Although the distance from Tchita was considerable for one day’s march,—about forty versts (twenty-six miles), I think,—we started very late on the following morning; but after about twenty versts’ march we came to a lonely farmhouse, standing all by itself on the high-road. We had heard from our comrades who had been in Kara that an old man lived here who gave himself out as a Decabrist.[74] Footnote 74: The participators in the revolt of December, 1825, on the occasion of Nicholas I.’s accession, were so called. Our party halted in the courtyard, we “politicals” were shown into a room, and the master of the house presently paid us a visit. He introduced himself by the name of Karovàiev; and was a vivacious old gentleman, of eminently respectable appearance. According to his account of himself he had been an ensign in the Guards, had taken part in the revolt of the Decabrists, and had been exiled to Siberia; he claimed to be eighty years of age, but did not look more than sixty-five. He made himself very agreeable, and was most anxious to show us hospitality, declining to take any money from us. Meanwhile in the next room and the corridor things were very lively; there seemed to be a sort of combined market and feast going on, soldiers and convicts eating, drinking, and hobnobbing together like boon companions. It was already dark when we arrived at the gates of the prison in Tchita, where we had at once to engage in a struggle with the governor: first, because he received the ordinary prisoners first, leaving us to wait; and next, because he gave us a room which was absolutely unfit for us to spend the night in. Only after we had made a great fuss, and threatened him with complaints, did he give us proper accommodation. Next day, when the party was mustered for departure, it became apparent that the ordinary prisoners had hardly any clothes! Their things had vanished, and they were literally half naked. A light was now cast on the events of the preceding night, when there had been such a carousal at the house of the Decabrist. That respectable and hospitable old gentleman was evidently in league with the escort, and had provided the convicts with vodka and other delicacies, in exchange for their clothing, which no doubt he had obtained at a bargain. That the transaction might not be discovered before our arrival in Tchita, the soldiers saw to it that it should be as late as possible before we got in, so that the inspection should be gone through hurriedly, and the absence of the clothes not perceived. In short, the respectable Karovàiev had not established himself in that lonely spot for nothing. The jollification of the unlucky criminals had evil consequences for themselves. In proportion as their clothing and other State property were deficient they were treated to the soundest of thrashings; and only when that had been administered did they receive a fresh outfit.