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060 - Book Nine Chapter Six · Brothers Karamazov

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Speaker 1: Chapter sixty of The Brothers Karamatzov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, translated
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Speaker 1: by Constance Garnet. This Liebrivox recording is in the public
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Speaker 1: domain recording by Tony Addison. Chapter six. The prosecutor catches
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Speaker 1: Mitya something utterly unexpected and amazing d Mitya followed, He
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Speaker 1: could never, even a minute before, have conceived that any
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Speaker 1: one could behave like that to him, Mitya Karamatzov. What
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Speaker 1: was worst of all? There was something humiliating in it,
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Speaker 1: and on their side, something supercilious and scornful. It was
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Speaker 1: nothing to take off his coat, but he was asked
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Speaker 1: to undress further, or rather not asked, but commanded. He
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Speaker 1: quite understood that from pride and contempt. He submitted without
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Speaker 1: a word. Several peasants accompanied the lawyers and remained on
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Speaker 1: the same side of the curtain. To be ready if
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Speaker 1: force is required, thought Mitya, and perhaps for some other
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Speaker 1: reason too well. Must I take up my shirt too?
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Speaker 1: He asked sharply, But Nikolay Popenovitch did not answer. He
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Speaker 1: was busily engaged with the prosecutor in examining the coat,
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Speaker 1: the trousers, the waistcoat, and the cap, and it was
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Speaker 1: evident that they were both much interested in the scrutiny.
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Speaker 1: They make no bones about it, thought Mitya. They don't
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Speaker 1: keep up the most elementary politeness. I asked you for
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Speaker 1: the second time. Need I take up my shirt or not?
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Speaker 1: He said, still more sharply and irritably. Don't trouble yourself.
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Speaker 1: We will tell you what to do, Nikolai Popenovitch said,
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Speaker 1: and his voice was positively peremptory, or so it seemed
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Speaker 1: to meet you. Meantime, a consultation was going on in
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Speaker 1: undertones between the lawyers. There turned out to be on
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Speaker 1: the coat, especially on the left side at the back,
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Speaker 1: a huge patch of blood, dry and still stiff. There
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Speaker 1: were blood stains on the trousers too. Nikolai Poppanovitch, moreover,
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Speaker 1: in the presence of the peasant witnesses, passed his fingers
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Speaker 1: along the collar, the cups, and all the seams of
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Speaker 1: the coat and trousers, obviously looking for something money. Of course,
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Speaker 1: he didn't even hide from Mitya his suspicion that he
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Speaker 1: was capable of sewing money up in his clothes. He
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Speaker 1: treats me not as an officer, but as a thief,
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Speaker 1: Mitya muttered to himself. They communicated their ideas to one
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Speaker 1: another with amazing frankness. The Secretary, for instance, who was
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Speaker 1: also behind the curtain fussing about and listening, called Nikolai
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Speaker 1: Poppenovitch's attention to the cap, which they were also fingering.
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Speaker 1: You remember Gridyenko, the copying clerk, observed the secretary last
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Speaker 1: summer he received the wages of the Hall office and
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Speaker 1: pretended to have lost the money when he was drunk.
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Speaker 1: And where was it banned? Why? In just such pipings
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Speaker 1: in his cap the hundred rouble notes were screwed up
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Speaker 1: in little rolls and sewed in the piping. Both the
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Speaker 1: lawyers remembered Gridyenko's case perfectly, and so laid aside Mitya's
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Speaker 1: cap and decided that all his clothes must be more
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Speaker 1: thoroughly examined. Later. Excuse me, cried Nikolay Parfenovitch, suddenly noticing
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Speaker 1: that the right cuff of Mitya's shirt was turned in
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Speaker 1: and covered with blood. Excuse me, what's that blood? Yes,
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Speaker 1: Mitya jerted out, that is what blood? And why is
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Speaker 1: the cuf turned in? Mitchya told him how We had
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Speaker 1: got the sleeve stained with blood looking after Grigory, and
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Speaker 1: had turned it inside when he was washing his hands
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Speaker 1: at Perhotem's. You must take off your shirt too, that's
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Speaker 1: very important as material evidence. Mitya flushed red and flew
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Speaker 1: into a rage. What am I to stay naked? He shouted,
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Speaker 1: don't disturb yourself. We will arrange something and mean, we'll
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Speaker 1: take off your socks. You're not joking? Is that really necessary?
