eady," continued Lebedeff, not deigning to
notice the interruption. "Malthus was a friend of humanity, but, with
ill-founded moral principles, the friend of humanity is the devourer of
humanity, without mentioning his pride; for, touch the vanity of one of
these numberless philanthropists, and to avenge his self-esteem, he will
be ready at once to set fire to the whole globe; and to tell the truth,
we are all more or less like that. I, perhaps, might be the first to set
a light to the fuel, and then run away. But, again, I must repeat, that
is not the question."

"What is it then, for goodness' sake?"

"He is boring us!"

"The question is connected with the following anecdote of past times;
for I am obliged to relate a story. In our times, and in our country,
which I hope you love as much as I do, for as far as I am concerned, I
am ready to shed the last drop of my blood...

"Go on! Go on!"

"In our dear country, as indeed in the whole of Europe, a famine visits
humanity about four times a century, as far as I can remember; once in
every twenty-five years. I won't swear to this being the exact figure,
but anyhow they have become comparatively rare."

"Comparatively to what?"

"To the twelfth century, and those immediately preceding and following
it. We are told by historians that widespread famines occurred in those
days every two or three years, and such was the condition of things that
men actually had recourse to cannibalism, in secret, of course. One of
these cannibals, who had reached a good age, declared of his own free
will that during the course of his long and miserable life he had
personally killed and eaten, in the most profound secrecy, sixty monks,
not to mention several children; the number of the latter he thought was
about six, an insignificant total when compared with the enormous mass
of ecclesiastics consumed by him. As to adults, laymen that is to say,
he had never touched them."

The president joined in the general outcry.

"That's impossible!" said he in an aggrieved tone. "I am often
discussing subjects of this nature with him, gentlemen, but for the
most part he talks nonsense enough to make one deaf: this story has no
pretence of being true."

"General, remember the siege of Kars! And you, gentlemen, I assure you
my anecdote is the naked truth. I may remark that reality, although it
is governed by invariable law, has at times a resemblance to falsehood.
In fact, the truer a thing is