surely all these men cannot be guilty of great crimes," Godfrey
said, "for I have heard that about twenty thousand a year are sent
away?"

"No, many of them are only lazy fellows who drink and will not work. We
sent away three from my village the year before I was taken for a
soldier. They were lazy and would not do their share of work, so the
heads of the village met and decided that they should go to Siberia.
They drew up a paper, which was sent to be confirmed by the judge of the
district, and then soldiers came and took them away."

"But you don't mean to say," Godfrey said, "that men are sent to prison
all their lives because they are lazy."

"Oh no, no one would think of such a thing as that! Men like these are
only sent to the big towns, Tiumen, or Perm, or Tobolsk, and then they
are settled on land or work in the towns, but they are free to do as
they like. The country wants labour, and men who won't work at home and
expect the community to keep them have to work here or else they would
starve. Then there are numbers who are only guilty of some small
offence. They have stolen something, or they have resisted the
tax-gatherer, or something of that sort. They only go to prison for the
term of their sentences, perhaps only three or four months, and then
they too are free like the others, and can work in the towns, or trade
if they happen to have money to set them up, or they can settle in a
village and take up land and cultivate it. They can live where they like
in Siberia. I had many rich men pointed out to me in Tobolsk who had
come out as convicts."

"You have been here before then?" Godfrey said.

"Yes, this is my second journey. I hope I shall come no more. We get a
little extra pay and are better fed than we are with the regiment, and
we have no drill; but then it is sad. Last time I had one with me who
had left his wife and family behind; he was always sad, he talked to me
sometimes of them, there was no one else to talk to. He was here for
life, and he knew he should never see them again. She was young and
would marry again."

"But she couldn't do that as long as he lived," Godfrey said.

"Oh yes; from the day a prisoner crosses the frontier his marriage is
annulled and his wife can marry again. She may come with him if she
likes, but if she does she can never go back again."

"And do many wives come?"

"A good many," the soldier said; "but I only know what I have heard. I
was with one of you las