CHAPTER IV.
A PRISONER.
Soon after this St. Petersburg was startled at the news that there hadbeen a terrible explosion at the Winter Palace, and that the Czar androyal family had narrowly escaped with their lives. Upon the followingevening Godfrey was walking down the Nevski, where groups of people werestill discussing the terrible affair. He presently met Akim Soushiloffand Petroff Stepanoff. He had not seen them for some time, and as theyhad omitted to give him the address of the lodging into which they hadmoved, he was really glad to see them, for he liked them better than anyof the Russians of his acquaintance, for both had an earnest manner andseemed to be free from narrow prejudices, sincere admirers of England,and on most subjects very well informed.
"It is quite an age since I have seen you both," he said. "Where haveyou been hiding?"
"We have been working harder than usual," Petroff said; "our lastexaminations are just coming off. But you said that you would come tosee us, and you have never done so."
"You did not tell me where you had moved to," Godfrey said, "or I shouldhave done so long ago."
"That was stupid indeed!" Akim said. "Have you an hour to spare now?"
"Yes, I have nothing to do, and shall be very glad to come round andhave a talk. This is a horrible business at the Winter Palace."
"Horrible," Petroff said; "but it is just as well not to talk about itin the streets. Come along, we will take you to our place; we were justthinking of going back."
A quarter of an hour's walking took them to the students' room, whichwas, like the last, at the top of the house. A lamp was lighted, thesamovar placed on the table, and a little charcoal fire lit under it. Aglass of vodka was handed round to pass the time until the water wasboiling, pipes were brought out from the cupboard and filled, forcigars, which are cheap and good, are generally smoked in the streets inRussia by the middle and upper classes, pipes being only used there byIsvostchiks, labourers, and Englishmen. The conversation naturally for atime turned upon the explosion in the Winter Palace, the Russiansexpressing an indignation fully equal to that of Godfrey. Then theytalked of England, both regretting that they were unable to speak thelanguage.
"I would give much to be able to read Shakespeare," Petroff said. "Ihave heard his works spoken of in such high terms by some of our friendswho have studied your language, and I have heard, too, from them of yourDickens. They tell me it is like reading of another world--a world inwhich there are no officials, and no police, and no soldiers. That mustbe very near a paradise."
"We have some soldiers," Godfrey laughed, "but one does not see much ofthem. About half of those we have at home are in two military camps, onein England and one in Ireland. There are the Guards in London, but thepopulation is so large that you might go a week without seeing one,while in very few of the provincial towns are there any garrisons atall. There are police, and plenty of them, but as their business is onlyto prevent crime, they naturally don't play a prominent part in novelsgiving a picture of everyday life. As to officials, beyondrate-collectors we don't see anything of them, though there aremagistrates, and government clerks, and custom officers, and that sortof thing, but they certainly don't play any prominent part in ourlives."
So they chatted for an hour, when at short intervals two other men camein. One was a tall handsome fellow who was introduced by Petroff as theson of Baron Kinkoff, the other was a young advocate of Moscow on avisit to St. Petersburg. Both, Godfrey observed, had knocked in asomewhat peculiar manner at the door, which opened, as he had noticedwhen they came in, only by a key. Akim observed a slight expression ofsurprise in Godfrey's face at the second knock, and said laughing:
"Our remittances have not come to hand of late, Godfrey, and some of ourcreditors are getting troublesome, so we have established a signal bywhich we know our friends, while inconvenient visitors can knock as longas they like, and then go away thinking we are out."
Godfrey chatted for a short time longer, and then got up to go. Akimwent to the door with him. As it opened there was a sudden rush of menfrom outside that nearly knocked him down. Of what followed he had but avague idea. Pistol shots rang out. There was a desperate struggle. Hereceived a blow on the head which struck him to the ground, and aninstant later there was a tremendous explosion. The next thing he knewwas that he was being hauled from below some debris. As he looked roundbewildered he saw that a considerable portion of the ceiling and of theroof above it had been blown out. Several bodies lay stretched on thefloor. The room was still full of smoke, but by the light of two orthree lanterns he perceived that the young baron, bleeding freely from asabre wound across the forehead, was standing bound between twopolicemen with drawn swords. Policemen were examining the bodies on thefloor, while others were searching the closets, cutting open the bedsand turning out their contents. Akim lay on his back dead, and acrosshim lay the young advocate. Of Petroff he could see nothing; the otherbodies were those of policemen. Three of these near the door appeared tohave been shot; the others were lying in contorted positions against thewalls, as if they had been flung there by the force of the explosion.All this he saw in a state of vague wonderment, while the two policemenkneeling at his side were passing cords tightly round him.
