The Awakening

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The Awakening

The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Awakening, by Leo Nikoleyevich
Tolstoy, Translated by William E. Smith
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Title: The Awakening The Resurrection
Author: Leo Nikoleyevich Tolstoy

Release Date: December 19, 2005 [eBook #17352]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE AWAKENING
(The Resurrection)
by
COUNT LEO TOLSTOI
Author of
"War and Peace," "The Kreutzer Sonata," "Anna Karenina," Etc.
Translated by William E. Smith

[Illustration: COUNT LEO TOLSTOI.]

New York Street & Smith, Publishers 238 William Street Entered
according to act of Congress in the year 1900 By Street & Smith In the
Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D.C.

"Then came Peter to Him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin
against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?"--_Matthew, c. xviii.; v.
21._
"Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but until
seventy times seven."--_Idem, v. 22._

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but
considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye!"--_Idem, c. vii.; v.
3._
"He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at
her."--_John, c. viii.; v. 7._
"The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall
be as his master."--_Luke, c. vi.; v. 40._

THE AWAKENING.
PART FIRST.

CHAPTER I.
All the efforts of several hundred thousand people, crowded in a small
space, to disfigure the land on which they lived; all the stone they
covered it with to keep it barren; how so diligently every sprouting
blade of grass was removed; all the smoke of coal and naphtha; all the
cutting down of trees and driving off of cattle could not shut out the
spring, even from the city. The sun was shedding its light; the grass,
revivified, was blooming forth, where it was left uncut, not only on the
greenswards of the boulevard, but between the flag-stones, and the
birches, poplars and wild-berry trees were unfolding their viscous
leaves; the limes were unfolding their buds; the daws, sparrows and
pigeons were joyfully making their customary nests, and the flies were
buzzing on the sun-warmed walls. Plants, birds, insects and children
were equally joyful. Only men--grown-up men--continued cheating and
tormenting themselves and each other. People saw nothing holy in this
spring morning, in this beauty of God's world--a gift to all living
creatures--inclining to peace, good-will and love, but worshiped their
own inventions for imposing their will on each other.

The joy of spring felt by animals and men did not penetrate the office
of the county jail, but the one thing of supreme importance there was a
document received the previous evening, with title, number and seal,
which ordered the bringing into court for trial, this 28th day of April, at
nine o'clock in the morning, three prisoners--two women and one man.
One of the women, as the more dangerous criminal, was to be brought
separately. So, in pursuance of that order, on the 28th day of April, at
eight o'clock in the morning, the jail warden entered the dingy corridor
of the woman's ward. Immediately behind him came a woman with
weary countenance and disheveled gray hair, wearing a crown-laced
jacket, and girdled with a blue-edged sash. She was the matron.
"You want Maslova?" she asked the warden, as they neared one of the
cells opening into the corridor.
The warden, with a loud clanking of iron, unlocked and opened the
door of the cell, releasing an even fouler odor than permeated the
corridor, and shouted:
"Maslova to the court!" and again closing the door he waited for her
appearance.
The fresh, vivifying air of the fields, carried to the city by the wind,
filled even the court-yard of the jail. But in the corridor the oppressive
air, laden with the smell of tar and putrescence, saddened and dejected
the spirit of every new-comer. The same feeling was experienced by
the jail matron, notwithstanding she was accustomed to bad air. On
entering the corridor she suddenly felt a weariness coming over her that
inclined her to slumber.
There was a bustling in