Page 341 - the-idiot

without a feeling of mysterious terror and dread.
Such a feeling, we must suppose, overtook Rogojin at
this moment, and saved the prince’s life. Not knowing that
it was a fit, and seeing his victim disappear head foremost
into the darkness, hearing his head strike the stone steps
below with a crash, Rogojin rushed downstairs, skirting the
body, and flung himself headlong out of the hotel, like a
raving madman.
The prince’s body slipped convulsively down the steps
till it rested at the bottom. Very soon, in five minutes or so,
he was discovered, and a crowd collected around him.
A pool of blood on the steps near his head gave rise to
grave fears. Was it a case of accident, or had there been a
crime? It was, however, soon recognized as a case of epilep-
sy, and identification and proper measures for restoration
followed one another, owing to a fortunate circumstance.
Colia Ivolgin had come back to his hotel about seven o’clock,
owing to a sudden impulse which made him refuse to dine
at the Epanchins’, and, finding a note from the prince
awaiting him, had sped away to the latter’s address. Arrived
there, he ordered a cup of tea and sat sipping it in the coffee-
room. While there he heard excited whispers of someone
just found at the bottom of the stairs in a fit; upon which he
had hurried to the spot, with a presentiment of evil, and at
once recognized the prince.
The sufferer was immediately taken to his room, and
though he partially regained consciousness, he lay long in a
semi-dazed condition.
The doctor stated that there was no danger to be appre-

0 The Idiot