him. Accordingly, at the appointed time, they took us singly from our
cages, bound ropes round our bodies, and led us by them, under a strong
escort, through a long and wide street, which ran through the town and
was filled with people, to a castle surrounded by an earthen wall, at the
gates of which stood a numerous guard. Having taken us into the
court-yard, they made us take our seats on benches and mats, and treated
us to good tea, sugar, and tobacco. We might have sat there about an hour,
when a voice was heard calling, "Captain Khovorin!" which was the way the
Japanese pronounced my name. Two soldiers, who stood by my side,
immediately led me through a door, which was hastily closed behind me,
into a large hall, through the paper curtains of which came a dim
light. On the walls of this apartment hung irons, with which to fetter
criminals, cords, and other instruments of punishment, which made me
conclude that I was in a chamber devoted to the torture. In the middle of
the hall, sat the commander-in-chief, on a kind of raised platform. He was
surrounded by several officers and scribes, each of whom had before
him his paper and inkstand, and at his side a dagger and huge sabre. After
the other prisoners had been led in, a most tedious and insignificantly
minute examination was commenced, concerning our names and ages, our
parents, and places of birth; also as to the Russian Empire, its power
on land and sea, the ship we arrived in, and the object of our journey.
The answers we deemed advisable to give, were, as well as the
interpreter could understand them and translate them into Japanese,
noted down with the greatest exactness.

At last the commander-in-chief asked, with particular emphasis, if the
religion of Russia had not been lately changed, as an ambassador who
had formerly been in Japan, had worn a long cue, and hair thickly
powdered, whilst we had it cut short. When we told him that in our
country, the style of wearing the hair had nothing whatever to do with
religion, the Japanese laughed in a contemptuous manner, and wondered
not a little, that we had no fixed laws on so important a subject. As
it was now nearly dark, we were led back to our cages.

Afterwards, we were several more times taken into this hall, where the
same questions were put to us, though in a different form, that they
might entrap us. They compared the answers we now gave, with those
formerly given, and on the slightest difference appear