A Judicial ErrorChapter 1
The Fatal DayAT ten o'clock in the morning of the day following the events Ihave described, the trial of Dmitri Karamazov began in our district court.
I hasten to emphasise the fact that I am far from esteeming myself capable of reporting all that took place at the trial in full detail, or even in the actual order of events.I imagine that to mention everything with full explanation would fill a volume, even a very large one.And so I trust I may not be reproached, for confining myself to what struck me.I may have selected as of most interest what was of secondary importance, and may have omitted the most prominent and essential details.But I see I shall do better not to apologise.I will do my best and the reader will see for himself that I have done all I can.
And, to begin with, before entering the court, I will mention what surprised me most on that day.Indeed, as it appeared later, everyone was surprised at it, too.We all knew that the affair had aroused great interest, that everyone was burning with impatience for the trial to begin, that it had been a subject of talk, conjecture, exclamation and surmise for the last two months in local society.Everyone knew, too, that the case had become known throughout Russia, but yet we had not imagined that it had aroused such burning, such intense, interest in everyone, not only among ourselves, but all over Russia.This became evident at the trial this day.
Visitors had arrived not only from the chief town of our province, but from several other Russian towns, as well as from Moscow and Petersburg.Among them were lawyers, ladies, and even several distinguished personages.Every ticket of admission had been snatched up.A special place behind the table at which the three judges sat was set apart for the most distinguished and important of the men visitors; a row of arm-chairs had been placed there- something exceptional, which had never been allowed before.A large proportion not less than half of the public- were ladies.There was such a large number of lawyers from all parts that they did not know where to seat them, for every ticket had long since been eagerly sought for and distributed.I saw at the end of the room, behind the platform, a special partition hurriedly put up, behind which all these lawyers were admitted, and they thought themselves lucky to have standing room there, for all chairs had been removed for the sake of space, and the crowd behind the partition stood throughout the case closely packed, shoulder to shoulder.
Some of the ladies, especially those who came from a distance, made their appearance in the gallery very smartly dressed, but the majority of the ladies were oblivious even of dress.Their faces betrayed hysterical, intense, almost morbid, curiosity.A peculiar fact- established afterwards by many observations- was that almost all the ladies, or, at least the vast majority of them, were on Mitya's side and in favour of his being acquitted.This was perhaps chiefly owing to his reputation as a conqueror of female hearts.It was known that two women rivals were to appear in the case.One of them-Katerina Ivanovna- was an object of general interest.All sorts of extraordinary tales were told about her, amazing anecdotes of her passion for Mitya, in spite of his crime.Her pride and "aristocratic connections" were particularly insisted upon (she had called upon scarcely anyone in the town).People said she intended to petition the Government for leave to accompany the criminal to Siberia and to be married to him somewhere in the mines.The appearance of Grushenka in court was awaited with no less impatience.The public was looking forward with anxious curiosity to the meeting of the two rivals- the proud aristocratic girl and "the hetaira." But Grushenka was a more familiar figure to the ladies of the district than Katerina Ivanovna.They had already seen "the woman who had ruined Fyodor Pavlovitch and his unhappy son," and all, almost without exception, wondered how father and son could be so in love with "such a very common, ordinary Russian girl, who was not even pretty."In brief, there was a great deal of talk.I know for a fact that there were several serious family quarrels on Mitya's account in our town.Many ladies quarrelled violently with their husbands over differences of opinion about the dreadful case, and it was that the husbands of these ladies, far from being favourably disposed to the prisoner, should enter the court bitterly prejudiced against him.In fact, one may say pretty certainly that the masculine, as distinguished from the feminine, part of the audience was biased against the prisoner.There were numbers of severe, frowning, even vindictive faces.Mitya, indeed, had managed to offend many people during his stay in the town.Some of the visitors were, of course, in excellent spirits and quite unconcerned as to the fate of Mitya personally.But all were interested in the trial, and the majority of the men were certainly hoping for the conviction of the criminal, except perhaps the lawyers, who were more interested in the legal than in the moral aspect of the case.
