Page 143 - the-idiot

would have been acquitted.’
‘Yes? Do you know that for a fact?’ asked the prince,
whose curiosity was aroused by the general’s words.
‘I should think so indeed!’ cried the latter. ‘The court-mar-
tial came to no decision. It was a mysterious, an impossible
business, one might say! Captain Larionoff, commander of
the company, had died; his command was handed over to
the prince for the moment. Very well. This soldier, Kolpak-
off, stole some leather from one of his comrades, intending
to sell it, and spent the money on drink. Well! The prince—
you understand that what follows took place in the presence
of the sergeant-major, and a corporal—the prince rated Kol-
pakoff soundly, and threatened to have him flogged. Well,
Kolpakoff went back to the barracks, lay down on a camp
bedstead, and in a quarter of an hour was dead: you quite
understand? It was, as I said, a strange, almost impossible,
affair. In due course Kolpakoff was buried; the prince wrote
his report, the deceased’s name was removed from the roll.
All as it should be, is it not? But exactly three months later at
the inspection of the brigade, the man Kolpakoff was found
in the third company of the second battalion of infantry,
Novozemlianski division, just as if nothing had happened!’
‘What?’ said the prince, much astonished.
‘It did not occur—it’s a mistake!’ said Nina Alexandrov-
na quickly, looking, at the prince rather anxiously. ‘Mon
mari se trompe,’ she added, speaking in French.
‘My dear, ‘se trompe’ is easily said. Do you remember any
case at all like it? Everybody was at their wits’ end. I should
be the first to say ‘qu’on se trompe,’ but unfortunately I was

1 The Idiot