The possessed or, The devils
"Are you going?" she asked almost timidly.
"I am going," answered Dasha.
"Get ready! We'll go together."
Dasha looked at her inquiringly.
"What is there left for me to do here? What difficulty will it make?
I'll be naturalised in Uri, too, and live in the valley.... Don't be
uneasy, I won't be in the way."
They began packing quickly to be in time to catch the midday train.
But in less than half an hour's time Alexey Yegorytch arrived from
Skvoreshniki. He announced that Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch had suddenly
arrived that morning by the early train, and was now at Skvoreshniki but
"in such a state that his honour did not answer any questions, walked
through all the rooms and shut himself up in his own wing...."
"Though I received no orders I thought it best to come and inform you,"
Alexey Yegorytch concluded with a very significant expression.
Varvara Petrovna looked at him searchingly and did not question him. The
carriage was got ready instantly. Varvara Petrovna set off with Dasha.
They say that she kept crossing herself on the journey.
In Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch's wing of the house all the doors were open
and he was nowhere to be seen.
"Wouldn't he be upstairs?" Fomushka ventured.
It was remarkable that several servants followed Varvara Petrovna while
the others all stood waiting in the drawing-room. They would never have
dared to commit such a breach of etiquette before. Varvara Petrovna saw
it and said nothing.
They went upstairs. There there were three rooms; but they found no one
there.
"Wouldn't his honour have gone up there?" someone suggested, pointing
to the door of the loft. And in fact, the door of the loft which was
always closed had been opened and was standing ajar. The loft was right
under the roof and was reached by a long, very steep and narrow wooden
ladder. There was a sort of little room up there too.
"I am not going up there. Why should he go up there?" said Varvara
Petrovna, turning terribly pale as she looked at the servants. They
gazed back at her and said nothing. Dasha was trembling.
Varvara Petrovna rushed up the ladder; Dasha followed, but she had
hardly entered the loft when she uttered a scream and fell senseless.
The citizen of the canton of Uri was hanging there behind the door. On
the table lay a piece of paper with the words in pencil: "No one is to
blame, I did it myself." Beside it on the table lay a hammer, a piece
of soap, and a large nail--obviously an extra one in case of need. The
strong silk cord upon which Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch had hanged himself
had evidently been chosen and prepared beforehand and was thickly
smeared with soap. Everything proved that there had been premeditation
and consciousness up to the last moment.
At the inquest our doctors absolutely and emphatically rejected all idea
of insanity.
THE END