Resurrection - Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy (interesting novels in english .TXT) 📗

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mention the impossibility of considering himself a splendid,

noble, high-minded fellow, as he did and had to do to go on

living his life boldly and merrily. There was only one solution

of the problem—i.e., not to think about it. He succeeded in doing

so. The life he was now entering upon, the new surroundings, new

friends, the war, all helped him to forget. And the longer he

lived, the less he thought about it, until at last he forgot it

completely.

 

Once only, when, after the war, he went to see his aunts in hopes

of meeting Katusha, and heard that soon after his last visit she

had left, and that his aunts had heard she had been confined

somewhere or other and had gone quite to the bad, his heart

ached. According to the time of her confinement, the child might

or might not have been his. His aunts said she had gone wrong,

that she had inherited her mother’s depraved nature, and he was

pleased to hear this opinion of his aunts’. It seemed to acquit

him. At first he thought of trying to find her and her child, but

then, just because in the depths of his soul he felt so ashamed

and pained when thinking about her, he did not make the necessary

effort to find her, but tried to forget his sin again and ceased

to think about it. And now this strange coincidence brought it

all back to his memory, and demanded from him the acknowledgment

of the heartless, cruel cowardice which had made it possible for

him to live these nine years with such a sin on his conscience.

But he was still far from such an acknowledgment, and his only

fear was that everything might now be found out, and that she or

her advocate might recount it all and put him to shame before

every one present.

 

CHAPTER XIX.

 

THE TRIAL—RESUMPTION.

 

In this state of mind Nekhludoff left the Court and went into the

jurymen’s room. He sat by the window smoking all the while, and

hearing what was being said around him.

 

The merry merchant seemed with all his heart to sympathise with

Smelkoff’s way of spending his time. “There, old fellow, that was

something like! Real Siberian fashion! He knew what he was about,

no fear! That’s the sort of wench for me.”

 

The foreman was stating his conviction, that in some way or other

the expert’s conclusions were the important thing. Peter

Gerasimovitch was joking about something with the Jewish clerk,

and they burst out laughing. Nekhludoff answered all the

questions addressed to him in monosyllables and longed only to be

left in peace.

 

When the usher, with his sideways gait, called the jury back to

the Court, Nekhludoff was seized with fear, as if he were not

going to judge, but to be judged. In the depth of his soul he

felt that he was a scoundrel, who ought to be ashamed to look

people in the face, yet, by sheer force of habit, he stepped on

to the platform in his usual self-possessed manner, and sat down,

crossing his legs and playing with his pince-nez.

 

The prisoners had also been led out, and were now brought in

again. There were some new faces in the Court witnesses, and

Nekhludoff noticed that Maslova could not take her eyes off a

very fat woman who sat in the row in front of the grating, very

showily dressed in silk and velvet, a high hat with a large bow

on her head, and an elegant little reticule on her arm, which was

bare to the elbow. This was, as he subsequently found out, one of

the witnesses, the mistress of the establishment to which Maslova

had belonged.

 

The examination of the witnesses commenced: they were asked their

names, religion, etc. Then, after some consultation as to whether

the witnesses were to be sworn in or not, the old priest came in

again, dragging his legs with difficulty, and, again arranging

the golden cross on his breast, swore the witnesses and the

expert in the same quiet manner, and with the same assurance that

he was doing something useful and important.

 

The witnesses having been sworn, all but Kitaeva, the keeper of

the house, were led out again. She was asked what she knew about

this affair. Kitaeva nodded her head and the big hat at every

sentence and smiled affectedly. She gave a very full and

intelligent account, speaking with a strong German accent. First

of all, the hotel servant Simeon, whom she knew, came to her

establishment on behalf of a rich Siberian merchant, and she sent

Lubov back with him. After a time Lubov returned with the

merchant. The merchant was already somewhat intoxicated—she

smiled as she said this—and went on drinking and treating the

girls. He was short of money. He sent this same Lubov to his

lodgings. He had taken a “predilection” to her. She looked at the

prisoner as she said this.

 

Nekhludoff thought he saw Maslova smile here, and this seemed

disgusting to him. A strange, indefinite feeling of loathing,

mingled with suffering, arose in him.

 

“And what was your opinion of Maslova?” asked the blushing and

confused applicant for a judicial post, appointed to act as

Maslova’s advocate.

 

“Zee ferry pesht,” answered Kitaeva. “Zee yoong voman is etucated

and elecant. She was prought up in a coot family and can reat

French. She tid have a trop too moch sometimes, put nefer forcot

herself. A ferry coot girl.”

 

Katusha looked at the woman, then suddenly turned her eyes on the

jury and fixed them on Nekhludoff, and her face grew serious and

even severe. One of her serious eyes squinted, and those two

strange eyes for some time gazed at Nekhludoff, who, in spite of

the terrors that seized him, could not take his look off these

squinting eyes, with their bright, clear whites.

