Numerous Cossacks came and went on the quay, ready to assist
the agents, but they had not to interfere, as no one
ventured to offer the slightest resistance to their orders.
Exactly at the hour the last clang of the bell sounded,
the powerful wheels of the steamboat began to beat the water,
and the Caucasus passed rapidly between the two towns of which
Nijni-Novgorod is composed.

Michael Strogoff and the young Livonian had taken a passage on board
the Caucasus. Their embarkation was made without any difficulty.
As is known, the podorojna, drawn up in the name of Nicholas Korpanoff,
authorized this merchant to be accompanied on his journey
to Siberia. They appeared, therefore, to be a brother and
sister traveling under the protection of the imperial police.
Both, seated together at the stern, gazed at the receding town,
so disturbed by the governor's order. Michael had as yet
said nothing to the girl, he had not even questioned her.
He waited until she should speak to him, when that was necessary.
She had been anxious to leave that town, in which, but for
the providential intervention of this unexpected protector,
she would have remained imprisoned. She said nothing,
but her looks spoke her thanks.

The Volga, the Rha of the ancients, the largest river
in all Europe, is almost three thousand miles in length.
Its waters, rather unwholesome in its upper part, are improved
at Nijni-Novgorod by those of the Oka, a rapid affluent,
issuing from the central provinces of Russia. The system of
Russian canals and rivers has been justly compared to a gigantic
tree whose branches spread over every part of the empire.