but I soon distinguished the sound of chains, both behind the wall and in the corridors. I was then in one of those great prisons, called Krepost; but who might my companions be? Simple criminals perhaps; or, it may be political prisoners, countrymen of my own? My doubts were soon cleared up; I heard a song rise, sonorous, choral, and only broken by the sound of fetters; the words were Polish, the melody a familiar one:-- In a cradle sleeping, the Babe Divine, ... It was then Christmas time, and these poor prisoners, my compatriots, were intoning at midnight, after our ancient custom, the venerable hymn which hails the Saviour’s birth. Then followed other canticles in common use:-- Thus to the shepherds did the angels say, ... and To Bethlehem running, &c.... Ah, those Christmas hymns!--songs which had rocked my childhood and pleased me in youth, and which I had not heard for the last twelve years--ever since I had emigrated to another land. How after twelve years was I to hear them again? Chanted by captives, and accompanied by the rattle of their chains! On both the following days I was visited repeatedly by the _sous préfet_, and by the doctor. I felt very weak, but quite free from the pain in my head; and upon being asked by the official in charge whether I was ready to continue my journey, I replied in the affirmative, for I was anxious to reach Kiow. As we were stepping into our sledges, I noticed in the courtyard a regiment of soldiers, whose bearing was so fine and so soldierly that I made a remark upon it to the _sous préfet_ as he stood beside me. ‘They are,’ he said, ‘Polish soldiers of 1831, incorporated now into the army of the South.’ Thus did I meet again after such a lapse of years my former companions in arms. I could not help uncovering my head to them, and calling out loudly in Polish, ‘All hail, comrades!’ ‘Forward!’ shouted the _sous préfet_ immediately; and the horses went off like an arrow from a bow. We had hardly gone two or three leagues out of Braçlaw when we met a carriage driving at a fast and furious pace, and which pulled up alongside of us. An officer of the armed Police sprang out of it, who, after conversing for a few minutes with my companion, came up to me, and announced that for the future I should consider myself under his guardianship.