"This one still lives," one of the policemen said, stooping over theyoung advocate, "but I think he is nearly done for."
"Never mind, bring him along with the others," a man in plain clothessaid in tones of authority. "Get them away at once, we shall have halfSt. Petersburg here in a few minutes."
Godfrey was lifted by the policemen, one at his head, and one at hisfeet, carried down-stairs, and flung into a vehicle at the door. Dullyhe heard a roar of excited shouts and questions, and the sharp ordersof the police ranged round the vehicle. Three policemen took theirplaces inside with him, and the vehicle drove off, slowly at first untilit was free of the crowd, and then at a sharp gallop. Godfrey wasconscious of but little as he went along; he had a vague idea of a warmmoist feeling down the back, and wondered whether it was his own blood.Gradually his impressions became more and more indistinct, and he knewnothing more until he was conscious of a sensation of cold at the backof the head, and of a murmur of voices round him. Soon he was lifted upinto a sitting position, and he felt that bandages were being wrappedround his head. Then he was laid down again, he heard a door slam and akey turn, and then he knew nothing more. When he awoke daylight wasstreaming in through a loophole high up in the wall. He tried to sit up,but could not, and looked round trying to recall where he was and whathad happened. He was in a dark cell with no furniture save the straw onwhich he was lying.
"It is a prison certainly," he muttered to himself. "How did I gethere?"
Then gradually the events of the night before came to his mind. Therehad been a terrible fight. Akim had been killed. There had been atremendous explosion. The police had something to do with it. Was it alla dream, or was it real? Was he dreaming now? He was some time before hecould persuade himself that it was all real, and indeed it was not untilthe door opened and two men entered that he felt quite sure that he,Godfrey Bullen, was really lying there in a prison cell, with a dullnumbing pain at the back of his head, and too weak even to sit upright.One of the men leaned over him. Godfrey tried to speak, but could not doso above a whisper.
"He will do now," the man said without paying any attention to hiswords. "He must have a thick skull or that sword-cut would have finishedhim. Give him some wine and water now, and some soup presently. We mustnot let him slip through our fingers."
Some liquid was poured between his lips, and then he was left aloneagain. "Certainly it is all real," he said to himself. "Akim must havebeen killed, and I must be a prisoner. What in the world can it be allabout?" He was too weak to think, but after another visit had been paidhim, and he had been lifted up and given some strong broth, he began tothink more clearly. "Can it have been a Nihilist arrest?" he thought tohimself. "Akim and Petroff can never be Nihilists. The idea is absurd. Ihave never heard them say a word
against the government or the Czar."
Then he thought of their friend Katia, and how she had got him to aid inthe escape of a Nihilist. "It is all nonsense," he murmured, "the ideaof a girl like that being mixed up in a conspiracy." Then his ideasagain became more and more confused, and when the doctor visited himagain in the evening he was in a state of high fever, talkingincoherently to himself. For seven days he continued in that state.There was no lack of care; the doctor visited him at very shortintervals, and an attendant remained night and day beside him, applyingcold bandages to his head, and carefully noting down in a book everyword that passed his lips. Then a good constitution gradually triumphedover the fever, and on the eighth day he lay a mere shadow of himself,but cool and sensible, on a bed in an airy ward. Nourishing food wasgiven to him in abundance, but it was another week before he was able tostand alone. Then one morning two attendants brought a stretcher to theside of his bed. He was assisted to put on his clothes, and was thenplaced on the stretcher and carried away. He was taken through longpassages, up and down stairs, at last into a large room. Here he waslifted on the stretcher and placed in a chair. Facing him at a tablewere nine officers.
"Prisoner," the president said, glancing at a large closely-writtensheet of paper before him, "you are accused of taking part in a Nihilistconspiracy to murder the Czar."
"I know nothing of any Nihilist conspiracy," Godfrey said. "I wasaccidentally in the room with my friends Akim and Petroff when thepolice entered."
The president waved his hand impatiently. "That of course," he said."Your name is Godfrey Bullen?"
