Page 554 - the-idiot

as if he were not intending to speak at all, when suddenly he
intervened in such a serious voice that everyone looked at
him with interest.
‘It is true that there were frequent famines at that time,
gentlemen. I have often heard of them, though I do not
know much history. But it seems to me that it must have
been so. When I was in Switzerland I used to look with as-
tonishment at the many ruins of feudal castles perched on
the top of steep and rocky heights, half a mile at least above
sea-level, so that to reach them one had to climb many miles
of stony tracks. A castle, as you know, is, a kind of moun-
tain of stones—a dreadful, almost an impossible, labour!
Doubtless the builders were all poor men, vassals, and had
to pay heavy taxes, and to keep up the priesthood. How,
then, could they provide for themselves, and when had they
time to plough and sow their fields? The greater number
must, literally, have died of starvation. I have sometimes
asked myself how it was that these communities were not
utterly swept off the face of the earth, and how they could
possibly survive. Lebedeff is not mistaken, in my opinion,
when he says that there were cannibals in those days, per-
haps in considerable numbers; but I do not understand why
he should have dragged in the monks, nor what he means
by that.’
‘It is undoubtedly because, in the twelfth century, monks
were the only people one could eat; they were the fat, among
many lean,’ said Gavrila Ardalionovitch.
‘A brilliant idea, and most true!’ cried Lebedeff, ‘for he
never even touched the laity. Sixty monks, and not a single