Dead Souls

When suddenly in the front hall—something like the clank of spurred boots and a gendarme in full armor, as if he were a whole army in one person. "You are ordered to appear at once before the Governor-general!" Chichikov was simply stunned. Before him stuck up a fright with a mustache, a horsetail on his head, a baldric over one shoulder, a baldric over the other, an enormous broadsword hanging at his side. He fancied there was also a gun hanging from the other side, and devil knows what else: a whole army just in one man! He tried to protest, but the fright uttered rudely: "To appear at once!" Through the door to the front hall he saw another fright flit by; he looked out the window—there was a carriage as well. What to do? Just as he was, in his tailcoat of the flames and smoke of Navarino, he had to get in and, trembling all over, drive to the Governor-general's, the policeman along with him.

In the anteroom he was not even allowed to come to his senses. "Go in! The prince is waiting for you," said the official on duty. Before him as through a mist flashed the anteroom with messengers receiving packages, then a hall through which he passed, thinking only: "He'll just up and seize me, and with no trial, no anything—straight to Siberia!" His heart began to pound harder than the heart of the most jealous lover. The door finally opened: before him was the office, with portfolios, shelves, books, and the prince as wrathful as wrath itself.

"Destroyer, destroyer," said Chichikov. "He'll destroy my soul, slaughter me, like a wolf a lamb!"

"I spared you, I allowed you to remain in town, when you ought to have been put in jail; and again you've besmirched yourself with the most dishonest swindling a man has yet besmirched himself with."

The prince's lips were trembling with wrath.

"What is this most dishonest action and swindling, Your Excellency?" asked Chichikov, trembling all over.

"The woman," said the prince, stepping closer and looking straight into Chichikov's eyes, "the woman who signed the will at your dictation, has been seized and will confront you."

Chichikov turned pale as a sheet.

"Your Excellency! I'll tell you the whole truth of the matter. I am guilty, indeed, guilty; but not so guilty. I've been maligned by my enemies."

"No one can malign you, because there is many times more vileness in you than the worst liar could invent. In all your life, I suppose, you've never done anything that was not dishonest. Every kopeck you earned was earned dishonestly, and is a theft and a dishonest thing deserving of the knout and Siberia. No, it's enough now! This very minute you will be taken to jail, and there, together with the worst scoundrels and robbers, you must wait for your fate to be decided. And this is still merciful, because you are many times worse than they are: they dress in wool jerkins and sheepkins, while you ...”

He glanced at the tailcoat of the flames and smoke of Navarino and, taking hold of the bellpull, rang.

"Your Excellency," Chichikov cried out, "be merciful! You are the father of a family. Don't spare me—but spare my old mother!"

"You're lying!" the prince cried wrathfully. "You pleaded with me the same way before, by your children and family, which you never had, and now—your mother!"

"Your Excellency, I am a scoundrel and an utter blackguard," said Chichikov, in a voice . . . [The phrase is unfinished in the manuscript.—Trans.] "I was indeed lying, I have no children or family; but, as God is my witness, I always wanted to have a wife, to fulfill the duty of a man and a citizen, so as later to earn indeed the respect of citizens and authorities . . . But what calamitous coincidences! With my blood, Your Excellency, with my blood I had to procure my daily sustenance. Temptations and seductions at every step . . . enemies, and destroyers, and thieves. My whole life has been like a violent storm or a ship amidst the waves at the will of the winds. I am a man, Your Excellency!"

Tears suddenly poured in streams from his eyes. He collapsed at the prince's feet just as he was, in his tailcoat of the flames and smoke of Navarino, in his velvet waistcoat and satin tie, new trousers and hairdo exuding the clean scent of eau de cologne.

"Get away from me! Call the guards to take him away!" the prince said to those who came in.

"Your Excellency!" Chichikov cried, seizing the prince's boot with both hands.

A shuddering sensation ran through the prince's every fiber.

"Get away, I tell you!" he said, trying to tear his foot from Chichikov's embrace.

"Your Excellency! I will not move from this spot before I obtain mercy!" Chichikov said, not letting go of the prince's boot and sliding, together with his foot, across the floor in his tailcoat of the flames and smoke of Navarino.