Since Levitoux, another political prisoner,
fearful that the tortures to which he was subjected might wring from
him confessions which would criminate his friends, had set fire to his
straw bed with his night-lamp and burned himself alive, no lights were
allowed in the cells, so that a great portion of the twenty-four hours
went by in darkness. After some time he was visited by Prince
Bibikoff, the governor-general of that section of the country, one of
the men whose names are most associated with the sufferings of Poland:
he tried by intimidation and persuasion to induce the prisoner to
reveal his projects and the names of his associates. Piotrowski held
firm, but the prince on withdrawing ordered his chains to be struck
off. The relief was ineffable: he could do nothing but stretch his
arms to enjoy the sense of their free possession, and he felt his
natural energy and independence of thought return. He had not been
able to take off his boots since leaving Kamenitz, and his legs were
bruised and sore, but he walked to and fro in his cell all day,
enjoying the very pain this gave him as a proof that they were
unchained. Several weeks passed without any other incident, when late
one night he was surprised by a light in his cell: an aide-de-camp and
four soldiers entered and ordered him to rise and follow them.
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