INTRODUCTION. 3 



Being on the Emperor's staff you were, of 

 course, very near his person. 



"Ah, madam, many a time have I put him in his 

 kibitka and sent him home more drunk than any 

 lord!" 



Was Alexander II. an agreeable person to be on 

 such intimate terms with? 



"When sober, no man could be kinder, gentler, 

 or more humane; but when drunk, he was worse 

 than a wild beast, and developed characteristics which 

 made him a terror to everybody near him. He 

 would order a man's head chopped off for the least 

 offence, or to suit his drunken whim, and did not 

 mind standing by to see the order executed, while 

 laughing in fiendish glee at the victim's terror." 



Then you were not sorry to join the Polish insur- 

 rection against Russia? 



" It was Poland that I loved, my own country, and 

 it was my duty to fight for her and my pleasure also. 

 We longed for liberty, and fought for it desper- 

 ately. But Russia is a powerful nation, and we were 

 outnumbered. I was thrown into an Austrian 

 prison, where I remained four months and was then 

 ordered to be sent to Russia. Knowing something 

 of what torture awaited me there, and finding friends 

 in the prison who were in communication with 

 friends outside, I determined to make my escape." 



How did you manage that? 



" The bars of my cell had been cut, and hearing 

 the signal agreed upon, I emerged from the window, 

 and found it not too difficult a matter to leap to the 

 parapet, then to the bastion, to another parapet, to a 



