CHAPTER XV

A BLOODY ASSIZE

The Baltic Provinces--Lists of floggings and executions--Vengeance of the German landowners--They are weary of town life--Letts driven to execution--The Irish of Russia--Character of the people--Their songs--Their religion--Their buildings--Their isolated farms--Disaster of Russification--The burning of country houses--“We have condemned you to death”--Mixture of social and national grievances--Refusal of Germans to appeal to Berlin--The case of Pastor Bielenstein--A Lettish scholar--A rebel’s funeral--The assize in the country--Executions ordered by telephone--The case of a schoolmistress--Reprisals and rescues 262