第149章

"What have I come for? You ask why? What is your faith?" shouted Father Ferapont crazily."I've come here to drive out your visitors, the unclean devils.I've come to see how many have gathered here while I have been away.I want to sweep them out with a birch broom.""You cast out the evil spirit, but perhaps you are serving him yourself," Father Paissy went on fearlessly."And who can say of himself 'I am holy'? Can you, Father?""I am unclean, not holy.I would not sit in an arm-chair and would not have them bow down to me as an idol," thundered Father Ferapont.

"Nowadays folk destroy the true faith.The dead man, your saint," he turned to the crowd, pointing with his finger to the coffin, "did not believe in devils.He gave medicine to keep off the devils.And so they have become as common as spiders in the corners.And now he has begun to stink himself.In that we see a great sign from God."The incident he referred to was this.One of the monks was haunted in his dreams and, later on, in waking moments, by visions of evil spirits.When in the utmost terror he confided this to Father Zossima, the elder had advised continual prayer and rigid fasting.But when that was of no use, he advised him while persisting in prayer and fasting, to take a special medicine.Many persons were shocked at the time and wagged their heads as they talked over it- and most of all Father Ferapont, to whom some of the censorious had hastened to report this "extraordinary" counsel on the part of the elder.

"Go away, Father!" said Father Paissy, in a commanding voice, "it's not for man to judge but for God.Perhaps we see here a 'sign'

which neither you, nor I, nor anyone of us is able to comprehend.

Go, Father, and do not trouble the flock!" he repeated impressively.

"He did not keep the fasts according to the rule and therefore the sign has come.That is clear and it's a sin to hide it," the fanatic, carried away by a zeal that outstripped his reason, would not be quieted."He was seduced by sweetmeats, ladies brought them to him in their pockets, he sipped tea, he worshipped his belly, filling it with sweet things and his mind with haughty thoughts....

And for this he is put to shame...."

"You speak lightly, Father." Father Paissy, too, raised his voice.

"I admire your fasting and severities, but you speak lightly like some frivolous youth, fickle and childish.Go away, Father, I command you!"Father Paissy thundered in conclusion.

"I will go," said Ferapont, seeming somewhat taken aback, but still as bitter."You learned men! You are so clever you look down upon my humbleness.I came hither with little learning and here I have forgotten what I did know; God Himself has preserved me in my weakness from your subtlety."Father Paissy stood over him, waiting resolutely.Father Ferapont paused and, suddenly leaning his cheek on his hand despondently, pronounced in a sing-song, voice, looking at the coffin of the dead elder:

"To-morrow they will sing over him 'Our Helper and Defender'- a splendid anthem- and over me when I die all they'll sing will be 'What Earthly Joy'- a little cantical,"* he added with tearful regret.

"You are proud and puffed up, this is a vain place!" he shouted suddenly like a madman, and with a wave of his hand he turned quickly and quickly descended the steps.The crowd awaiting him below wavered; some followed him at once and some lingered, for the cell was still open, and Father Paissy, following Father Ferapont on to the steps, stood watching him.the excited old fanatic was not completely silenced.Walking twenty steps away, he suddenly turned towards the setting sun, raised both his arms and, as though someone had cut him down, fell to the ground with a loud scream.

* When a monk's body is carried out from the cell to the church and from the church to the graveyard, the canticle "What Earthly Joy..." is sung.If the deceased was a priest as well as a monk the canticle "Our Helper and Defender" is sung instead.

"My God has conquered! Christ has conquered the setting sun!" he shouted frantically, stretching up his hands to the sun, and falling face downwards on the ground, he sobbed like a little child, shaken by his tears and spreading out his arms on the ground.Then all rushed up to him; there were exclamations and sympathetic sobs...a kind of frenzy seemed to take possession of them all.

"This is the one who is a saint! This is the one who is a holy man!" some cried aloud, losing their fear."This is he who should be an elder," others added malignantly.

"He wouldn't be an elder...he would refuse...he wouldn't serve a cursed innovation...he wouldn't imitate their foolery," other voices chimed in at once.And it is hard to say how far they might have gone, but at that moment the bell rang summoning them to service.

All began crossing themselves at once.Father Ferapont, too, got up and crossing himself went back to his cell without looking round, still uttering exclamations which were utterly incoherent.A few followed him, but the greater number dispersed, hastening to service.Father Paissy let Father Iosif read in his place and went down.The frantic outcries of bigots could not shake him, but his heart was suddenly filled with melancholy for some special reason and he felt that.He stood still and suddenly wondered, "Why am Isad even to dejection?" and immediately grasped with surprise that his sudden sadness was due to a very small and special cause.In the crowd thronging at the entrance to the cell, he had noticed Alyosha and he remembered that he had felt at once a pang at heart on seeing him.

"Can that boy mean so much to my heart now?" he asked himself, wondering.

At that moment Alyosha passed him, hurrying away, but not in the direction of the church.Their eyes met.Alyosha quickly turned away his eyes and dropped them to the ground, and from the boy's look alone, Father Paissy guessed what a great change was taking place in him at that moment.