Page 548 - the-brothers-karamazov

the front room, the question of opening the windows was
raised among those who were around the coffin. But this
suggestion made casually by someone was unanswered and
almost unnoticed. Some of those present may perhaps have
inwardly noticed it, only to reflect that the anticipation of
decay and corruption from the body of such a saint was an
actual absurdity, calling for compassion (if not a smile) for
the lack of faith and the frivolity it implied. For they expect-
ed something quite different.
And, behold, soon after midday there were signs of
something, at first only observed in silence by those who
came in and out and were evidently each afraid to commu-
nicate the thought in his mind. But by three o’clock those
signs had become so clear and unmistakable, that the news
swiftly reached all the monks and visitors in the hermit-
age, promptly penetrated to the monastery, throwing all the
monks into amazement, and finally, in the shortest possible
time, spread to the town, exciting everyone in it, believers
and unbelievers alike. The unbelievers rejoiced, and as for
the believers some of them rejoiced even more than the un-
believers, for ‘men love the downfall and disgrace of the
righteous,’ as the deceased elder had said in one of his ex-
hortations.
The fact is that a smell of decomposition began to come
from the coffin, growing gradually more marked, and by
three o’clock it was quite unmistakable. In all the past histo-
ry of our monastery, no such scandal could be recalled, and
in no other circumstances could such a scandal have been
possible, as showed itself in unseemly disorder immediate-