Closely guarded, Thaddeus was led out and placed in a miserable hut, built to serve the purpose of a prison for the fort.
He passed a wretched night, heavily ironed. Indignation at the Baron’s base propositions at first smothered all thoughts of his own impending fate. He rejoiced that Ivan had escaped; but he longed to warn him of the danger he ran; and the impossibility of doing so added to the poignancy of his feelings. By degrees the conviction of his own miserable destiny crept on him.
“How dark! How wretched is all around me,” he cried in the agony of his spirit. “Do thus end all my hopes of military glory? Must I die with my once proud name blackened and disgraced; my character as an officer maligned? My father’s last few and sad days hastened by the foul history of his son’s disgrace and untimely death? I cannot bear such thoughts! Oh that Ivan’s unkind sword had rather cut me down on the field of battle, than saved me for this end! Little does he think that my anxiety to see him has been the cause of this misery. No! there is no hope, no glimpse of light left me in the world. Let me prepare then to meet my inevitable fate like a man, and then my comrades in arms may at least say, that I died with courage and firmness. And, oh heaven! give me strength to bear my lot.”
He prayed, and ere the morning broke he slept calmly, even on the hard ground, in sweet forgetfulness of his doom.
He was awakened by the entrance of a soldier with an open letter, sent by his brutal gaoler, in hopes of adding to his misery. It was from his father’s kind friend announcing the death of his parent, his last words being blessings on his son.
“Heaven be praised,” he cried, falling on his knees, “that misery has been spared me. The rest will be easy to bear.” And with a serene countenance he prepared to meet whatever might follow.
Count Erintoff soon after made his appearance; he was received by Thaddeus with the most haughty coldness. “I come to learn,” said the Count, “whether you have thought better of the Governor’s propositions, and are prepared to accede to them, or meet the fate you deserve.”
“Were I tied to the stake, I would spurn the vile offer, as I do now,” replied the prisoner. “I have no more to say.”
“If such is your answer, expect no mercy,” replied the Count fiercely, and he quitted the prison, greatly to the occupant’s relief.
Thaddeus was left for some hours to his meditations, when, his prison doors opening, a file of soldiers appeared to conduct him before the Court Martial assembled to try him.