A PRISON FOR NIHILISTS.
The Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph writes:—A short account of . the celebrated casemates of the Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, in which the Nihilists are ronfined immediately after their arrest, will, I doubt not, be pernsed with interest by your readers. The writer, a St. Petersburg correspondent, obtained access to the casemates by a special order from one of the Grand Dukes, whose name he naturally sup* presses. The sight of the order when presented waa by no means acceptable to > the rommandant of the fortress, but as it was peremptory he had no alternative but to comply. The casemates, it appears, are hollowed out under the Neva, and directly under the ramparts. Their only window, a little square hole pro* tected by a thick barred grating, arises but a few inches above the Wei of the river. A staircase of about 10 steps leads down to them, and as the aide-dc camp who acted as guide remarked in a jocular <>ne, "Many go down,' but few come up again. It would seem that the climate ii not favorable to revolu« tionists." At stated distances there are, iron doors opening into halls filled with sentinels, who, with loaded rifle and fixed bayonet, keep watch and ward over the unhappy tenants of Ihe cells which open upon them. The doors of the cells, also of iron, are very low. As for the tiny prisons, they are very narrow quarters, square, with stone wails and floors, and fearfully damp, the water "constantly dropping about in all directions. A chair, a table, a pellet of white wood forms the only fa mljre.' One of the Eallets was found to be covered with a ed of straw horribly foul, but even this, poor luxury as it waa, must be considered an exception. The prisoners, the writer learned, were frd on schti, a soup made of saltrd cabbage, and black bread. On grand occasions, however, they were - sometimes treated t) a bit of meat and a tcharha, or glassful of brandy." The visitor was allowed entrance to a few of the cells. Their tecauts ware pale; they rose as he entered, according to order, but regarded him with a fixed look of despair. On some of the wall* characters had been traced with a pointed instrument. One of the phrases ran thes: "My poor - mother, you doubtless know not that your innocent son is bored rlive in this vault." The guide interfered and prevented the. writer from reading more. He was shown the famous cell in which was incarcerated the Princess Tarakanova, daughter of , the Empress Elizabeth, who fell a victim to her rival, the Empress Catherine 11., grandmother of the pfestnt Czar. This unhappy woman perished under the most dramatic circumstances. The Neva, swollen by the melted snow, suddenly* rose, and the rusb-'ng torrent, dashing with overwhelming strength against the tiny window, broke in and filled the cell with water. . The Princess was drowned. The cells of great state criminals are lined with mattresses, and rings of iron are placed in the walls, to which many of them are bound when they are not straight* waistcoated. The guide informed the writer, among other things, that these unhappy men were asked every quarter of an hour, if ihey were present. Whenever they failed to reply, they were barbarously punished. He also states that in the wall of the Emperor's room is an invisible door, communicating a little passage, very narrow, and leading to a subterranean gallery, hollowed oat under the Neva. The gallery leads to the fortress, and, in case of a revolution or of imminent peril, the Czar could disappear in a few seconds from the Winter Palace, and a few minutes after find him* self in perfect safety in the Fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul, the guns of which, in a short time, could reduce St. Peters* burg to ruins. The palace of the Czar Paul 1., which is now the engineers' school, was similarly provided; but when the assassins entered his room he had no time to flee, end was struck down at the very moment when he was about to disap* pear behind the secret door, which was already open. • • ■
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Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3552, 14 May 1880, Page 2
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708A PRISON FOR NIHILISTS. Thames Star, Volume XI, Issue 3552, 14 May 1880, Page 2
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