"Yes, sir."
"Born in St. Petersburg, but of English parentage?"
Godfrey bowed his head.
"Three months since you took part in the plot by means of which thenotorious Valerian Ossinsky escaped from the hands of the police, andyou were the accomplice of Sophia Perovskaia in that matter."
"I never heard the name before," Godfrey said.
The president paid no attention, but went on: "You said at the time," hecontinued, reading from the notes, "that you did not know the woman whospoke to you, but it is known that she was an associate of AkimSoushiloff and Petroff Stepanoff, at whose place you were captured theother day. There is therefore no doubt that you know her."
"I knew her under another name," Godfrey said; "but if I had been toldshe was Sophia Perovskaia, it conveyed nothing to me, for I had neverheard of her."
"You are committing yourself, prisoner," the president said coldly."When examined you denied all acquaintance with the woman, and declaredthat she was a stranger."
"Excuse me, sir," Godfrey said, "I said it was a masked woman, and thatI did not see her face, which was perfectly true. I admit now that I didknow who she was, but naturally as a gentleman I endeavoured to shieldher in a matter concerning which I believed that she was as innocent asI was."
A murmur of incredulity ran round the circle of officers.
"A few days after that," the president went on, again reading from hisnotes, "you were present with Akim Soushiloff and Petroff Stepanoff at asupper in a trakir in Ossuloff Street. There were present on thatoccasion"--and he read a list of six names--"four of whom have sincebeen convicted and punished, and two of whom, although not yet taken,are known to have been engaged in the murderous attempt at the WinterPalace. You were greeted there with significant enthusiasm, which wasevidently a testimony on the part of these conspirators to the part youhad played in the affair of Ossinsky."
Godfrey felt that the meshes were closing round him. He remembered thathe had wondered at the time why he had been received with such greatcordiality.
"Now," the president went on, "you are captured in the room of AkimSoushiloff and Petroff Stepanoff, who were both beyond doubt engaged inthe plot at the Winter Palace, with two other equally guiltyconspirators, and were doubtless deliberating on some fresh atrocitywhen interrupted by the agents of the police. You shared in thedesperate resistance they made, which resulted in the death of eightpolice officers by pistol shot, or by the explosion of gunpowder, bywhich Petroff Stepanoff, who fired it, was also blown to pieces. Whathave you to say in your defence?"
"I still say that I am perfectly innocent," Godfrey said. "I knewnothing of these men being conspirators in any way, and I demand to beallowed to communicate with my friends, and to obtain the assistance ofan advocate."
"An advocate could say nothing for you," the president said. "You do notdeny any of the charges brought against you, which are, that you werethe associate of these assassins, that you aided Sophia Perovskaia ineffecting the escape of Valerian Ossinsky, that you received thecongratulations of the conspirators at the banquet, and that you werefound in this room in company with four of the men concerned in theattempt to assassinate the Czar. But the court is willing to bemerciful, and if you will tell all you know with reference to this plot,and give the names of all the conspirators with whom you have beenconcerned, your offence will be dealt with as leniently as possible."
"I repeat that I know nothing, and can therefore disclose nothing, sir,and I venture to protest against the authority of this court to try andcondemn me, an Englishman."
"No matter what is the nationality of the person," the president saidcoldly, "who offends against the laws of this country, he is amenable toits laws, and his nationality affords him no protection whatever. Youwill have time given you to think the matter over before your sentenceis communicated to you. Remove the prisoner."
Godfrey was laid on the stretcher again and carried away. This time hewas taken, not to the room where he had been placed while ill, but to adark cell where scarce a ray of light penetrated. There was a heap ofstraw in one corner, a loaf of black bread, and a jug of water. Godfreywhen left alone shook up the straw to make it as comfortable as hepossibly could, then sat down upon it with his back against the wall.
"Well, this is certainly a go," he said to himself. "If there was onething that seemed less likely than another, it was that I should getinvolved in this Nihilist business. In the first place, the governorspecially warned me against it; in the second place, I have beenextremely careful never to give any opinion on public affairs; and inthe third place, if there is one thing I detest more than another it isassassination. I cannot say it is cowardly in these men. The Nihilistsdo more than risk their lives; they give their lives away to carry outtheir end. Still, though I own it is not cowardly, I hate it. Thequestion is, what next? Petrovytch will, of course, write home to saythat I am missing. I don't suppose he will have the slightest idea thatI have been arrested as a Nihilist. I don't see how he could think so.He is more likely to think that I have been made away with somehow. Nodoubt my father will come out; but, of course, he won't learn any morethan Petrovytch, unless they choose to tell him. I don't suppose theywill tell him. I have heard that generally families of people they seizeknow nothing about it, unless they are arrested too. They may guess whathas happened, but they don't know. In my case I should fancy the policewould say nothing.
