From the statement made by the Governor-General in response to Mirsky, we might conclude that none of us who had become entitled to leave prison for the penal settlement (that is, not less than twenty men) would be taken to Akatoui, and that therefore we should escape the severe régime there; but I personally could not believe that the hour of my release from prison was so near. My old experience at Freiburg had taught me how easily hopes may be falsified, and I repelled with energy every alluring vision, preferring rather to paint gloomy pictures of a future in prison among the criminal horde; and although the news soon reached us that we were indeed to be liberated—that a list had already been prepared of those persons who were entitled to leave—I could not trust myself to credit it. One day, however, quite unexpectedly, three of our number were released from prison—Luri, Rechnyevsky, and Souhòmlin, whose wives had followed them to Kara. Shortly after, Masyukov, accompanied by his newly appointed successor, Tominin, appeared one day in our prison, and informed us that seventeen others were to be liberated, my name figuring in the list.[106] We packed up our belongings and took leave of our comrades, who were to go to Akatoui the next day; and the thought that our friends had before them such an increase of hardships damped our pleasure in attaining the long-desired semi-freedom. Beforehand we had pictured quite otherwise the joy of release and the scene of farewell. Now that the hour had struck it was hardly joy that I felt; on the contrary, I seemed almost to be quitting a home that had become dear to me. Not with heads uplifted, but sad and depressed, we bent our steps towards the door. The bolt flew back, and a larger company of men than had ever been seen to do so before on such an occasion left the prison for good. A trammelled and partial liberty lay before us; still, liberty it was. Footnote 106: Among the others to be released with me were Martinovsky, Prybylyev, Mirsky, Starinkièvitch, Zlatopòlsky, Mihaïlov, Fomin, and Kohn; all of whom have figured already in my narrative. Stefanòvitch also was of the party, but was only destined to remain with us for two months, after which he was sent to be interned in Yakutsk. He has spent the thirteen years since we parted in various places of Siberian exile. CHAPTER XXX NIZHNAYA-KARA—NEW LIFE—STOLEN GOLD