A SALE of flowers was taking place in Count N.’s greenhouses. The
purchasers were few in number--a landowner who was a neighbor of mine,
a young timber-merchant, and myself. While the workmen were carrying out
our magnificent purchases and packing them into the carts, we sat at the
entry of the greenhouse and chatted about one thing and another. It
is extremely pleasant to sit in a garden on a still April morning,
listening to the birds, and watching the flowers brought out into the
open air and basking in the sunshine.
The head-gardener, Mihail Karlovitch, a venerable old man with a full
shaven face, wearing a fur waistcoat and no coat, superintended the
packing of the plants himself, but at the same time he listened to
our conversation in the hope of hearing something new. He was an
intelligent, very good-hearted man, respected by everyone. He was
for some reason looked upon by everyone as a German, though he was in
reality on his father’s side Swedish, on his mother’s side Russian, and
attended the Orthodox church. He knew Russian, Swedish, and German. He
had read a good deal in those languages, and nothing one could do gave
him greater pleasure than lending him some new book or talking to him,
for instance, about Ibsen.
He had his weaknesses, but they were innocent ones: he called himself
the head gardener, though there were no under-gardeners; the expression
of his face was unusually dignified and haughty; he could not endure to
be contradicted, and liked to be listened to with respect and attention.
“That young fellow there I can recommend to you as an awful rascal,”
said my neighbor, pointing to a laborer with a swarthy, gipsy face, who
drove by with the water-barrel. “Last week he was tried in the town for
burglary and was acquitted; they pronounced him mentally deranged, and
yet look at him, he is the picture of health. Scoundrels are very often
acquitted nowadays in Russia on grounds of abnormality and aberration,
yet these acquittals, these unmistakable proofs of an indulgent attitude
to crime, lead to no good. They demoralize the masses, the sense of
justice is blunted in all as they become accustomed to seeing vice
unpunished, and you know in our age one may boldly say in the words of
Shakespeare that in our evil and corrupt age virtue must ask forgiveness
of vice.”
“That’s very true,” the merchant assented. “Owing to these frequent
acquittals, murder and arson have become much more common. Ask the
peasants.”
Mihail Karlovitch turned towards us and said:
“As far as I am concerned, gentlemen, I am always delighted to meet with
these verdicts of not guilty. I am not afraid for morality and justice
when they say ‘Not guilty,’ but on the contrary I feel pleased. Even
when my conscience tells me the jury have made a mistake in acquitting
the criminal, even then I am triumphant. Judge for yourselves,
gentlemen; if the judges and the jury have more faith in _man_ than in
evidence, material proofs, and speeches for the prosecution, is not that
faith _in man_ in itself higher than any ordinary considerations? Such
faith is only attainable by those few who understand and feel Christ.”
“A fine thought,” I said.
“But it’s not a new one. I remember a very long time ago I heard a
legend on that subject. A very charming legend,” said the gardener,
and he smiled. “I was told it by my grandmother, my father’s mother, an
excellent old lady. She told me it in Swedish, and it does not sound so
fine, so classical, in Russian.”
But we begged him to tell it and not to be put off by the coarseness of
the Russian language. Much gratified, he deliberately lighted his pipe,
looked angrily at the laborers, and began:
“There settled in a certain little town a solitary, plain, elderly
gentleman called Thomson or Wilson--but that does not matter; the
surname is not the point. He followed an honorable profession: he was
a doctor. He was always morose and unsociable, and only spoke when
required by his profession. He never visited anyone, never extended his
acquaintance beyond a silent bow, and lived as humbly as a hermit. The
fact was, he was a learned man, and in those days learned men were not
like other people. They spent their days and nights in contemplation, in
reading and in healing disease, looked upon everything else as trivial,
and had no time to waste a word. The inhabitants of the town understood
this, and tried not to worry him with their visits and empty chatter.
They were very glad that God had sent them at last a man who could heal
diseases, and were proud that such a remarkable man was living in their
town. ‘He knows everything,’ they said about him.
“But that was not enough. They ought to have also said, ‘He loves
everyone.’ In the breast of that learned man there beat a wonderful
angelic heart. Though the people of that town were strangers and not his
own people, yet he loved them like children, and did not spare himself
for them. He was himself ill with consumption, he had a cough, but when
he was summoned to the sick he forgot his own illness he did not spare
himself and, gasping for breath, climbed up the hills however high they
might be. He disregarded the sultry heat and the cold, despised thirst
and hunger. He would accept no money and strange to say, when one of his
patients died, he would follow the coffin with the relations, weeping.
