. With the Russians in peace and war; recollections of a military attaché . theoners is far less cruel than the old system, bywhich they had to march the whole distance, manyperishing on the road, 1 do not know a moredepressing sight than to meet, as I have on severalne of these great convict-ships convey-ing its living freight of miserable human beingsto the unknown horrors of Siberia. The vessels arebuilt in two or three tiers of barred cages, eachhaving mtside it, which forms the beat. I once met one of these vesselsLowly down the Volga by night, andthe di ehind the bars, together with the
. With the Russians in peace and war; recollections of a military attaché . theoners is far less cruel than the old system, bywhich they had to march the whole distance, manyperishing on the road, 1 do not know a moredepressing sight than to meet, as I have on severalne of these great convict-ships convey-ing its living freight of miserable human beingsto the unknown horrors of Siberia. The vessels arebuilt in two or three tiers of barred cages, eachhaving mtside it, which forms the beat. I once met one of these vesselsLowly down the Volga by night, andthe di ehind the bars, together with the sentn< ords patrolling the galleries, combined to produce a picture of inexpressiblesadness. With reference to General Ignatieff, two in<dents come to my mind which, I think, are worthrecording as extremely characteristic of the man. As I have said before, although his hatred ofEngland was proverbial, he was the first perto take me by the hand on my arrival at ruquarters after my disagreeable interview with theGrand Duke Nicholas, and, although I w: ii ii r/./,n |. IGNATIEFF 289 total stranger to him, he was diplomatic enoughto be civil, and even cordial, making an agreeabledistinction between the individual and the nationhe represented. After dinner, one evening at the beginning ofthe war, and before the Imperial headquartershad crossed to the south side of the Danube, Iwas walking to and fro, towards the river andback, talking to another foreign officer. As weturned, we suddenly saw the well-known figure ofIgnatieff standing on the bank and clearly de-fined against the evening sky. He was so muchengaged in conversation with two men in plainclothes that for some time he did not observe us. To see civilian dress in such circumstances wasso unusual that we at once came to the conclu-sion, which turned out to be correct, that the menwere two of IgnatiefTs spies from wishing to disturb the trio we discreetlyturned away, but in doing so attracted thegenera
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