 

He thought of that dreadful night, with its mist, the ice

breaking on the river below, and when the waning moon, with horns

turned upwards, that had risen towards morning, lit up something

black and weird. These two black eyes now looking at him reminded

him of this weird, black something. “She has recognised me,” he

thought, and Nekhludoff shrank as if expecting a blow. But she

had not recognised him. She sighed quietly and again looked at

the president. Nekhludoff also sighed. “Oh, if it would only get

on quicker,” he thought.

 

He now felt the same loathing and pity and vexation as when, out

shooting, he was obliged to kill a wounded bird. The wounded bird

struggles in the game bag. One is disgusted and yet feels pity,

and one is in a hurry to kill the bird and forget it.

 

Such mixed feelings filled Nekhludoff’s breast as he sat

listening to the examination of the witnesses.

 

CHAPTER XX.

 

THE TRIAL—THE MEDICAL REPORT.

 

But, as if to spite him, the case dragged out to a great length.

After each witness had been examined separately and the expert

last of all, and a great number of useless questions had been

put, with the usual air of importance, by the public prosecutor

and by both advocates, the president invited the jury to examine

the objects offered as material evidence. They consisted of an

enormous diamond ring, which had evidently been worn on the first

finger, and a test tube in which the poison had been analysed.

These things had seals and labels attached to them.

 

Just as the witnesses were about to look at these things, the

public prosecutor rose and demanded that before they did this the

results of the doctor’s examination of the body should be read.

The president, who was hurrying the business through as fast as

he could in order to visit his Swiss friend, though he knew that

the reading of this paper could have no other effect than that of

producing weariness and putting off the dinner hour, and that the

public prosecutor wanted it read simply because he knew he had a

right to demand it, had no option but to express his consent.

 

The secretary got out the doctor’s report and again began to read

in his weary lisping voice, making no distinction between the

“r’s” and “l’s.”

 

The external examination proved that:

 

“1. Theropont Smelkoff’s height was six feet five inches.

 

“Not so bad, that. A very good size,” whispered the merchant,

with interest, into Nekhludoff’s ear.

 

2. He looked about 40 years of age.

 

3. The body was of a swollen appearance.

 

4. The flesh was of a greenish colour, with dark spots in several

places.

 

5. The skin was raised in blisters of different sizes and in

places had come off in large pieces.

 

6. The hair was chestnut; it was thick, and separated easily from

the skin when touched.

 

7. The eyeballs protruded from their sockets and the cornea had

grown dim.

 

8. Out of the nostrils, both ears, and the mouth oozed serous

liquid; the mouth was half open.

 

9. The neck had almost disappeared, owing to the swelling of the

face and chest.”

 

And so on and so on.

 

Four pages were covered with the 27 paragraphs describing all the

details of the external examination of the enormous, fat,

swollen, and decomposing body of the merchant who had been making

merry in the town. The indefinite loathing that Nekhludoff felt

was increased by the description of the corpse. Katusha’s life,

and the scrum oozing from the nostrils of the corpse, and the

eyes that protruded out of their sockets, and his own treatment

of her—all seemed to belong to the same order of things, and he

felt surrounded and wholly absorbed by things of the same nature.

 

When the reading of the report of the external examination was

ended, the president heaved a sigh and raised his hand, hoping it

was finished; but the secretary at once went on to the

description of the internal examination. The president’s head

again dropped into his hand and he shut his eyes. The merchant

next to Nekhludoff could hardly keep awake, and now and then his

body swayed to and fro. The prisoners and the gendarmes sat

perfectly quiet.

 

The internal examination showed that:

 

“1. The skin was easily detachable from the bones of the skull,

and there was no coagulated blood.

 

“2. The bones of the skull were of average thickness and in sound

condition.

 

“3. On the membrane of the brain there were two discoloured

spots about four inches long, the membrane itself being of a dull

white.” And so on for 13 paragraphs more. Then followed the names

and signatures of the assistants, and the doctor’s conclusion

showing that the changes observed in the stomach, and to a lesser

degree in the bowels and kidneys, at the postmortem examination,

and described in the official report, gave great probability to

the conclusion that Smelkoff’s death was caused by poison which

had entered his stomach mixed with alcohol. To decide from the

state of the stomach what poison had been introduced was

difficult; but it was necessary to suppose that the poison

entered the stomach mixed with alcohol, since a great quantity of

the latter was found in Smelkoff’s stomach.

 

“He could drink, and no mistake,” again whispered the merchant,

who had just waked up.

 

The reading of this report had taken a full hour, but it had not

satisfied the public prosecutor, for, when it had been read

through and the president turned to him, saying, “I suppose it is

superfluous to read the report of the examination of the internal

organs?” he answered in a severe tone, without looking