Chapter 8 The Evidences of the Witnesses. The Babe

The examination centers on whether Dmitri spent three thousand roubles at Mokroe a month earlier and again the previous night. Trifon Borissovitch testifies confidently that Dmitri threw away vast sums, including over a thousand on Gypsies, and that Dmitri arrived claiming to have three thousand. Peasants, the driver Andrey, and others corroborate this, including Dmitri’s shouted boast about leaving his “sixth thousand.”

Kalganov, reluctant but candid, confirms hearing the “sixth thousand” remark, says the Poles cheated, and notes Grushenka professed love to Dmitri after the Poles were expelled. The Poles, Mussyalovitch and Vrublevsky, testify with dignity that Dmitri tried to buy Mussyalovitch off with three thousand—seven hundred at once and the rest “in town”—implying money might be hidden. Dmitri protests he planned to offer a deed to Tchermashnya instead, but the prosecutor dismisses this.

Maximov nervously claims he saw a “rainbow” bundle like twenty thousand, adding confusion but little credibility. Grushenka then testifies calmly. She admits she toyed with both father and son, confirms hearing Dmitri speak repeatedly of three thousand spent at the earlier carousal, and says he often told her he was penniless and expected money from his father. She acknowledges he repeatedly threatened his father in anger, yet insists she never believed he would do it and affirms his present denial.

On the crucial money question, Grushenka says Dmitri told her he had “stolen” Katerina Ivanovna’s money—meaning the earlier three thousand—and that she urged repayment. Her statements bolster the prosecution’s view of large expenditures and undercut Dmitri’s claim of only fifteen hundred. After she departs, the exhausted Dmitri falls asleep as the protocol is prepared.

Dmitri dreams of a burned-out village, starving mothers, and a freezing babe, awakening in a surge of pity and a desire to live rightly, strengthened by a sense of unexpected kindness. Roused to sign, he accepts the protocol, saying he has had a good dream.