Page:Ossendowski - From President to Prison.djvu/215

Rh sentence of one year, an extra term of two years for the former and one for the latter. Altogether it was a very merciful finding, if one can speak of mercy in connection with a matter which ought not to have been reviewed and punished by a tribunal at all.

We returned to our cells as prisoners of a higher social class than the others in the military gaol. Imprisonment in a fortress had in the Russian code a special name, "honourable custody" or the custodia honesta of the Latin, and carried with it certain privileges, such as the right to wear one's own clothes, to receive food and books from home and to have a walk each day in the prison yard. We wondered how much we should benefit by these privileges, as there was no fortress in Harbin. However, General Horvat came to the rescue by proposing through St. Petersburg that a special political prison should be established in Harbin, as there were many political prisoners in the town.

A private house toward the north end of the Bolshoi Prospect was rented, the windows were barred, strong doors installed, rooms for the soldiers and keepers prepared and the whole house and rather spacious yard were surrounded with a high board fence. Not long after the trial we were already in our new quarters and began to settle down for our long term of enforced residence. We requested from our home clothes, linen, books and papers, arranged for a regular supply of food to be sent us and gradually became accustomed to the new life.