"But to compel delicate ladies to walk that great distance in the winter
is surely a sentence of death!"
"And if the politicals die, the State has fewer responsibilities," he
remarked. "As you see, we have received notification from Petersburg
that your lady friend was a dangerous person. Now, of dangerous persons
we take very special care." Then, turning to the prison governor, he
asked: "How did they go?"
"By tarantass. Excellency. They were in too weak a state to walk,
especially the elder prisoner. I doubt, indeed, if ever they will reach
Parotovsk."
"And if they don't it will perhaps be the better for both of them," His
Excellency remarked with a sigh, rising and casting his cigarette-end
into the pan of the round iron stove. He was a stiff, unbending
official and ruled the province with a ruthless hand, but at heart he
often evinced sympathy with the female exiles.
"Were they very ill?" I inquired quickly of the prison governor.
"They were very exhausted and complained to me of ill-treatment by their
guards," he answered. "But if we investigated every complaint we should
have more than sufficient to do."
"How long ago did they leave here?"
"About two months," was the man's reply. "The elder prisoner implored
to be sent to the Trans-Baikal, where the climate is not so rigorous as
in the north, and this would probably have been done had it not been for
the special memorandum of His Excellency General Markoff."
"Then he suggested her being sent to the Yakutsk settlement--in fact, to
her death--eh?" I asked.
His Excellency replied:
"That seems so. The prisoners have already been on their way two
months, at first by tarantass and now, no doubt, by sled. There were
fifteen others, nine men and six women--all dangerous politicals, I
see," he added, glancing at the order which he had signed and was now
produced by the prison governor. "If it is your intention to travel and
overtake them, then I fear your journey will be futile."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because I expect that long before you reach them their dead bodies will
have been left upon the road," replied His Excellency. "Politicals who
die here in Siberia, and especially those marked as dangerous, are not
mourned, I assure you."
"There was, if I remember aright, a telegram to Your Excellency from
General Markoff regarding prisoners of that name only three days ago,"
remarked the Cossack captain. "It inquired whether you knew if Madame
de Rosen were still alive."
"Ah, yes, I remember. And I replied that I had no knowledge," the
General said.