She who suffered most in this terrible ordeal was Nadyèshda Sigida, one of the latest arrivals in Ust-Kara. I never knew her personally, but from all I heard of her from her friends she must have been a very sensitive young creature, gentle, affectionate, and attracted by all that is good and beautiful. She was deeply attached to her family, who lived in Taganrock, a small town in South Russia. Before her marriage she had been a teacher in a school, and her whole heart had been in her profession; she had taken but little direct part in the revolutionary movement, and had been condemned to eight years’ penal servitude because a secret printing-press and some bombs had been found in the house inhabited by herself and her husband. The latter had been condemned to death, the sentence being afterwards commuted to penal servitude for life, and he had died on his way to the island of Saghalien. Fate had dealt hardly with the poor woman: she herself had been unjustly sentenced, she had lost a beloved husband, and she had arrived at the Siberian prison at a juncture when she was obliged to take part—almost involuntarily—in the drama I am now describing. The stoppage of all communication with home must have been especially cruel to her; her longing for her mother, brothers, and sisters made her nearly desperate, as she pictured their feelings on receiving back their unopened letters to her. There seemed no way out of this terrible _impasse_. A year had gone by since Kovàlskaya’s departure, and Masyukov was still commandant. The women, in a state of desperation, declared at last that they could bear the position of affairs no longer, and would put an end to it, cost what it might. They consulted together, and again resolved to fast, so they set up a hunger-strike for the third time. “Will it be any good?” Sigida asked herself. The authorities seemed determined not to yield; the hunger-strike had led to nothing hitherto, and would probably once again prove a fruitless undertaking; would it not be better that one victim should pay for all? Better that one alone should suffer, than that all should sacrifice themselves. Sigida resolved to save her companions. One day she told the gendarme on duty that she wished for an interview with the commandant, and asked to be taken to him. Masyukov saw nothing out of the way in this request, and ordered Sigida to be brought to his office.