And why had not the prince approached him and
spoken to him, instead of turning away and pretending he
had seen nothing, although their eyes met? (Yes, their eyes
had met, and they had looked at each other.) Why, he had
himself wished to take Rogojin by the hand and go in
together, he had himself determined to go to him on the
morrow and tell him that he had seen her, he had
repudiated the demon as he walked to the house, and his
heart had been full of joy. The Idiot
421 of 1149
Was there something in the whole aspect of the man,
today, sufficient to justify the prince’s terror, and the awful
suspicions of his demon? Something seen, but
indescribable, which filled him with dreadful
presentiments? Yes, he was convinced of it—convinced of
what? (Oh, how mean and hideous of him to feel this
conviction, this presentiment! How he blamed himself for
it!) ‘Speak if you dare, and tell me, what is the
presentiment?’ he repeated to himself, over and over
again. ‘Put it into words, speak out clearly and distinctly.
Oh, miserable coward that I am!’ The prince flushed with
shame for his own baseness. ‘How shall I ever look this
man in the face again? My God, what a day! And what a
nightmare, what a nightmare!’
There was a moment, during this long, wretched walk
back from the Petersburg Side, when the prince felt an
irresistible desire to go straight to Rogojin’s, wait for him,
embrace him with tears of shame and contrition, and tell
him of his distrust, and finish with it—once for all.
But here he was back at his hotel.
How often during the day he had thought of this hotel
with loathing—its corridor, its rooms, its stairs. How he
had dreaded coming back to it, for some reason. The Idiot
422 of 1149
‘What a regular old woman I am today,’ he had said to
himself each time, with annoyance. ‘I believe in every
foolish presentiment that comes into my head.’
He stopped for a moment at the door; a great flush of
shame came over him. ‘I am a coward, a wretched
coward,’ he said, and moved forward again; but once
more he paused.
Among all the incidents of the day, one recurred to his
mind to the exclusion of the rest; although now that his
self-control was regained, and he was no longer under the
influence of a nightmare, he was able to think of it calmly.
It concerned the knife on Rogojin’s table. ‘Why should
not Rogojin have as many knives on his table as he
chooses?’ thought the prince, wondering at his suspicions,
as he had done when he found himself looking into the
cutler’s window. ‘What could it have to do with me?’ he
said to himself again, and stopped as if rooted to the
ground by a kind of paralysis of limb such as attacks people
under the stress of some humiliating recollection.
The doorway was dark and gloomy at any time; but
just at this moment it was rendered doubly so by the fact
that the thunder- storm had just broken, and the rain was
coming down in torrents. The Idiot
423 of 1149
And in the semi-darkness the prince distinguished a
man standing close to the stairs, apparently waiting.
There was nothing particularly significant in the fact
that a man was standing back in the doorway, waiting to
come out or go upstairs; but the prince felt an irresistible
conviction that he knew this man, and that it was
Rogojin. The man moved on up the stairs; a moment later
the prince passed up them, too. His heart froze within
him. ‘In a minute or two I shall know all,’ he thought.
The staircase led to the first and second corridors of the
hotel, along which lay the guests’ bedrooms. As is often
the case in Petersburg houses, it was narrow and very dark,
and turned around a massive stone column.
On the first landing, which was as small as the necessary
turn of the stairs allowed, there was a niche in the column,
about half a yard wide, and in this niche the prince felt
convinced that a man stood concealed. He thought he
could distinguish a figure standing there. He would pass by
quickly and not look. He took a step forward, but could
bear the uncertainty no longer and turned his head.
The eyes—the same two eyes—met his! The man
concealed in the niche had also taken a step forward. For
one second they stood face to face. The Idiot
424 of 1149
Suddenly the prince caught the man by the shoulder
and twisted him round towards the light, so that he might
see his face more clearly.
Rogojin’s eyes flashed, and a smile of insanity distorted
his countenance. His right hand was raised, and something
glittered in it. The prince did not think of trying to stop it.
