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Chapter 6

The Prosecutor’s Speech.

Sketches of Character

I

PPOLIT KIRILLOVITCH began his speech, trembling

with nervousness, with cold sweat on his forehead, feel-

ing 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 con-

cealed 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