"They will hear from the inquiries that my father makes that he has nosuspicion of what has happened to me, and they will know if they didtell him our ambassador would be making a row. But even if the governorwere to learn what had become of me, and were to insist upon learningwhat crime I am accused of committing, I do not see that things would bemuch better. They would hand over the notes of the evidence on which Iwas convicted, and, taking it altogether, I am bound to say I do not seehow they could help convicting me. Short of catching me like a sort ofGuy Fawkes blowing up the palace, the case is about as strong as itcould be. I certainly have put my foot in it. I was acquainted withthese two conspirators; through them I got acquainted with thatconfounded woman Katia, though it seems that wasn't her name. Thenthrough her I helped this fellow Ossinsky to escape. Then, trying toshield her, I make matters twenty times worse; for while my answerbefore led them to believe that she was a perfect stranger to me, I wasass enough to let out just now that I knew her. Then there was thatsupper. I cou
ld not make out at the time why they greeted me soheartily. Now, of course, it is plain enough; and now, just after thisblowing-up business, here am I caught with four notorious conspirators,and mixed up in a fight in which eight or ten policemen are killed, andthe roof blown off a house. That would be circumstantial evidence enoughto condemn a man in England, let alone Russia.
"I don't suppose they are going to hang me, because they publish thenames of the fellows they hang; but imprisonment for years in one oftheir ghastly dungeons is bad enough. If it is to be, it will beSiberia, I hope. There must be some way of getting out of a big countrylike that--north, south, east, or west. Well, I don't see any usebothering over it. I have got into a horrible scrape, there is no doubtabout that, and I must take what comes."
Godfrey was essentially of a hopeful nature, and always looked at thebright side of things. He was a strong believer in the adage, "Wherethere is a will, there is a way." He had been in his full share ofscrapes at school, and had always made a rule of taking things easily.He now examined the cell.
"Beastly place!" he said, "and horribly damp. I wonder why dungeons arealways damp. Cellars at home are not damp, and a dungeon is nothing buta cellar after all. Well, I shall take a nap."
The next day Godfrey was again taken before the tribunal, and againclosely questioned as to his knowledge of the Nihilists. He againinsisted that he knew nothing of them.
"Of course I knew Akim Soushiloff and Petroff Stepanoff; but I had onlybeen in their rooms once before, and the only person I met there beforewas the young woman who called herself Katia, but who you say wassomebody else. This was at the lodgings they occupied before."
"But you were found with Alexander Kinkoff and Paul Kousmitch."
"They only arrived a short time before the police entered. I had neverseen either of them before."
These two prisoners had been examined before Godfrey entered, and hadbeen questioned about him. Kousmitch had declared that he had never seenhim before, and the court knew that the spies who had been watching thehouse had seen him enter but a short time before the police forcearrived. As the two statements had been made independently it wasthought probable that in this respect Godfrey was speaking the truth.Not so, however, his assertions that he was unacquainted with any of theother conspirators.
He was again taken back to his cell, and for the next week saw no onebut the warder who brought his bread and water, and who did not reply bya single word to any questions that he asked him. Godfrey did his bestto keep up his spirits. He had learnt by heart at Shrewsbury the firsttwo books of the Iliad, and these he daily repeated aloud, set himselfequations to do, and solved them in his head, repeated the dates inGreek history, and went through everything he could remember as havinglearned.
He occasionally heard footsteps above him, and wondered whether thatalso was a cell, and what sort of man the prisoner was. Once or twice atnight, when all was quiet, he heard loud cries, and wondered whetherthey were the result of delirium or torture. His gruff jailer wassomewhat won by his cheerfulness. Every day Godfrey wished him goodmorning as he visited the cell, inquired what the weather was likeoutside, expressed an earnest hope that silence didn't disagree withhim, and generally joked and laughed as if he rather enjoyed himselfthan otherwise. At the end of the week an official entered the cell.
