 

 eleventh hour the Dowager Princess had been 

 seized by a violent illness — so violent, indeed, 

 that all hope of her recovery was abandoned, 

 and of course the drive fell through. 



Here, tlien, was an end to my business at 

 Kutais, ended almost before it was begun. 

 If the Prince's house was to be one of mourn- 

 ing, it was no time for me to hope for as- 

 sistance in my sporting projects in that 

 quarter. However, being at Kutais I resolved 

 to make that town my basis of operations, and 

 start thence on the morrow for a shooting 

 and exploring trip to Svanetia, that land of 

 mystery and tradition to which comparatively 

 few, even of the Russians, have penetrated ; 

 from which those who have b^en there bring 

 back the wildest stories of a barbarism almost 

 incredible so near the confines of civilisation, 

 and of which one of the reviewers of my last 

 book on the Caucasus, who seemed to know 



