The Complete Works of Leo Tolstoy (25+ Works with active table of contents)

by Leo Tolstoy

  By an agreement with the president this case was to be tried in the coming session at a provincial town, where there would be more peasants, and, therefore, more chances of conviction.

  The movement in the corridor increased. The people crowded most at the doors of the Civil Court, in which the case that the dignified man talked about was being heard.

  An interval in the proceeding occurred, and the old woman came out of the court, whose property that genius of an advocate had found means of getting for his client, a person versed in law who had no right to it whatever. The judges knew all about the case, and the advocate and his client knew it better still, but the move they had invented was such that it was impossible not to take the old woman's property and not to hand it over to the person versed in law.

  The old woman was stout, well dressed, and had enormous flowers on her bonnet; she stopped as she came out of the door, and spreading out her short fat arms and turning to her advocate, she kept repeating. "What does it all mean? just fancy!"

  The advocate was looking at the flowers in her bonnet, and evidently not listening to her, but considering some question or other.

  Next to the old woman, out of the door of the Civil Court, his broad, starched shirt front glistening from under his low-cut waistcoat, with a self-satisfied look on his face, came the celebrated advocate who had managed to arrange matters so that the old woman lost all she had, and the person versed in the law received more than 100,000 roubles. The advocate passed close to the old woman, and, feeling all eyes directed towards him, his whole bearing seemed to say: "No expressions of deference are required."

  CHAPTER VII

  .

  THE OFFICIALS OF THE COURT.

  At last Matthew Nikitich also arrived, and the usher, a thin man, with a long neck and a kind of sideways walk, his nether lip protruding to one side, which made him resemble a turkey, came into the jurymen's room.

  This usher was an honest man, and had a university education, but could not keep a place for any length of time, as he was subject to fits of drunkenness. Three months before a certain countess, who patronised his wife, had found him this place, and he was very pleased to have kept it so long.

  "Well, sirs, is everybody here?" he asked, putting his pince-nez on his nose, and looking round.

  "Everybody, I think," said the jolly merchant.

  "All right; we'll soon see." And, taking a list from his pocket, he began calling out the names, looking at the men, sometimes through and sometimes over his pince-nez.

  "Councillor of State, [grades such as this are common in Russia, and mean very little] J. M. Nikiforoff!"

  "I am he," said the dignified-looking man, well versed in the habits of the law court.

  "Ivan Semionovitch Ivanoff, retired colonel!"

  "Here!" replied a thin man, in the uniform of a retired officer.

  "Merchant of the Second Guild, Peter Baklasheff!"

  "Here we are, ready!" said the good-humoured merchant, with a broad smile.

  "Lieutenant of the Guards, Prince Dmitri Nekhludoff!"

  "I am he," answered Nekhludoff.

  The usher bowed to him, looking over his pince-nez, politely and pleasantly, as if wishing to distinguish him from the others.

  "Captain Youri Demitrievitch-Dantchenko, merchant; Grigori Euphimitch Kouleshoff," etc. All but two were present.

  "Now please to come to the court, gentlemen," said the usher, pointing to the door, with an amiable wave of his hand.

  All moved towards the door, pausing to let each other pass. Then they went through the corridor into the court.

  The court was a large, long room. At one end there was a raised platform, with three steps leading up to it, on which stood a table, covered with a green cloth trimmed with a fringe of a darker shade. At the table were placed three arm-chairs, with high-carved oak backs; on the wall behind them hung a full-length, brightly-coloured portrait of the Emperor in uniform and ribbon, with one foot in advance, and holding a sword. In the right corner hung a case, with an image of Christ crowned with thorns, and beneath it stood a lectern, and on the same side the prosecuting attorney's desk. On the left, opposite the desk, was the secretary's table, and in front of it, nearer the public, an oak grating, with the prisoners' bench, as yet unoccupied, behind it. Besides all this, there were on the right side of the platform high-backed ashwood chairs for the jury, and on the floor below tables for the advocates. All this was in the front part of the court, divided from the back by a grating.

  The back was all taken up by seats in tiers. Sitting on the front seats were four women, either servant or factory girls, and two working men, evidently overawed by the grandeur of the room, and not venturing to speak above a whisper.

  Soon after the jury had come in the usher entered, with his sideward gait, and stepping to the front, called out in a loud voice, as if he meant to frighten those present, "The Court is coming!" Every one got up as the members stepped on to the platform. Among them the president, with his muscles and fine whiskers. Next came the gloomy member of the Court, who was now more gloomy than ever, having met his brother-in-law, who informed him that he had just called in to see his sister (the member's wife), and that she had told him that there would be no dinner there.

  "So that, evidently, we shall have to call in at a cook shop," the brother-in-law added, laughing.

  "It is not at all funny," said the gloomy member, and became gloomier still.