"I have come to inform you, prisoner, that the sentence of death thathad been passed upon you has, by the clemency of the Czar, been commutedto banishment for life to Siberia."
"Very well, sir," Godfrey said. "I know, of course, that I am perfectlyinnocent of the crime of which I am charged; but as the Czar no doubtsupposes that I am guilty of taking part in a plot against his life, Iacknowledge and thank him for his clemency. I have no peculiar desire tovisit Siberia, but at least it will be a change for the better from thisplace. I trust that it shall not be long before I start."
As the official was unable to make out whether Godfrey spoke in mockeryor not, he made no reply.
"These Nihilists are men of iron," he said afterwards. "They walk tothe scaffold with smiling faces; they exist in dungeons that would killa dog in twenty-four hours, and nothing can tempt them to divulge theirsecrets; even starvation does not affect them. They are dangerousenemies, but it must be owned that they are brave men and women. Thisboy, for he is little more, almost laughed in our faces; and, in spiteof his stay in that damp cell, seemed to be in excellent spirits. It isthe same with them all, though I own that some of them do break downsometimes; but I think that those who commit suicide do so principallybecause they are afraid that, under pressure, they may divulge secretsagainst each other. Ossip, who attends that young fellow, says that heis always the same, and speaks as cheerfully to him every morning as ifhe were in a palace instead of in a dungeon."
Two days later Godfrey was aroused in the night.
"Why, it is not light yet," he said. "What are you disturbing me at thistime for?"
"Get up," the man said; "you are going to start."
"Thank goodness for that!" Godfrey said, jumping up from his straw."That is the best news that I have heard for a long time."
In the court-yard seven prisoners were standing. They were placed atsome distance from each other, and by each stood a soldier and apoliceman. A similar guard took their places by the side of Godfrey ashe came out. An official took charge of the whole party, and, stillkeeping a few paces apart, they sallied out through the prison doors andmarched through the sleeping city. Perhaps Godfrey was the only one ofthe party who did not feel profoundly impressed. They were going toleave behind them for ever family and friends and country, and manywould have welcomed death as an escape from the dreary prospect beforethem. Godfrey's present feeling was that of exhilaration.
He had done his best to keep his mind at work, but the damp andunwholesome air of the cell had told upon him, enfeebled as he had beenby the attack of fever. As he walked along now he drew in deep breathsof the brisk night air, and looked with delight at the stars glisteningoverhead. As to the future, just at that moment it troubled him butlittle. He knew nothing of Siberia beyond having heard that theprisoners there led a terrible life. That he should escape from it sometime or other seemed to him a matter of course. How, he could form noidea until he got there; but as to the fact he had no misgiving, for itseemed to him ridiculous that in a country so enormous as Siberia aprisoner could not make his way out sooner or later.
When they reached the railway-station a train stood in readiness. Eachprisoner had a separate compartment, his two guards accompanying him.Godfrey addressed a word to his custodians. The policeman, however,said, "You are forbidden to speak," and in a minute or two the trainmoved off.
Godfrey dozed occasionally until morning, and then looked out at thedark woods through which they passed for hours. Twice the train stoppedat lonely stations, and the prisoners were supplied with food. In theafternoon Godfrey saw the gilded and painted domes of a great city, andknew that it must be Moscow. Here, however, they made no stay, butsteamed straight through the station and continued their way. Godfreyslept soundly after it became dark, waking up once when the train cameto a standstill. At early morning he was roused and ordered to alight,and in the same order as before the prisoners were marched through thestreets of Nijni Novgorod to the bank of the Volga. Few people were yetabroad in the streets, but all they met looked pityingly at the group ofexiles, a sight of daily occurrence in the springtime of the year.Ordinary prisoners, of whom from fifteen to twenty thousand are sentannually to Siberia, are taken down the Volga in a convict barge, towedby a steamer, in batches of six or seven hundred. Politicalprisoners are differently treated; they are carried on board theordinary steamer, each having a separate cabin, and during the voyagethey are allowed no intercourse whatever, either with each other or withthe ordinary passengers.
