Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/81

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ITINERARY OF THE PRISONERS.
53

deavour by all means to obtain my release. I knew beforehand how vain would be his efforts.

Our march, as far as Zaslaw, where We separated from Chruszczew, lasted more than four weeks; we started every day at eight o'clock in the morning, travelling about six miles, and arriving at three o'clock for dinner and night's lodgings. Each carriage was preceded and followed by a detachment of horse; the other prisoners, escorted by the troops, arriving about three hours after us. When we entered Volhynia, a province wrested from Poland at her second partition, and which did not take any part in the last revolution, we found only traces of the depredation of the campaign of 1792. The nobility and landed proprietors were living on their estates. Chruszczew, who was receiving every day couriers from Suwarow and Fersen, with orders and instructions, learnt that a rumour was spread over the country, that the true General Kosciuszko had escaped from the battle, and that the Russians, in order