  Then at last came the third member of the Court, the same Matthew Nikitich, who was always late. He was a bearded man, with large, round, kindly eyes. He was suffering from a catarrh of the stomach, and, according to his doctor's advice, he had begun trying a new treatment, and this had kept him at home longer than usual. Now, as he was ascending the platform, he had a pensive air. He was in the habit of making guesses in answer to all sorts of self-put questions by different curious means. Just now he had asked whether the new treatment would be beneficial, and had decided that it would cure his catarrh if the number of steps from the door to his chair would divide by three. He made 26 steps, but managed to get in a 27th just by his chair.

  The figures of the president and the members in their uniforms, with gold-embroidered collars, looked very imposing. They seemed to feel this themselves, and, as if overpowered by their own grandeur, hurriedly sat down on the high backed chairs behind the table with the green cloth, on which were a triangular article with an eagle at the top, two glass vases--something like those in which sweetmeats are kept in refreshment rooms--an inkstand, pens, clean paper, and good, newly-cut pencils of different kinds.

  The public prosecutor came in with the judges. With his portfolio under one arm, and swinging the other, he hurriedly walked to his seat near the window, and was instantly absorbed in reading and looking through the papers, not wasting a single moment, in hope of being ready when the business commenced. He had been public prosecutor but a short time, and had only prosecuted four times before this. He was very ambitious, and had firmly made up his mind to get on, and therefore thought it necessary to get a conviction whenever he prosecuted. He knew the chief facts of the poisoning case, and had already formed a plan of action. He only wanted to copy out a few points which he required.

  The secretary sat on the opposite side of the platform, and, having got ready all the papers he might want, was looking through an article, prohibited by the censor, which he had procured and read the day before. He was anxious to have a talk about this article with the bearded member, who shared his views, but wanted to look through it once more before doing so.

  CHAPTER VIII

  .

  SWEARING IN THE JURY.

  The president, having looked through some papers and put a few questions to the usher and the secretary, gave the order for the prisoners to be brought in.

  The door behind the grating was instantly opened, and two gendarmes, with caps on their heads, and holding naked swords in their hands, came in, followed by the prisoners, a red-haired,
freckled man, and two women. The man wore a prison cloak, which was too long and too wide for him. He stuck out his thumbs, and held his arms close to his sides, thus keeping the sleeves, which were also too long, from slipping over his hands. Without looking at the judges he gazed steadfastly at the form, and passing to the other side of it, he sat down carefully at the very edge, leaving plenty of room for the others. He fixed his eyes on the president, and began moving the muscles of his cheeks, as if whispering something. The woman who came next was also dressed in a prison cloak, and had a prison kerchief round her head. She had a sallow complexion, no eyebrows or lashes, and very red eyes. This woman appeared perfectly calm. Having caught her cloak against something, she detached it carefully, without any haste, and sat down.

  The third prisoner was Maslova.

  As soon as she appeared, the eyes of all the men in the court turned her way, and remained fixed on her white face, her sparklingly-brilliant black eyes and the swelling bosom under the prison cloak. Even the gendarme whom she passed on her way to her seat looked at her fixedly till she sat down, and then, as if feeling guilty, hurriedly turned away, shook himself, and began staring at the window in front of him.

  The president paused until the prisoners had taken their seats, and when Maslova was seated, turned to the secretary.

  Then the usual procedure commenced; the counting of the jury, remarks about those who had not come, the fixing of the fines to be exacted from them, the decisions concerning those who claimed exemption, the appointing of reserve jurymen.

  Having folded up some bits of paper and put them in one of the glass vases, the president turned up the gold-embroidered cuffs of his uniform a little way, and began drawing the lots, one by one, and opening them. Nekhludoff was among the jurymen thus drawn. Then, having let down his sleeves, the president requested the priest to swear in the jury.

  The old priest, with his puffy, red face, his brown gown, and his gold cross and little order, laboriously moving his stiff legs, came up to the lectern beneath the icon.

  The jurymen got up, and crowded towards the lectern.

  "Come up, please," said the priest, pulling at the cross on his breast with his plump hand, and waiting till all the jury had drawn near. When they had all come up the steps of the platform, the priest passed his bald, grey head sideways through the greasy opening of the stole, and, having rearranged his thin hair, he again turned to the jury. "Now, raise your right arms in this way, and put your fingers together, thus," he said, with his tremulous old voice, lifting his fat, dimpled hand, and putting the thumb and two first fingers together, as if taking a pinch of something. "Now, repeat after me, 'I promise and swear, by the Almighty God, by His holy gospels, and by the life-giving cross of our Lord, that in this work which,'" he said, pausing between each sentence--"don't let your arm down; hold it like this," he remarked to a young man who had lowered his arm--"'that in this work which . . . '"

  The dignified man with the whiskers, the colonel, the merchant, and several more held their arms and fingers as the priest required of them, very high, very exactly, as if they liked doing it; others did it unwillingly and carelessly. Some repeated the words too loudly, and with a defiant tone, as if they meant to say, "In spite of all, I will and shall speak." Others whispered very low, and not fast enough, and then, as if frightened, hurried to catch up the priest. Some kept their fingers tightly together, as if fearing to drop the pinch of invisible something they held; others kept separating and folding theirs. Every one save the old priest felt awkward, but he was sure he was fulfilling a very useful and important duty.