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Speaker 1: Mitya's eyes flashed. We are in no mood for joking,
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Speaker 1: answered Nikolay Parfenovitch sternly. Well, if I must, muttered Mitya,
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Speaker 1: and sitting down on the bed, he took off his socks.
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Speaker 1: He felt unbearably awkward. All were clothed while he was naked,
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Speaker 1: and strange to say. When he was undressed, he felt
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Speaker 1: somehow guilty in their presence, and was almost ready to
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Speaker 1: believe himself that he was inferior to them, and that
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Speaker 1: now they had a perfect right to despise him. When
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Speaker 1: all are undressed, one is some are not ashamed, But
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Speaker 1: when one's the only one undressed and everybody is looking,
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Speaker 1: it's degrading. He kept repeating to himself again and again
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Speaker 1: it's like a dream. I've sometimes dreamed of being in
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Speaker 1: such degrading positions. It was a misery to him to
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Speaker 1: take off his socks. They were very dirty, and so
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Speaker 1: were his underclothes, and now every one could see it.
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Speaker 1: And what was worse, he disliked his feet all his life.
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Speaker 1: He had thought both his big toes hideous. He particularly
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Speaker 1: loathed the coarse, flat, crooked nail on the right one,
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Speaker 1: and now they would all see it. Feeling intolerably ashamed,
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Speaker 1: maiden at once and intentionally rougher, he pulled off his
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Speaker 1: shirt himself. Would you like to look anywhere else if
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Speaker 1: you're not ashamed to? No, there's no need to at present? Well,
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Speaker 1: am I to stay naked like this? He added savagely, yes,
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Speaker 1: that can't be helped for the time A kind be
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Speaker 1: set down here for a while. You can wrap yourself
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Speaker 1: in a quilt from the bed, and I ask you
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Speaker 1: to all this. All the things were shown to the witnesses,
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Speaker 1: the report of the search was drawn up, and at
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Speaker 1: last Nikolai Poffenovitch went out and the clothes were carried
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Speaker 1: out after him. Ipolit Kirillovitch went out to Mitya was
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Speaker 1: left alone with the peasants, who stood in silence, never
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Speaker 1: taking their eyes up him. Mitya wrapped himself up in
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Speaker 1: the quilt. He felt cold, his bare feet stuck out,
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Speaker 1: and he couldn't pull the quilt over so as to
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Speaker 1: cover them. Nikolai pof Panovitch seemed to be gone a
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Speaker 1: long time, an insupperable time. He thinks of me as
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Speaker 1: a puppy, thought Mitya, gnashing his teeth. That rotten pussig
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Speaker 1: has gone to contemptuous. No doubt it disgusted them to
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Speaker 1: see me naked. Mitya imagined, however, that his clothes would
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Speaker 1: be examined and returned to him. But what was his
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Speaker 1: indignation when Nikolai Popanovitch came back with quite different clothes,
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Speaker 1: brought in behind him by a peasant. Here are clothes
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Speaker 1: for you, he observed airily, seeming well satisfied with the
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Speaker 1: success of his mission. Mister Kalganov has kindly provided these
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Speaker 1: for this unusual emergency, as well as a clean shirt.
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Speaker 1: Luckily he had them all in his trunk. You can
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Speaker 1: keep your own socks and underclothes. Mitya flew into a passion.
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Speaker 1: I won't have other people's clothes, He shouted, menacingly, give
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Speaker 1: me my own. It's impossible, give me my own, and
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Speaker 1: Kalganov and his clothes too. It was a long time
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Speaker 1: before they could persuade him, but they succeeded somehow in
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Speaker 1: quieting him down. They impressed upon him that his clothes,
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Speaker 1: being stained with blood, must be included with the other
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Speaker 1: material evidence, and that they had not even the right
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Speaker 1: to let him have them. Now taking into consideration the
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Speaker 1: possible outcome of the case, Mitya at last understood this.
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Speaker 1: He subsided into gloomy silence and hurriedly dressed himself. He
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Speaker 1: merely observed as he put them on that the clothes
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Speaker 1: were much better than his old ones, and that he
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Speaker 1: disliked gaining by the change. The coat was, besides, ridiculously tight,
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Speaker 1: Am I to be dressed up like a fool for
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Speaker 1: your amusement? They urged upon him again that he was exaggerating,
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Speaker 1: that Kalganov was only a little taller, so that only
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Speaker 1: the trousers might be a little too long. But the
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Speaker 1: coat turned out to be really tight in the shoulders.
