She persists in demanding that fresh horses be put to her sledge, and that she be allowed to proceed to the Nertchinsk mines, where her husband is.

Failing to frighten her by the description of the hardships she will be compelled to endure, by telling her that she will have to live in the common ward of the prison with hundreds of prisoners, never see her husband alone, and the like, he at last informs her that she can proceed only on condition that she renounces all her rights, title, property.

She demands the document on the instant and signs it, and again demands her horses.

The governor (who, by pleading illness, has already detained the impatient woman a whole week) then tells her that, having renounced her rights, she must traverse the remaining eight hundred versts[28] on foot, like a common prisoner, and that the majority fall by the way in so doing.

Her only thought is the extra time which this will require.