The Brothers Karamazov
yer was beginning, but Ippolit Kirillovitch, the prosecutor,
glancing at him, addressed Mitya.
‘You need not worry yourself about the old servant, Grig-
ory Vasilyevitch. He is alive, he has recovered, and in spite
of the terrible blows inflicted, according to his own and
your evidence, by you, there seems no doubt that he will
live, so the doctor says, at least.’
‘Alive? He’s alive?’ cried Mitya, flinging up his hands. His
face beamed. ‘Lord, I thank Thee for the miracle Thou has
wrought for me, a sinner and evildoer. That’s an answer to
my prayer. I’ve been praying all night.’ And he crossed him-
self three times. He was almost breathless.
‘So from this Grigory we have received such important
evidence concerning you, that-’ The prosecutor would have
continued, but Mitya suddenly jumped up from his chair.
‘One minute, gentlemen, for God’s sake, one minute; I
will run to her-.’
‘Excuse me, at this moment it’s quite impossible,’ Niko-
lay Parfenovitch almost shrieked. He, too, leapt to his feet.
Mitya was seized by the men with the metal plates, but he
sat down of his own accord....
‘Gentlemen, what a pity! I wanted to see her for one min-
ute only; I wanted to tell her that it has been washed away,
it has gone, that blood that was weighing on my heart all
night, and that I am not a murderer now! Gentlemen, she is
my betrothed!’ he said ecstatically and reverently, looking
round at them all. ‘Oh, thank you, gentlemen! Oh, in one
minute you have given me new life, new heart!... That old
man used to carry me in his arms, gentlemen. He used to