The Brothers Karamazov (123 page)

“At the preliminary investigation I answered the questions that were put to me,” Alyosha said in a quiet, calm tone, “but I never volunteered an accusation against Smerdyakov spontaneously.”

“Nevertheless, you did accuse him, didn’t you?”

“I was basing myself on what Dmitry had told me. Even before I was questioned then, I had been told what had happened when he was arrested and how he had accused Smerdyakov. I am absolutely convinced that my brother is innocent. And since he didn’t do it, it must have been . . .”

“Smerdyakov, right? But why precisely Smerdyakov? And what makes you so convinced of your brother’s innocence?”

“I couldn’t not believe Dmitry. I knew he wouldn’t lie to me. I could tell by his face that he was telling the truth.”

“You could tell by his face! Is that all you have to go on, then?”

“I have no other proof.”

“And your accusation against Smerdyakov is also based only on what your brother told you and on his facial expression while telling you.”

“That’s right—I have no other proof.”

At this point the prosecutor declared that he was through with the witness. Alyosha’s answers seemed to have disappointed the expectations of the public. People in town had been talking about Smerdyakov even before the trial; there were all sorts of rumors about him, various hints at the role he might have played in the sordid story, and some people believed that Alyosha had gathered facts that would point to the lackey’s involvement and thus help Dmitry. But now they saw he had nothing to go on except his own private conviction of the accused’s innocence, quite a common feeling for a brother.

But then the witness was taken over by Fetyukovich. He started by asking Alyosha when exactly the accused had told him about his hatred for his father and his intention to kill him, and whether he had repeated it again during their last meeting before the catastrophe. As he started to answer, Alyosha suddenly gave a start, as though he had just remembered and understood something.

“I’ve just remembered something that had quite slipped my mind,” he said, “but then, at the time, I didn’t grasp its meaning and it is only now that . . .”

And Alyosha told, very excitedly, like someone who unexpectedly sees clearly something that has been obscure to him until then, how during their last meeting Mitya had struck his breast—“the upper part of his breast”—saying that he had there what was necessary for him to restore his honor.

“At the time I thought that he was talking about his heart,” Alyosha said, “that he could find in his heart enough strength to escape some horrible disgrace of which he could not tell even me. I must admit that, at the time, I thought his gesture indicated his horror at the thought that he might do violence to his father, but I realize now that he was indicating something he had on his chest. I recall how it struck me that it was not at all in the area of the heart that he was striking himself, it was considerably higher and more in the middle, in fact, just under his neck. Again and again he pointed at that spot. I dismissed my observation as silly and irrelevant, but now I think he may really have been pointing at the fifteen hundred rubles sewn in the rag that he carried around his neck!”

“Right!” Mitya shouted from his place. “It’s true, Alyosha, it was the money that I was smiting with my fist!”

Fetyukovich hurried back to his client, begging him to calm down, and then at once latched on to what Alyosha had just said. Alyosha, excited by his recollection, expressed the opinion that the disgrace Mitya had had in mind lay in the fact that, although he had the fifteen hundred rubles on him and could give it back to Katerina, nevertheless he had decided not to return it and, instead, to use the money to take Grushenka away, if she was willing to go with him.

“That’s it! That’s exactly what it was!” Alyosha cried in tremendous excitement. “My brother said that half of the disgrace—he repeated the word ‘half’ several times—could be removed at once, but that he didn’t do it because of his wretched weakness of character, and he knew in advance that it would be beyond his strength to do it later . . .”

“And you remember clearly that it was on that spot on his breast that the accused struck himself?” Fetyukovich continued to press him.

