now you
would speak to me of an aged mother!"

"Your Highness," protested Chichikov, "though I am a wretch and the
lowest of rascals, and though it is true that I lied when I told
you that I possessed a wife and children, I swear that, as God is my
witness, it has always been my DESIRE to possess a wife, and to fulfil
all the duties of a man and a citizen, and to earn the respect of my
fellows and the authorities. But what could be done against the force
of circumstances? By hook or by crook I have ever been forced to win
a living, though confronted at every step by wiles and temptations and
traitorous enemies and despoilers. So much has this been so that my
life has, throughout, resembled a barque tossed by tempestuous waves,
a barque driven at the mercy of the winds. Ah, I am only a man, your
Highness!"

And in a moment the tears had gushed in torrents from his eyes, and he
had fallen forward at the Prince's feet--fallen forward just as he
was, in his smoked-grey-shot-with-flame-colour frockcoat, his velvet
waistcoat, his satin tie, and his exquisitely fitting breeches, while
from his neatly brushed pate, as again and again he struck his hand
against his forehead, there came an odorous whiff of best-quality
eau-de-Cologne.

"Away with him!" exclaimed the Prince to the gendarme who had just
entered. "Summon the escort to remove him."

"Your Highness!" Chichikov cried again as he clasped the Prince's knees;
but, shuddering all over, and struggling to free himself, the Prince
repeated his order for the prisoner's removal.

"Your Highness, I say that I will not leave this room until you have
accorded me mercy!" cried Chichikov as he clung to the Prince's leg with
such tenacity that, frockcoat and all, he began to be dragged along the
floor.

"Away with him, I say!" once more the Prince exclaimed with the sort of
indefinable aversion which one feels at the sight of a repulsive
insect which he cannot summon up the courage to crush with his boot. So
convulsively did the Prince shudder that Chichikov, clinging to his leg,
received a kick on the nose. Yet still the prisoner retained his hold;
until at length a couple of burly gendarmes tore him away and,
grasping his arms, hurried him--pale, dishevelled, and in that strange,
half-conscious condition into which a man sinks when he sees before
him only the dark, terrible figure of death, the phantom which is so
abhorrent to all our natures--from the building. But on the