Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - XV. Later Sects
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the holy Christian faith, and openly worship idols, and they
are tolerated! In my days they would have come into the
executioner’s hands, and, with nostrils slit, have been marched
off to Siberia. But now? Now there are no laws—everyone
does as he pleases!”
It must be acknowledged that as time went on his neighbours
visited P. P. less frequently, and many avoided him altogether;
in fact, they were all tired of him. As soon as anyone came
to him, he began narrating all the details of this lawsuit,
taking from his trunk a great pile of papers—copies, reports,
letters, and different resolutions; if the visitor could read, he
got him to read all through them; if not, he would do so
himself, spelling his way very slowly, and sometimes muddling
up the words in a very curious manner.
It was a severe blow to the old man when a document from
St. Petersburg, having passed through all intermediate stages,
finally reached him. It explained that his case could not be
remitted to the Senate, because some of the documents were on
unstamped paper.
“So the stamp is necessary! Is that what his wise law
requires?” he exclaimed, excitedly, struck his breast with his
fist, and coughed. When his wife begged him, with tears in
her eyes, not to trouble about it, he answered, “Why should I
live in this world? But, do you know, I can no longer walk in
the street. Not only the stupid peasants, but even the children
point their fingers at me and cry, ‘Hullo, Pantilimonovitch!
Have you won your lawsuit? You know the laws!’”
He grew calm, however, when the matter was finally remitted
to the Senate. “Now, at last, I need not be anxious. It is
not for nothing that the Senate is called holy,” mixing up the
Senate with the Synod.
It could hardly be expected that the old man, on losing his
case in the Senate, could stand such a heavy blow, for his life
was centred entirely in this issue, for which he had sacrificed
so much time, strength, activity, and health. But the reverse
happened. When, after two years’ waiting, he received the
final adverse resolution, he only grew a trifle pale, and said
simply, with a half-ironical smile, “May God judge them!”
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