id Gavrila
Ardalionovitch.

"A brilliant idea, and most true!" cried Lebedeff, "for he never
even touched the laity. Sixty monks, and not a single layman! It is a
terrible idea, but it is historic, it is statistic; it is indeed one of
those facts which enables an intelligent historian to reconstruct the
physiognomy of a special epoch, for it brings out this further point
with mathematical accuracy, that the clergy were in those days sixty
times richer and more flourishing than the rest of humanity and perhaps
sixty times fatter also..."

"You are exaggerating, you are exaggerating, Lebedeff!" cried his
hearers, amid laughter.

"I admit that it is an historic thought, but what is your conclusion?"
asked the prince.

He spoke so seriously in addressing Lebedeff, that his tone contrasted
quite comically with that of the others. They were very nearly laughing
at him, too, but he did not notice it.

"Don't you see he is a lunatic, prince?" whispered Evgenie Pavlovitch
in his ear. "Someone told me just now that he is a bit touched on the
subject of lawyers, that he has a mania for making speeches and intends
to pass the examinations. I am expecting a splendid burlesque now."

"My conclusion is vast," replied Lebedeff, in a voice like thunder. "Let
us examine first the psychological and legal position of the criminal.
We see that in spite of the difficulty of finding other food, the
accused, or, as we may say, my client, has often during his peculiar
life exhibited signs of repentance, and of wishing to give up this
clerical diet. Incontrovertible facts prove this assertion. He has eaten
five or six children, a relatively insignificant number, no doubt,
but remarkable enough from another point of view. It is manifest that,
pricked by remorse--for my client is religious, in his way, and has a
conscience, as I shall prove later--and desiring to extenuate his sin
as far as possible, he has tried six times at least to substitute lay
nourishment for clerical. That this was merely an experiment we can
hardly doubt: for if it had been only a question of gastronomic variety,
six would have been too few; why only six? Why not thirty? But if we
regard it as an experiment, inspired by the fear of committing new
sacrilege, then this number six becomes intelligible. Six attempts
to calm his remorse, and the pricking of his conscience, would amply
suffice, for these attempts could scarcely have been happy ones. In
my humble opinion,