Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/337

 BETWEEN THE CZAlt AND THE SULTAN. 295 seems that there is a want of complete certainty chap. about the fate of a great many out of those throngs X1V ' of prisoners who were brought into the jails and other places of detention on the 4th and 5th of December. The people of Paris think otherwise. They seem to have no doubt. The grounds of their belief are partly of this sort : — A family, anxious to know what had become of one of their relatives who was missing, appealed for help to a man in so high a station of life that they deemed him powerful enough to be able to question offi- cial personages, and his is the testimony which records what passed. In order, if possible, to iind a clue to the fate of the lost man, he made the acquaintance of one of the functionaries who held the office of a 'Judge-Substitute.' The mo- ment the subject of inquiry was touched, the 'Judge-Substitute' began to boil with anger at the mere thought of what he had witnessed, but it seems that his indignation was not altogether unconnected with offended pride, and the agony of having had his jurisdiction invaded. He said that he had been ordered to go to some of the jails and examine the prisoners, with a view to deter- mine whether they should be detained or set free ; and that, whilst he was engaged in this duty, a party of non-commissioned officers and soldiers came into the room and rudely announced that they themselves had orders to dispose of those prisoners whose fingers were black. Then without regard to the protesting of the 'Judge-Substitute/