Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/197

Rh will be tried before a field-military court," the Prosecutor officially announced.

"When will the trial take place?"

"The trial will be held in your absence in accordance with the provisions of a special circular order from the Minister of Justice," the Colonel explained, as he thumbed over the papers.

I knew too well the portentous meaning of this. The whole of Russia groaned under the bloody hand of a great body of independent military courts, called "express tribunals," which dealt specially with the revolutionists and sentenced thousands of them to death. I felt as though my heart had stopped in my breast and a lump of ice had taken its place. However, I mastered my emotion and, forcing myself to speak calmly, I asked:

"May I write letters to my family, sir?"

"You will still have time for this," the Prosecutor answered, as he gave a glance full of meaning toward the Colonel. They went away, and the door clanged behind them. As the key once more scraped in the lock, the face of the soldier, full of real pity, appeared at the opening.

After my uncongenial visitors had gone, I was brought a cup of tea with a slice of the black bread of the soldiers as my breakfast. For the noon meal I received a plate of cabbage soup, a dish of black gruel and a piece of bread. In the evening the leg which I had twisted during the fight with the hunghutzes at Udzimi gave signs of protest against the unheated cell and began to be excruciatingly painful. Unable to walk, I went to bed and could not move my foot to get up, when the warder brought me in an evening meal of a plate of gruel, tea and the ceremonial bit of bread. The hip joint was so swollen and painful that I groaned and hissed like an angry python.