The old man painfully raised himself on his elbow and held out his small, thin, trembling hand. Preparing to speak, he first breathed heavily, and drawing breath with difficulty, began in a low voice:
“Thou wouldst not reveal it to me that time … may God be with thee, but I reveal it to everybody!”
“Reveal what?”
“About the Lamb. … I reveal about the Lamb … that youth had the Lamb. And it is written that the Lamb will overcome—overcome all. And those that are with him, they are the chosen, and the faithful. …”
“I do not understand,” said Mezhenétsky.
“Thou must understand in the spirit. The kings and the beast … the Lamb shall overcome them.”
“What kings?” Mezhenétsky asked.
“There are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other one is not yet come; and when he cometh he must continue a short space. … That means, his end will come soon. Have you understood?”
Mezhenétsky shook his head, thinking the old man was delirious and his words meaningless. His fellow-convicts thought so too. The shaven convict, who had called Mezhenétsky, came up, and nudging his elbow to draw his attention, looked at the old man with a wink.
“Always chattering, always chattering, our ‘Snuff-rule’! What about, he don’t know himself!”
So thought Mezhenétsky and the old man’s fellow-convicts, as they looked at him; yet the old man knew very well what he was saying, and for him it had a clear, deep meaning. He meant that evil was not to reign