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had sunk down as low as the ligatures which bound him would allow. The executioner took the pale and apparently lifeless body by the beard, while his assistant held an instrument like a brush with iron teeth, and placing it a little below his temple, struck it with the utmost force, and drove its pointed fangs into the flesh. The opposite temple and forehead received the same application. The parts thus pierced, were then rubbed with gunpowder, to remain, should the mangled sufferer survive, a perpetual mark of his having undergone the punishment.

You would suppose that rigour had exhausted all her torments, that justice was now appeased! But no; another punishment yet remained to deprive the nose of its nostrils. The inflicting pincers, something like monstrous curling-irons, were inserted up the nose of him whom I supposed dead; (and indeed I only endured the latter part of the sight, from having imagined that these afflictions were directed to one already passed the sense of pain); the performer of this dreadful sentence, aided by his companion, actually tore each from his head in a way more shocking than can be described. The acuteness of this last torture, brought back sense to the torpid body :- What was my horror, to see the writhings of the poor mangled creature; and my astonishment, as soon as he was unbound, to see him rise by the assistance of the men, and walk to a cart ready to return him to his prison! From whence, if he did not die, he was immediately to be conveyed to Siberia, there to labour for life. His lost strength seemed to revive every moment; and he sat in the vehicle perfectly upright, being covered with his caftan, which he himself held upon his shoulders, talking very composedly with those who accompanied him.

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His sentence, I understand, was to be knouted without mercy. Of course,

in such cases few ever survive; or if they do, for want of care, or even common assistance, a mortification generally takes place, and death relieves them from further suffering. This was the fate of the miserable creature in question, who expired the following day, after passing the first post towards his banishment.

How far this sort of punishments may have an effect on the people at large, I cannot pretend to say: at present they are very rare: and whatever may be the horror with which they are viewed, I do not find. them to be decisive preventives; as murders are continually happening in unfrequented parts of the city, without the perpetrators being discovered.

I have lately been told that what actuated the Istvostchick to the murder of the Count, was the cruelty and penuriousness of that nobleman, not only to the man himself, but to the rest of his slaves. Indeed he was well known to be of a violent and austere temper, and one of the most avaricious amongst mortals. Hence my judgment on the poor fellow's face might not be far wrong; as ignorance renders the best natures liable to be wrought upon by injuries and want. Vengeance is a passion that requires better reasoning than a clown's to subdue.

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The knout is, I believe, the only severe punishment remaining from the many barbarous kinds continually practised in the early ages of the empire. The manner of inflicting it at the commencement of the reign of Peter the First, was different from the present mode, and much more savage. The sufferer was fixed to the back of the executioner's man, by means of ropes: and his lower extremities held so fast by another, that resistance was impossible. In the time of the early Tzars, the per

formers of this horrid task were regarded with so much respect, that they were admitted into the best society. Nay, it is even said, that in those days, merchants, thinking it honourable thus to pass into ranks above them, paid large sums of money to be allowed to fulfil the murderous duty. When their ambitions were satisfied, they then resold the vocation at an enormous profit.

Perhaps Fashion dictated, even amongst these unpolished people; and the value of the executionership arose from the illustrious example so often set by the great Dukes of Moscovy, who, to fill up a few leisure moments, or as a recreation from the more anxious acts of government, frequently shewed themselves to their subjects executing the sentence of the law, merely as amateurs. However, in the course of time, the bright beams of civilization began to enlighten this benighted quarter of the globe. Letters and humanity came in together: and the honour anciently attached to the torturer's profession, fell to the ground. The post was no longer deemed enviable; the royal hands were humanely and wisely occupied; and it became so difficult to get a permanent performer, that a law was passed, not permitting it to be sold, but to remain as an agreeable inheritance in the family of the last purchaser for Whether the entailment was made as a memorial of the virtues or of the vices of the then proprietor, we cannot pretend to judge at this distance of time. But surely the knout, as an estate, is by no means improvable; nor is it a profession that will now-a-days occasion the next heir to be very anxious for the rapid exit of the present incumbent. In case the male progeny of this tremendous member of society fails, the corporation of butchers are to be called upon instantly to replace the defunct, by an able-bodied beginner of a new line from amongst themselves.

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We need no greater proof of the superiority of modern Russia over the ancient empire, in the quality which best becomes man, that of mercy, than by comparing the respect with which the executioner was then regarded, with the abhorrence in which even his instrument is now held. It is an abomination to touch the knout.

That I have seen it, is a sufficient abomination to me; and when I shall wash my eyes from the impression I know not. If your dreams be but half as much disturbed by the recital, as mine were by the sight, I have broken your rest for a night or two at least, and so little thanks will arrive by the next packet to your friend.

LETTER XXIX.

Torzok, October, 1806.

THAT HAT season drawing near, when I promised to renew the happiest moments of my life, in the dear city of Mosco, I set off towards it on the twenty-fifth of this month.

The snow had not yet fallen, which was to have been the appointed signal of my return; but as it was daily expected, as they told me autumn lingered longer than usual, I ventured to abridge the hours of my exile from all that is loveliest to thy friend, and without further delay prepare my flight to the interior. Accordingly, using all expedition, I set out on wheels; hoping to have occasion to change them for the swifter sledge before I reached my place of destination.

Not having left St. Petersburgh in the heroic company I entered it; though I afterwards found that my aforesaid noble Familiar's spirit had entered most potently into the breast of my valet de chambre; no circumstance of any note-worthy complexion occurred to me during the first hundred versts of my journey. The usual inconveniencies attending travellers were my only crosses: such as delays, and impositions on the part of post-masters and their myrmidons; who were more than ordinarily exorbitant, when they discovered I was an Englishman, and therefore, they believed, with exhaustless coffers. Hence, my poor purse

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