Map of Russian Empire]
Of these there were a considerable number on board the steamer, as theseason had but just begun, and merchants, traders, and officials weretaking advantage of
the river's being open to push forward into Siberia.At present, however, these were all below. The prisoners were conductedto the cabins reserved for them, and then locked in. Presently Godfreyheard a buzz of many voices and a general movement in the cabin outside,and the fact that he was a prisoner and cut off from the world came tohim more strongly than it had hitherto done. An hour later there was amovement and shouting overhead. Then he felt the paddles revolving, andknew that the steamer was under way. He could, however, see nothing. Asort of shutter was fastened outside the scuttle, which gave him theopportunity to take a glimpse of the sky, but nothing of the shore orwater. Nothing could be more monotonous than the journey, and yet theair and light that came down through the port-hole rendered it far morepleasant than existence in a prison cell. He knew, too, that, dull as itwas in the cabin, there would be little to see on deck, for the shoresof the rivers were everywhere flat and low.
After twenty-four hours' travel the steamer stopped. Since Godfrey hadbeen in Russia he had naturally studied the geography of the empire, andknew a good deal about the routes. He guessed, therefore, that the haltwas at Kasan, the capital of the old Tartar kingdom. It was a break tohim to listen to the noises overhead, to guess at the passengers whowere leaving and coming on board, to listen to scraps of conversationthat could be heard through the open port-hole, and to the shouts offarewell from those on board to those on shore as the vessel steamed onagain. He knew that after two hours' more steaming down the Volga thevessel turned up the Kama, a large river running into it and navigablefor 1400 miles. Up this the vessel steamed for three days and thenreached Perm. In the evening Godfrey and his companions were disembarkedand, strictly guarded as before, were marched to the railway-station,placed in a special carriage attached to a train, and after twenty-fourhours' travel at the rate of about twelve miles an hour reachedEkaterinburg. This railway had only been open for a year, and until itscompletion this portion of the journey had been one of the most tiresomealong the whole route, as the Ural Mountains intervene between Perm andEkaterinburg; their height is not great here, and the railway crossesthem at not more than 1700 feet above sea-level.
On arriving at the station half the prisoners were at once placed invehicles and the others were sent to the prison. Godfrey was one of theparty that went on at once. The vehicle, which was called a telega, wasa sort of narrow waggon without springs, seats, or cover; the bottom wascovered with a deep layer of straw, and there were some thick rugs forcoverings at night. It was drawn by three horses. Godfrey was in thelast of the four vehicles that started together. His soldier guard tookhis place beside him, four mounted Cossacks rode, two on each side ofthe procession. The driver, a peasant, to whom the horses belonged,cracked his short-handled whip and the horses sprang forward. Siberianhorses are wiry little animals, not taking to the eye, but possessingspeed and great endurance. The post-houses are situated from twelve totwenty-five versts apart, according to the difficulty of the country, averst being about two-thirds of an English mile. At these post-housesrelays of horses are always kept in readiness for one or two vehicles,but word is sent on before when political prisoners are coming, andextra relays are obtained by the post-masters from the peasants.
To Godfrey the sensation of being whirled through the air as fast as thehorses could gallop was, after his long confinement, perfectlydelightful, and he fairly shouted with joy and excitement. Now that theywere past Ekaterinburg, Godfrey's guard, a good-tempered-looking youngfellow, seemed to consider that it was no longer necessary to preservean absolute silence, which had no doubt been as irksome to him as to hiscompanion.
"We can talk now. Why are you so merry?"
"To be in the air again is glorious," Godfrey said, "I should not mindhow long the journey lasted if it were like this. How far do we travelin carriages?"
"To Tiumen, 300 versts; then we take steamer again, that is if you gofarther."
"You don't know where we are going to then?"
"Not at all, it will be known at Tiumen; that is where these things aresettled generally, but people like you are under special orders. Youdon't look very wicked;" and he smiled in a friendly way as he looked atthe lad beside him.
"I am not wicked at all, not in the way you think," Godfrey said.
"Do not talk about that," the soldier interrupted, "I must not knowanything about you; talk about other things, but not why you are here."
Godfrey nodded. "If we go on beyond Tiumen we go by steamer, do we not?"
"Yes, through Tobolsk to Tomsk, beyond that we shall drive. You arelucky, you people, that you drive, the others walk; it is long work, butnot so long as it used to be, they say. I have been told that in the oldtimes, when they started on foot from Moscow it took them sometimes twoyears to reach the farthest places. Now they have the railway, and thesteamers on the river as far as Tomsk."
