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equal to a little trifle more than 9d a horse per mth,
and none would as the snow they said was deep
and the road steep and mountainous, none wou'd
undertake it with fewer than 10 horses. I was
informed through the same channel that the cattle
were but indifferent, and that it being an feast
holiday-time as usual amongst some or all
of these people it was uncertain how soon if
at all this requisite number could be collected.
After several conferences on the subject, the Colonel
interfered, telling me a person whom he
could depend on and who had six stout horses
for whose sufficiency he could answer was willing
to let them for the three miles for as many
ducats. This made 54 florins. The other proposal
amounted to 45. The enormity of this
demand concurred with other circumstances in exciting some suspicion: but I had already
had experience of the inefficacy of
undisciplined numbers: and, for so small a
difference as 9 florins equal to about 4s 6d,
prudential considerations, if no other, seemed
to forbid the rejection of an offer coming from
such a quarter. In short I accepted it: he then
said, if I would then deposit the money in his
hands the bargain was made, and he would forward
the money to the proper hands and be answerable
for the event. I thought this a little
odd, but I complied. Other incidents relative to
this negotiation I must pass by: such as
his labouring without effect to prevent my
visiting the Collector: and my labouring, I believe
with as little effect to make him believe that
that visit had no to him.
About 2 o'clock of the day after my arrival
(Wed. 12th) I set out for Miashoofka: dinner seemed
to have been hasten'd that I might share in
it. We parted with many professions of friendship
on his side; and many farewells and bows and
acknowledgements on mine. I was surprized
at the splendor of this hired equipage: 6 fine
horses that would not have disparaged an
English carriage, decently caparisoned, and driven
by 2 smart postillions, with an outrider
bearing a long pike. I asked Ludwig
whether he knew whose they were: he said
he had asked, and nobody would tell him:
knew but this much he knew by the circumstance
of the pike man, that the owner
could be no other than a gentleman, or if you
please
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please a nobleman. As Noblemen in that little
spot could not be plenty, our suspicions concurred
in fixing on the Calliaske Family. Not
long after he spoke to the Postillions, and then
he told me they confessed that their master was
no other than mine host. Admitting payment
to be done for accommodations proffer'd by hospitality
he would have been no lower had he beat
his horses instead of letting them: 4 or 5 pounds
of extraordinary fine raisins in a place where raisins
of no kind were to be had for money; an English
letter padlock which he stripped my cloak-bag
of in exchange for a trumpery one of the country
a pair of Leghorn hare-fur gloves which Madame
wheedled me out of, after Monsieur had
attempted it in vain: these articles trifling in
England, Leghorn and Smyrna, but every one of
them matchless in Chehanofka: these presents,
you will think, if weighed against the entertainment
of a day to which no addition appears to have
been made on my account, might have been
sufficient to turn the scale of obligation in my favour.
Honest Ludwig repulsed a similar attempt
with better success. Madame smitten with a
bauble she saw hanging to his watch, would have
begged it of him: his offer of parting with it
for the 6s or 7s it had cost him in Leghorn
was rejected: but pleading servitude and its attendant
poverty, he was at length excused. After
all my friend the Colonel as his Soldiers called
him, and as he himself suffer'd me to stile him
all along, turned out to be neither more nor less
than a Lieutenant of horse. So Ludwig, who
having served in armies recognized him by his
uniform, and knew this very man three years
in his present rank, informed me, but with
his usual simplicity not till after my departure.
His command, render'd lucrative if Ludwig's information
speaks true, by horse-jobbing; and
his wife, who brought him two villages to her
fortune; these resources if he had had no others
than his pay, should have set him above the
disgrace of plundering travellers under the mask
of hospitality. Let Mr Milford thank his stars
that his 7-foot pipe-tubes did not make the tour
with me by land: Madame Duneshefski (for
this noble young lady without a breach of the fashion
smoaks) would not have failed to grasp
at them: and who could have wrenched any thing
out of so fair a hand?
After all I not knew no cause to regret the forced
preference I gave to the Commander's cattle: for it
was not without some difficulty that in about 5 hours
his six fine horses under able management, dragged me
to
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Identifier: | JB/540/242/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540.
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1786-01-16 |
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540 |
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242 |
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002 |
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Correspondence |
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Samuel Bentham |
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