OFFICER (Gives him the edict.) Read it aloud.

GREGORY. (Reads.) "An unworthy monk of the Monastery
Of Chudov, Gregory, of the family of Otrepiev, has fallen
into heresy, taught by the devil, and has dared to vex
the holy brotherhood by all kinds of iniquities and acts
of lawlessness. And, according to information, it has
been shown that he, the accursed Grishka, has fled to the
Lithuanian frontier."

OFFICER. (To MISSAIL.) How can it be anyone but you?

GREGORY. "And the tsar has commanded to arrest him--"

OFFICER. And to hang!

GREGORY. It does not say here "to hang."

OFFICER. Thou liest. What is meant is not always put into
writing. Read: to arrest and to hang.

GREGORY. "And to hang. And the age of the thief
Grishka" (looking at VARLAAM) "about fifty, and his
height medium; he has a bald head, grey beard, fat
belly."

(All glance at VARLAAM.)

1ST OFFICER, My lads! Here is Grishka! Hold him!