from want of air, and from the breathing of the
convicts standing near by.

"Will there ever be an end?" said a tall, stout, red-faced captain of
the convoy, incessantly smoking a cigarette and blowing the smoke
through the moustache which covered his mouth. "I am exhausted. Where
have you taken so many? How many more are there?"

The clerk consulted the books.

"Twenty-four men and the women."

"Why are you standing there? Come forward!" shouted the captain to the
crowding convicts.

The convicts had already been standing three hours in a broiling sun,
waiting their turn.

All this was taking place in the court-yard of the prison, while
without the prison stood the usual armed soldier, about two dozen
trucks for the baggage, and the infirm convicts, and on the corner a
crowd of relatives and friends of the convicts, waiting for a chance
to see the exiles as they emerged from the prison, and, if possible,
to have a last few words with them, or deliver some things they had
brought for them. Nekhludoff joined this crowd.

He stood there about an hour. At the end of the hour, from behind the
gates came the clatter of chains, the tramping of feet, voices of
command, coughing and the low conversation of a large crowd. This
lasted about five minutes, during which time prison officers flitted
in and out through the wicket. Finally there was heard a sharp
command.

The gates were noisily flung open, the clatter of the chains became
more distinct, and a detachment of guardsmen in white blouses and
shouldering guns marched forth and arranged themselves, evidently as a
customary manoeuvre, in a large semi-circle before the gates. Again
a command was heard, and the hard-labor convicts, in pairs, began to
pour out. With pancake-shaped caps on their shaved heads, and sacks on
their shoulders, they dragged their fettered legs, holding up the
sacks with one hand and waving the other. First came the men convicts,
all in gray trousers and long coats with diamond aces on their backs.
All of them--young, old, slim, stout, pale, and red-faced,
dark-haired, moustached, bearded and beardless, Russians, Tartars,
Jews--came, clanging their chains and briskly waving their hands as
though going on a long journey; but after making about ten steps they
stopped and humbly arranged themselves in rows of four. Immediately
behind these came another contingent, also with shaved heads and
similarly dressed, without leg-fetters, but handcuffed