All he could remember afterwards was that he seemed to
have called out:
‘Parfen! I won’t believe it.’
Next moment something appeared to burst open before
him: a wonderful inner light illuminated his soul. This
lasted perhaps half a second, yet he distinctly remembered
hearing the beginning of the wail, the strange, dreadful
wail, which burst from his lips of its own accord, and
which no effort of will on his part could suppress.
Next moment he was absolutely unconscious; black
darkness blotted out everything.
He had fallen in an epileptic fit.
. . . . . . .
As is well known, these fits occur instantaneously. The
face, especially the eyes, become terribly disfigured,
convulsions seize the limbs, a terrible cry breaks from the The Idiot
425 of 1149
sufferer, a wail from which everything human seems to be
blotted out, so that it is impossible to believe that the man
who has just fallen is the same who emitted the dreadful
cry. It seems more as though some other being, inside the
stricken one, had cried. Many people have borne witness
to this impression; and many cannot behold an epileptic fit
without a feeling of mysterious terror and dread.
Such a feeling, we must suppose, overtook Rogojin at
this moment, and saved the prince’s life. Not knowing
that it was a fit, and seeing his victim disappear head
foremost into the darkness, hearing his head strike the
stone steps below with a crash, Rogojin rushed
downstairs, skirting the body, and flung himself headlong
out of the hotel, like a raving madman.
The prince’s body slipped convulsively down the steps
till it rested at the bottom. Very soon, in five minutes or
so, he was discovered, and a crowd collected around him.
A pool of blood on the steps near his head gave rise to
grave fears. Was it a case of accident, or had there been a
crime? It was, however, soon recognized as a case of
epilepsy, and identification and proper measures for
restoration followed one another, owing to a fortunate
circumstance. Colia Ivolgin had come back to his hotel
about seven o’clock, owing to a sudden impulse which The Idiot
426 of 1149
made him refuse to dine at the Epanchins’, and, finding a
note from the prince awaiting him, had sped away to the
latter’s address. Arrived there, he ordered a cup of tea and
sat sipping it in the coffee-room. While there he heard
excited whispers of someone just found at the bottom of
the stairs in a fit; upon which he had hurried to the spot,
with a presentiment of evil, and at once recognized the
prince.
The sufferer was immediately taken to his room, and
though he partially regained consciousness, he lay long in
a semi-dazed condition.
The doctor stated that there was no danger to be
apprehended from the wound on the head, and as soon as
the prince could understand what was going on around
him, Colia hired a carriage and took him away to
Lebedeff’s. There he was received with much cordiality,
and the departure to the country was hastened on his
account. Three days later they were all at Pavlofsk. The Idiot
427 of 1149
VI
LEBEDEFF’S country-house was not large, but it was
pretty and convenient, especially the part which was let to
the prince.
A row of orange and lemon trees and jasmines, planted
in green tubs, stood on the fairly wide terrace. According
to Lebedeff, these trees gave the house a most delightful
aspect. Some were there when he bought it, and he was so
charmed with the effect that he promptly added to their
number. When the tubs containing these plants arrived at
the villa and were set in their places, Lebedeff kept
running into the street to enjoy the view of the house, and
every time he did so the rent to be demanded from the
future tenant went up with a bound.
This country villa pleased the prince very much in his
state of physical and mental exhaustion. On the day that
they left for Pavlofsk, that is the day after his attack, he
appeared almost well, though in reality he felt very far
from it. The faces of those around him for the last three
days had made a pleasant impression. He was pleased to
see, not only Colia, who had become his inseparable
companion, but Lebedeff himself and all the family, except The Idiot
428 of 1149
the nephew, who had left the house. He was also glad to
receive a visit from General Ivolgin, before leaving St.
Petersburg.
