На эшафот ведет лесенка; тут он пред лесенкой...

A ladder leads to the scaffold; then he suddenly cried in front of the ladder, and he was a strong and courageous man, they say, he was a big villain. The priest was always with him all the time, and rode with him in a trolley, and kept talking, he was unlikely to hear: he would begin to listen, but he did not understand the third word. It should be. Finally he began to ascend the ladder; here the legs are bandaged and therefore move in small steps. The priest must have been an intelligent man, he stopped talking, and he gave everything to him to kiss the cross. At the bottom of the ladder, he was very pale, and when he got up and stood on the scaffold, he suddenly became white as paper, completely like white writing paper. Probably his legs were weakening and numb, and there was nausea, as if it was crushing him in the throat, and it tickled him like that, did you ever feel it in fright or in very terrible moments, when all his reason remains, but no already has no power? It seems to me, if, for example, imminent death, the house falls on you, then suddenly you really want to sit down and close your eyes and wait - whatever happens! .. It was here, when this weakness began, the priest quickly, with such an immediate gesture and in silence, he suddenly substituted a cross to his lips, such a small cross, silver, four-pointed, often substituted, every minute. And as soon as the cross touched his lips, he opened his eyes, and again, for a few seconds, he seemed to be enlivened, and his legs went. He kissed the cross with greed, hurried to kiss, as if in a hurry not to forget to grab something in reserve, just in case, but it was unlikely at that moment he recognized something religious. And so it was right up to the board ... It is strange that rarely in these very last seconds they faint! On the contrary, the head lives terribly and works, it must be strong, strong, strong, like a car in motion; I imagine, different thoughts are knocking, all unfinished and, perhaps, ridiculous, extraneous such thoughts: “this one looks - he has a wart on his forehead, now the executioner has one lower button rusted ...”, and meanwhile, you know everything and remember everything; there is one such point that cannot be forgotten, and you cannot faint, and everything around it, about this point goes and spins. And to think that this is so until the very last quarter of a second, when the head is already lying on the block, and waiting, and ... knows, and suddenly hears above itself how the iron slipped! You will certainly hear that! I would, if I were lying, I would deliberately listen and hear! Here, maybe, only one tenth of a moment, but you will certainly hear! And just imagine, they still argue that maybe the head will fly off when it does, then for a second, maybe it knows that it has flown off - what a concept! And what if five seconds! .. Draw a scaffold so that only the last step was visible clearly and close; the criminal stepped on her: his head, his face pale as paper, the priest holds out a cross, he greedily holds out his blue lips and looks, and he knows everything. The cross and the head, here is the picture, the face of the priest, the executioner, his two ministers and several heads and eyes from below - all this can be drawn as if in the background, in fog, for an accessory ... This is what the picture is. The prince fell silent and looked at everyone.
“This, of course, does not look like quietism,” Alexandra said to herself.