Page:Elizabeth, or, The exiles of Siberia (1).pdf/4

                                    4 Two or three versts from Saimka, amidst a marshy forest, upon the edge of a circular lake bordered with poplars, lived a family of exiles. This household was composed of three individuals, a man of forty-five, his wife, and their lovely daughter, in the flower of her youth. Enclosed in this desert, this family had no communication with any person, and except a poor Tartar peasant, who waited on them, no human foot was permitted to enter their cabin. No person knew them, or the cause of their punishment, except the governor of Tobolsk. When putting these exiles under the care of his lieutenant at Saimka, the governor only told him to provide them with a convenient habitation, with a little garden, and food and clothing; but charging him, at the same time, to prevent all intercourse between them and others : and, above all, to intercept any letters they might attempt to convey to the court of Russia. Attention so particular on the one side, and so much rigour and mystery on the other hand, made it suspected, that under the simple name of Peter Springer was concealed some distinguished victim of adversity. People now ceased to be concerned for the fate of beings whom they never saw, and whom they at length forgot. Peter Springer had been the builder of his own cabin, which had been constructed of planks of fir, and covered with straw, and protected by rocks from the north wind and the inundations of the lake. Southward of the lake, the forest presented an open coppice, and in the distance extensive heath covered with tombs which had been violated by plunderers, and the bones of the dead scattered in all directions. To the east of this plain the Christians had built a chapel of wood ; and it is remarkable, that here the ashes of the dead had ever been treated with becoming awe ! In these wilds Peter Springer passed his mornings in the chase every winter: he killed the elks, and sometimes caught the sable, but more frequently the ermine, which is more plentiful there. He sold the skins of the animals, and bought furniture and books for his daughter, who, seated between her parents, read aloud to them passages from history. Springer did not fail to impress on her soul the beauty and glory of heroism, while her mother, (Phedora,) directed her feelings to scenes calculated to produce tenderness of heart, and impressed on her mind the charms of piety and modest goodness. The consequence of such parental assiduity produced a character at once courageous and feeling—combining all that was noble in honour with all that was tender in love. In the proper season the culture of the garden occupied the family, in the southern part of which he formed a fruit-house, where ho cultivated flowers that were strangers to this region,