1 " I decline doing so," I answered, speaking in French, " I am an Englishman, travelling with a passport given under the hand and seal of our Foreign Secretary; and I have also a Russian passport. 1 have not broken any of your laws; and, until I am informed of the cause of my arrest, I shall not submit to be treated like a felon."
' He stared at me with a look of blank amazement; apparently unable to believe his ears, that any one, connected with the despised Poles, should dare to disobey the orders of a Russian official. He paused, but only for a moment: then ran, and opened the window, and spoke some words of loud command, the purport of which, the Count told me, was to summon the Chef militaire, and the Chef de police, together with a troop of Cossacks, to our quarters. I could hardly help smiling at this alarming array of force, ordered out against one defenceless man; and was curious to see whether it were really intended by the Russian authorities to mark their proceedings by an act of such egregious folly.
1 During the absence of the messenger, the Count said to me, " Why do you not yield to their demands? "
' " I will do so," I replied, " as soon as I am informed what their demands are. But I will not submit to the indignity of being treated in this manner, without any reason assigned."
' The reader may probably think that I was wrong in making this resistance; and, if more time for reflection had been afforded to me, I should probably have abstained from the attempt to interpose any delay. But, at the moment, I was filled with deep indignation, which absorbed every other thought.
' After waiting about half an hour, the Chef militaire arrived, and was soon followed by the Chef de police and the Cossacks. The latter were forthwith despatched at full gallop to the Count's farm, with orders to seize and bring away everything which they could find belonging to us. The Chef militaire, I must here mention, was an officer of the Imperial Guard, only acting temporarily in the office which he then filled. He was a thorough gentleman; and I could read in his countenance the disgust which he felt at the arrogant offensive manner of the Chef de police. Having been informed of all the particulars of our arrest, and of my refusal to undress, the Chef de police turned round to me, and said, in broken English, " But you moost, my friend, you moost deshabiller." I repeated what I had before said, and told him, that, if the cause of my arrest were explained, I would obey any and every order which it was his duty to impose: but that, otherwise, I should do nothing. They had of course the power to do what they liked. It would be useless for me, I said, to resist them: and I could only appeal to the Governor for redress.
' " May the soldiers undress you? " was the next question.
1 "I have told you already that you may do what you like. I have no means of preventing you; but I shall certainly not do anything to assist you in the infliction of an insult against which I protest. I have here my English passport, bearing the signature and seal of Lord Russell; and, if you look at it, you will see that it requires, in thv name of the Queen of England, all those whom it may concern, to allow me to pass freely without let or hindrance, and to afford me every assistance and protection of which I may stand in need. Do you suppose that these words have no meaning? or that I shall quietly suffer you or any man to trample under foot the authority which they assert? "
' " Let me see your passport," said he. I held it out to him. He seized it, crumpled it up, and thrust it into his pocket, adding in a contemptuous tone, " Well, now you have it no longer." I remonstrated as strongly as i could, against such cool audacious insolence; but the only notice he took of me was to draw the passport out of his pocket again, straighten it, and place it among my other papers, which he duly sealed up.
' He then made a sign for two of the soldiers to draw near and strip me of my coat and waistcoat and boots, and examine carefully every part of them. Upon seeing them peep into my boots, I told the Chef de police that Englishmen were not in the habit of carrying money or letters in their boots. " Oh, no," he said, " I have been in England; and know the ways of Englishmen well enough."
' " If that be the case, I think you must have learned that no man in England is treated as a criminal, until his crime be proved. Why have you not remembered the lesson? "