The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky (best e book reader for android txt) 📖
- Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky
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tragic crime to the habits that had become ingrained by ages of
serfdom and the distressed condition of Russia, due to the lack of
appropriate institutions. He was, in fact, allowed some latitude of
speech. This was the first occasion on which Rakitin showed what he
could do, and attracted notice. The prosecutor knew that the witness
was preparing a magazine article on the case, and afterwards in his
speech, as we shall see later, quoted some ideas from the article,
showing that he had seen it already. The picture drawn by the
witness was a gloomy and sinister one, and greatly strengthened the
case for the prosecution. Altogether, Rakatin’s discourse fascinated
the public by its independence and the extraordinary nobility of its
ideas. There were even two or three outbreaks of applause when he
spoke of serfdom and the distressed condition of Russia.
But Rakitin, in his youthful ardour, made a slight blunder, of
which the counsel for the defence at once adroitly took advantage.
Answering certain questions about Grushenka and carried away by the
loftiness of his own sentiments and his success, of which he was, of
course, conscious, he went so far as to speak somewhat
contemptuously of Agrafena Alexandrovna as “the kept mistress of
Samsonov.” He would have given a good deal to take back his words
afterwards, for Fetyukovitch caught him out over it at once. And it
was all because Rakitin had not reckoned on the lawyer having been
able to become so intimately acquainted with every detail in so
short a time.
“Allow me to ask,” began the counsel for the defence, with the
most affable and even respectful smile, “you are, of course, the
same Mr. Rakitin whose pamphlet, The Life of the Deceased Elder,
Father Zossima, published by the diocesan authorities, full of
profound and religious reflections and preceded by an excellent and
devout dedication to the bishop, I have just read with such pleasure?”
“I did not write it for publication… it was published
afterwards,” muttered Rakitin, for some reason fearfully
disconcerted and almost ashamed.
“Oh, that’s excellent! A thinker like you can, and indeed ought
to, take the widest view of every social question. Your most
instructive pamphlet has been widely circulated through the
patronage of the bishop, and has been of appreciable service…. But
this is the chief thing I should like to learn from you. You stated
just now that you were very intimately acquainted with Madame
Svyetlov.” (It must be noted that Grushenka’s surname was Svyetlov.
I heard it for the first time that day, during the case.)
“I cannot answer for all my acquaintances…. I am a young
man… and who can be responsible for everyone he meets?” cried
Rakitin, flushing all over.
“I understand, I quite understand,” cried Fetyukovitch; as
though he, too, were embarrassed and in haste to excuse himself. “You,
like any other, might well be interested in an acquaintance with a
young and beautiful woman who would readily entertain the elite of the
youth of the neighbourhood, but… I only wanted to know… It has
come to my knowledge, that Madame Svyetlov was particularly anxious
a couple of months ago to make the acquaintance of the younger
Karamazov, Alexey Fyodorovitch, and promised you twenty-five
roubles, if you would bring him to her in his monastic dress. And that
actually took place on the evening of the day on which the terrible
crime, which is the subject of the present investigation, was
committed. You brought Alexey Karamazov to Madame Svyetlov, and did
you receive the twenty-five roubles from Madame Svyetlov as a
reward, that’s what I wanted to hear from you?”
“It was a joke…. I don’t, see of what interest that can be to
you…. I took it for a joke… meaning to give it back later…”
“Then you did take-but you have not given it back yet… or
have you?”
“That’s of no consequence,” muttered Rakitin, “I refuse to
answer such questions…. Of course, I shall give it back.”
The President intervened, but Fetyukovitch declared he had no more
questions to ask of the witness. Mr. Rakitin left the witness-box
not absolutely without a stain upon his character. The effect left
by the lofty idealism of his speech was somewhat marred, and
Fetyukovitch’s expression, as he watched him walk away, seemed to
suggest to the public “this is a specimen of the lofty-minded
persons who accuse him.” I remember that this incident, too, did not
pass off without an outbreak from Mitya. Enraged by the tone in
which Rakitin had referred to Grushenka, he suddenly shouted
“Bernard!” When, after Rakitin’s cross-examination, the President
asked the prisoner if he had anything to say, Mitya cried loudly:
“Since I’ve been arrested, he has borrowed money from me! He is
a contemptible Bernard and opportunist, and he doesn’t believe in God;
he took the bishop in!”
Mitya of course, was pulled up again for the intemperance of his
language, but Rakitin was done for. Captain Snegiryov’s evidence was a
failure, too, but from quite a different reason. He appeared in ragged
and dirty clothes, muddy boots, and in spite of the vigilance and
expert observation of the police officers, he turned out to be
hopelessly drunk. On being asked about Mitya’s attack upon him, he
refused to answer.
“God bless him. Ilusha told me not to. God will make it up to me
yonder.”
“Who told you not to tell? Of whom are you talking?”
“Ilusha, my little son. ‘Father, father, how he insulted you!’
