Nicholas promised compliance.  He also made a pecuniary testimonial at the comedian’s next benefit.

CHAPTER LI.

Dr. Schmidt sold his sleigh and left Kazan by diligence the day after our arrival.  I remained four days, and, when ready to start, managed to pick up a young Russian who was going to Nijne Novgorod.  Each of us spoke two languages, but we had no common tongue.  I brushed up all the Russian I had learned, and compelled it to perform very active service.  Before our companionship ended I was astonished to find what an extensive business of conversation could be conducted with a limited capital of words.

Our communications were fragmentary and sometimes obscure, but we rarely became “hopelessly stuck.”  When my knowledge of spoken words failed I had recourse to a “Manual of Russian-English conversation,” in which there were phrases on all sorts of topics.  Examining the book at leisure one would think it abundantly fertile; but when I desired a particular phrase it was rarely to be found.  As a last resource we tried Latin, but I could not remember a hundred words out of all my classics.

A regular thaw had set in, and the streets were in a condition of ‘slosh’ that reminded me of Broadway in spring.  When we left the hotel, a crowd of attendants gathered to be remembered pecuniarily.  The yemshick tied his horses’ tails in the tightest of knots to prevent their filling with snow and water.  At the western gate we found a jam of sleds and sleighs, where we stuck for nearly half an hour, despite the efforts of two soldier policemen.  When able to proceed we traversed a high causeway spanning the Kazanka valley and emerged into a suburb containing a large foundry.  A mosque and a church, side by side, symbolized the harmony between Tartar and Russian.

Passing this suburb we reached the winter station of many steamboats and barges, among which we threaded our way.  Seven versts from Kazan we reached the bank of the Volga.

The first view of the road upon the river was not inviting.  There were many pools of surface water, and the continuous travel had worn deep hollows in the snow and ice.  Some of the pools into which our yemshick drove appeared about as safe as a mill-pond in May.  As the fellow ought to know his route I said nothing, and let him have his own way.  We met a great many sleds carrying merchandise, and passed a train going in our direction.  One driver carelessly riding on his load was rolled overboard, and fell sidewise into a deep mass of snow and water.  He uttered an imprecation, and rose dripping like a boiled cabbage just lifted out of a dinner pot.