Resurrection

After the women came the men condemned to banishment, those

serving their term in the prison, and those exiled by their

Communes; and, coughing loudly, they took their stand, crowding

the left side and the middle of the church.

On one side of the gallery above stood the men sentenced to penal

servitude in Siberia, who had been let into the church before the

others. Each of them had half his head shaved, and their presence

was indicated by the clanking of the chains on their feet. On the

other side of the gallery stood those in preliminary confinement,

without chains, their heads not shaved.

The prison church had been rebuilt and ornamented by a rich

merchant, who spent several tens of thousands of roubles on it,

and it glittered with gay colours and gold. For a time there was

silence in the church, and only coughing, blowing of noses, the

crying of babies, and now and then the rattling of chains, was

heard. But at last the convicts that stood in the middle moved,

pressed against each other, leaving a passage in the centre of

the church, down which the prison inspector passed to take his

place in front of every one in the nave.