rob' negatively answered the question; fourth, because Peter Gerasimovich was not in the room when the foreman read the questions and answers, and chiefly because the jury were tired out and were anxious to get away, and therefore agreed to the verdict which it was easiest to reach.
They rang the bell. The gendarme sheathed his sword and stood aside. The judges, one by one, took their seats and the jury filed out.
The foreman held the list with a solemn air. He approached the justiciary and handed it to him. The justiciary read it, and, with evident surprise, turned to consult with his associates. He was surprised that the jury, in limiting the charge by the words, 'without intent to rob,' should fail to add also 'without intent to cause death.' It followed from the decision of the jury, that Maslova had not stolen or robbed, but had poisoned a man without any apparent reason.
'Just see what an absurd decision they have reached,' he said to the associate on his left. 'This means hard labor for her, and she is not guilty.'
'Why not guilty?' said the stern associate.
'She is simply not guilty. I think that chapter 818 might properly be applied to this case.' (Chapter 818 gives the court the power to set aside an unjust verdict.)
'What do you think?' he asked the kind associate.
'I agree with you.'
'And you?' he asked the choleric associate.
'By no means,' he answered, decidedly. 'As it is, the papers say that too many criminals are discharged by juries. What will they say, then, if the court should discharge them? I will not agree under any circumstances.'
The justiciary looked at the clock.
'It is a pity, but what can I do?' and he handed the questions to the foreman.
They all rose, and the foreman, standing now on one foot, now on the other, cleared his throat and read the questions and answers. All the officers of the court—the secretary, the lawyers and even the prosecutor—expressed surprise.
The prisoners, who evidently did not understand the significance of the answers, were serene. When the reading was over, the justiciary asked the prosecutor what punishment he thought should be imposed on the prisoners.
The prosecutor, elated by the successful verdict against Maslova, which he ascribed to his eloquence, consulted some books, then rose and said:
'Simon Kartinkin, I think, should be punished according to chapter 1,452, sec. 4, and chapter 1,453; Euphemia Bochkova according to chapter 1,659, and Katherine Maslova according to chapter 1,454.'
All these were the severest punishments that could be imposed for the crimes.
'The court will retire to consider their decision,' said the justiciary, rising.
Everybody then rose, and, with a relieved and pleasant feeling of having fulfilled an important duty, walked around the court-room.
'What a shameful mess we have made of it,' said Peter Gerasimovitch, approaching Nekhludoff, to whom the foreman was telling a story. 'Why, we have sentenced her to hard labor.'
'Is it possible?' exclaimed Nekhludoff, taking no notice at all this time of the unpleasant familiarity of the tutor.
'Why, of course,' he said. 'We have not inserted in the answer, 'Guilty, but without intent to cause death.' The secretary has just told me that the law cited by the prosecutor provides fifteen years' hard labor.'
'But that was our verdict,' said the foreman.
Peter Gerasimovitch began to argue that it was self-evident that as she did not steal the money she could not have intended to take the merchant's life.
'But I read the questions before we left the room,' the foreman justified himself, 'and no one objected.'
'I was leaving the room at the time,' said Peter Gerasimovitch. 'But how did you come to miss it?'
'I did not think of it,' answered Nekhludoff.
'You did not!'
'We can right it yet,' said Nekhludoff.
'No, we cannot—it is all over now.'
Nekhludoff looked at the prisoners. While their fate was being decided, they sat motionless behind the grating in front of the soldiers. Maslova was smiling.
Nekhludoff's soul was stirred by evil thoughts. When he thought that she would be freed and remain in the city, he was undecided how he should act toward her, and it was a difficult matter. But Siberia and penal servitude at once destroyed the possibility of their meeting again. The wounded bird would stop struggling in the game-bag, and would no longer remind him of its existence.
CHAPTER XXIV.
The apprehensions of Peter Gerasimovitch were justified.
On returning from the consultation-room the justiciary produced a document and read the following:
'By order of His Imperial Majesty, the Criminal Division of the —— Circuit Court, in conformity with the finding of the jury, and in accordance with ch. 771, s. 3, and ch. 776, s. 3, and ch. 777 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, this 28th day of April, 188—, decrees that Simon Kartinkin, thirty-three years of age, and Katherine Maslova, twenty-seven years of age, be deprived of all civil rights, and sent to penal servitude, Kartinkin for eight, Maslova for the term of four years, under conditions prescribed by ch. 25 of the Code. Euphemia Bochkova is deprived of all civil and special rights and privileges, and is to be confined in jail for the period of three years under conditions prescribed by ch. 49 of the Code, with the costs of the trial to be borne by all three, and in case of their inability to pay, to be paid out of the treasury.
'The exhibits are to be sold, the ring returned, and the vials destroyed.'
Kartinkin stood like a post, and with outstretched fingers held up the sleeves of his coat, moving his jaws. Bochkova seemed to be calm. When Maslova heard the decision, she turned red in the face.
'I am innocent, I am innocent!' she suddenly cried. 'It is a sin. I am innocent. I never wished; never thought. It is the truth.' And sinking to the bench, she began to cry aloud.
When Kartinkin and Bochkova left the court-room she was still standing and crying, so that the gendarme had to touch the sleeve of her coat.
'She cannot be left to her fate,' said Nekhludoff to himself, entirely forgetting his evil thoughts, and, without knowing why, he ran into the corridor to look at her again. He was detained at the door for a few minutes by the jostling, animated crowd of jurors and lawyers, who were glad that the case was over, so that when he reached the corridor Maslova was some distance away. Without thinking of the attention he was attracting, with quick step he overtook her, walked a little ahead of her and stopped. She had ceased to cry, only a sob escaped her now and then while she wiped her tears with a corner of her 'kerchief. She passed him without turning to look at him. He then hastily returned to see the justiciary. The latter had left his room, and Nekhludoff found him in the porter's lodge.
'Judge,' said Nekhludoff, approaching him at the moment when he was putting on a light overcoat and taking a silver-handled cane which the porter handed him, 'may I speak to you about the case that has just been tried? I am a juror.'
'Why, of course, Prince Nekhludoff! I am delighted to see you. We have met before,' said the justiciary, pressing his hand, and recalling with pleasure that he was the jolliest fellow and best dancer of all the young men on the evening he had met him. 'What can I do for you?'
'There was a mistake in the jury's finding against Maslova. She is not guilty of poisoning, and yet she is sent to penal servitude,' he said, with a gloomy countenance.
'The court gave its decision in accordance with your own finding,' answered the justiciary, moving toward the door, 'although the answers did not seem to suit the case.'
He remembered that he intended to explain to the jury that an answer of guilty without a denial of intent to kill involved an intent to kill, but, as he was hastening to terminate the proceedings, he failed to do so.
'But could not the mistake be rectified?'
'Cause for appeal can always be found. You must see a lawyer,' said the justiciary, putting on his hat a little on one side and continuing to move toward the door.
