11  The Brothers Karamazov

Chapter 8

A Treatise on Smerdyakov

‘T

O begin with, what was the source of this suspicion?’

(Ippolit Kirillovitch began). ‘The first person who

cried out that Smerdyakov had committed the murder was

the prisoner himself at the moment of his arrest, yet from

that time to this he had not brought forward a single fact to

confirm the charge, nor the faintest suggestion of a fact. The

charge is confirmed by three persons only — the two broth-

ers of the prisoner and Madame Svyetlov. The elder of these

brothers expressed his suspicions only to-day, when he was

undoubtedly suffering from brain fever. But we know that

for the last two months he has completely shared our con-

viction of his brother’s guilt and did not attempt to combat

that idea. But of that later. The younger brother has admit-

ted that he has not the slightest fact to support his notion

of Smerdyakov’s guilt, and has only been led to that con-

clusion from the prisoner’s own words and the expression

of his face. Yes, that astounding piece of evidence has been

brought forward twice to-day by him. Madame Svyetslov

was even more astounding. ‘What the prisoner tells you,

you must believe; he is not a man to tell a lie.’ That is all