When the examination of the articles of material evidence was
finished, the president announced that the investigation was now
concluded and immediately called on the prosecutor to proceed,
hoping that as the latter was also a man, he, too, might feel
inclined to smoke or dine, and show some mercy on the rest. But
the public prosecutor showed mercy neither to himself nor to any
one else. He was very stupid by nature, but, besides this, he had
had the misfortune of finishing school with a gold medal and of
receiving a reward for his essay on "Servitude" when studying
Roman Law at the University, and was therefore self-confident and
self-satisfied in the highest degree (his success with the ladies
also conducing to this) and his stupidity had become
extraordinary.
When the word was given to him, he got up slowly, showing the
whole of his graceful figure in his embroidered uniform. Putting
his hand on the desk he looked round the room, slightly bowing
his head, and, avoiding the eyes of the prisoners, began to read
the speech he had prepared while the reports were being read.
"Gentlemen of the jury! The business that now lies before you is,
if I may so express myself, very characteristic."
The speech of a public prosecutor, according to his views, should
always have a social importance, like the celebrated speeches
made by the advocates who have become distinguished. True, the
audience consisted of three women--a semptress, a cook, and
Simeon's sister--and a coachman; but this did not matter. The
celebrities had begun in the same way. To be always at the height
of his position, i.e., to penetrate into the depths of the
psychological significance of crime and to discover the wounds of
society, was one of the prosecutor's principles.
"You see before you, gentlemen of the jury, a crime
characteristic, if I may so express myself, of the end of our
century; bearing, so to say, the specific features of that very
painful phenomenon, the corruption to which those elements of our
present-day society, which are, so to say, particularly exposed
to the burning rays of this process, are subject."
The public prosecutor spoke at great length, trying not to forget
any of the notions he had formed in his mind, and, on the other
hand, never to hesitate, and let his speech flow on for an hour
and a quarter without a break.
Only once he stopped and for some time stood swallowing his
saliva, but he soon mastered himself and made up for the
interruption by heightened eloquence. He spoke, now with a
tender, insinuating accent, stepping from foot to foot and
looking at the jury, now in quiet, business-like tones, glancing
into his notebook, then with a loud, accusing voice, looking from
the audience to the advocates. But he avoided looking at the
prisoners, who were all three fixedly gazing at him. Every new
craze then in vogue among his set was alluded to in his speech;
everything that then was, and some things that still are,
considered to be the last words of scientific wisdom: the laws of
heredity and inborn criminality, evolution and the struggle for
existence, hypnotism and hypnotic influence.