COLONEL. You are reading the evidence?
GENERAL. Yes. Unpardonably insolent language. Well, go on.
ADJUTANT. “To the third question: What induced me to use offensive words before the Court, my answer is: that I was induced to do so by the wish to serve God, and in order to expose the fraud carried on in His name. This desire, I hope to retain till I die, and therefore …”
GENERAL. Come; that's enough; one can't listen to all this balderdash. The fact is all this sort of thing must be eradicated, and action taken to prevent the people being perverted. [To Colonel] Have you spoken to him?
COLONEL. I have been doing so all the time. I tried to shame him, and also to convince him that it would only be worse for himself, and that he would gain nothing by it. Besides that, I spoke of his relations. He was very excited, but holds to his opinions.
GENERAL. A pity you talked to him so much. We are in the army not to reason, but to act. Call him here!
Exit Adjutant with Clerk.
GENERAL [sits down] No, Colonel, that's not the way. Fellows of this kind must be dealt with in a different manner. Decisive measures are needed to cut off the diseased limb. One maggoty sheep infects the whole flock. In these cases one must not be too squeamish. His being a Prince, and having a mother and a fiancée, is none of our business. We have a soldier before us and we must obey the Tsar's will.
COLONEL. I only thought that we could move him more easily by persuasion.
GENERAL. Not at all—by firmness; only by firmness! I have dealt with men of that sort before. He must be made to feel that he is a nonentity—a grain of dust beneath a chariot wheel, and that he cannot stop it.