“And soon he became so necessary to the town that the inhabitants
wondered how they could have got on before without the man. Their
gratitude knew no bounds. Grown-up people and children, good and bad
alike, honest men and cheats--all in fact, respected him and knew his
value. In the little town and all the surrounding neighborhood there
was no man who would allow himself to do anything disagreeable to him;
indeed, they would never have dreamed of it. When he came out of his
lodging, he never fastened the doors or windows, in complete confidence
that there was no thief who could bring himself to do him wrong.
He often had in the course of his medical duties to walk along the
highroads, through the forests and mountains haunted by numbers of
hungry vagrants; but he felt that he was in perfect security.
“One night he was returning from a patient when robbers fell upon him
in the forest, but when they recognized him, they took off their hats
respectfully and offered him something to eat. When he answered that he
was not hungry, they gave him a warm wrap and accompanied him as far as
the town, happy that fate had given them the chance in some small way
to show their gratitude to the benevolent man. Well, to be sure, my
grandmother told me that even the horses and the cows and the dogs knew
him and expressed their joy when they met him.
“And this man who seemed by his sanctity to have guarded himself from
every evil, to whom even brigands and frenzied men wished nothing but
good, was one fine morning found murdered. Covered with blood, with
his skull broken, he was lying in a ravine, and his pale face wore an
expression of amazement. Yes, not horror but amazement was the emotion
that had been fixed upon his face when he saw the murderer before him.
You can imagine the grief that overwhelmed the inhabitants of the town
and the surrounding districts. All were in despair, unable to believe
their eyes, wondering who could have killed the man. The judges who
conducted the inquiry and examined the doctor’s body said: ‘Here we
have all the signs of a murder, but as there is not a man in the world
capable of murdering our doctor, obviously it was not a case of murder,
and the combination of evidence is due to simple chance. We must suppose
that in the darkness he fell into the ravine of himself and was mortally
injured.’
“The whole town agreed with this opinion. The doctor was buried, and
nothing more was said about a violent death. The existence of a man
who could have the baseness and wickedness to kill the doctor seemed
incredible. There is a limit even to wickedness, isn’t there?
“All at once, would you believe it, chance led them to discovering the
murderer. A vagrant who had been many times convicted, notorious for his
vicious life, was seen selling for drink a snuff-box and watch that
had belonged to the doctor. When he was questioned he was confused,
and answered with an obvious lie. A search was made, and in his bed was
found a shirt with stains of blood on the sleeves, and a doctor’s lancet
set in gold. What more evidence was wanted? They put the criminal in
prison. The inhabitants were indignant, and at the same time said:
“‘It’s incredible! It can’t be so! Take care that a mistake is not
made; it does happen, you know, that evidence tells a false tale.’
“At his trial the murderer obstinately denied his guilt. Everything was
against him, and to be convinced of his guilt was as easy as to believe
that this earth is black; but the judges seem to have gone mad: they
weighed every proof ten times, looked distrustfully at the witnesses,
flushed crimson and sipped water.... The trial began early in the
morning and was only finished in the evening.
“‘Accused!’ the chief judge said, addressing the murderer, ‘the court
has found you guilty of murdering Dr. So-and-so, and has sentenced you
to....’
“The chief judge meant to say ‘to the death penalty,’ but he dropped
from his hands the paper on which the sentence was written, wiped the
cold sweat from his face, and cried out:
“‘No! May God punish me if I judge wrongly, but I swear he is not
guilty. I cannot admit the thought that there exists a man who would
dare to murder our friend the doctor! A man could not sink so low!’
“‘There cannot be such a man!’ the other judges assented.
“‘No,’ the crowd cried. ‘Let him go!’
“The murderer was set free to go where he chose, and not one soul blamed
the court for an unjust verdict. And my grandmother used to say that for
such faith in humanity God forgave the sins of all the inhabitants of
that town. He rejoices when people believe that man is His image and
semblance, and grieves if, forgetful of human dignity, they judge worse
of men than of dogs. The sentence of acquittal may bring harm to the
inhabitants of the town, but on the other hand, think of the beneficial
influence upon them of that faith in man--a faith which does not remain
dead, you know; it raises up generous feelings in us, and always impels
us to love and respect every man. Every man! And that is important.”
Mihail Karlovitch had finished. My neighbor would have urged some
objection, but the head-gardener made a gesture that signified that he
did not like objections; then he walked away to the carts, and, with an
expression of dignity, went on looking after the packing.