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Speaker 1: Damn it all, I can hardly button it. Mitya grumbled,
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Speaker 1: be so good as to tell mister Kalganov from me
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Speaker 1: that I didn't ask for his clothes, and it's not
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Speaker 1: my doing that they've dressed me up like a clown.
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Speaker 1: He understands that and is sorry. I mean, not sorry
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Speaker 1: to lend you his clothes, but sorry about all this business,
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Speaker 1: mumbled Nikolai Popenovitch confound his sorrow. Well when now might
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Speaker 1: go on sitting here? He was asked to go back
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Speaker 1: to the other room. Mitya went in, scowling with anger
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Speaker 1: and try to avoid looking at anyone dressed in another
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Speaker 1: man's clothes. He felt himself disgraced, even in the eyes
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Speaker 1: of the peasants and of Trifon Borissovitch, whose face appeared
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Speaker 1: for some reason in the doorway and vanished immediately. He's
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Speaker 1: come to look at me dressed up, thought Mitya. He
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Speaker 1: sat down on the same chair as before. He had
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Speaker 1: an absurd, nightmarish feeling, as though he were out of
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Speaker 1: his mind. Well, what now are you going to plog me?
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Speaker 1: That's all that, lep boyu, he said, clenching his teeth
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Speaker 1: and addressing the prosecutor. He would not turn to Nikolay Popenovitch,
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Speaker 1: as though he disdained to speak to him. He looked
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Speaker 1: too closely at my socks and turned them inside out,
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Speaker 1: on purpose to show everyone how dirty they were. The scoundrel. Well,
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Speaker 1: now we must proceed to the examination of witnesses, observed
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Speaker 1: Nikolai Parfenovitch, as though in reply to Mitya's question. Yes,
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Speaker 1: said the prosecutor thoughtfully, as though reflecting on something. We've
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Speaker 1: done what we could in your interest. Dmitri Fyodorovitch and
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Speaker 1: Nikolay Parfenovitch went on, But having received from you such
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Speaker 1: an uncompromising refusal to explain to us the source from
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Speaker 1: which you obtained the money found upon you, we are
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Speaker 1: at the present moment. What is the stone in your ring?
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Speaker 1: Mitya interrupted suddenly, as though were awakening from a reverie.
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Speaker 1: He pointed to one of the three large rings adorning
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Speaker 1: Nikolay Parfenovitch's right hand ring, repeated Nikolay Parfenovitch with surprise. Yes,
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Speaker 1: at that one on your middle finger, with the little
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Speaker 1: veins in it. What stone is that? Mitya persisted like
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Speaker 1: a peevish child. That's a smoky topaz, said Nikolay Paffen
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Speaker 1: a bit smiling. Would you like to look at it?
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Speaker 1: I'll take it off. No, don't take it off, cried Mitya, furiously,
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Speaker 1: suddenly waking up and angry with himself. Don't take it off.
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Speaker 1: There's no need. Damn it. Gentlemen, you've sullied my heart.
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Speaker 1: Can you suppose that I would conceal it from you
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Speaker 1: if I had really killed my father, that I would
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Speaker 1: shuffle light and hide myself. No, that's not like Dmitri
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Speaker 1: karamutself that he couldn't do. And if I were guilty,
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Speaker 1: I swear I shouldn't have waited for your coming off
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Speaker 1: with a sunrise, as I meant at first, but should
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Speaker 1: have killed myself before this, without waiting for the dorm
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Speaker 1: I know that about myself now. I couldn't have learnt
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Speaker 1: so much in twenty years as I've found out in
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Speaker 1: this accursed night. And should I have been like this
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Speaker 1: on this night and at this moment sitting with you?
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Speaker 1: Could I have dogged like this? Could I have moved
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Speaker 1: like this? Could I have looked at you and at
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Speaker 1: the world like this? If I had really been the
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Speaker 1: murderer of my father. When the very thought of having
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Speaker 1: accidentally killed Gregory gave me no peace all night, not
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Speaker 1: from fear, Oh not simply from fear of your punishment,
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Speaker 1: the disgrace of it. And do you expect me to
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Speaker 1: be open with such scuppers as you, who see nothing
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Speaker 1: and believe in nothing, blind moles and scuppers. And to
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Speaker 1: tell you another nasty thing, I've done, another disgrace, even
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Speaker 1: if that would save me from your accusation. No better, Siberia.
