POLICE OFFICER. Repeat what you have said.
NIKÍTA. Wait, sir, let me finish!
AKÍM [with rapture] Speak, my son! Tell everything—you'll feel better! Confess to God, don't fear men! God—God! It is He!
NIKÍTA. I poisoned the father, dog that I am, and I ruined the daughter! She was in my power, and I ruined her, and her baby!
AKOULÍNA. True, that's true!
NIKÍTA. I smothered the baby in the cellar with a board! I sat on it and smothered it—and its bones crunched! [Weeps] And I buried it! I did it, all alone!
AKOULÍNA. He raves! I told him to!
NIKÍTA. Don't shield me! I fear no one now! Forgive me, Christian Commune! [Bows to the ground].
Silence.
POLICE OFFICER. Bind him! The marriage is evidently off!