advanced towards the town, and caused the
insurgents to retreat hastily after a skirmish,
during which and the retreat, however, several
were cut off and made prisoners. During the
search which followed of all the houses in the
town, the three Swedes, who were considered
suspicious by the Russians, and who could not
produce any legitimation, were arrested. This
was on the 12th of July.

From Zayorowo they had to march to Konin
with the rest of the prisoners, and were here led
before General Kostanda, who in a harsh and
contemptuous tone directed some questions to
them, first in the Russian and afterwards in the
Polish language. When one of the Polish
peasants, who had been taken prisoner as
an insurgent at the same time with them,
ventured to say to the general that they were
foreigners and did not understand his words,
this man was, at a signal from the general, laid
hold of by the Cossacks, who struck him
fearfully with their knouts, because he had had the
audacity to speak without being spoken to.
After having been detained as prisoners for
some time at the main guard-house of Konin, the
Swedes were, by the interposition of some
Finnish officers, removed to a private house, which
had been prepared as a prison, and where they
were allowed to receive the food that was sent
them by generous and sympathising inhabitants
of the town. When placed before the general
to be tried, they declared at first that, as they
had not been taken with arms in hand, and as
no one could prove that they had joined in
any fight, it was unjust to consider them as
insurgents, and they demanded their rights
respected as Swedish subjects. The general
laughed disdainfully at their words about rights,
and explained that as they were unable to show
that they were there with any right and on
lawful business, he would make short work of
it, and hang them as spies. They soon learnt
that this was no empty threat, and at the advice
of the Finnish officers they therefore acknowledged
that it had been their intention to enter
the ranks of the insurgents as volunteers.

On the 11th of August they were taken,
together with a number of other prisoners, by
railway to Warsaw, and lodged in the citadel,
in the casemates of which they met with many
imprisoned Poles, a great number of whom
belonged to the flower of the nobility of that
unfortunate country. Every day some of them
were led away in order to be hung, shot, or
transported to Siberia, but in none of them
could be discovered the slightest trace of
despondency or dejection. They were indifferent
as to how soon and in what manner they were
led to death. It was even a pleasure to think
that the way in which they suffered death
might contribute to place the barbarity of the
Russians in the right light. While here in the
citadel, the Swedes secretly received from the
National Government a supply of money amounting
to sixty roubles silver, or nine pounds ten
shillings.

On the 19th of August, the three young
Swedes were led out of the citadel without
knowing where they were going, what was
intended with them; whether they were to suffer
death, or—as there was more reason to believe
—to be sent to the interior of Russia or
Caucasia, and there stuck into some regiment or
other as soldiers. Instead of this, they had to
march with a number of other prisoners to the
great fortress of Modlin, some twenty miles
north of Warsaw. The march was an
extremely forced one, and the Russian captain
who commanded the convoy allowed the
prisoners no rest, nor even a drop of water with
which to quench their thirst.

It was not till after they had been at Modlin,
as prisoners with hard labour for some time, that
they were informed that they were sentenced to
twelve months' imprisonment with hard labour
at Modlin fortress. On arriving at the citadel,
they were at once clothed in the dress of the
convicts, consisting of a grey jacket with black
sleeves and a square black patch on the back,
trousers and cap also grey, the latter with a
black cross in front. The front half of their
heads was shaved from ear to ear, and this
process was afterwards renewed every Saturday.
Their resting-place was formed by a wooden
pallet with a bag of straw, so filled with different
sorts of vermin that it was difficult, if not
impossible, to get any rest. Their food was
unfit for human beings. The fortress must
always be provided with provisions for seven
years, and, for the prisoners, the oldest and most
damaged supplies were always taken. For
breakfast, they got a dish of "bash," a sort of sour
soup, of a loathsome and indefinable nature, the
smell and look of which would already have
been enough to disgust any one the least dainty;
for dinner, " kapusta," cabbage, made from the
outer and coarsest leaves; now and then, for
a change, a " grout" or stir-about of old and
damaged groats, and in which would be found,
side by side with all sorts of casual and less
agreeable ingredients, some few potatoes, which
were considered as a great delicacy. The daily
ration of bread was two pounds, often mixed
with sand, straw, and other dirt.

Beyond the number of convicts for usual
crimes, there were between five and six hundred
political prisoners at Modlin. The work began
at five o'clock in the morning, and was continued
all day long, without any regular time for rest.
Such of the prisoners as were artisans had to
work in workshops, the rest at digging, wheeling
away the earth, sweeping, throwing snow,
or the like. The only time they tasted meat
was on the anniversary of the emperor's
accession to the throne, when each received four
ounces of roasted entrails drawn on a stick,
with which to celebrate the day. In winter
each man was given a fur jacket of sheep's skin,
to be worn under the grey jacket, but they were
so full of vermin that the Swedes found it
impossible to put them on.

About Christmas-time the adjutant of the
fortress told our three young men that they
had been so far pardoned that their term of