and formalities of the office, which, being a working-woman, she could ill afford; and as he was merely passing through the city and had his passport, there could be no harm in staying away.  The next day, while wandering about the streets seeking a mode of escape, the pilot of a steam-packet to Riga asked him if he would like to sail with them the next day, and named a very moderate fare.  His heart leapt up, but the next instant the man asked to see his passport:  he took it out trembling, but the sailor, without scrutiny, cried, “Good!  Be off with you, and come back to-morrow morning at seven o’clock.”  The next morning at seven he was on board, and the boat was under way.

[Illustration:  CROSSING THE FRONTIER.]

From Riga he had to make his way on foot across Courland and Lithuania to the Prussian frontier.  He now made a change in his disguise, and gave himself out as a dealer in hogs’ bristles.  In Lithuania he found himself once more on his beloved native soil, and the longing to speak his own language, to make himself known to a fellow-countryman, was almost irresistible; but he sternly quelled such a yearning.  As he neared the frontier he had the utmost difficulty in ascertaining where and how it was guarded, and what he should have to encounter in passing.  At length he learned enough for his purpose:  there were no guards on the Prussian side.  Reaching a rampart of the fortifications, he waited until the moment when the two sentinels on duty were back to back on their beats, and jumped down into the first of the three ditches which protected the boundary.  Clambering and jumping, he reached the edge of the third:  shots were fired in several directions; he had been seen.  He slid into the third ditch, scrambled up the opposite side, sprang down once more, rushed on until out of sight of the soldiers, and fell panting in a little wood.  There he lay for hours without stirring, as he knew the Russian guards sometimes violated the boundary in pursuit of fugitives.  But there was no pursuit, and he at last took heart.  Then he began a final transformation.  He had lately bought a razor, a pocket-mirror and some soap, and with these, by the aid of a slight rain which was falling, he succeeded with much difficulty in shaving himself and changing his clothes to a costume he had provided expressly for Prussia.  When night had closed he set forth once more, lighter of heart than for many long years, though well aware that by international agreement he was not yet out of danger.  He pushed on toward the grand duchy of Posen, where he hoped to find assistance from his fellow-countrymen, who, being under Prussian rule, would not be compromised by aiding him.  He passed through Memel and Tilsit, and reached Koenigsberg without let or hindrance—­over two hundred miles on Prussian soil in addition to all the rest.  There he found a steamboat to sail the next day in the direction which he wished to follow.  He had slept only in the open fields, and meant to