As we were crossing the quadrangle on our way out, a prisoner came up and offered to sell me a horsehair chain he had made. The fact of the governor and other officials being present did not seem to matter a bit, so as the work was curious I bought it of him, and as I had no small money about me, he took a rouble note and went and got change from some other prisoner!
This my first visit to the prison was followed by many others, and I made a heap of sketches; in fact, I fancy I got to be looked upon as quite an habitué of the gruesome place. I even obtained permission to make a painting of a prisoner in one of the solitary cells, and had a whole day’s work at it under the supervision of a warder, a break in the poor wretch’s awful existence which he will probably remember for many a long year, whilst probably wondering what the Angliski Gospodin could have seen worthy of being painted in so dreary a place.
VISITING DAY IN THE IRKUTSK PRISON.—“SWEETHEARTS AND WIVES.”
[To face [p. 236].
