Some years ago I met a lady and her daughter in society: they were in deep mourning, and, as I had seen them a short time before otherwise dressed, I asked a friend what near relative of theirs had lately died. “O, do you not know?” answered she; “I thought everybody was talking of it. Marie Ivanovna is now a widow; her husband met with his death in a shocking manner: he had ill-treated the daughter of a peasant belonging to his estate, which so raised the anger of the girl’s father, that, when he met him in the wood near his château, he attacked him with his axe and killed him on the spot. Marie Ivanovna, finding that her husband did not return home, went with her daughter into the wood to meet him, and, catching sight of some strange-looking object at a distance, approached it in order to see what it was. Her horror may well be conceived when she discovered that it was the body of her husband placed in a sitting posture, with his back leaning against a tree, and his hands on his knees, on which was laid the head that the peasant had severed from the trunk with his axe.” As it was well known that the man had had just cause for vengeance, there was no difficulty in discovering the murderer, and he was banished to Siberia. An instance was also related to me of the slaves burning their proprietors in their beds in revenge for their excessive cruelty. A Swiss lady with whom I was slightly acquainted resided as governess in the interior of Russia, with a family who had a large estate and several villages. The three children slept in an inner room adjoining hers; they were all very young; the eldest was a boy of eight, the two others were little girls. One morning she arose; her young charge were dressed; and as they generally breakfasted alone, they were not surprised that they saw nothing of their mamma and papa; the servants attended to them as usual, and they had no reason for suspecting that anything extraordinary had occurred; but as the day advanced, they began to wonder that everything was so quiet in their parents’ room; the servants expressed the same surprise, and at last the Swiss lady determined upon knocking at the door, for she began now to fear that something serious had happened; obtaining no reply to her repeated knocks, she ventured upon looking in. To her inconceivable horror and dismay, she beheld the lady and gentleman lying in bed with their heads almost severed from their bodies. She had the admirable presence of mind to prevent the children, who had crowded to the door, from entering, and so mastered her emotion that she did not scream or utter any exclamation that would betray her agitation at the dreadful sight; but closing the door, she told them not to make a noise, for their parents were ill, and led them back to their apartments. She then summoned the household, to whom she communicated what she had seen, and sent off to the neighbouring town for the authorities. On