running-hand S is not very unlike an O with a flourish; the doctor therefore declared it was October: we reminded him that the eleventh of October had not yet arrived; and that, even if the secretary of a public office had made the blunder supposed, a traveller should not be held accountable; at the same time we maintained that, in point of fact, the word written was September, not October; nevertheless, he strongly asserted his acquaintance with German, and it was not expedient to dispute it. At length he departed, and we heard no more of the passport being in French, nor of the date, nor of any other difficulty connected with it.

The Jew made his appearance notwithstanding the holiday. Happily, he spoke German, without which we might have been left to starve, for our guardians understood only three syllables of any language but Russ; and their usual reply to our solicitations for food or other necessaries was, " Jude ist nicht," "The Jew is not here ;" words repeated with a somewhat vexatious monotony and indifference. The Hebrew traiteur sold only raw materials for the table, and we were provided with no apparatus for cooking. But necessity is the mother of invention. A few earthen vessels supplied the place of saucepans, plates, and basins; thus

our meals were prepared and served; and we made the best of our lot, congratulating ourselves that the period of incarceration was so short.

The second morning, the doctor came to complain that during the previous day we had not submitted all our goods to ventilation, for our guardian-spy had informed the commissary that we had reserved some books and other articles for use. Soon after, he returned, and begged to be informed, for the third time, what was our object in going to Odessa. We repeated that we had no object but pleasure; that we were originally bound for Constantinople, but that tidings of the plague had led us to defer our visit to the Turkish capital; and that we purposed waiting at Odessa till its ravages should cease. After many enquiries, he asked, "But if the plague should remain there two years, what will you do?" This cross-examination concluded, he delivered to us the subjoined form in duplicate, in which he desired that each book in our possession should be recorded.

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our liberation, which, however, was not effected as readily as we had hoped. Early in the morning the doctor paid us a visit to assure himself that we were in health. We were then required to take an oath, enforced by a reference to God's presence and the anticipation of his "terrible judgment," that we had complied with all the requisitions of the establishment; that we had not been in contact with any person, except those of our party, during the time of confinement; that we had thrown nothing over the walls; and that everything belonging to us had been aired and turned each day. To the last clause we objected, observing that, however anxious we might have been to comply with the instructions received, yet it was scarcely practicable to handle daily each minute scrap of paper, &c. and that certainly we could not swear that this had been done. Our hesitation gave rise to a discussion between the doctor, the commissary, and the director, as to whether we should be detained. At length, it was decided that all our things had been turned en masse; and, with this understanding, we were suffered to depart.

At the gate of the quarantine a carriage was in waiting to convey us to the town, a mile distant. As we crossed the threshold, the

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commissary placed in our hands a paper from his superior, directing us to proceed immediately to Kishnau, the capital of Bessarabia, in order to present ourselves to the governor of that town. It was in vain that we expostulated, stating that Kishnau was out of our road and that, as we were travellers, and not criminals, we ought to be allowed to choose our own route. Unhappily for us, we were foreigners; and as such, compelled to obey any capricious orders which these petty officials might please to issue.

The director of the quarantine was raised from the situation of a coachman; and the little commissary, who had so much annoyed us, was the son of a barber in the town. The former now receives eight hundred silver rubles, or £125 sterling, per annum; the latter half that sum. If so small a salary be attached to responsible situations, the employés must necessarily be taken from the lowest grades of society, and the government must submit to the censure of foreigners who become victims to their ignorance. The officer miscalled an interpreter receives three hundred silver rubles, or £47, a year; his acquirements correspond with his salary, being limited to Moldavian and Russ; and we were informed that, had it not been

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for the doctor, we should have been sent, malgré nous, a distance of two hundred miles to the central quarantine of Bessarabia, where the high qualification of a knowledge of French is supposed to exist in the interpreter.

Though our baggage had already been subjected to the most minute investigation, this did not exempt it from the searching scrutiny of the douaniers, who were ready to receive us the moment we passed beyond the gates of the lazaretto. All the trunks were reopened, and re-examined; we were called upon to write a third list of our books, and were then informed that the portmanteau containing them must be sealed, and remain so till our arrival at Odessa. During the whole of this long journey, protracted as it might be by illness or weather, we were deprived of books of every kind, except a bible and prayer-book and one other, exempted as "sacred:" all the rest being collected together from various boxes and placed in one, our goods being unpacked, examined, and repacked on an exposed common, and the proscribed portmanteau being sealed, we were again closely questioned as to whether we had anything contraband, especially any poison! Finally, we were led into a room, and made to sign an engagement that