On other estates the serfs' compulsory labor was commuted for a quitrent.
Forty thousand serfs and millions of rubles!
Sonya, Natasha, Petya, Anna Mikhaylovna, Vera, and the old count were all hugging him, and the serfs, men and maids, flocked into the room, exclaiming and oh-ing and ah-ing.
The serfs, whose wrongs seldom attracted notice in an age indifferent to the claims of common humanity, found a friend in this severe monarch, and he protected even the despised and persecuted Jews.
Hurry off and tell Maksim, the gardener, to set the serfs to work.