Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/195

Rh was a cashier, and another a counsellor in the loan bank, both gentlemen and fathers of families. A deficit of 600,000 roubles was found in the bank. These inferior functionaries acted only by the orders of their minister, who alone was guilty; they underwent, however, the punishment. Paul I. caused them to be released.

We learnt also, afterwards, that our prison, old, and built entirely of wood, was constructed by Peter the Great, and that the first prisoner who had been shut up in it was his own son Alexis, put to death by that cruel hero. Beniowski had been also there, but only during a fortnight, being, after that time, exiled to Siberia. He occupied the same room I lived in. Foreigners of distinction, officers, priests, had lingered there in turn, but few of them had remained so long as we, as their fate had been immediately decided on.