sixty or seventy yards from one of the
towers the slightest whisper is rendered with the most amusing
exactness.

From Manasia we went to Miliva, where the peasantry were standing in a
row, by the side of a rustic tent, made of branches of trees. Grapes,
roast fowl, &c. were laid out for us; but thanking them for their
proffered hospitality, we passed on. From this place the road to
Svilainitza is level, the country fertile, and more populous than we
had seen any where else in Servia. At some places the villagers had
prepared bouquets; at another place a school, of fifty or sixty
children, was drawn up in the street, and sang a hymn of welcome.

At Svilainitza the people would not allow me to go any further; and we
were conducted to the chateau of M. Ressavatz, the wealthiest man in
Servia. This villa is the _fac simile_ of the new ones in the banat of
Temesvav, having the rooms papered, a luxury in Servia, where the
most of the rooms, even in good houses, are merely size-coloured.

Svilainitza is remarkable, as the only place in Servia where silk is
cultivated to any extent, the Ressavatz family having paid especial
attention to it. In fact, Svilainitza means the place of silk.

From Svilainitza, we next morning started for Posharevatz, or
Passarovitz, by an excellent macadamized road, through a country
richly cultivated and interspersed with lofty oaks. I arrived at
mid-day, and was taken to the house of M. Tutsakovitch, the president
of the court of appeal, who had expected us on the preceding evening.
He was quite a man of the world, having studied jurisprudence in the
Austrian Universities. The outer chamber, or hall of his house, was
ranged with shining pewter plates in the olden manner, and his best
room was furnished in the best German style.

In a few minutes M. Ressavatz, the Natchalnik, came, a serious but
friendly man, with an eye that bespoke an expansive intellect.

"This part of Servia," said I, "is _Ressavatz qua_, _Ressavatz la_.
We last night slept at your brother's house, at Svilainitza, which is
the only chateau I have seen in Servia; and to-day the rapid and
agreeable journey I made hither was due to the macadamized road,
which, I am told, you were the means of constructing."

The Natchalnik bowed, and the president said, "This road originated
entirely with M. Ressavatz, who went through a world of trouble before
he could get the peasantry of the intervening villages to lend their
assistanc