Sixteen years in Siberia

FE-THE PUBLIC PROSECU

hundred times; and this everlasting alternation had a most depressing effect. The days dragged on, and seemed endless, although I tried to occupy myself by every possible device. I was well su

ver the Russian border, I had planned at the same time to arrange for future transport. On this account I had many duties to discharge, regarding not only money matters, but organisation. I had also left behind me in Switzerland much business that called for my return as soon as possible. All my comrades had their hands full; time was precious

ks his leg, so that instead of pressing on to the goal he must lie inert on a sick-bed. But in that pitiable state he would b

were not lighted at night, and there was nothing for a prisoner to do but to sleep away the long hours of darkness, if he could. I afterwards learned that light was denied for fear of fire, and on

many people be not only a discomfort, but a hard penance. Yet there should have been no quest

rison yard. The formalities of German drill were new to me, and involuntarily I stopped a moment to look, thus upsetting our beautiful order by not keeping at the correct distance between my preceder and follower; besides, perhaps I also dropped out of line an inch or so. Suddenly I felt someone seize me by the shoulder, abusing me violently. I scarcely knew what was happening till I found myself being raged at by the warder in my cell, whither he had whisked me off. The man was like one possessed, and threatened to deprive me of exercise if I behaved as I had done. At first I could not unders

d a half of rye bread daily, and twice in the day a little soup or gruel. Meat was only allowed twice a week in the first month, and that in micros

nded by an iron grating intended to prevent escape by the chimney. On the wall hung a copy of the regulations, whereby prisoners were informed of the various penalties for the slightest departure from the rules. All these rules were framed to spare the staff trouble, and to make the business of looking af

t was happening; and after I had asked several times in vain, the gaoler told me that the Catholic priest had come, and wished to speak to all the prisoners, who would be taken to him one by one in order. I said t

the same to us. He wants to see yo

his own opinions taken into account. So before the priest I went, but our conversation was of the shortest. To his question about my re

other German prisons that I have seen, the extravagant care with which the prisoners and their things were inspected was perfectly ridiculous. For instance, a dozen oranges sent me by my friends aroused the suspicions of the warders, and they conscientiously cut up every single orange into quarters to see if there were anything inside! So far as I know, even Russian g

s probably they had never even seen one before. And then, however incorruptible a German official may be, the possession of worldly resources cannot fail to influence him. The staff knew that I was in command of money. The chief inspector, a man named Roth, boarded me; and they knew I had everything that could mitig

been a soldier, and was therefore imbued with notions of strict military discipline, which is the watchword throughout German prisons. Though in outward appearance hard and even forbidding, he was really a good-natured creature. Of his own initiative he asked me to let him have the remains of my meals, to take to a neighbouring prisoner who was poor and often went hungry through being unable to afford extra food. Of course I gladly consented. This warder was a big, powerfully-built man, aged about thirty, who had taken his present situation because he did not like his original t

ad been most generous on my behalf. A day's use of the room at the hotel, which I had barely seen, was paid for, and four or five marks in addition as "compensation for disturbance." Furthermore, as the good people had not been able to open my second

my not being implicated in the doings of Yablonski and his friend were accepted, and it was agreed that I had neither circulated forbidden literature nor had had any in my possession. Weeks passed away before these formalities were accomplished, and at last, nearly two months after my arrest, the magistrate informed me that he should close the affair in a few days, and that he himself was satisfied there were no grounds for my prosecution. The decision lay with the Public Prosecutor,[16] who might concur 28in this, and so release me at

, but only in German; at the first Russian word he would separate us. This precaution, and the whole behaviour of the grim old gentleman, did not quite bear out the idea of speedy release for me; and knowing him to

t floor would have been no impediment. One of my friends had hired a room in the opposite house, towards which the window of my cell looked, so that at a pinch we could communicate by prearranged signals. Besides these reasons of business, so to speak, on other grounds I was sorry to quit my now familiar 29quarters. My associations with these four walls were not all unpleasant, and looking out of the window had been my greatest distraction. On market d

h the thought that the idea of flight was needless, and tried to reckon how many days were likely to elapse before my release. I argued that my transfer to another cell was probably in view of my departu

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