was a young man whose face was evidently heated with fever; the other was an old man, who never left off groaning.
The Englishman asked whether the young man had been sick for a long time. The superintendent replied that he had been taken sick that very same morning, that the old man had had convulsions for a long time, and that they kept him in prison because there was no place for him in the hospital.
The Englishman shook his head discontentedly, said that he would like to say a few words to the prisoners, and asked Nekhludoff to translate his remarks. It turned out that, besides the aim of his journey, which was the description of the exile system—he had another one—the preaching of the gospel, of salvation through faith.
'Tell them that Christ pitied and loved them,' he said to Nekhludoff, 'and that He died for them. He who will believe in Him will be saved.'
While he was saying this, all the prisoners were standing erect with their hands by their sides.
'Tell them,' continued the Englishman, 'that all I said will be found in this book. Are there any among them who can read?' It turned out that there were more than twenty who could.
The Englishman took out a few leather-bound Bibles from his traveling bag, and soon a number of muscular hands, terminating in long black nails, were stretched out toward him, pushing each other aside in order to reach the Testaments. He left two Testaments in this room, and went to the next one.
There the same thing occurred. There prevailed the same dampness and ill-smells. But in this room, between the windows, an image of the Virgin, before which a small lamp burned dimly, was hung up. To the left side of the door stood the large vat. Here the prisoners were stretched out on their berths, and in the same way they rose and placed themselves in a row. Three of them remained in their places. Two of these three lifted themselves and sat up, but the third one remained stretched out, and did not even look at the visitors. These latter ones were sick. The Englishman addressed them in the same manner, and left two Testaments.
From the cells in which those condemned to hard labor were imprisoned, they passed over to the cells of the exiles, and finally those in which the relatives who escorted the prisoners to Siberia were awaiting the day appointed to start hence.
Everywhere the same cold, hungry, idling, sickly, degraded, brutalized human beings could be seen.
The Englishman distributed his Bibles, and, being tired out, he walked through the rooms saying 'All right' to whatever the superintendent told him concerning the prisons.
They went out into the corridor.
The Englishman, pointing to an open door, asked what that room was for.
'This is the prison morgue.'
'Oh!' exclaimed the Englishman, and he expressed a desire to enter. This room was an ordinary room. A small lamp, fastened to the wall, lit up the four bodies which were stretched on berths, with their heads toward the wall and the feet protruding toward the door. The first body, in a plain shirt, was that of a tall young man, with a small, pointed beard and half-shaven head. The corpse was already chilled, and its blue hands were folded over the breast. Beside him, in a white dress and jacket, lay a bare-footed old woman, with thin hair and wrinkled, yellowish face. Beside this old woman lay a corpse, attired in blue.
This color recalled something in Nekhludoff's memory.
'And who is this third one?' he asked, mistrusting his own eyesight.
'This one is a gentleman who was sent hither from the hospital,' replied the superintendent.
Nekhludoff walked up to the body and touched the icy cold feet of Kryltzoff.
CHAPTER X.
Nekhludoff, after parting with the Englishman, went straight to his hotel, and walked about his room for a long time. The affair with Katiousha was at an end. There was something ugly in the very memory of it. But it was not that which grieved him. Some other affair of his was yet unsettled—an affair which tortured him and required his attention. In his imagination rose the gloomy scenes of the hundreds and thousands of human beings pent up in the pestiferous air. The laughter of the prisoners resounded in his ears. He saw again among the dead bodies the beautiful, angry, waxen face of the dead Kryltzoff; and the question whether he was mad, or all those who commit those evils and think themselves wise were mad, bore in upon his mind with renewed power, and he found no answer to it. The principal difficulty consisted in finding an answer to the principal question, which was: What should be done with those who became brutalized in the struggle for life?
When he became tired walking about the room he sat down on the lounge, close by the lamp, and mechanically opened the Bible which the Englishman had presented him, and which he had thrown on the table while emptying his pockets. They say, he thought, that this Bible contains the solution to all questions. So, opening it, he began to read at the place at which it opened itself—Matt. x., 8. After a while he inclined close to the lamp and became like one petrified. An exultation, the like of which he had not experienced for a long time, took possession of his soul, as though, after long suffering and weariness, he found at last liberty and rest. He did not sleep the whole night. As is the case with many who read the Bible for the first time, he now, on reading it again, grasped the full meaning of words which he had known long ago, but which he had not understood before. Like a sponge that absorbs everything, so he absorbed everything that was important, necessary and joyful.
'That is the principal thing,' thought Nekhludoff. 'We all live in the silly belief that we ourselves are the lords of our world, that this world has been given us for our enjoyment. But this is evidently untrue. Somebody must have sent us here for some reason. And for this reason it is plain that we will suffer like those laborers suffer who do not fulfill the wishes of their Master. The will of the Lord is expressed in the teachings of Christ. Let man obey Him, and the Kingdom of the Lord will come on earth, and man will derive the greatest possible good.
'
'So this will henceforth be the task of my life!'
And indeed, from that night a new life began for Nekhludoff; not so much because he had risen into a new stage of existence, but because all that had happened to him till then assumed for him an altogether new meaning.
THE END.
TRANSCRIBER'S NOTES
(The Table of Contents, List of Illustrations, and these Transcriber's Notes are not part of the original book.)
Below are listed the spelling inconsistencies in the names of certain characters. The names were transcribed to match the original text except where typos are assumed to have caused the variations. Changes from the original are noted below, except for minor punctuation corrections.
Absence changed to absent from original sentence (Part 1, Ch. VI, Pg. 25):
He was postponing the case against the Skoptzy, although the absence witness was an entirely unnecessary one.
Birukova (Theodosia) (1 time)
Brinkova (Theodosia) (1 time)
Borki (village) (1 time)
Borkoff (village) (1 time)
Barkoff (village) (1 time)
Chapter (3 times)
