Resurrection

But, as if to spite him, the case dragged out to a great length.

After each witness had been examined separately and the expert

last of all, and a great number of useless questions had been

put, with the usual air of importance, by the public prosecutor

and by both advocates, the president invited the jury to examine

the objects offered as material evidence. They consisted of an

enormous diamond ring, which had evidently been worn on the first

finger, and a test tube in which the poison had been analysed.

These things had seals and labels attached to them.

Just as the witnesses were about to look at these things, the

public prosecutor rose and demanded that before they did this the

results of the doctor's examination of the body should be read.

The president, who was hurrying the business through as fast as

he could in order to visit his Swiss friend, though he knew that

the reading of this paper could have no other effect than that of

producing weariness and putting off the dinner hour, and that the

public prosecutor wanted it read simply because he knew he had a

right to demand it, had no option but to express his consent.

The secretary got out the doctor's report and again began to read

in his weary lisping voice, making no distinction between the

"r's" and "l's."

The external examination proved that: "1. Theropont Smelkoff's height was six feet five inches.

"Not so bad, that. A very good size," whispered the merchant,

with interest, into Nekhludoff's ear.

2. He looked about 40 years of age.

3. The body was of a swollen appearance.

4. The flesh was of a greenish colour, with dark spots in several

places.

5. The skin was raised in blisters of different sizes and in

places had come off in large pieces.

6. The hair was chestnut; it was thick, and separated easily from

the skin when touched.

7. The eye-balls protruded from their sockets and the cornea had

grown dim.

8. Out of the nostrils, both ears, and the mouth oozed serous

liquid; the mouth was half open.

9. The neck had almost disappeared, owing to the swelling of the

face and chest."

And so on and so on.

Four pages were covered with the 27 paragraphs describing all the

details of the external examination of the enormous, fat,

swollen, and decomposing body of the merchant who had been making

merry in the town. The indefinite loathing that Nekhludoff felt

was increased by the description of the corpse. Katusha's life,

and the scrum oozing from the nostrils of the corpse, and the

eyes that protruded out of their sockets, and his own treatment

of her--all seemed to belong to the same order of things, and he

felt surrounded and wholly absorbed by things of the same nature.