"How do they take them in the steamers?"
"They take them in great barges that are towed; we passed two on our wayto Perm. They hold five or six hundred, there is a great iron cage ondeck, and they let half the number up at a time in order to get air.They are always going along at this time of year, for they all go earlyin the season so as to get to the journey's end before the frosts setin."
"But surely all these men cannot be guilty of great crimes," Godfreysaid, "for I have heard that about twenty thousand a year are sentaway?"
"No, many of them are only lazy fellows who drink and will not work. Wesent away three from my village the year before I was taken for asoldier. They were lazy and would not do their share of work, so theheads of the village met and decided that they should go to Siberia.They drew up a paper, which was sent to be confirmed by the judge of thedistrict, and then soldiers came and took them away."
"But you don't mean to say," Godfrey said, "that men are sent to prisonall their lives because they are lazy."
"Oh no, no one would think of such a thing as that! Men like these areonly sent to the big towns, Tiumen, or Perm, or Tobolsk, and then theyare settled on land or work in the towns, but they are free to do asthey like. The country wants labour, and men who won't work at home andexpect the community to keep them have to work here or else they wouldstarve. Then there are numbers who are only guilty of some smalloffence. They have stolen something, or they have resisted thetax-gatherer, or something of that sort. They only go to prison for theterm of their sentences, perhaps only three or four months, and thenthey too are free like the others, and can work in the towns, or tradeif they happen to have money to set them up, or they can settle in avillage and take up land and cultivate it. They can live where they likein Siberia. I had many rich men pointed out to me in Tobolsk who hadcome out as convicts."
"You have been here before then?" Godfrey said.
"Yes, this is my second journey. I hope I shall come no more. We get alittle extra pay and are better fed than we are with the regiment, andwe have no drill; but then it is sad. Last time I had one with me whohad left his wife and family behind; he was always sad, he talked to mesometimes of them, there was no one else to talk to. He was here forlife, and he knew he should never see them again. She was young andwould marry again."
"But she couldn't do that as long as he lived," Godfrey said.
"Oh yes; from the day a prisoner crosses the frontier his marriage isannulled and his wife can marry again. She may come with him if shelikes, but if she does she can never go back again."
"And do many wives come?"
"A good many," the soldier said; "but I only know what I have heard. Iwas with one of you last time, and it was only on the way back that Iheard of things about the others. Formerly the guards remained inSiberia if they chose, it was too far to send them back to Russia; butnow that the journey is done so quickly, and we can get back all the wayfrom Tomsk by the rivers, except this little bit, we go back again assoon as we have handed over our charges. I did not go farther than Tomsklast time, and I was back at Nijni in less than three months afterstarting. What part of Russia do you come from?"
&
nbsp; "I am an Englishman."
The soldier looked round in surprise. "I did not know Englishmen couldspeak our language so well; of course I noticed that your speech was notquite like mine, but I am from the south and I thought you must comefrom somewhere in the north or from Poland. How did--" and here hestopped. "But I must not ask that; I don't want to know anything, noteven your name. Look there, we are just going to pass a convoy of otherprisoners."
In a minute or two they overtook the party. It consisted of about ahundred and fifty prisoners escorted by a dozen mounted Cossacks. Themen were in prison garb of yellowish-brown stuff with a coloured patchin the back between the shoulders. They had chains fastened to ringsround the ankles and tied up to their belts. They were not heavy, andinterfered very little with their walking. The procession in no wayaccorded with Godfrey's preconceived idea. The men were walking alongwithout much attempt at regular order. They were laughing and talkingtogether or with their guards, and some of them shouted chaffing remarksto the four vehicles as they swept past them.
"They do not look very unhappy," Godfrey said.
"Why should they?" the soldier replied; "they are better off than theywould be at home. Lots of men break the law on purpose to be sent out;it is a good country. They say wives get rid of their husbands byinforming against them and getting them sent here. I believe there arequite as many husbands with scolding wives who get themselves sent hereto be free of them. As long as they are on the road or employed in hardlabour they are fed better than they ever were at home, better a greatdeal than we soldiers are. Even in the prisons they do not work so veryhard, for it is difficult to find work for them; only if they are sentto the mines their lot is bad. Of that I know nothing, but I have heard.As for the rest, from what I have seen of it I should say that a convicthere is better off than a peasant at home. But here we are at thepost-house."