Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/197

Rh he sent me a few books. With what eagerness did I look for the place marked with the point of a pin, and what was my joy when I found it! With what impatience did I wait the evening and the candle, to be able to read what he had written At last, the long wished for light arrived; my servant, who was in the secret, amused the soldiers, and whilst the latter had their backs turned to me, I dexterously took the marked leaf, and passed it several times over the flame. The red letters appeared, but, alas! they told me sad news. My friend informed me that his lady had obtained, after many entreaties, and much trouble, permission to see him twice for a quarter of an hour, but always in the presence of two officers, appointed ad hoc: that he had, however, found means to write now and then to her; that she had laboured with all the zeal, which friendship only can exert, to rescue me from the prison in which I was, and to alleviate my position as much as possible, but that she was answered, that if my revolutionary offences were not greater than