1 0 The Brothers Karamazov
overstep the bounds, and so on, as presidents always do in
such cases. The audience, too, was uneasy. The public was
restless: there were even exclamations of indignation. Fe-
tyukovitch did not so much as reply; he only mounted the
tribune to lay his hand on his heart and, with an offend-
ed voice, utter a few words full of dignity. He only touched
again, lightly and ironically, on ‘romancing’ and ‘psychol-
ogy,’ and in an appropriate place quoted, ‘Jupiter, you are
angry, therefore you are wrong,’ which provoked a burst of
approving laughter in the audience, for Ippolit Kirillovitch
was by no means like Jupiter. Then, a propos of the accusa-
tion that he was teaching the young generation to murder
their fathers, Fetyukovitch observed, with great dignity, that
he would not even answer. As for the prosecutor’s charge of
uttering unorthodox opinions, Fetyukovitch hinted that it
was a personal insinuation and that he had expected in this
court to be secure from accusations ‘damaging to my repu-
tation as a citizen and a loyal subject.’ But at these words the
President pulled him up, too, and Fetyukovitch concluded
his speech with a bow, amid a hum of approbation in the
court. And Ippolit Kirillovitch was, in the opinion of our
ladies, ‘crushed for good.’
Then the prisoner was allowed to speak. Mitya stood
up, but said very little. He was fearfully exhausted, physi-
cally and mentally. The look of strength and independence
with which he had entered in the morning had almost dis-
appeared. He seemed as though he had passed through an
experience that day, which had taught him for the rest of
his life something very important he had not understood