“Absolutely clearly and unmistakably, because I remember wondering why he was striking himself so high, when the heart was much lower. But I thought I was being stupid . . . so the question just flashed through my mind . . . In fact, I can’t understand why I didn’t think of it until now! He was indicating that rag, to show that, although he had the fifteen hundred rubles, he wouldn’t give it back. And after that, when they arrested him in Mokroye, I understand he declared that he considered the most disgraceful thing in his life the fact that, while he had the money to pay Katerina back one half of what he owed her—he specified ‘one half’—and thus not to be an outright thief in her eyes, he preferred to become just that rather than to part with the money. And ah, how that debt weighed on him!” Alyosha exclaimed finally.

Obviously, the prosecutor insisted on re-examining the witness and he asked Alyosha to describe the scene to him again and made him repeat several times that the accused was actually indicating something definite on his chest, rather than just pounding himself with his fist.

“Not just with his fist, he pointed at it with his finger too, here, very high up . . . I don’t understand how it could have slipped my mind until this minute!”

When the presiding judge asked the accused to comment on this latest testimony, Mitya confirmed everything, said that he had, indeed, been pointing at the fifteen hundred rubles he had hidden under his shirt, that he had felt disgraced by it, “a disgrace I will not deny now, the most contemptible act of my whole life.”

“I could have returned that money, but I didn’t do it,” Mitya cried. “I preferred to remain a thief in her eyes. And the worst of it is that I knew in advance that I wouldn’t pay her back! Alyosha has everything right! Thank you, Alyosha!”

And that was the end of Alyosha’s testimony. The most important point made was that, at long last, there was at least something that indicated, something that could be considered as a kind of proof, that the fifteen hundred rubles sewn in a rag, which the accused claimed to have carried around his neck, had really existed and that he had not just invented it during the preliminary investigation in Mokroye. Alyosha was pleased; very flushed, he went back to the place assigned to him, repeating to himself: “How could I have forgotten that! It’s really incredible that it should have come back to me only now!”

Then it was Katerina’s turn to testify. Her very appearance caused a great stir. The ladies turned their lorgnettes and opera glasses on her; some of the men leaped to their feet to get a better look at her. Later, everybody agreed that Mitya turned as white as a sheet as soon as she appeared. Dressed in black, she stepped forward modestly, almost shyly, to the witness stand. Her inner emotions were not reflected in her expression, although her dark, sultry eyes glowed with determination. Many agreed later that she was stunningly beautiful at that moment. She spoke in a quiet but very clear voice and her words could be understood in every corner of the courtroom. She expressed herself with great calm, or at least forced herself to sound calm and detached. The presiding judge started to question her very cautiously, showing great consideration for the witness’s feelings and trying to avoid touching “certain chords” that might be particularly painful to her in her great unhappiness. But she herself declared, in the process of answering one of the first questions, that she had been engaged to the accused until the time when he had broken their engagement. And when asked about the three thousand rubles she had given Mitya to send to her relatives in Moscow, she said that she had not asked him to send the money right away, but, that, being aware that he needed money, she had given it to him, telling him that he could send it off any time within a month . . .

“There was really no reason for him to reproach himself and feel so miserable about that debt later . . .”

I won’t go into all the questions that were asked her or all the answers she gave, but will content myself with conveying the gist of her testimony.

“I was always convinced that he would send my relatives the three thousand rubles as soon as he got that money from his father,” she testified further. “There was never any doubt in my mind about his being completely disinterested and honorable . . . He is a man of scrupulous honesty . . . in money matters. He felt certain that he would receive three thousand rubles from his father and he told me so repeatedly. I knew that he had serious differences with his father and I always believed that his father had taken undue advantage of him. I cannot recall his ever making any threatening remarks about his father. In my presence, at least, he never made any such threats concerning his father’s life. If he had come to me then, I would certainly have put his mind at rest about that wretched three thousand, but he never came to see me anymore. And I myself, I—I was not in a position to take the initiative and ask him to come. Besides, I had no right whatsoever to be so demanding of him about that debt because, once,” she said with a determined note in her voice, “I had borrowed money from him myself and it was more than three thousand, and I did so although I was not sure at the time when I would be able to pay him back . . .”

