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Chapter 8

A Treatise on Smerdyakov

O begin with, what was the source of this suspicion?’
‘T(Ippolit Kirillovitch began). ‘The first person who
cried out that Smerdyakov had committed the murder was
the prisoner himself at the moment of his arrest, yet from
that time to this he had not brought forward a single fact to
confirm the charge, nor the faintest suggestion of a fact. The
charge is confirmed by three persons only — the two broth-
ers of the prisoner and Madame Svyetlov. The elder of these
brothers expressed his suspicions only to-day, when he was
undoubtedly suffering from brain fever. But we know that
for the last two months he has completely shared our con-
viction of his brother’s guilt and did not attempt to combat
that idea. But of that later. The younger brother has admit-
ted that he has not the slightest fact to support his notion
of Smerdyakov’s guilt, and has only been led to that con-
clusion from the prisoner’s own words and the expression
of his face. Yes, that astounding piece of evidence has been
brought forward twice to-day by him. Madame Svyetslov
was even more astounding. ‘What the prisoner tells you,
you must believe; he is not a man to tell a lie.’ That is all

11 The Brothers Karamazov