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Speaker 1: The man who opened the door to my father and
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Speaker 1: went in at that door, he killed him, he robbed him.
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Speaker 1: Who was he? I'm racking my brains and come think
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Speaker 1: of but I can tell you it was not Dmitric
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Speaker 1: caramets Up. And that's all I can tell you. And
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Speaker 1: that's enough enough. Leave me alone. Ex Army punished me,
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Speaker 1: but don't bother me any more. I'll say no more.
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Speaker 1: Calia witness says Mitya uttered his sudden monolog as though
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Speaker 1: we were determined to be absolutely silent for the future.
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Speaker 1: The prosecutor watched him the whole time, and only when
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Speaker 1: he had ceased speaking, observed as though it were the
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Speaker 1: most ordinary thing, with the most frigid and composed air.
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Speaker 1: Oh about the open door of which you spoke just now,
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Speaker 1: we may as well inform you, by the way, now
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Speaker 1: of a very interesting piece of evidence of the greatest importance,
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Speaker 1: both to you and to us, that has been given
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Speaker 1: us by Grigory, the old man you wounded. On his recovery,
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Speaker 1: he clearly and emphatically stated in reply to our questions, that,
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Speaker 1: when on coming out to the steps and hearing a
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Speaker 1: noise in the garden, he made up his mind to
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Speaker 1: go into it through the little gate, which stood open,
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Speaker 1: before he noticed you running, as you have told us,
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Speaker 1: already in the dark, from the open window where you
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Speaker 1: saw your father. He Grigory glanced to the left, and,
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Speaker 1: while noticing the open window, observed at the same time,
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Speaker 1: much nearer to him, the door standing wide open, that door,
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Speaker 1: or which you have stated to have been shut the
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Speaker 1: whole time you were in the garden. I will not
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Speaker 1: conceal from you that Grigory himself confidently affirms and bears
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Speaker 1: witness that you must have run from that door, though
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Speaker 1: of course he did not see you do so with
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Speaker 1: his own eyes, since he only noticed you first some
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Speaker 1: distance away in the garden, running towards the fence. Mitya
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Speaker 1: had leaped up from his chair half way through this
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Speaker 1: speech nonsense, he yelled in a sudden frenzy. It's a
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Speaker 1: bare faced lilye. He couldn't have seen the door open
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Speaker 1: because it was shut his bying. I consider it my
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Speaker 1: duty to repeat that he is firm in his statement.
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Speaker 1: He does not waver. He adheres to it. We've cross
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Speaker 1: examined him several times. Precisely, I have cross examined him
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Speaker 1: several times. Nikolay Parfenovitch confirmed warmly. It's false. False. It's
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Speaker 1: either an attempt to spander me of the hallucination of
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Speaker 1: a madman. Mitya still shouted, he's simply raving from loss
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Speaker 1: of blood from the wound. He must have fancied it
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Speaker 1: when he came to. He's raving. Yes, but he noticed
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Speaker 1: the open door, not when he came to after his injuries,
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Speaker 1: but before that, as soon as he went into the
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Speaker 1: garden from the lodge. But it's false, it's false. It
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Speaker 1: can't be. So he's standering me from spite. He couldn't
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Speaker 1: have seen it. I didn't come from the dark, gasped Mitya.
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Speaker 1: The prosecutor turned to Nikolay Parfenovitch and said to him, impressibly,
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Speaker 1: confunt him with it. Do you recognize this object? Nikolay
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Speaker 1: Parfenovitch laid upon the table a large and thick official
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Speaker 1: envelope on which three seals still remained intact. The envelope
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Speaker 1: was empty and slid open at one end. Mitya stared
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Speaker 1: at it with open eyes. It it must be the
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Speaker 1: envelope of my father's, the envelope that contained the three
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Speaker 1: thousand roubles. And if there's inscribed on it, allow me
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Speaker 1: for my little chicken. Yes, three thousand, he shouted. Do
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Speaker 1: you see three thousand? Do you see? Of course we see,
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Speaker 1: but we didn't find the money in it. It was
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Speaker 1: empty and lying on the floor by the bed behind
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Speaker 1: the screen. For some seconds, Mitya stood as though thunderstruck. Gentlemen,
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Speaker 1: it's my diacup, he shouted suddenly at the top of
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Speaker 1: his voice. It's he who's murdered him. He's rubbed em.
