Resurrection
heredity, while explaining scientific facts concerning heredity, were
inapplicable in this case, as Botchkova was of unknown parentage.” The
public prosecutor put something down on paper with an angry look, and
shrugged his shoulders in contemptuous surprise.
Then Maslova’s advocate rose, and timidly and hesitatingly began his
speech in her defence.
Without denying that she had taken part in the stealing of the money,
he insisted on the fact that she had no intention of poisoning Smelkoff,
but had given him the powder only to make him fall asleep. He tried to
go in for a little eloquence in giving a description of how Maslova was
led into a life of debauchery by a man who had remained unpunished while
she had to bear all the weight of her fall; but this excursion into the
domain of psychology was so unsuccessful that it made everybody feel
uncomfortable. When he muttered something about men’s cruelty and
women’s helplessness, the president tried to help him by asking him to
keep closer to the facts of the case. When he had finished the public
prosecutor got up to reply. He defended his position against the first
advocate, saying that even if Botchkova was of unknown parentage the
truth of the doctrine of heredity was thereby in no way invalidated,
since the laws of heredity were so far proved by science that we can not
only deduce the crime from heredity, but heredity from the crime. As to
the statement made in defence of Maslova, that she was the victim of an
imaginary (he laid a particularly venomous stress on the word imaginary)
betrayer, he could only say that from the evidence before them it was
much more likely that she had played the part of temptress to many and
many a victim who had fallen into her hands. Having said this he sat
down in triumph. Then the prisoners were offered permission to speak in
their own defence.
Euphemia Botchkova repeated once more that she knew nothing about it and
had taken part in nothing, and firmly laid the whole blame on Maslova.
Simeon Kartinkin only repeated several times: “It is your business, but
I am innocent; it’s unjust.” Maslova said nothing in her defence. Told
she might do so by the president, she only lifted her eyes to him, cast
a look round the room like a hunted animal, and, dropping her head,
began to cry, sobbing aloud.
“What is the matter?” the merchant asked Nekhludoff, hearing him utter
a strange sound. This was the sound of weeping fiercely kept back.
Nekhludoff had not yet understood the significance of his present
position, and attributed the sobs he could hardly keep back and the
tears that filled his eyes to the weakness of his nerves. He put on his
pince-nez in order to hide the tears, then got out his handkerchief and
began blowing his nose.
Fear of the disgrace that would befall him if every one in the court
knew of his conduct stifled the inner working of his soul. This fear
was, during this first period, stronger than all else.
CHAPTER XXII.
THE TRIAL--THE SUMMING UP.
After the last words of the prisoners had been heard, the form in which
the questions were to be put to the jury was settled, which also took
some time. At last the questions were formulated, and the president
began the summing up.
Before putting the case to the jury, he spoke to them for some time in a
pleasant, homely manner, explaining that burglary was burglary and theft
was theft, and that stealing from a place which was under lock and key
was stealing from a place under lock and key. While he was explaining
this, he looked several times at Nekhludoff as if wishing to impress
upon him these important facts, in hopes that, having understood it,
Nekhludoff would make his fellow-jurymen also understand it. When he
considered that the jury were sufficiently imbued with these facts, he
proceeded to enunciate another truth--namely, that a murder is an
action which has the death of a human being as its consequence, and that
poisoning could therefore also be termed murder. When, according to his
opinion, this truth had also been received by the jury, he went on to
explain that if theft and murder had been committed at the same time,
the combination of the crimes was theft with murder.
Although he was himself anxious to finish as soon as possible, although
he knew that his Swiss friend would be waiting for him, he had grown so
used to his occupation that, having begun to speak, he could not stop
himself, and therefore he went on to impress on the jury with much
detail that if they found the prisoners guilty, they would have the
right to give a verdict of guilty; and if they found them not guilty,
to give a verdict of not guilty; and if they found them guilty of one of
the crimes and not of the other, they might give a verdict of guilty
on the one count and of not guilty on the other. Then he explained that
though this right was given them they should use it with reason.
He was going to add that if they gave an affirmative answer to any
question that was put to them they would thereby affirm everything
included in the question, so that if they did not wish to affirm the
whole of the question they should mention the part of the question they
wished to be excepted. But, glancing at the clock, and seeing it was
already five minutes to three, he resolved to trust to their being
intelligent enough to understand this without further comment.
“The facts of this case are the following,” began the president, and
repeated all that had already been said several times by the advocates,
the public prosecutor and the witnesses.
The president spoke, and the members on each side of him listened with
deeply-attentive expressions, but looked from time to time at the clock,
for they considered the speech too long though very good--i.e., such
as it ought to be. The public prosecutor, the lawyers, and, in fact,
everyone in the court, shared the same impression. The president
finished the summing up. Then he found it necessary to tell the jury
what they all knew, or might have found out by reading it up--i.e., how
they were to consider the case, count the votes, in case of a tie to
acquit the prisoners, and so on.
