VIII + 

One of the leaders of the Revolutionary Terrorist party, Ignatius Mezhenétsky, the same who had drawn Svetlogoúb into his terrorist activity, was being transported from the Province where he had been arrested, to Petersburg. The old man who had seen Svetlogoúb taken to execution happened to be in the same prison. He was being transported to Siberia. He still continued to seek for the true faith, and sometimes remembered the bright-faced youth who had smiled so joyfully on his way to death. + 

When he heard that a comrade of that youth⁠—a man holding the same faith⁠—had been brought to the prison, the sectarian was very glad, and persuaded the watchman to let him see Svetlogoúb’s friend. + 

In spite of the rigorous prison discipline, Mezhenétsky never ceased intercourse with the members of his party, and was every day expecting news about the progress of a plot he himself had originated, to undermine and blow up the Emperor’s train. Calling to mind some details he had omitted, he was now trying to find means to communicate them to his adherents. When the watchman came into his cell and guardedly whispered in his ear that one of the convicts wished to see him, he was very pleased, thinking that that interview might furnish him with a chance of communicating with his party. + 

“Who is he?” he asked. + 

“A peasant.” + 

“What does he want?” + 

“He wants to have a talk about faith.” + 

Mezhenétsky smiled. “All right; send him to me,” he said. “These sectarians,” he thought, “also hate the Government.⁠ ⁠… He may be of use.” + 

The watchman went away, and a few minutes later opened the door and let in a rather short, lean old man with thick hair, a thin, grizzly goat’s beard, and kindly weary blue eyes. + 

“What do you want?” asked Mezhenétsky. + 

The old man glanced at him, and quickly dropping his eyes again, held out his small, thin but energetic hand. + 

“What do you want?” + 

“I want a word with thee.” + 

“What word?” + 

“About faith.” + 

“What faith?” + 

“They say thou art of the same faith as that youth that Antichrist’s servants strangled with a rope in Odessa.” + 

“What youth?” + 

“Him as they strangled in Odessa in the autumn.” + 

“Svetlogoúb, I suppose?” + 

“Yes, the same.⁠ ⁠… Thy friend?” At every question the old man gave Mezhenétsky’s face a searching glance with his kind eyes, and at once dropped them again. + 

“Yes, we were closely bound to each other.” + 

“And of the same faith?⁠ ⁠…” + 

“The same, I expect⁠ ⁠…” Mezhenétsky answered, with a smile. + 

“It’s about that I want a word with thee.” + 

“And what is it you want exactly?” + 

“To know your faith.” + 

“Our faith. Well, sit down,” said Mezhenétsky, shrugging his shoulders. “This is our faith: We believe that there are men who, having seized all the power, torment and deceive the people, and that we must not spare ourselves, but must struggle against them in order to save the people they exploit.” From habit Mezhenétsky used the word “exploit,” but correcting himself, he substituted the word “torment”; “and so they must be destroyed. They kill, and so they must be killed, until they come to their senses.” + 

The old sectarian sighed, without raising his eyes. + 

“Our faith lies in not sparing ourselves, and in abolishing despotic Government, and establishing a free, elected, popular Government.” + 

The old man heaved a deep sigh; rose, smoothed the skirts of his gown, sank down on his knees, and knocking his forehead on the dirty floor, lay at Mezhenétsky’s feet. + 

“Why are you bowing?” + 

“Do not deceive me! Reveal to me wherein your faith lies,” said the old man, without rising or lifting his head. + 

“I have told you wherein our faith lies. But get up, or else I won’t talk.” + 

The old man rose. + 

“And did that youth hold the same faith?” he said, standing before Mezhenétsky and glancing at him now and then with his kind eyes, and immediately dropping them again. + 

“Yes, it was⁠ ⁠… just that. That is why they hanged him. And me, you see, they are taking to the Petropávlof Fortress for the same faith.” + 

The old man made a deep bow and went out of the cell. “Not therein lay that youth’s faith,” he thought. “That youth knew the true faith, but this one either just boasts that he holds the same faith, or he won’t reveal it.⁠ ⁠… Well, what of that? I will go on striving.⁠ ⁠… Here or in Siberia, and everywhere, there is God, and everywhere there are men. If you’ve lost your way, ask it;” and the old man took the New Testament, which opened of itself at the pages of Revelation; and, having put on his spectacles, he sat down by the window and began to read. + 