Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/183

Rh of the commodités, which were very dark, a crevice between the laths and the cross-beam, sufficient to conceal a note safely; I counted the laths to the spot where they formed this little crevice, and described it well to Mons. Bonneau, so as to avoid every mistake.

A few months after, when I was allowed to have pen and ink, we wrote continually to each other, through this medium, without ever being discovered. The Gazette of Hamburg was sent me sometimes, and, as he did not know German, I wrote him extracts from it. We also disputed, now and then, upon political topics. Bonneau, although far from being a wild democrat, seemed still to approve the conquests that his nation was pursuing: I maintained, on the other hand, that this excessive ambition might compromise, and perhaps terminate in the ruin of the cause for which they had undertaken both the revolution and the war, namely, the cause of liberty.

When I left the prison I used every means to get Mons. Bonneau also liberated, and he was released ten days after me.