"Mitya," she wailed, "your serpent has destroyed you! There, she has shown you what she is!" she shouted to the judges, shaking with anger.At a signal from the President they seized her and tried to remove her from the court.She wouldn't allow it.She fought and struggled to get back to Mitya.Mitya uttered a cry and struggled to get to her.He was overpowered.
Yes, I think the ladies who came to see the spectacle must have been satisfied- the show had been a varied one.Then I remember the Moscow doctor appeared on the scene.I believe the President had previously sent the court usher to arrange for medical aid for Ivan.
The doctor announced to the court that the sick man was suffering from a dangerous attack of brain fever, and that he must be at once removed.In answer to questions from the prosecutor and the counsel for the defence he said that the patient had come to him of his own accord the day before yesterday and that he had warned him that he had such an attack coming on, but he had not consented to be looked after.
"He was certainly not in a normal state of mind: he told me himself that he saw visions when he was awake, that he met several persons in the street, who were dead, and that Satan visited him every evening," said the doctor, in conclusion.Having given his evidence, the celebrated doctor withdrew.The letter produced by Katerina Ivanovna was added to the material proofs.After some deliberation, the judges decided to proceed with the trial and to enter both the unexpected pieces of evidence (given by Ivan and Katerina Ivanovna) on the protocol.
But I will not detail the evidence of the other witnesses, who only repeated and confirmed what had been said before, though all with their characteristic peculiarities.I repeat, all was brought together in the prosecutor's speech, which I shall quote immediately.
Everyone was excited, everyone was electrified by the late catastrophe, and all were awaiting the speeches for the prosecution and the defence with intense impatience.Fetyukovitch was obviously shaken by Katerina Ivanovna's evidence.But the prosecutor was triumphant.When all the evidence had been taken, the court was adjourned for almost an hour.I believe it was just eight o'clock when the President returned to his seat and our prosecutor, Ippolit Kirillovitch, began his speech.
Chapter 6
The Prosecutor's Speech.Sketches of CharacterIPPOLIT KIRILLOVITCH began his speech, trembling with nervousness, with cold sweat on his forehead, feeling hot and cold all over by turns.He described this himself afterwards.He regarded this speech as his chef-d'oeuvre, the chef-d'oeuvre of his whole life, as his swan-song.He died, it is true, nine months later of rapid consumption, so that he had the right, as it turned out, to compare himself to a swan singing his last song.He had put his whole heart and all the brain he had into that speech.And poor Ippolit Kirillovitch unexpectedly revealed that at least some feeling for the public welfare and "the eternal question" lay concealed in him.
Where his speech really excelled was in its sincerity.He genuinely believed in the prisoner's guilt; he was accusing him not as an official duty only, and in calling for vengeance he quivered with a genuine passion "for the security of society." Even the ladies in thee audience, though they remained hostile to Ippolit Kirillovitch, admitted that he made an extraordinary impression on them.He began in a breaking voice, but it soon gained strength and filled the court to the end of his speech.But as soon as he had finished, he almost fainted.
"Gentlemen of the jury," began the prosecutor, "this case has made a stir throughout Russia.But what is there to wonder at, what is there so peculiarly horrifying in it for us? We are so accustomed to such crimes! That's what's so horrible, that such dark deeds have ceased to horrify us.What ought to horrify us is that we are so accustomed to it, and not this or that isolated crime.What are the causes of our indifference, our lukewarm attitude to such deeds, to such signs of the times, ominous of an unenviable future? Is it our cynicism, is it the premature exhaustion of intellect and imagination in a society that is sinking into decay, in spite of its youth? Is it that our moral principles are shattered to their foundations, or is it, perhaps, a complete lack of such principles among us? I cannot answer such questions; nevertheless they are disturbing, and every citizen not only must, but ought to be harassed by them.Our newborn and still timid press has done good service to the public already, for without it we should never have heard of the horrors of unbridled violence and moral degradation which are continually made known by the press, not merely to those who attend the new jury courts established in the present reign, but to everyone.And what do we read almost daily? Of things beside which the present case grows pale, and seems almost commonplace.But what is most important is that the majority of our national crimes of violence bear witness to a widespread evil, now so general among us that it is difficult to contend against it.
"One day we see a brilliant young officer of high society, at the very outset of his career, in a cowardly underhand way, without a pang of conscience, murdering an official who had once been his benefactor, and the servant girl, to steal his own I O U and what ready money he could find on him; 'it will come in handy for my pleasures in the fashionable world and for my career in the future.'
After murdering them, he puts pillows under the head of each of his victims; he goes away.Next, a young hero 'decorated for bravery'
kills the mother of his chief and benefactor, like a highwayman, and to urge his companions to join him he asserts that 'she loves him like a son, and so will follow all his directions and take no precautions.'