Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/88

and myself, under the escort of Titow, accompanied by four officers and a detachment of horse, which was to be relieved on the way, were to be conducted in post-chaises to another place. They did not tell us where we were to go, and we were lost in conjectures. Sometimes we thought that a town in the heart of the empire would be assigned us for our prison; sometimes that we were on our way to Kamtchatka, to shoot martins and sables; we imagined, in fine, everything but the cruel treatment they were preparing for us. Towards the evening, Chruszczew having sent me word that Princess Sanguszko wished to see me, and take leave of me, I went immediately to her château, accompanied by Titow. The kind Princess, whose patriotism did not extend any farther than the limits of her estates, entirely devoted to the Russians, and initiated in their most secret views, took me aside, and, after very painful consolations on my situation, said to me, that my fate was in my own hands; that I could choose the most brilliant rewards, or the