Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

ANECDOTES OF PRISON LIFE.33

prisoners of noble birth received from her a homage greater than they had ever met with in their own houses.

The plebeian voluntarily waited upon them, and was continually performing little obliging offices, actuated by the pure pleasure of the service: she never approached their persons without testifying marks of the most profound respect; and in finally bidding farewell to these illustrious companions, to proceed with her husband to the place of execution, the poor woman did not for a moment forget to use all those antiquated forms of obeisance with which she was accustomed to address them at other times.

The prisoners, both male and female, used to meet at certain hours in a kind of garden, where the men played at prisoners' bars. It was usually during these moments of recreation that the revolutionary tribunal sent to summon its victims. If the one singled out was in the midst of a game, he bade a simple adieu to his friends, after which the party continued their play! I Tin's prison was a world in miniature, of which Robespierre was the god. What could so much resemble hell, as this caricature of providence ?

After having been five months in prison, my mother saw M. de Beauharnais depart for the scaffold. In passing her, he presented her with an arabesque talisman set in a ring. She always kept it, and it is now worn by me.

Time was then no longer reckoned by weeks, but

by periods of ten days; the tenth was termed décadi,

and answered to our Sunday, as they neither worked

nor guillotined on that day. Its arrival, therefore, as-

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