Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/113

Rh to join the army; and this operation was performed on them, in order that they might be recognized in case of desertion.

We were sometimes lodged on this road, in small wooden palaces, built on purpose for the Empress, at the time of her first visit to Crimea. All this journey of hers was truly a fairy scene; she travelled with all her court, favourites, ladies in waiting, ministers, ambassadors; one thousand horses were in readiness for her at every station, and where-ever she stopped, a place comfortably fitted up for her reception seemed to spring up from the ground. In these it was sometimes allowed afterwards to accommodate persons for the night, who travelled by the orders of the court. Alas! we had that sad privilege, and the same apartments that had once been the abode of her upon whom fortune had poured all her favours, served for a shelter to unfortunate captives whom she had plunged into the depths of misery. The best furniture had been removed from those buildings, although