Page:Chertkov - Christian Martyrdom.djvu/66

Rh " 'Now, if they were to submit themselves to our law, I should let them go home to see their friends,' says he.

" 'One should serve one Master only,' says I.

" 'And what master?'

" 'We have one Master—the Lord—Him do we serve.'

" 'Why did you not accept the guns?'

" 'How can we kill our friends?'

" 'And an enemy?'

" 'If one were to kill an enemy, one would become an enemy oneself. The Lord has created all in the same image.'

" 'But if someone were to meet you and take your horse?'

" 'I would earnestly ask him not to take it. But if I should not persuade him; then let him take it. I will not take sin upon me. As I was coming here with a young friend of mine, we met an Ocetin [one of the native tribes of the Caucasus] who untied my cape and took it; we prayed him earnestly to return it. He did not, but rode away with it. He will be uneasy. The cape will cause his soul much trouble.'

"The commander asked me, 'What is this command of yours, "Love thy neighbour as thyself"? You have no books, where then did you find it?'

" 'We received it from our Father and Friend. It is in our "Book of Life," which contains all our commandments.'

" He made me repeat them to him. Then he asked me to repeat to him one of our psalms.

" 'Where do you learn all this?' he asked. " 'From our parents.'

" 'And thus you teach your children?'

" 'Yes.'

"And so we went on chatting together. At last he said, 'Yes, all this is correct; and one should live so.' "

Of those Spirit-Wrestlers who were transferred from the penal battalion and other prisons to Siberia, several became ill and died, from the