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Speaker 1: No one else knew where the old man hit the envelope.
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Speaker 1: It's smut diacop. That's clear. Note, But you too knew
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Speaker 1: of the envelope and that it was under the pillow.
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Speaker 1: I never knew it. I've never seen it. This is
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Speaker 1: the first time I've looked at it. I'd only heard
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Speaker 1: of it from Smut diacop he was the only one
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Speaker 1: he knew where the old man kept it hidden. I
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Speaker 1: didn't know. Mitya was completely breathless. But you told us
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Speaker 1: yourself that the envelope was under your deceased father's pillow.
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Speaker 1: You especially stated that it was under the pillow, so
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Speaker 1: you must have known it. We've got it written down,
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Speaker 1: confirmed Nikolai Poppanovitch. Nonsense, it's absurd. I had no idea
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Speaker 1: it was under the pillow. And perhaps it wasn't under
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Speaker 1: the pillow at all. It was just a chance guessed
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Speaker 1: that it was under the pillow. What does my Diacov say?
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Speaker 1: Have you asked him where it was? What does my
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Speaker 1: Diacov say? That's the chief point. And I went out
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Speaker 1: of my way to tell lies against myself. I told you,
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Speaker 1: without thinking that it was under the pillow. And now
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Speaker 1: you're oh, you know, I once says the wrong thing
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Speaker 1: without meaning it. No one knew but Smart Diakov, only
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Speaker 1: Smart Diakov and no one else. He didn't even dumb
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Speaker 1: me where it was. But it's his doing, his doing.
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Speaker 1: Does no about it. He murdered him. That's as clear
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Speaker 1: as daylight. Now, Mitya exclaimed, more and more frantically, repeating
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Speaker 1: himself incoherently, and growing more and more exasperated and excited.
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Speaker 1: You must understand that and arrest him at once. He
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Speaker 1: must have killed him while I was running away, and
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Speaker 1: while Gregory was unconscious. That's clear now. He gave the signal,
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Speaker 1: and Father opened to him. For no one but he
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Speaker 1: knew the signal. And without the signal, Father would never
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Speaker 1: have opened the door. But you're again forgetting the circumstance,
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Speaker 1: the prosecutor observed, still speaking with the same restraint, though
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Speaker 1: with a note of triumph, that there was no need
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Speaker 1: to give the signal if the door already stood open
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Speaker 1: when you were there, while you were in the garden.
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Speaker 1: The door, the door muttered, Mitya, and he stared speechless
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Speaker 1: at the prosecutor. He sank back helpless in his chair.
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Speaker 1: All were silent. Yes, the door. It's a nightmare. God
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Speaker 1: is against me, he exclaimed, staring before him in complete stupefaction. Come,
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Speaker 1: you see, the prosecutor went on with dignity, and you
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Speaker 1: can judge for yourself. Dmitri Fyodorovich. On the one hand,
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Speaker 1: we have the evidence of the open door from which
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Speaker 1: you ran at, a fact which overwhelms you and us
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Speaker 1: on the other side, you're incomprehensible, persistent, and so to speak,
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Speaker 1: obdurate silence with regard to the source from which you
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Speaker 1: obtained the money, which was so suddenly seen in your hands,
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Speaker 1: when only three hours earlier on your own showing you
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Speaker 1: pledged your pistols for the sake of ten roubles. In
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Speaker 1: view of all these facts, judge for yourself, what are
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Speaker 1: we to believe and what can we depend upon? And
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Speaker 1: don't accuse us of being frigid, cynical scoffing people who
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Speaker 1: were incapable of believing in the generous impulses of your heart,
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Speaker 1: try to enter into our position. Mitya was indescribably agitated.
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Speaker 1: He turned pale, very well. He exclaimed, suddenly, I will
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Speaker 1: tell you my secret. I'll tell you where I got
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Speaker 1: the money. I'll reveal my shame that I may not
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Speaker 1: have to blame myself or you hereafter, and believe me.
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Speaker 1: Dmitri Fyodorovitch put in Nikolay Parfenovitch, in a voice of
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Speaker 1: almost pathetic delight, that every sincere and complete confession on
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Speaker 1: your part at this moment may later on have an
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Speaker 1: immense influence in your favor and may indeed moreover, But
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Speaker 1: the prosecutor gave a slight shove under the table, and
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Speaker 1: he checked himself in time. Mitya, it is true, had
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Speaker 1: not heard him. End of Chapter sixty