第312章

"At first he only talked about it in taverns- he was talking about it all that month.Ah, he likes being always surrounded with company, and he likes to tell his companions everything, even his most diabolical and dangerous ideas; he likes to share every thought with others, and expects, for some reason, that those he confides in will meet him with perfect sympathy, enter into all his troubles and anxieties, take his part and not oppose him in anything.If not, he flies into a rage and smashes up everything in the tavern.(Then followed the anecdote about Captain Snegiryov.) Those who heard the prisoner began to think at last that he might mean more than threats, and that such a frenzy might turn threats into actions."Here the prosecutor described the meeting of the family at the monastery, the conversations with Alyosha, and the horrible scene of violence when the prisoner had rushed into his father's house just after dinner.

"I cannot positively assert," the prosecutor continued, "that the prisoner fully intended to murder his father before that incident.

Yet the idea had several times presented itself to him, and he had deliberated on it- for that we have facts, witnesses, and his own words.I confess, gentlemen of the jury," he added, "that till to-day I have been uncertain whether to attribute to the prisoner conscious premeditation.I was firmly convinced that he had pictured the fatal moment beforehand, but had only pictured it, contemplating it as a possibility.He had not definitely considered when and how he might commit the crime.

"But I was only uncertain till to-day, till that fatal document was presented to the court just now.You yourselves heard that young lady's exclamation, 'It is the plan, the programme of the murder!'

That is how she defined that miserable, drunken letter of the unhappy prisoner.And, in fact, from that letter we see that the whole fact of the murder was premeditated.It was written two days before, and so we know now for a fact that, forty-eight hours before the perpetration of his terrible design, the prisoner swore that, if he could not get money next day, he would murder his father in order to take the envelope with the notes from under his pillow, as soon as Ivan had left.'As soon as Ivan had gone away'- you hear that; so he had thought everything out, weighing every circumstance, and he carried it all out just as he had written it.The proof of premeditation is conclusive; the crime must have been committed for the sake of the money, that is stated clearly, that is written and signed.The prisoner does not deny his signature.

"I shall be told he was drunk when he wrote it.But that does not diminish the value of the letter, quite the contrary; he wrote when drunk what he had planned when sober.Had he not planned it when sober, he would not have written it when drunk.I shall be asked:

Then why did he talk about it in taverns? A man who premeditates such a crime is silent and keeps it to himself.Yes, but he talked about it before he had formed a plan, when he had only the desire, only the impulse to it.Afterwards he talked less about it.On the evening he wrote that letter at the Metropolis tavern, contrary to his custom he was silent, though he had been drinking.He did not play billiards, he sat in a corner, talked to no one.He did indeed turn a shopman out of his seat, but that was done almost unconsciously, because he could never enter a tavern without making a disturbance.It is true that after he had taken the final decision, he must have felt apprehensive that he had talked too much about his design beforehand, and that this might lead to his arrest and prosecution afterwards.But there was nothing for it; he could not take his words back, but his luck had served him before, it would serve him again.He believed in his star, you know! I must confess, too, that he did a great deal to avoid the fatal catastrophe.'To-morrow I shall try and borrow the money from everyone,' as he writes in his peculiar language,' and if they won't give it to me, there will be bloodshed.'"Here Ippolit Kirillovitch passed to a detailed description of all Mitya's efforts to borrow the money.He described his visit to Samsonov, his journey to Lyagavy."Harassed, jeered at, hungry, after selling his watch to pay for the journey (though he tells us he had fifteen hundred roubles on him- a likely story), tortured by jealousy at having left the object of his affections in the town, suspecting that she would go to Fyodor Pavlovitch in his absense, he returned at last to the town, to find, to his joy, that she had not been near his father.He accompanied her himself to her protector.