MY LAST DAYS IN RUSSIA
The suggestion was made that I should remain at Ostrolenka until I was cured; and as it was obvious that this would mean a long time I declined the intended kindness, and begged to be sent home at once. Accordingly I was furnished with passes, and a free permit to travel, and sent to Bialystok on the 10th May. Although this place is only eighty versts from Ostrolenka, it took the train a whole day to reach it. We were continually being run into sidings to permit troop-and store-trains to pass. Troops were being hurried to the front in thousands; and Bialystok was crowded with what appeared to be a whole army corps.
The authorities were too busy to attend to me, and I lay in the station all night. The next morning a police official took me to some barracks, where I was well fed and my injuries attended to. On the 12th I was taken in an ambulance to the Grodno-Vilno terminus (there are five railway termini in Bialystok) and put into a train full of wounded soldiers bound for Petrograd. The distance to Vilna from Bialystok is about 170 versts: it took us thirty-nine hours to perform it.
I left the train at Vilna; but there was nobody there to help me in any way. Officials looked at my paper and pointed this way and that, but gave me no real help. I had to go into the town to purchase food and a few necessaries. The city was even more crowded by troops than Bialystok. It is another great railway centre; and to all appearance soldiers were arriving from all parts of the vast empire. Many of the regiments were Siberians.
While in the streets I was interfered with a good deal by the police; but my papers were always found to be satisfactory. English gold created much amazement among the tradesmen; but I succeeded in passing several sovereigns.
On the 15th I bought my own ticket to Riga; but I did not succeed in finding a train to that place until the morning of the 16th. From Vilna to Riga is about 200 English miles. I entered the train early in the morning. There were only four passenger-cars: the remainder, a dozen, or fourteen, in number, were goods vans and trucks. In the carriage I selected, the only passengers were three men and a woman.
I was so tired that I went to sleep soon after I had sat down, and when I awoke the train was just starting. It was then nearly evening, so we had been standing outside the station nearly all day. I dozed at frequent intervals: and so did the train: that is, it stopped, on an average, about every half-hour; but very seldom at a station.
When morning broke I eagerly looked out of the carriage-window. The prospect was a wide plain, with only odd trees on it, and houses scattered about between two villages. I had no idea of our locality, but had hoped we were nearing Riga. Of this, however, there were no signs, and I muttered my disappointment. My fellow-passengers looked at me curiously, but did not speak. So far I had not heard the sounds of their voices, and I have noticed that foreigners on a journey, as a rule, are not more talkative than English people.
Two hours later we arrived at Dunaburg, which is a large town and a considerable railway centre. It was crowded by soldiers; and field artillery were entraining in large numbers. Two passengers got out of the carriage here, and six others entered; but when we started again I do not think there were more than twenty people in the whole train. The population of the country was evidently not fleeing coastwise.
We were backed into a siding and kept there six hours. During the night we were more often stationary than moving, and at daybreak on the morning of the 18th were still only crawling along the line. At several small stations the train was stopped to be overhauled by police officials. They closely questioned all the passengers. When it was discovered that I could not speak much Russian, I was at once, and very roughly and rudely, hauled on to the platform; and my papers read and reread several times; and vised by a police officer. Then I was permitted to re-enter the train, and proceed on my journey.