Part 5

' On Friday morning, the 6th of March, we started by post-waggon for Wereiki, one of the Count's country houses, south of the Niemen, about thirty English miles from Grodno, The vtwo waggons, which drew up to the door an hour after the appointed time, resembled Scotch hay-carts. One of them was drawn by four rough-looking horses abreast, and the other by three. The rapid pace at which they galloped along the wretched roads was perfectly surprising, and the violent jolting which the passengers thereby suffered, for the waggons had no springs, may be better imagined than described. Our progress at first was slow enough; the rough pavement of the streets making it necessary to traverse them nearly at a walking pace, and the obstruction at the bridge over the Niemen being not easy to overcome. There are two bridges across this part of the Niemen; the one, a tubular bridge, for the railway to Warsaw; the other, a.flying bridge, as it is called, but of a very different construction from those bearing the same name, with which the traveller on the Rhine is familiar at Bonn, Konigswinter, and Neuwied. The movement of the Rhine bridges, as the reader probably knows, is carried on by the action of the stream, and controlled by a chain, which is attached to the stern of the two barges which support the platform of the bridge, and thence passing through a high wooden framework, is drawn over a series of boats stationed at intervals up the stream, and is fastened over the stern of the hindmost boat, to the bottom of the river. The Niemen bridge is likewise set in motion by. the stream; but, instead of being attached to boats, its course, from one bank to the other, is controlled by a stout cable, which passes upon rollers, through two upright posts fixed on each side of the bridge, and is fastened at each end to a windlass on either side of the river. The Niemen is not hal f so broad at this point as the Rhine, or this mode of making the bridge swing to and fro would not be practicable. The platform, which composes the floor of the bridge, is laid over two strong barges, like those upon the Rhine, and large enough to carry, at each trip, carts and horses and foot passengers. Upon the present occasion there could not have been less than a hundred passengers and fourteen or fifteen carts and waggons, besides our own. This motley assemblage, packed of course very closely together, presented a scene of hopeless confusion. Not much inconvenience, indeed, was suffered by our own party, for precedence was given to the post-waggon in which we were carried. But those who followed could only gain the bridge by a general scramble; men, women, and children, soldiers and peasants, pushing and quarrelling, swearing, screaming — each striving to reach it first. Two of the party especially attracted my attention, a peasant boy, and a Jew woman about fifty years old, each leading a horse and a four-wheeled market cart down towards the bridge. The woman was rather in advance at first, but the boy, whilst she was wrangling with the manager of the bridge, contrived to get his horse and cart in front of hers. Whereupon the woman, as soon as she perceived it, beat his horse savagely about the head, and then turned with equal fury upon the boy himself, scratching his face and kicking him. The boy was not slow to pay her in her own coin, and a regular pounding-match followed, to the amusement, apparently, of the lookers*on. But, in the midst of the scuffle, the boy was still mindful of his main purpose, and, watching his opportunity, succeeded in making good his stand upon the bridge. The woman, too, followed, and would fain have renewed the contest; but, finding this impracticable, contented herself with pouring out an incessant torrent of abuse upon the object of her rage. The so-called management of the bridge, as indeed is the management of everything else in this country, is in the hands of Jews. But, if the preservation of order be part of the contract, it was certainly set at nought this day. There may have been officers present, whose duty it was to preserve order, but I could not see any. Indeed, it would have required a regiment of policemen to have withstood the pressure of the eager multitude.