BY ORDER OF THE CZAR. 381
women and children ; princes, nobles, and peasants have bidden good-bye for ever to friends, country and home. No other boundary post in the world has witnessed so much human suffering or been passed by such a multitude of heart-broken people. More than one hundred and seventy thousand exiles have traveled this road since 1878, and more than half a million since the beginning of the present century. As the boundary post is situated about half-way between the last European and the first Siberian etape, it has always been customary to allow exile parties to stop here for rest and for a last good-bye to home and country. The Russian peasant, even when a criminal, is deeply attached to his native land; and heart-rending scenes have been witnessed around the boundary pillar when such a party, overtaken perhaps by frost and snow in the early autumn, stopped here for a last farewell. Some gave way to unrestrained grief; some comforted the weeping; some knelt and pressed their faces to the loved soil of their native country, and collected a little earth to take with thm into exile; and a few pressed their lips to the European side of the cold brick pillar, as if kissing good- bye for ever to all that it sympolized. At last the stern order ' Stroisa ! ' (form ranks) from the under officer of the convoy put an end to the rest and the leave-taking, and at the word " March ! " the grey-coated troop of exiles and convicts crossed themselves hastily all together, and, with a confused jingling of chains and leg-fetters, moved slowly away, past the boundary post, into Siberia."
As Dick Chetwynd tumbled out of the tarantas, and pressed forward towards the exiles, the stern order " Form ranks ! " and the following word " March ! " were given, and the prisoners prepared to resume their weary and heart- breaking journey.
" Captain Karakazov ? " exclaimed Dick Chetwynd at a venture, hardly daring to think that he had overtaken the.
