But why, good Christian brothers,’ says he, ‘murder my driver? Why should he have to suffer for my money?’ And he said that so pitifully! And the innkeeper answered him: ‘If we leave him alive,’ said he, ‘he will be the first to bear witness against us. One may just as well kill two as one. You can but answer once for seven misdeeds⁠ ⁠… Say your prayers, that’s all you can do, and it is no good talking!’ The merchant and I knelt down side by side and wept and said our prayers. He thought of his children. I was young in those days; I wanted to live.⁠ ⁠… We looked at the images and prayed, and so pitifully that it brings a tear even now.⁠ ⁠… And the innkeeper’s wife looks at us and says: ‘Good people,’ said she, ‘don’t bear a grudge against us in the other world and pray to God for our punishment, for it is want that drives us to it.’ We prayed and wept and prayed and wept, and God heard us. He had pity on us, I suppose.⁠ ⁠… At the very minute when the innkeeper had taken the merchant by the beard to rip open his throat with his knife suddenly someone seemed to tap at the window from the yard! We all started, and the innkeeper’s hands dropped.⁠ ⁠… Someone was tapping at the window and shouting: ‘Pyotr Grigoritch,’ he shouted, ‘are you here?

Get ready and let’s go!’ The people saw that someone had come for the merchant; they were terrified and took to their heels.⁠ ⁠… And we made haste into the yard, harnessed the horses, and were out of sight in a minute⁠ ⁠…”

“Who was it knocked at the window?” asked Dymov.

“At the window? It must have been a holy saint or angel, for there was no one else.⁠ ⁠… When we drove out of the yard there wasn’t a soul in the street.⁠ ⁠… It was the Lord’s doing.”