A peasant from a neighbouring village came and laid the following case before us. One day the newly appointed _prìstav_ (commissioner of police) had appeared at his house with the _stàrosta_ of the village and other officials, and without giving any reason had instituted a domiciliary search. In the larder they had found some poods of ship’s biscuit, tea, tobacco, candles, and other stores, all of which the _prìstav_ had confiscated out of hand, on the pretext that the peasant could only have such quantities of these things in his possession in order to exchange them for “pirated gold,” and that he was therefore a convicted receiver of stolen goods. Then when the peasant had attended at the house of the _prìstav_ in compliance with the latter’s orders, he was informed by the official that he must pay him fifty roubles before he could have his property back. This claim appeared to the peasant quite unconscionable, and on the advice of a neighbour he had come to beg me to draw up for him a petition against his extortionate oppressor. The peasant told me a long story: how he needed all the articles in question for his own consumption; he procured them in winter, when the transport was easier, and used them in the summer for his workpeople, of whom he employed a great number. This was evidently all humbug; it was perfectly obvious that the good man was really a receiver of “stolen gold.” On the other hand, it was as clear as daylight that the official had been guilty of an offence, having tried to use the peasant’s infringement of the law as a means of extorting backsheesh for himself. I had already heard that this newly appointed satrap was grinding the faces of the whole population in this province—a district as large as many a German state, over which he was irresponsible master—and was diligently using his position to fill his own pockets. Nearly every night he paid surprise visits to the houses of the inhabitants, took possession of whatever fell into his hands, and then put it to ransom at a high price. At the same time he bullied the simple people in the good old fashion of official Russia, raging at them like a Berserker. His favourite speech was, “You fellows shall learn that I’m your Tsar and your God!”