In the Penal Colony | Page 8

the single advocate
for the legacy of the Old Commandant. I can no longer think about a
more extensive organization of the process -- I'm using all my powers
to maintain what there is at present. When the Old Commandant was
alive, the colony was full of his supporters. I have something of the Old
Commandant's power of persuasion, but I completely lack his power,
and as a result the supporters have gone into hiding. There are still a lot
of them, but no one admits to it. If you go into a tea house today -- that
is to say, on a day of execution -- and keep your ears open, perhaps
you'll hear nothing but ambiguous remarks. They are all supporters, but
under the present Commandant, considering his present views, they are
totally useless to me. And now I'm asking you: Should such a life's
work," he pointed to the machine, "come to nothing because of this
Commandant and the women influencing him? Should people let that
happen? Even if one is a foreigner and only on our island for a couple
of days? But there's no time to lose. People are already preparing
something against my judicial proceedings. Discussions are already
taking place in the Commandant's headquarters, to which I am not
invited. Even your visit today seems to me typical of the whole
situation. People are cowards and send you out -- a foreigner. You
should have seen the executions in earlier days! The entire valley was
overflowing with people, even a day before the execution. They all
came merely to watch. Early in the morning the Commandant appeared
with his women. Fanfares woke up the entire campsite. I delivered the
news that everything was ready. The whole society -- and every high

official had to attend -- arranged itself around the machine. This pile of
cane chairs is a sorry left over from that time. The machine was freshly
cleaned and glowed. For almost every execution I had new replacement
parts. In front of hundreds of eyes -- all the spectators stood on tip toe
right up to the hills there -- the condemned man was laid down under
the harrow by the Commandant himself. What nowadays is done by a
common soldier was then my work as the senior judge, and it was a
honour for me. And then the execution began! No discordant note
disturbed the work of the machine. Many people did not look any more
at all, but lay down with closed eyes in the sand. They all knew: now
justice was being carried out. In silence people listened to nothing but
the groans of the condemned man, muffled by the felt. These days the
machine no longer manages to squeeze a strong groan out of the
condemned man -- something the felt is not capable of smothering. But
back then the needles which made the inscription dripped a caustic
liquid which we are not permitted to use any more today. Well, then
came the sixth hour. It was impossible to grant all the requests people
made to be allowed to watch from up close. The Commandant, in his
wisdom, arranged that the children should be taken care of before all
the rest. Naturally, I was always allowed to stand close by, because of
my official position. Often I crouched down there with two small
children in my arms, on my right and left. How we all took in the
expression of transfiguration on the martyred face! How we held our
cheeks in the glow of this justice, finally attained and already passing
away! What times we had, my friend!"
The Officer had obviously forgotten who was standing in front of him.
He had put his arm around the Traveler and laid his head on his
shoulder. The Traveler was extremely embarrassed. Impatiently he
looked away over the Officer's head. The Soldier had ended his task of
cleaning and had just shaken some rice pudding into the bowl from a
tin. No sooner had the Condemned Man, who seemed to have fully
recovered already, noticed this than his tongue began to lick at the
pudding. The Soldier kept pushing him away, for the pudding was
probably meant for a later time, but in any case it was not proper for the
Soldier to reach in and grab some food with his dirty hands and eat it in
front of the famished Condemned Man.

The Officer quickly collected himself. "I didn't want to upset you in
any way," he said. "I know it is impossible to make someone
understand those days now. Besides, the machine still works and
operates on its own. It operates on its own even when it is standing
alone in this valley. And at the end, the body still keeps