his life and as faithful to my father as seven hundred poodles.”
“Prisoner, be careful in your language,” the President admonished him.
“I am not a poodle,” Grigory muttered.
“All right, it’s I am a poodle myself,” cried Mitya. “If it’s an insult, I take it to myself and I beg his pardon. I was a beast and cruel to him. I was cruel to Aesop too.”
“What Aesop?” the President asked sternly again.
“Oh, Pierrot … my father, Fyodor Pavlovitch.”
The President again and again warned Mitya impressively and very sternly to be more careful in his language.
“You are injuring yourself in the opinion of your judges.”
The counsel for the defense was equally clever in dealing with the evidence of Rakitin. I may remark that Rakitin was one of the leading witnesses and one to whom the prosecutor attached great significance. It appeared that he knew everything; his knowledge was amazing, he had been everywhere, seen everything,