After the hearing of witnesses the Military Prosecutor took up his parable. His speech was a verbal reiteration of the formal indictment which I had already seen. All my interest was to hear what motives he would assign. As he could impute to me neither “selfish ends” nor “personal hatred,” he gave “revenge” as the reason of the assault; but of course he had to abstain carefully from suggesting any motive for this “revenge,” as he dared not mention the word “political.” The order to keep dark at all costs the political character of the case led to perfectly irreconcilable accounts of what happened. The Public Prosecutor informed the court that I had been arrested in 1877, and had made such and such admissions in the course of examination, but that I had subsequently “withdrawn” from justice. He dared not say that I had escaped from prison at Kiëv; and it was still funnier when he had to explain that I had “withdrawn” from my military service. I began my defence by the declaration that I had no desire to plead for any mitigation of sentence, as was proved by my not denying that I had fully intended to kill Gorinòvitch, though there was no proof of this save my own avowal.[39] I was ready to face the consequences, and my only wish was that the story should be truthfully told, that things might appear in their true light. With that in view I would put clearly before the court the reasons why my comrades and I had come to the resolution of putting Gorinòvitch to death. Scarcely, however, had I uttered the words, “We had formed a ‘circle’ in Elisavetgrad,” than the presiding general, Grodèkov, interrupted me with the observation that under the conditions of the trial I must refrain from any allusion to political offences. Footnote 39: Grave bodily injury without intent to kill was only punishable with four or five years’ hard labour, to be diminished by one-third in the case of minors. Of course, under such terms a true exposition of the real character of the affair could not possibly be made, the events could not even be narrated with any coherence. For instance, when I began again, “While Gorinòvitch was in prison in Kiëv,” the president stopped me instantly, and said that was out of order; and though I then carefully avoided mentioning names of persons or places, or any political occurrence, I was continually interrupted by the president, and threatened with being silenced altogether or removed from court. I really did not see how to put things so as to make out the simplest statement; and I soon concluded this so-called speech of defence, in which I was not allowed to defend myself, and scarcely to speak. Even then the Military Prosecutor carried the comedy so far as to wax indignant over my “contradictory statements.” I answered him briefly, and declined to make any concluding remarks.