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Fortune Smiles on Mitya
It came quite as a surprise even to Alyosha himself. He was not required to take the oath, and I remember that both sides addressed him very gently and sympathetically. It was evident that his reputation for goodness had preceded him. Alyosha gave his evidence modestly and with restraint, but his warm sympathy for his unhappy brother was unmistakable. In answer to one question, he sketched his brother's character as that of a man, violent-tempered perhaps and carried away by his passions, but at the same time honourable, proud and generous, capable of self-sacrifice, if necessary. He admitted, however, that, through his passion for Grushenka and his rivalry with his father, his brother had been of late in an intolerable position. But he repelled with indignation the suggestion that his brother might have committed a murder for the sake of gain, though he recognised that the three thousand roubles had become almost an obsession with Mitya; that upon them as part of the inheritance he had been cheated of by his father, and that, indifferent as he was to money as a rule, he could not even speak of that three thousand without fury. As for the rivalry of the two "ladies," as the prosecutor expressed it- that is, of Grushenka and Katya- he answered evasively and was even unwilling to answer one or two questions altogether.
"Did your brother tell you, anyway, that he intended to kill
your father?" asked the prosecutor. "You can refuse to answer if you
think necessary," he added.
"He did not tell me so directly," answered Alyosha.
"How so? Did he indirectly?"
"He spoke to me once of his hatred for our father and his fear
that at an extreme moment... at a moment of fury, he might perhaps
murder him."
"And you believed him?"
"I am afraid to say that I did. But I never doubted that some
higher feeling would always save him at that fatal moment, as it has
indeed saved him, for it was not he killed my father," Alyosha said
firmly, in a loud voice that was heard throughout the court.
The prosecutor started like a war-horse at the sound of a trumpet.
"Let me assure you that I fully believe in the complete
sincerity of your conviction and do not explain it by or identify it
with your affection for your unhappy brother. Your peculiar view of
the whole tragic episode is known to us already from the preliminary
investigation. I won't attempt to conceal from you that it is highly
individual and contradicts all the other evidence collected by the
prosecution. And so I think it essential to press you to tell me
what facts have led you to this conviction of your brother's innocence
and of the guilt of another person against whom you gave evidence at
the preliminary inquiry?"
"I only answered the questions asked me at the preliminary
inquiry," replied Alyosha, slowly and calmly. "I made no accusation
against Smerdyakov of myself."
"Yet you gave evidence against him?"
"I was led to do so by my brother Dmitri's words. I was told
what took place at his arrest and how he had pointed to Smerdyakov
before I was examined. I believe absolutely that my brother is
innocent, and if he didn't commit the murder, then-"
"Then Smerdyakov? Why Smerdyakov? And why are you so completely
persuaded of your brother's innocence?"
"I cannot help believing my brother. I know he wouldn't lie to me. I saw from his face he wasn't lying."
"Only from his face? Is that all the proof you have?"
"I have no other proof."
"And of Smerdyakov's guilt you have no proof whatever but your
brother's word and the expression of his face?"
"No, I have no other proof."
The prosecutor dropped the examination at this point. The
impression left by Alyosha's evidence on the public was most
disappointing. There had been talk about Smerdyakov before the
trial; someone had heard something, someone had pointed out
something else, it was said that Alyosha had gathered together some
extraordinary proofs of his brother's innocence and Smerdyakov's
guilt, and after all there was nothing, no evidence except certain
moral convictions so natural in a brother.