The Light Shines in Darkness Part 16

BORiS [sits down on a stool] How wrong it is of you to shout so!

GENERAL. Lift him, and make him stand!

Soldiers raise him.

BORiS. That you can do, and you can kill me; but you cannot make me submit ...

GENERAL. Silence, I tell you. Hear what I have to say to you.

BORiS. I don't in the least want to hear what you have to say.

GENERAL. He is mad! He must be taken to the hospital to be examined.

That is the only thing to do.

COLONEL. The order was to send him to be examined at the Gendarmes'

office.

GENERAL. Well, then, send him there. Only put him into uniform.

COLONEL. He resists.

GENERAL. Bind him. [To Boris] Please hear what I have to say to you. I don't care what happens to you, but for your own sake I advise you, bethink yourself. You will rot in a fortress, and not do any good to anyone. Give it up. Well, you flared up a bit and I flared up. [Slaps him on the shoulder] Go, take the oath and give up all that nonsense.

[To Adjutant] Is the Priest here? [To Boris] Well? [Boris is silent] Why don't you answer? Really you had better do as I say. You can't break a club with a whip. You can keep your opinions, but serve your time! We will not use force with you. Well?

BORiS. I have nothing more to say, I have said all I had to.

GENERAL. There, you see, you wrote that there are such and such texts in the Gospels. Well, the Priest knows all about that. Have a talk with the Priest, and then think things over. That will be best. Good-bye, and I hope "au revoir," when I shall be able to congratulate you on having entered the Tsar's service. Send the Priest here. [Exit, followed by Colonel and Adjutant].

BORiS [To Clerk and Convoy Soldiers] There you see how they deceive you.

They know that they are deceiving you. Don't submit to them. Lay down your rifles and go away. Let them put you into the Disciplinary Battalions and flog you; it will not be as bad as it is to serve such impostors.

CLERK. But how could one get on without an army? It's impossible.

BORiS. That is not for us to consider. We have to consider what G.o.d demands of us; and G.o.d wants us.

ONE OF THE SOLDIERS. But how is it that they speak of "the Christian army"?

BORiS. That is not said anywhere in the Bible. It's these impostors who invented it.

Enter a Gendarme Officer with Clerk.

GENDARME OFFICER. Is it here that the conscript, Prince Cheremshanov, is being kept?

CLERK. Yes, sir. Here he is.

GENDARME OFFICER. Come here, please. Are you Prince Boris Simenovich Cheremshanov, who refuses to take the oath?

BORiS. I am.

GENDARME OFFICER [sits down and points to a seat opposite] Please sit down.

BORiS. I think our conversation will be quite useless.

GENDARME OFFICER. I don't think so. At any rate not useless to you. You see it's like this. I am informed that you refuse military service and the oath, and are therefore suspected of belonging to the Revolutionary Party, and that is what I have to investigate. If it is true, we shall have to withdraw you from the service and imprison you or banish you according to the share you have taken in the revolution. If it is not true, we shall leave you to the military authorities. You see I express myself quite frankly to you, and I hope you will treat us in the same way.

BORiS. In the first place I cannot trust men who wear this sort of thing [pointing to the Gendarme Officer's uniform]. Secondly, your very occupation is one I cannot respect, and for which I have the greatest aversion. But I do not refuse to answer your questions. What do you wish to know?

GENDARME OFFICER. In the first place, tell me your name, your calling, and your religion?

BORiS. You know all that and I will not reply. Only one of the questions is of great importance to me. I am _not_ what is called an Orthodox Christian.

GENDARME OFFICER. What then is your religion?

BORiS. I do not label it.

GENDARME OFFICER. But still?...

BORiS. Well then, the Christian religion, according to the Sermon on the Mount.

GENDARME OFFICER. Write it down [Clerk writes. To Boris] Still you recognise yourself as belonging to some nationality or rank.

BORiS. No, I don't. I recognise myself as a man, and a servant of G.o.d.

GENDARME OFFICER. Why don't you consider yourself a member of the Russian Empire?

BORiS. Because I do not recognise any empires.

GENDARME OFFICER. What do you mean by not recognising? Do you wish to overthrow them?

BORiS. Certainly I wish it, and work for it.

GENDARME OFFICER [To Clerk] Put that down. [To Boris] How do you work for it?

BORiS. By exposing fraud and lies, and by spreading the truth. When you entered I was telling these soldiers not to believe in the fraud into which they have been drawn.

GENDARME OFFICER. But beside this method of exposing and persuading, do you approve of any others?

BORiS. No, I not only disapprove, but I consider all violence to be a great sin; and not only violence, but all concealment and craftiness ...

GENDARME OFFICER. Write that down. Very well. Now kindly let me know whom you are acquainted with. Do you know Ivashenko?

BORiS. No.

GENDARME OFFICER. Klein?

BORiS. I have heard of him, but never met him.

Enter Priest (an old man wearing a cross and carrying a Bible). The Clerk goes up to him and receives his blessing.