Everything seemed to have been told; but no, the president could not
forego his right of speaking as yet. It was so pleasant to hear the
impressive tones of his own voice, and therefore he found it necessary
to say a few words more about the importance of the rights given to the
jury, how carefully they should use the rights and how they ought not
to abuse them, about their being on their oath, that they were the
conscience of society, that the secrecy of the debating-room should be
considered sacred, etc.
From the time the president commenced his speech, Maslova watched him
without moving her eyes as if afraid of losing a single word; so that
Nekhludoff was not afraid of meeting her eyes and kept looking at her
all the time. And his mind passed through those phases in which a face
which we have not seen for many years first strikes us with the outward
changes brought about during the time of separation, and then gradually
becomes more and more like its old self, when the changes made by
time seem to disappear, and before our spiritual eyes rises only the
principal expression of one exceptional, unique individuality. Yes,
though dressed in a prison cloak, and in spite of the developed figure,
the fulness of the bosom and lower part of the face, in spite of a few
wrinkles on the forehead and temples and the swollen eyes, this was
certainly the same Katusha who, on that Easter eve, had so innocently
looked up to him whom she loved, with her fond, laughing eyes full of
joy and life.
“What a strange coincidence that after ten years, during which I never
saw her, this case should have come up today when I am on the jury, and
that it is in the prisoners’ dock that I see her again! And how will it
end? Oh, dear, if they would only get on quicker.”
Still he would not give in to the feelings of repentance which began to
arise within him. He tried to consider it all as a coincidence, which
would pass without infringing his manner of life. He felt himself in
the position of a puppy, when its master, taking it by the scruff of
its neck, rubs its nose in the mess it has made. The puppy whines, draws
back and wants to get away as far as possible from the effects of its
misdeed, but the pitiless master does not let go.
And so, Nekhludoff, feeling all the repulsiveness of what he had done,
felt also the powerful hand of the Master, but he did not feel the whole
significance of his action yet and would not recognise the Master’s
hand. He did not wish to believe that it was the effect of his deed that
lay before him, but the pitiless hand of the Master held him and he felt
he could not get away. He was still keeping up his courage and sat on
his chair in the first row in his usual self-possessed pose, one leg
carelessly thrown over the other, and playing with his pince-nez. Yet
all the while, in the depths of his soul, he felt the cruelty, cowardice
and baseness, not only of this particular action of his but of his whole
self-willed, depraved, cruel, idle life; and that dreadful veil which
had in some unaccountable manner hidden from him this sin of his and
the whole of his subsequent life was beginning to shake, and he caught
glimpses of what was covered by that veil.
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE TRIAL--THE VERDICT.
At last the president finished his speech, and lifting the list of
questions with a graceful movement of his arm he handed it to the
foreman, who came up to take it. The jury, glad to be able to get
into the debating-court, got up one after the other and left the room,
looking as if a bit ashamed of themselves and again not knowing what
to do with their hands. As soon as the door was closed behind them
a gendarme came up to it, pulled his sword out of the scabbard, and,
holding it up against his shoulder, stood at the door. The judges got up
and went away. The prisoners were also led out. When the jury came
into the debating-room the first thing they did was to take out their
cigarettes, as before, and begin smoking. The sense of the unnaturalness
and falseness of their position, which all of them had experienced
while sitting in their places in the court, passed when they entered the
debating-room and started smoking, and they settled down with a feeling
of relief and at once began an animated conversation.
“‘Tisn’t the girl’s fault. She’s got mixed up in it,” said the kindly
merchant. “We must recommend her to mercy.”
“That’s just what we are going to consider,” said the foreman. “We must
not give way to our personal impressions.”
“The president’s summing up was good,” remarked the colonel.
“Good? Why, it nearly sent me to sleep!”
“The chief point is that the servants could have known nothing about the
money if Maslova had not been in accord with them,” said the clerk of
Jewish extraction.
“Well, do you think that it was she who stole the money?” asked one of
the jury.
“I will never believe it,” cried the kindly merchant; “it was all that
red-eyed hag’s doing.”
“They are a nice lot, all of them,” said the colonel.
“But she says she never went into the room.”
“Oh, believe her by all means.”
“I should not believe that jade, not for the world.”
“Whether you believe her or not does not settle the question,” said the
clerk.
“The girl had the key,” said the colonel.
“What if she had?” retorted the merchant.
“And the ring?”
“But didn’t she say all about it?” again cried the merchant. “The fellow
had a temper of his own, and had had a drop too much besides, and gave
the girl a licking; what could be simpler? Well, then he’s sorry--quite
naturally. ‘There, never mind,’ says he; ‘take this.’ Why, I heard them