Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/90

62 Fischer and myself supposed that we were going to Nowogorod, Kazan, Astracan, or some other large town in the empire, the custom of never sending prisoners to St. Petersburg preventing us from thinking a single moment of that capital.

As we were to set out the following morning at the break of day, we spent the rest of the evening in packing up, and making necessary preparations for our journey. We were awakened before the dawn; it was snowing, and colder than on any previous day that winter. Generals Sierakowski, Kniaziewicz, Kaminski, Brigadier Kopec, and several other officers came to take leave of us. What a moment! what a separation! Our hearts seemed to forebode that we were never to meet again, and it was long before we could separate, but, at last, after many tender embraces, we were obliged to leave them and set out.

Titow and two officers, along with Fischer and myself, were placed in a carriage; General Kosciuszko, with the Surgeon-Major, in another; the old grenadiers behind us, and