The Brothers Karamazov

1 The Brothers Karamazov

that there is a great responsibility laid upon you,’ and so on
and so on.
The jury withdrew and the court adjourned. People
could get up, move about, exchange their accumulated im-
pressions, refresh themselves at the buffet. It was very late,
almost one o’clock in the night, but nobody went away: the
strain was so great that no one could think of repose. All
waited with sinking hearts; though that is, perhaps, too
much to say, for the ladies were only in a state of hysterical
impatience and their hearts were untroubled. An acquittal,
they thought, was inevitable. They all prepared themselves
for a dramatic moment of general enthusiasm. I must own
there were many among the men, too, who were convinced
that an acquittal was inevitable. Some were pleased, oth-
ers frowned, while some were simply dejected, not wanting
him to be acquitted. Fetyukovitch himself was confident of
his success. He was surrounded by people congratulating
him and fawning upon him.
‘There are,’ he said to one group, as I was told afterwards,
‘there are invisible threads binding the counsel for the de-
fence with the jury. One feels during one’s speech if they are
being formed. I was aware of them. They exist. Our cause is
won. Set your mind at rest.’
‘What will our peasants say now?’ said one stout, cross-
looking, pock-marked gentleman, a landowner of the
neighbourhood, approaching a group of gentlemen en-
gaged in conversation.
‘But they are not all peasants. There are four government
clerks among them.’