. My attendants too came very often into the entry with a
light, in order to see what I was doing. Before night set in, they
brought me a thick cotton covering, and a night-gown, wide and wadded,
but which smelt so badly, as it was old and dirty, that I threw it
aside into one corner of my cage.

On the following morning, whilst every thing was yet still, I heard,
to my great joy, some Russian words very plainly pronounced. I sprang
up from the bench on which I was lying, and going to the window, which
looked out on the next building, heard midshipman Moor in conversation
with one of the sailors. Most fervently did I thank God for this
unexpected discovery, for I now knew that my companions not only were
under the same roof, but were not imprisoned in separate cells, and
had, therefore, opportunity for comforting each other, and making the
time appear shorter. After several days, during which the tedious and
solitary life I led had well nigh driven me to despair, there walked
into my cell a Japanese officer, whom I took to be of some rank and
importance. After lamenting that they had thus far been obliged to
confine me by myself, he agreeably surprised me by asking which of the
sailors I would like to have as a companion? I replied that they were
all equally dear to me, and that I wished to have them all with me in
turns; he immediately gave orders to have my wish attended to. I asked
him if the Japanese intended to treat us always in this manner?

"No," answered he; "in future you will all live together, and after a
while be sent home."

"Will this soon happen?" I asked.

"Not so very soon," replied he, shortly, and left without further
explanations.

Men who find themselves in a situation like ours, catch up every word,
and meditate on it closely. Had he said "soon," I would have regarded
his words as a mere attempt at consolation; but now I believed him,
and grew more contented. Hardly was this officer gone, when one of the
sailors was brought to me. The man was not a little astonished to see
what a pleasant apartment I had, and feasted his eyes on the objects
he saw from my window. My prison seemed a paradise compared to the
cells in which he and the rest had been put. These cells, it was
true, were built like mine, but far more narrow and penable, and they
stood one on the other in a kind of shed, so that there was a free
passage all round them. Instead of a door, they had an opening so low
that you had to cr