From apprehension of the cost,
By their own horses, not the post—
So Tania to her heart's content
Could taste the pleasures of the road.
Seven days and nights the travellers plod.
[Note 72: This somewhat musty joke has appeared in more than one national costume. Most Englishmen,if we were to replace verst-posts with milestones and substitute a graveyard for a palisade, would instantly recognize its Yankee extraction. In Russia however its origin is as ancient at least as the reign of Catherine the Second. The witticism ran thus: A courier sent by Prince Potemkin to the Empress drove so fast that his sword, projecting from the vehicle, rattled against the verst-posts as if against a palisade!]