11 The Brothers Karamazov
almost confessed, hinted at it, all but spoke out.’ (Then fol-
lowed the evidence given by witnesses.) ‘He even cried out
to the peasant who drove him, ‘Do you know, you are driv-
ing a murderer!’ But it was impossible for him to speak out,
he had to get to Mokroe and there to finish his romance.
But what was awaiting the luckless man? Almost from the
first minute at Mokroe he saw that his invincible rival was
perhaps by no means so invincible, that the toast to their
new-found happiness was not desired and would not be
acceptable. But you know the facts, gentlemen of the jury,
from the preliminary inquiry. Karamazov’s triumph over
his rival was complete and his soul passed into quite a new
phase, perhaps the most terrible phase through which his
soul has passed or will pass.
‘One may say with certainty, gentlemen of the jury,’ the
prosecutor continued, ‘that outraged nature and the crimi-
nal heart bring their own vengeance more completely than
any earthly justice. What’s more, justice and punishment
on earth positively alleviate the punishment of nature and
are, indeed, essential to the soul of the criminal at such
moments, as its salvation from despair. For I cannot imag-
ine the horror and moral suffering of Karamazov when he
learnt that she loved him, that for his sake she had reject-
ed her first lover, that she was summoning him, Mitya, to
a new life, that she was promising him happiness — and
when? When everything was over for him and nothing was
possible!
‘By the way, I will note in parenthesis a point of impor-
tance for the light it throws on the prisoner’s position at the