The Seven Who Were Hanged

ul youth, endowed with that calm, clear joy of living which causes every evil thought and feeling that might injure life to disappear from the organism without leaving an

attered not whether he was occupied with photography, with bicycling or with preparations for a terroris

laughed at him, saying that if the most notorious spy told him upon his word of honor that he was not a spy, Sergey would believe him and would shake hands with him as with any comrade. He had

re seriously and even angrily. And all his friends as seri

eople, he was perhaps liked more for this

Tanya Kovalchuk, he was the only one who had breakfasted properly, with an appetite. He drank two glasses o

eat? Eat. We

feel like

ll eat i

fine appetit

his mouth full, began to sin

winds are blow

the fortress, he commenced devoting himself to gymnastics according to the unusually rational system of a certain German named Mueller, which absorbed his interest. He undressed himself completely and, to the alarm and astonishment of the guard who watched him, he carefully went

your regiment," he shouted convincingly and kindly, so as not to frighten t

This sensation was rather painful than terrible. Then the sensation was forgotten, but it returned again a few hours later, and eac

fraid?" thought Sergey in a

the fresher his body became after the cold water, the keener and the more unbearable became the sensations of his recurrent fear. And just at those moments when, during his freedom, he had felt a special influx of

easily, you should weaken the body a

rub-downs. To the soldier he shouted,

hing, my friend,-but not for those who are to

exercises, his appetite was very good,-it was difficult for him to control it, and he ate everything that was brought to him. Then he began to mana

body, and at the same time sadly, yet tenderly he

on. "It's because they are dragging it out so long," thought Sergey. "It would be a good idea to sleep all the time till the day of the execution," and he tried to sleep as much as possibl

thing, no matter what the pessimists say about it. What if they were to hang a pessimist? Ah, I feel sorr

nful sighs. Silence-then a sigh; then a brief s

ome,-and a strange sensation took possession of him. He felt as though he had been stripped, stripped entirely,-as if not only his clothes, but the sun, the air, the noise of voices and his ability to do things had been wrested from him. Death was not th

ergey, painfully. "What is t

ed. He paced the cell, spreading out his arms and continuing to survey himself like a woman in a new dress which is too long for her. He

ng becam

d sit. He tried to drink some water-and it seemed strange to him that he could drink, that he could swallow, that he could hold the cup, that he

ergey, growing cold. "Am I coming

abyss-Death. And he was tortured not by the fact that Death was visible, but that both Life and Death were visible at the same time. The curtain which through eternity has hidden the mystery of life and the mystery of death was pushed aside by a sacrilegious hand, and the mysteries ceased to be mysteries-yet they remained incomprehensible, like the Truth written in a foreign tongue. There were no conceptions in his human mind, no words in his human language that could define what he saw. And

ction, and shook his head. And with that unexpected break in his feelings,

you splendid German! After all you

and cheerfully went through all the eighteen exercises with the greatest care. He stretched and expanded his young, somewhat emaciated body, sat down for a m

shed; drops of warm, pleasant perspiration came from the

e is a nineteenth exercise-to hang by the neck motionless. That is called execution. Do you understand, Mueller? They take a live man, let us say Sergey Gol

n the right si

to do it,