The news of his death had, at first, a stunning effect upon the patriotic club in Petersburgh. Nevertheless, they resolved to act. They hoped to profit by the troubles between Constantine and Nicholas, about the succession. On the 18th of December of the same year, the signal for revolt was given in Petersburgh. Some regiments of the guard were on the side of the patriots, and with them assembled great numbers of the people ready to fight for liberty. Yet all this was done without sufficient energy, and without good leaders. It was unfortunate, that at the time, Colonel Pestel, acknowledged by all to be a man of great talents and energy, happened to be absent in Moscow. The people assembled in their holy cause, but, being without leaders, began to fall into disorder, and a few discharges of cannon were sufficient to disperse them. As the Grand Duke Constantine, on account of his marriage with a noble Polish lady, Grudzinska, in 1825, was obliged to renounce the throne of Russia, the imperial power was, by a written document, given to the Grand Duke Nicholas, as the eldest in succession after him. Some days after the proclamation of Nicholas, all the prisons of the realm were prepared to receive their new inmates. Petersburgh, Moscow, Wilna, Kiow, Bialystok, and Warsaw, were appointed for the places of trial. Over the whole of Poland and Russia the sword of cruel revenge was suspended. In Petersburgh, the martyrs of liberty, Pestel, Muraview, Releiew, Bestuzew, Kachowski, were hung on the gallows, and more than two hundred persons of the noblest families were sent to Siberia. In Wilna, Kiow, and Moscow, an immense number were thrown into prison, or transported to Siberia. In Bialystok the Russian general, Wiliaminow, was appointed an inquisitor. This infamous character treated the wretched prisoners with the utmost cruelty. Rukiewicz,[3] Jgelstrom, and Wigelin, were exiled to Siberia for life.