It was getting late when the party arrived at Pavlofsk,
but several people called to see the prince, and assembled
in the verandah. Gania was the first to arrive. He had
grown so pale and thin that the prince could hardly
recognize him. Then came Varia and Ptitsin, who were
rusticating in the neighbourhood. As to General Ivolgin,
he scarcely budged from Lebedeff’s house, and seemed to
have moved to Pavlofsk with him. Lebedeff did his best to
keep Ardalion Alexandrovitch by him, and to prevent him
from invading the prince’s quarters. He chatted with him
confidentially, so that they might have been taken for old
friends. During those three days the prince had noticed
that they frequently held long conversations; he often
heard their voices raised in argument on deep and learned
subjects, which evidently pleased Lebedeff. He seemed as
if he could not do without the general. But it was not
only Ardalion Alexandrovitch whom Lebedeff kept out of
the prince’s way. Since they had come to the villa, he
treated his own family the same. Upon the pretext that his
tenant needed quiet, he kept him almost in isolation, and
Muishkin protested in vain against this excess of zeal. The Idiot
429 of 1149
Lebedeff stamped his feet at his daughters and drove them
away if they attempted to join the prince on the terrace;
not even Vera was excepted.
‘They will lose all respect if they are allowed to be so
free and easy; besides it is not proper for them,’ he
declared at last, in answer to a direct question from the
prince.
‘Why on earth not?’ asked the latter. ‘Really, you
know, you are making yourself a nuisance, by keeping
guard over me like this. I get bored all by myself; I have
told you so over and over again, and you get on my
nerves more than ever by waving your hands and creeping
in and out in the mysterious way you do.’
It was a fact that Lebedeff, though he was so anxious to
keep everyone else from disturbing the patient, was
continually in and out of the prince’s room himself. He
invariably began by opening the door a crack and peering
in to see if the prince was there, or if he had escaped; then
he would creep softly up to the arm- chair, sometimes
making Muishkin jump by his sudden appearance. He
always asked if the patient wanted anything, and when the
latter replied that he only wanted to be left in peace, he
would turn away obediently and make for the door on
tip-toe, with deprecatory gestures to imply that he had The Idiot
430 of 1149
only just looked in, that he would not speak a word, and
would go away and not intrude again; which did not
prevent him from reappearing in ten minutes or a quarter
of an hour. Colia had free access to the prince, at which
Lebedeff was quite disgusted and indignant. He would
listen at the door for half an hour at a time while the two
were talking. Colia found this out, and naturally told the
prince of his discovery.
‘Do you think yourself my master, that you try to keep
me under lock and key like this?’ said the prince to
Lebedeff. ‘In the country, at least, I intend to be free, and
you may make up your mind that I mean to see whom I
like, and go where I please.’
‘Why, of course,’ replied the clerk, gesticulating with
his hands.
The prince looked him sternly up and down.
‘Well, Lukian Timofeyovitch, have you brought the
little cupboard that you had at the head of your bed with
you here?’
‘No, I left it where it was.’
‘Impossible!’
‘It cannot be moved; you would have to pull the wall
down, it is so firmly fixed.’
‘Perhaps you have one like it here?’ The Idiot
431 of 1149
‘I have one that is even better, much better; that is
really why I bought this house.’
‘Ah! What visitor did you turn away from my door,
about an hour ago?’
‘The-the general. I would not let him in; there is no
need for him to visit you, prince... I have the deepest
esteem for him, he is a—a great man. You don’t believe
it? Well, you will see, and yet, most excellent prince, you
had much better not receive him.’
‘May I ask why? and also why you walk about on
tiptoe and always seem as if you were going to whisper a
secret in my ear whenever you come near me?’
‘I am vile, vile; I know it!’ cried Lebedeff, beating his
breast with a contrite air. ‘But will not the general be too
hospitable for you?’
‘Too hospitable?’
‘Yes. First, he proposes to come and live in my house.
Well and good; but he sticks at nothing; he immediately
makes himself one of the family. We have talked over our
respective relations several times, and discovered that we
are connected by marriage. It seems also that you are a sort
of nephew on his mother’s side; he was explaining it to
me again only yesterday. If you are his nephew, it follows
