Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/208

180 Mostowski; a part of them remained also in the hands of Madame Dzialynska, and on my arrival in America, I found among my papers only the rough sketch of my translation of Pope's Rape of the Lock.

A few months before I was set at liberty, Makarow allowed me to use a lead pencil, and to draw; but not being permitted to have a pen-knife, I was obliged, whenever my pencil became blunt, to give it to the corporal to mend. One may imagine how tedious and troublesome this was; I bye and bye got a knife from Kapostas, which, having hidden carefully, I used only when my soldiers were out of my room. Although I had a taste for drawing, I had never an opportunity of improving in that delightful accomplishment. In prison, the