Page 1172 - the-brothers-karamazov

Chapter 6

The Prosecutor’s Speech.

Sketches of Character

PPOLIT KIRILLOVITCH began his speech, trembling
Iwith nervousness, with cold sweat on his forehead, feel-
ing hot and cold all over by turns. He described this himself
afterwards. He regarded this speech as his chef-d’oeuvre,
the chef-d’oeuvre of his whole life, as his swan-song. He
died, it is true, nine months later of rapid consumption, so
that he had the right, as it turned out, to compare himself
to a swan singing his last song. He had put his whole heart
and all the brain he had into that speech. And poor Ippolit
Kirillovitch unexpectedly revealed that at least some feeling
for the public welfare and ‘the eternal question’ lay con-
cealed in him. Where his speech really excelled was in its
sincerity. He genuinely believed in the prisoner’s guilt; he
was accusing him not as an official duty only, and in calling
for vengeance he quivered with a genuine passion ‘for the
security of society.’ Even the ladies in thee audience, though
they remained hostile to Ippolit Kirillovitch, admitted that
he made an extraordinary impression on them. He began

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