There was a strange challenge in her tone when she had said this. Just at that juncture Fetyukovich’s turn to question her came.

“That sum you borrowed from my client—you didn’t borrow it here in this town. It happened elsewhere, when you first met him. Is that right?” Fetyukovich started cautiously, sensing that there was something in his favor here that he could explore.

It must be noted here parenthetically that, although Katerina was partly responsible for Fetyukovich’s coming all the way from Petersburg to defend Mitya, she had never told him about the five thousand rubles Mitya had lent her once and about her “prostrating” herself before him. She had hidden that fact from him, and the strangest thing about it was that, up to the very last second, she herself did not know whether she would or would not recount that episode in court, as if uncertain whether she would be in a state to do so.

Oh, I shall never be able to forget those moments! She started to tell the story, and she told 
everything
, the whole story that Mitya had told Alyosha, including her deep gratitude and her “prostration” before him; in explaining why she had needed the money, she told of her father’s troubles and of her going to Mitya’s lodgings . . . But she never even hinted that it had been on Mitya’s initiative that she had gone and that he had suggested to her sister that, if Katerina wanted the money, she should come for it in person. Concealing all that, she said that it was on her own impulse that she ran to the young officer’s lodgings, hoping somehow that she would be able to convince him to lend her the money.

It was an absolutely stunning spectacle! Cold shivers ran down my spine as I listened to her. The courtroom was completely quiet. Everyone was anxious to catch every word she uttered. This was something unprecedented, something absolutely astounding, even for a strong-willed, proud, and haughty person like her, for who could have expected such a complete confession and self-indictment! And in the name of what did she do it? Simply to help the man who had betrayed her and wronged her, only to try to create a favorable impression of his character! And, indeed, she did create the image of a young officer who readily gave away his last five thousand and who then refused to take advantage of an innocent young girl. Yes, it showed Mitya as a warm and decent man but . . . but my heart contracted when I heard her tell it! I felt that it could have awful consequences later, such as slander, and, alas, that is indeed what eventually came out of it!

Later, some people remarked with malicious chuckles that Katerina’s story might not be quite accurate, particularly the part where the army officer was supposed to have let the young girl go home with the money and a respectful bow. Some felt that something had been left out at that point. And some of our most respectable ladies remarked that, “even if nothing was left out,” they were still none too certain that this was the proper way for a nice young lady to act, even if saving her father depended on it. I don’t see how Katerina, with her intelligence and her almost morbid sensitivity, could have failed to foresee that people would say just such things. Indeed, I’m certain she did foresee it but decided to go ahead anyway!

It is true that all the mud slinging started only much later, for, at first, everyone was immensely impressed by her revelations. As to the members of the court, they listened to Katerina’s deposition in an awed, almost self-conscious silence. The prosecutor did not allow himself to press her any further on the subject and Fetyukovich bowed deeply to her. Oh, he felt quite exultant internally, so much had been gained by that testimony! It would obviously be inconsistent for a man who was capable of making a generous gesture and giving away his last five thousand rubles on the spur of the moment to kill his own father in the middle of the night in order to rob him of three thousand! Fetyukovich felt that now, at least, he could dispose of the charge of theft against Mitya. The “case” now appeared in quite a new light. There was a sudden wave of sympathy for Mitya.

As to Mitya himself, they say that two or three times during Katerina’s testimony, he leapt to his feet, then sank back into his chair again, and sat listening to her with his face buried in his hands; when she had finished, he cried out in a quivering voice, his arms stretched out toward her:

“Why have you done this to me, Katya. You’ve ruined me!” And for a few seconds his sobs resounded throughout the whole courtroom. But he quickly regained possession of himself and shouted: “Now I am doomed!”

Then he sort of froze in his seat, with his teeth clenched and his arms folded tightly across his chest.

Katerina remained in the courtroom, sitting in the chair that had been assigned to her. She was pale and sat with her eyes cast down. Those sitting near her said later that she trembled all the time, as if in a bout of fever.