And embracing him she sat down with him on the bed.

At dawn he went out into the porch.

'Can this all have happened? Her father will come and she will tell him
everything. She is a devil! What am I to do? Here is the axe with which
I chopped off my finger.' He snatched up the axe and moved back towards
the cell.

The attendant came up.

'Do you want some wood chopped? Let me have the axe.'

Sergius yielded up the axe and entered the cell. She was lying
there asleep. He looked at her with horror, and passed on beyond the
partition, where he took down the peasant clothes and put them on. Then
he seized a pair of scissors, cut off his long hair, and went out along
the path down the hill to the river, where he had not been for more than
three years.

A road ran beside the river and he went along it and walked till noon.
Then he went into a field of rye and lay down there. Towards evening
he approached a village, but without entering it went towards the cliff
that overhung the river. There he again lay down to rest.

It was early morning, half an hour before sunrise. All was damp and
gloomy and a cold early wind was blowing from the west. 'Yes, I must end
it all. There is no God. But how am I to end it? Throw myself into the
river? I can swim and should not drown. Hang myself? Yes, just throw