  After the swearing in, the president requested the jury to choose a foreman, and the jury, thronging to the door, passed out into the debating-room, where almost all of them at once began to smoke cigarettes. Some one proposed the dignified man as foreman, and he was unanimously accepted. Then the jurymen put out their cigarettes and threw them away and returned to the court. The dignified man informed the president that he was chosen foreman, and all sat down again on the high-backed chairs.

  Everything went smoothly, quickly, and not without a certain solemnity. And this exactitude, order, and solemnity evidently pleased those who took part in it: it strengthened the impression that they were fulfilling a serious and valuable public duty. Nekhludoff, too, felt this.

  As soon as the jurymen were seated, the president made a speech on their rights, obligations, and responsibilities. While speaking he kept changing his position; now leaning on his right, now on his left hand, now against the back, then on the arms of his chair, now putting the papers straight, now handling his pencil and paper-knife.

  According to his words, they had the right of interrogating the prisoners through the president, to use paper and pencils, and to examine the articles put in as evidence. Their duty was to judge not falsely, but justly. Their responsibility meant that if the secrecy of their discussion were violated, or communications were established with outsiders, they would be liable to punishment. Every one listened with an expression of respectful attention. The merchant, diffusing a smell of brandy around him, and restraining loud hiccups, approvingly nodded his head at every sentence.

  CHAPTER IX

  .

  THE TRIAL--THE PRISONERS QUESTIONED.

  When he had finished his speech, the president turned to the male prisoner.

  "Simeon Kartinkin, rise."

  Simeon jumped up, his lips continuing to move nervously and inaudibly.

  "Your name?"

  "Simon Petrov Kartinkin," he said, rapidly, with a cracked voice, having evidently prepared the answer.

  "What class do you belong to?"

  "Peasant."

  "What government, district, and parish?"

  "Toula Government, Krapivinskia district, Koupianovski parish, the village Borki."

  "Your age?"

  "Thirty-three; born in the year one thousand eight--"

  "What religion?"

  "Of the Russian religion, orthodox."

  "Married?"

  "Oh, no, sir."

  "Your occupation?"

  "I had a place in the Hotel Mauritania."

  "Have you ever been tried before?"

  "I never got tried before, because, as we used to live formerly--"

  "So you never were tried before?"

  "God forbid, never."

  "Have you received a copy of the indictment?"

  "I have."

  "Sit down."

  "Euphemia Ivanovna Botchkova," said the president, turning to the next prisoner.

  But Simon continued standing in front of Botchkova.

  "Kartinkin, sit down!" Kartinkin continued standing.

  "Kartinkin, sit down!" But Kartinkin sat down only when the usher, with his head on one side, and with preternaturally wide-open eyes, ran up, and said, in a tragic whisper, "Sit down, sit down!"

  Kartinkin sat down as hurriedly as he had risen, wrapping his cloak round him, and again began moving his lips silently.

  "Your name?" asked the president, with a weary sigh at being obliged to repeat the same questions, without looking at the prisoner, but glancing over a paper that lay before him. The president was so used to his task that, in order to get quicker through it all, he did two things at a time.

  Botchkova was forty-three years old, and came from the town of Kalomna. She, too, had been in service at the Hotel Mauritania.

  "I have never been tried before, and have received a copy of the indictment." She gave her answers boldly, in a tone of voice as if she meant to add to each answer, "And I don't care who knows it, and I won't stand any nonsense."

  She did not wait to be told, but sat down as soon as she had replied to the last question.

  "Your name?" turning abruptly to the third prisoner. "You will have to rise," he added, softly and gently, seeing that Maslova kept her seat.

  Maslova got up and stood, with her chest expanded, looking at the president with that peculiar expression of readiness in her smiling black
eyes.

  "What is your name?"

  "Lubov," she said.

  Nekhludoff had put on his pince-nez, looking at the prisoners while they were being questioned.

  "No, it is impossible," he thought, not taking his eyes off the prisoner. "Lubov! How can it be?" he thought to himself, after hearing her answer. The president was going to continue his questions, but the member with the spectacles interrupted him, angrily whispering something. The president nodded, and turned again to the prisoner.

  "How is this," he said, "you are not put down here as Lubov?"

  The prisoner remained silent.

  "I want your real name."