Even the Cossacks caught the madcap
spirit of the escapade, and helped to load ammunition on the _St. Peter
and Paul_. Nor were old wrongs forgiven. Ismyloff was bundled on the
vessel in irons. The chancellor's secretary was seized and compelled
to act as cook. Men, who had played the spy and tyrant, now felt the
merciless knout. Witnesses, who had tried to pry into the exiles'
plot, were hanged at the yard-arm. Nine women, relatives of exiles,
who had been compelled to become the wives of Cossacks, now threw off
the yoke of slavery, donned the costly Chinese silks, and joined the
pirates. Among these was the governor's daughter, who was to have
married a Cossack.
On May 11, 1771, the Polish flag was run up on the _St. Peter and
Paul_. The fort fired a God-speed--a heartily sincere one, no
doubt--of twenty-one guns. Again the _Te Deum_ was chanted; again, the
oath of obedience taken by kissing Benyowsky's sword; and at five
o'clock in the evening the ship dropped down the river for the sea,
with ninety-six exiles on board, of whom nine were women; one, an
archdeacon; half a dozen, officers of the imperial army; one, a
gentleman in waiting to the Empress; at least a dozen, convicts of the
blackest dye.
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