' The work of undressing me being ended, the men proceeded to repack our portmanteaus, and left me sitting where I was, occasionally looking at me, and wondering apparently what was to happen, next. As soon as everything was ready for removal, the Chef de police turned round, and said to me, "Come, Sir, dress.''
' " No, I shall do nothing. You have brought me into this condition, by what I regard as most unjust conduct. I shall leave you to get me out of it as you can."
' Upon this the German servant was directed to do what was required; and, had I not helped him from time to time, I believe his trembling hands would never have accomplished the task.
' " Why is the pauvre Anglais so cross? " said the Chef de police, in a taunting tone, to the Count. "He seems quite angry."
" I am angry," 1 replied, " at the violation of justice, which is committed under the name of law/'
To like treatment he was subjected for many days. Of this full details are given — pp. 142-214— but the narrative is too long for citation. His deliverance was the result of the circumstance of three English tourists happening to pass through Grodno, who heard there that one of their countrymen was imprisoned. They were the Rev. W. G. Clark, Fellow and Tutor of Trinity College, Cambridge, and public orator; Mr W. Lloyd Birkbeck, Fellow of Downing College, Cambridge; and the third a member of Balliol College, Oxford. Mr Clark wrote to Lord Napier, British ambassador at St. Petersburg, and Mr Birkbeck to Mr White, the Vice-Consul at Warsaw; and thus was secured his liberation. But his host was exiled to the frontier of Siberia. Of his ultimate fate Mr Anderson writes: —
' Little more remains to be told of what has since befallen my dear friend, Count Bisping. The first intelligence which reached me respecting him was that he had been set free. I was not at all surprised at this; for I knew that his arrest had produced the greatest excitement, and that there was a wide and deeply felt sympathy among all classes for him; and that every effort was made in Grodno and throughout its neighbourhood to effect his release. A day or two before my departure I heard that a long train of his tenantry and neighbours, headed by a Russian priest, were coming to the Governor of Grodno with a petition on his behalf. The word of a Russian priest spoken in favour of a Polish Roman Catholic proprietor was no ordinary incident; and I was sanguine in the hope of a successful result. He was indeed released, but only for a short time. He was still fprbidden to leave Grodno; and, in a few days afterwards, the hand of power was once more laid npon him, and he was removed to St. Petersburg, on his way to the distant province of Orenburg, which adjoins the south-western range of the Ural Mountains. He was told, indeed, that upon arriving at the place of his exile, he should be allowed his personal liberty; that his valet and man-cook should accompany him; that he should have the command of his money for the supply of what was needful; and that his estates should all be preserved. Upon arriving at St. Petersburg he was again placed in confine ment for eight days, until the arrangements were completed for the subsequent disposal of himself and of those who were forwarded, at the same time, to undergo the like or severer banishment.