Page:The Novels of Ivan Turgenev (volume XV).djvu/42



'You, young man,' he answered me in Russian, 'I was saying to you, are inexperienced, and therefore I beg you silent to be, and me no more to trouble.'

Girshel with a shriek dropped at the general's feet.

'Your Excellency, have mercy; I will never again, I will not, your Excellency; I have a wife... your Excellency, a daughter... have mercy....'

'It's no use!'

'Truly, your Excellency, I am guilty... it's the first time, your Excellency, the first time, believe me!'

'You furnished no other documents?'

'The first time, your Excellency,... my wife... my children... have mercy....'

'But you are a spy.'

'My wife... your Excellency... my children....'

The general felt a twinge, but there was no getting out of it.

'According to the law, hang the Hebrew,' he said constrainedly, with the air of a man forced to do violence to his heart, and sacrifice his better feelings to inexorable duty—'hang him! Fiodor Karlitch, I beg you to draw up a report of the occurrence....'

A horrible change suddenly came over Girshel. Instead of the ordinary timorous