Page:Notes upon Russia (volume 2, 1851).djvu/185

Rh washed by the river Elsa, which empties itself into the Oder.

Thence to Ostrava, a town of Moravia, washed by the river Ostrava, which separates Silesia from Moravia.

The town of Itschin (in German, Titzein), four miles.

The town of Hranitza (in German, Weissenkirchen), washed by the river Betuna, one mile.

To Lipnik, one mile; whence, while we were bending our course straight to Wistricia, a distance of two miles, we happened to be seen from a hill by Nicholas Czaplitz, a nobleman of that province, as we were advancing towards him, and he immediately seized a weapon, and, together with his two companions, put himself in a position to attack us. As I regarded this as an act of drunkenness rather than of temerity on the part of the man, I immediately ordered my servants to make way for him in the middle of the road as he came to meet us. But he, disregarding this act of civility, threw himself into the midst of the snow, and looking fiercely at us as we passed by, tried to compel the servants who followed behind with the carriages to do the same as we had done in clearing the way for him; but this they could by no means manage to do, and thereupon he drew his sword and threatened them. As this produced a disturbance on both sides, and the servants who were behind mustered together, he presently received a wound from a cross-bow shot, and his horse being also wounded, fell under him.

Pursuing my intended journey afterwards, in company with the Russian ambassadors, I came to Olmutz, where this man also had arrived wounded; and as he was known as an inhabitant of that country, he hoped to avenge himself by means of a crowd of labourers who were met together, and employed in digging and embanking fish-ponds. By sober advice, however, I checked, and indeed foiled his attempts.