'Ah! good! good!... Well, my good man, what do you say in your defence?' 'Your... your... your Excellency,' stammered Girshel, 'I... indeed,... your Excellency... I'm not guilty... your Excellency; ask his honour the officer.... I'm an agent, your Excellency, an honest agent.' 'He ought to be cross-examined,' the general murmured in an undertone, wagging his head gravely. 'Come, how do you explain this, my friend?' 'I'm not guilty, your Excellency, I'm not guilty.' 'That is not probable, however. You were--how is it said in Russian?--taken on the fact, that is, in the very facts!' 'Hear me, your Excellency; I am not guilty.' 'You drew the plan? you are a spy of the enemy?' 'It wasn't me!' Girshel shrieked suddenly; 'not I, your Excellency!' The general looked at Siliavka. 'Why, he's raving, your Excellency. His honour the officer here took the plan out of his slipper.' The general looked at me. I was obliged to nod assent. 'You are a spy from the enemy, my good man....' 'Not I... not I...' whispered the distracted Jew. 'You have the enemy with similar information before provided? Confess....' 'How could I?' 'You will not deceive me, my good man. Are you a spy?' The Jew closed his eyes, shook his head, and lifted the skirts of his gown. 'Hang him,' the general pronounced expressively after a brief silence,'according to the law. Where is Mr. Fiodor Schliekelmann?' They ran to fetch Schliekelmann, the general's adjutant. Girshel began to turn greenish, his mouth fell open, his eyes seemed starting out of his head. The adjutant came in. The general gave him the requisite instructions. The secretary showed his sickly, pock-marked face for an instant. Two or three officers peeped into the room inquisitively. 'Have pity, your Excellency,' I said to the general in German as best I could; 'let him off....' 'You, young man,' he answered me in Russian, 'I was saying to you, are inexperienced, and therefore I beg you silent to be, and me no more to trouble.' Girshel with a shriek dropped at the general's feet. 'Your Excellency, have mercy; I will never again, I will not, your Excellency; I have a wife... your Excellency, a daughter... have mercy....' 'It's no use!' 'Truly, your Excellency, I am guilty... it's the first time, your Excellency, the first time, believe me!' 'You furnished no other documents?' 'The first time, your Excellency,... my wife... my children... have mercy....' 'But you are a spy.' 'My wife... your Excellency... my children....' The general felt a twinge, but there was no getting out of it. 'According to the law, hang the Hebrew,' he said constrainedly, with the air of a man forced to do violence to his heart, and sacrifice his better feelings to inexorable duty--'hang him! Fiodor Karlitch, I beg you to draw up a report of the occurrence....'