He said that at the stone. Now he is dying…”
The captain suddenly began sobbing, and plumped down on His
knees before the President. He was hurriedly led away amidst the
laughter of the public. The effect prepared by the prosecutor did
not come off at all.
Fetyukovitch went on making the most of every opportunity, and
amazed people more and more by his minute knowledge of the case. Thus,
for example, Trifon Borissovitch made a great impression, of course,
very prejudicial to Mitya. He calculated almost on his fingers that on
his first visit to Mokroe, Mitya must have spent three thousand
roubles, “or very little less. Just think what he squandered on
those gypsy girls alone! And as for our lousy peasants, it wasn’t a
case of flinging half a rouble in the street, he made them presents of
twenty-five roubles each, at least, he didn’t give them less. And what
a lot of money was simply stolen from him! And if anyone did steal, he
did not leave a receipt. How could one catch the thief when he was
flinging his money away all the time? Our peasants are robbers, you
know; they have no care for their souls. And the way he went on with
the girls, our village girls! They’re completely set up since then,
I tell you, they used to be poor.” He recalled, in fact, every item of
expense and added it all up. So the theory that only fifteen hundred
had been spent and the rest had been put aside in a little bag
seemed inconceivable.
“I saw three thousand as clear as a penny in his hands, I saw it
with my own eyes; I should think I ought to know how to reckon money,”
cried Trifon Borissovitch, doing his best to satisfy “his betters.”
When Fetyukovitch had to cross-examine him, he scarcely tried to
refute his evidence, but began asking him about an incident at the
first carousal at Mokroe, a month before the arrest, when Timofey
and another peasant called Akim had picked up on the floor in the
passage a hundred roubles dropped by Mitya when he was drunk, and
had given them to Trifon Borissovitch and received a rouble each
from him for doing so. “Well,” asked the lawyer,” did you give that
hundred roubles back to Mr. Karamazov?” Trifon Borissovitch shuffled
in vain…. He was obliged, after the peasants had been examined, to
admit the finding of the hundred roubles, only adding that he had
religiously returned it all to Dmitri Fyodorovitch “in perfect
honesty, and it’s only because his honour was in liquor at the time,
he wouldn’t remember it.” But, as he had denied the incident of the
hundred roubles till the peasants had been called to prove it, his
evidence as to returning the money to Mitya was naturally regarded
with great suspicion. So one of the most dangerous witnesses brought
forward by the prosecution was again discredited.
The same thing happened with the Poles. They took up an attitude
of pride and independence; they vociferated loudly that they had
both been in the service of the Crown, and that “Pan Mitya” had
offered them three thousand “to buy their honour,” and that they had
seen a large sum of money in his hands. Pan Mussyalovitch introduced a
terrible number of Polish words into his sentences, and seeing that
this only increased his consequence in the eyes of the President and
the prosecutor, grew more and more pompous, and ended by talking in
Polish altogether. But Fetyukovitch caught them, too, in his snares.
Trifon Borissovitch, recalled, was forced, in spite of his evasions,
to admit that Pan Vrublevsky had substituted another pack of cards for
the one he had provided, and that Pan Mussyalovitch had cheated during
the game. Kalgonov confirmed this, and both the Poles left the
witness-box with damaged reputations, amidst laughter from the public.
Then exactly the same thing happened with almost all the most
dangerous witnesses. Fetyukovitch succeeded in casting a slur on all
of them, and dismissing them with a certain derision. The lawyers
and experts were lost in admiration, and were only at a loss to
understand what good purpose could be served by it, for all, I repeat,
felt that the case for the prosecution could not be refuted, but was
growing more and more tragically overwhelming. But from the confidence
of the “great magician” they saw that he was serene, and they
waited, feeling that “such a man” had not come from Petersburg for
nothing, and that he was not a man to return unsuccessful.
The Medical Experts and a Pound of Nuts
THE evidence of the medical experts, too, was of little use to the
prisoner. And it appeared later that Fetyukovitch had not reckoned
much upon it. The medical line of defence had only been taken up
through the insistence of Katerina Ivanovna, who had sent for a
celebrated doctor from Moscow on purpose. The case for the defence
could, of course, lose nothing by it and might, with luck, gain
something from it. There was, however, an element of comedy about
it, through the difference of opinion of the doctors. The medical
experts were the famous doctor from Moscow, our doctor, Herzenstube,
and the young doctor, Varvinsky. The two latter appeared also as
witnesses for the prosecution.
The first to be called in the capacity of expert was Doctor
Herzenstube. He was a grey and bald old man of seventy, of middle
height and sturdy build. He was much esteemed and respected by
everyone in the town. He was a conscientious doctor and an excellent
and pious man, a Hernguter or Moravian brother, I am not quite sure
which. He had been living amongst us for many years and behaved with
wonderful dignity. He was a kindhearted and humane man. He treated
the sick poor and peasants for nothing, visited them in their slums
and huts, and left money for medicine, but he was as obstinate as a
mule. If once he had taken an idea into his head, there was no shaking
it. Almost everyone in the town was aware, by the way, that the famous
doctor had, within the first two or three
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