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Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/170

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142
COMPANIONS IN CAPTIVITY.

cell was opened, as well as that of another, and of the third on the opposite side. Notwithstanding the greatest care to keep silence, I heard a trunk placed on the floor, and the voice of Makarow speaking German to a prisoner. I heard also some words in Polish, which seemed to be uttered by a servant. I spent the night in conjectures and uncertainty.

On the following morning, about eleven o’clock, I heard Samoilow’s voice in my neighbour’s room; I did not doubt that it was the beginning of the examination, and of all the ceremonies I had undergone. It appeared to me as if he were visiting other cells, and in an hour he came to me. A satisfaction like that of a fisherman who has just caught some large and fine fish, was apparent on his face. “At last,” said he to me, “your Potocki, Zakrzewski, Wawrzecki, Mostowski, Kapostas,[1] are in our hands.”—

  1. All Members of the Supreme National Council during the Polish Revolution of 1794.