Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/199

Rh my cell, told me that their scouts were still about. This war with the rats, which sickened and disgusted me, lasted through the whole of my stay in Cell No. 5.

On the second day of my prison life I learned that I was not abandoned by my friends outside. The soldier on guard after dinner was the fair-haired boy whose acquaintance I had already made. For a long time I noticed that he stood in silence and that he was carefully watching the corridor. All of a sudden he caught my eye and gave a hiss, at the same time throwing a folded bit of paper through the grille. Someone from the great realm of liberty outside our prison walls had written me of momentous events. The travesty of a trial in absentia had already taken place, and we had been condemned to death by shooting. Then this was the end of it all—"&hellip; but to the grave."

However, a difference of opinion had developed in the Staff of General Ivanoff, where a large group of influential officers was opposed to the sentence and strongly urged a retrial, not before the "express tribunal" but before the regular military court. Many different elements in the civil population also supported this demand.

"Do not despair," continued my unknown correspondent, "for telegrams have been sent to St. Petersburg in your behalf; and, although General Ivanoff intercepted and stopped the first messages, we have found a way to circumvent him."

This promised help held a shadow of hope, however small—and it appeared very small; for Ivanoff, possessing unlimited powers, need pay little heed to protests and might order any night that we be taken from the cells and shot down, thus making of the question a simple fait accompli. This method was one much in vogue during the time of the Tsars, just as it has been under their