disgustingly dirty.  The wretched man was soon covered from head to foot with vermin, of which his handcuffs prevented his ridding himself.  However, in a day or two, after a visit from the commandant, his cell was cleaned.  His manacles prevented his walking, or even standing, and the moral effect of being unable to use his hands was a strange apathy such as might precede imbecility.  He was interrogated several times, but always adhered to his confession at Kamenitz; menaces of harsher treatment, even of torture, were tried—­means which he knew too well had been resorted to before; his guards were forbidden to exchange a word with him, so that his time was passed in solitude, silence and absolute inoccupation.  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.  He thought that he was summoned to his execution.  He crossed the great courtyard of the prison supported by the soldiers; the snow creaked under foot; the night was very dark, and the sharp fresh air almost took away his breath, yet it was infinitely welcome to him after the heavy atmosphere of his cell, and he inhaled it with keen pleasure, thinking that each whiff was almost the last.  He was led into a large, faintly-lighted room, where officers of various grades were smoking around a large table.  It was only the committee of investigation, for hitherto his examinations had not been strictly in order.