mpartment, his two guards accompanying him.
Godfrey addressed a word to his custodians. The policeman, however,
said, "You are forbidden to speak," and in a minute or two the train
moved off.

Godfrey dozed occasionally until morning, and then looked out at the
dark woods through which they passed for hours. Twice the train stopped
at lonely stations, and the prisoners were supplied with food. In the
afternoon Godfrey saw the gilded and painted domes of a great city, and
knew that it must be Moscow. Here, however, they made no stay, but
steamed straight through the station and continued their way. Godfrey
slept soundly after it became dark, waking up once when the train came
to a standstill. At early morning he was roused and ordered to alight,
and in the same order as before the prisoners were marched through the
streets of Nijni Novgorod to the bank of the Volga. Few people were yet
abroad in the streets, but all they met looked pityingly at the group of
exiles, a sight of daily occurrence in the springtime of the year.
Ordinary prisoners, of whom from fifteen to twenty thousand are sent
annually to Siberia, are taken down the Volga in a convict barge, towed
by a steamer, in batches of six or seven hundred. Political
prisoners are differently treated; they are carried on board the
ordinary steamer, each having a separate cabin, and during the voyage
they are allowed no intercourse whatever, either with each other or with
the ordinary passengers.

[Illustration: Map of Russian Empire]

Of these there were a considerable number on board the steamer, as the
season had but just begun, and merchants, traders, and officials were
taking advantage of the river's being open to push forward into Siberia.
At present, however, these were all below. The prisoners were conducted
to the cabins reserved for them, and then locked in. Presently Godfrey
heard a buzz of many voices and a general movement in the cabin outside,
and the fact that he was a prisoner and cut off from the world came to
him more strongly than it had hitherto done. An hour later there was a
movement and shouting overhead. Then he felt the paddles revolving, and
knew that the steamer was under way. He could, however, see nothing. A
sort of shutter was fastened outside the scuttle, which gave him the
opportunity to take a glimpse of the sky, but nothing of the shore or
water. Nothing could be more monotonous than the journey, and yet the
air and light that came