The cell was large, but dark, as the window was high up in the wall. It was cold, despite the May weather, for the sunshine never entered here, and the walls were damp. Besides the iron bedstead with its straw mattress, pillow, and thin woollen covering, there were an iron table and a stool, both chained to the wall, and the customary evil-smelling tub. Even at three o’clock in the afternoon darkness reigned, although at this season Petersburg enjoys its “bright nights,” when it never gets really dark. Reading was not to be thought of. Above everything I was sensible of the extreme cold, partly due to the situation of the cell, but chiefly to the insufficiency of my clothing. To warm myself I marched up and down from one corner to the other till I was tired; but hardly had I sat down a minute than I began to freeze again all over. Even in bed I felt the same penetrating cold, for the blanket was very thin. My rations consisted of about two pounds of black bread, and for dinner at midday two dishes, which were not bad, but insufficient in quantity—always half cold, moreover, as all the food had to be brought a long way. As an unconvicted prisoner I could have provided myself with better accommodation at my own expense; but that was impossible at first, because the gendarmes who brought me had given over my luggage and my money to the officer of gendarmerie, and he had delivered it to the Central Department of the State Police. The worst of this was that it meant the loss of my spectacles, and therefore I could not read, another privilege to which I had a right, as an unconvicted prisoner. This made the days, and the nights too, seem interminable. I did everything I could think of to occupy myself. I tried arithmetical problems, of course in my head, for writing materials were not allowed; I related my own history as an exercise of memory; and at last I hit on the plan of “publishing” a newspaper. When I had got through washing and dressing in the morning, I ate a piece of bread, and then “read my paper.” First came a leading article on some question of the day, then the summary of news, gossip of the town, notes, etc. After some days, of course, my “copy” began to run short, and the contents of my journal became very uninteresting. The reading of it could not occupy the whole day, and I was often, too, kept awake at night by the cold; so I filled in my time by running up and down, up and down, like a beast in its cage.