t twenty paces from the scaffold, where he had stood to hear the
sentence, were three posts, fixed in the ground, to which to fasten the
criminals (of whom there were several). The first three criminals were
taken to the posts, dressed in long white tunics, with white caps drawn
over their faces, so that they could not see the rifles pointed at them.
Then a group of soldiers took their stand opposite to each post. My
friend was the eighth on the list, and therefore he would have been
among the third lot to go up. A priest went about among them with a
cross: and there was about five minutes of time left for him to live.

"He said that those five minutes seemed to him to be a most interminable
period, an enormous wealth of time; he seemed to be living, in these
minutes, so many lives that there was no need as yet to think of that
last moment, so that he made several arrangements, dividing up the time
into portions--one for saying farewell to his companions, two minutes
for that; then a couple more for thinking over his own life and career
and all about himself; and another minute for a last look around. He
remembered having divided his time like this quite well. While saying
good-bye to his friends he recollected asking one of them some very
usual everyday question, and being much interested in the answer. Then
having bade farewell, he embarked upon those two minutes which he had
allotted to looking into himself; he knew beforehand what he was going
to think about. He wished to put it to himself as quickly and clearly
as possible, that here was he, a living, thinking man, and that in three
minutes he would be nobody; or if somebody or something, then what and
where? He thought he would decide this question once for all in these
last three minutes. A little way off there stood a church, and its
gilded spire glittered in the sun. He remembered staring stubbornly at
this spire, and at the rays of light sparkling from it. He could not
tear his eyes from these rays of light; he got the idea that these rays
were his new nature, and that in three minutes he would become one of
them, amalgamated somehow with them.

"The repugnance to what must ensue almost immediately, and the
uncertainty, were dreadful, he said; but worst of all was the idea,
'What should I do if I were not to die now? What if I were to return to
life again? What an eternity of days, and all mine! How I should grudge
and count up every minute of it, so as to was