Book 2 Chapter 38 The Convict Train

When Nekhludoff came to the station, the prisoners were all
seated in railway carriages with grated windows. Several persons,
come to see them off, stood on the platform, but were not allowed
to come up to the carriages.

The convoy was much troubled that day. On the way from the prison
to the station, besides the two Nekhludoff had seen, three other
prisoners had fallen and died of sunstroke. One was taken to the
nearest police station like the first two, and the other two died
at the railway station. [In Moscow, in the beginning of the eighth
decade of this century, five convicts died of sunstroke in one
day on their way from the Boutyrki prison to the Nijni railway
station.] The convoy men were not troubled because five men who
might have been alive died while in their charge. This did not
trouble them, but they were concerned lest anything that the law
required in such cases should be omitted. To convey the bodies to
the places appointed, to deliver up their papers, to take them
off the lists of those to be conveyed to Nijni--all this was very
troublesome, especially on so hot a day.

It was this that occupied the convoy men, and before it could all
be accomplished Nekhludoff and the others who asked for leave to
go up to the carriages were not allowed to do so. Nekhludoff,
however, was soon allowed to go up, because he tipped the convoy
sergeant. The sergeant let Nekhludoff pass, but asked him to be
quick and get his talk over before any of the authorities
noticed. There were 15 carriages in all, and except one carriage
for the officials, they were full of prisoners. As Nekhludoff
passed the carriages he listened to what was going on in them. In
all the carriages was heard the clanging of chains, the sound of
bustle, mixed with loud and senseless language, but not a word
was being said about their dead fellow-prisoners. The talk was
all about sacks, drinking water, and the choice of seats.