Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 1.djvu/95

Arrivers," or furnished apartments, of one Koválski, who occupied a two-story brick house near the bank of the river in the eastern part of the city. About six o'clock in the evening we finally alighted from our muddy tárantás in Koválski's court-yard, having made a journey of two hundred and four miles in two days, with eleven changes of horses, and having spent more than forty hours without sleep, sitting in a cramped and uncomfortable position on Mr. Frost's trunk. My neck and spine were so stiff and lame from incessant jolting that I could not have made a bow to the Tsar of all the Russias, and I was so tired that I could hardly climb the stairs leading to the second story of Koválski's house. As soon as possible after dinner we went to bed, and for twelve hours slept the sleep of exhaustion.