"Mikhail Afanasievich Bulgakov" "The Master and Margarita" "PART EIGHT" "Well did they wear you out very much?" "Oh, no, Messire..." "Nobless obleege privilege carries responsibility!" "Is that vodka?" "Good heavens." "Queen!" "...would I allow myself to pour vodka for a lady?" "It's pure alcohol!" "Drink boldly..." "The night of the full moon is a festive night and I have supper in the small company of my retinue and servants!" "To your health!" "..." "And so, how do you feel?" "... ...How did this tiring ball go?" "Stupendous!" "Everybody's enchanted, infatuated, crushed!" "So much tact, so much skill, charm, and loveliness!" "... ...words can't describe it!" "And tell me did you shoot him, this former baron?" "Naturally!" "...how could I not shoot him?" "He absolutely had to be shot!" "But, it's interesting what if they come to arrest you?" "They're sure to come!" "...charming Queen, they're sure to!" "But I don't suppose it will be very interesting!" "Ah, I got so excited when that baron fell!" "You must be a very good shot?" "..." "Depends on what It's one thing to hit the critic Latunsky's window with a hammer!" "...and quite another thing to hit him in the heart!" "In the heart!" "Who is this critic Latunsky?" "There is this certain critic..." "Tonight I destroyed his whole apartment!" "Just look at you..." "But what for?" "..." "You see, Messire, he ruined a certain master!" "But why go to such trouble yourself?" "Allow me... to rip off his head!" "You sit down!" "I myself will go right now..." "No!" "No I beg you, Messire there's no need for that!" "As you wish as you wish..." "I suppose it's time for me it's late..." "What's your hurry?" "Yes, it's time!" "I thank you, Messire!" "All the best, Messire!" "Perhaps you want to say something before you leave?" "No, nothing!" "except that if you still need me I'm willing and ready to do anything you wish." "I'm not tired in the least, and I had a very good time at the ball!" "So that if it were still going on I would again offer my knee for thousands of gallows birds and murderers to kiss!" "True!" "You're perfectly right!" "We've been testing you!" "This was a test..." "Never ask for anything!" "Never for anything!" "...and especially from those who are stronger than you!" "They'll make the offer themselves and give everything themselves!" "Sit down, proud woman!" "And so, Margot what do you want for having been my hostess tonight?" "What price do you put on your knee?" "..." "And speak now without constraint for it is I who offer!" "So, that means..." "I can ask... for one thing?" "Demand, demand, my donna!" "you may demand one thing!" "I want..." "I want them to stop giving Frieda that handkerchief with which she smothered her baby!" "In view of the fact, that the possibility of your having been bribed by that fool Frieda is, of course, entirely excluded I simply don't know what to do!" "You are, by all tokens, a person of exceptional kindness?" "A highly moral person?" "No, I am a light-minded person..." "I asked you for Frieda only because I was careless enough to give her firm hope ...She's waiting she believes in my power!" "And if she's left disappointed..." "I'll have no peace in my life" "There's no help for it, it just happened!" "Ah, that's understandable..." "Will you do it?" "By no means Each department must look after its own affairs I will not do it but you will do it yourself!" "And will it be done at my word?" "Just do it, what a pain!" "Frieda!" "Queen!" "You are forgiven!" "You are forgiven The handkerchief will no longer be brought to you!" "Queen..." "Thank you, and farewell!" "Well, Behemoth let's not take advantage of the action of an impractical person on a festive night..." "Certainly, Messire!" "And so.." "...that does not count!" "I did nothing..." "What do you want for yourself?" "Diamond donna, this time I advise you to be more reasonable!" "Or else fortune may slip away!" "I want my beloved master to be returned to me right now, this second!" "You... you!" "?" "My hallucinations are beginning again!" "No, no!" "don't be afraid of anything..." "Don't weep, Margot, don't torment me, I'm gravely ill..." "I'm with you I'm with you..." "Yes they did a good job on him!" "...believe me they'll help you!" "Knight, give this man something to drink..." "Here..." "Drink, drink!" "You're afraid?" "..." "No, no!" "...believe me, they'll help you!" "It's good luck, good luck!" "But is it you, Margot!" "?" "Don't doubt, it's I!" "Look, he's already coming to himself!" "Well, there... that's something else again Now let's talk" "Who are you?" "..." "I'm nobody now..." "Where have you just come from...?" "From the house of sorrows." "I am mentally ill..." "Terrible words!" "Terrible words!" "..." "He's a master, Messire, I'm letting you know that!" "Cure him, he's worth it!" "Do you know with whom you are presently speaking?" "...On whom you have come calling?" "I do!" "my neighbor in the madhouse was was that poet Ivan Homeless." "He told me about you!" "Ah, yes, yes I had the pleasure of meeting that young man at the Patriarch's Ponds ...He almost drove me mad myself proving to me that I don't exist!" "But you do believe that it is really I?" "I must believe..." "Yes, yes, yes believe it!" "It's really he!" "But tell me, why does Margarita call you a master?" "That is an excusable weakness She has too high an opinion of a novel I wrote" "What is this novel about?" "It is a novel about Pontius Pilate!" "About what?" "About what?" "..." "About whom?" "..." "It's stupendous!" "And that - now Couldn't you have found some other subject?" "!" "Let me see it..." "Unfortunately, I cannot do that because I burned it in the stove!" "Forgive me, but I don't believe you that cannot be manuscripts don't bum!" "Come on." "Behemoth, let's have the novel!" "It's here, the manuscript!" "It's here!" "All-powerful!" "All-powerful!" "Well, it's all clear now!" "Well, Margarita tell me everything you need?" "I ask that we be returned to the basement in the lane off the Arbat and that the lamp be burning and that everything be as it was!" "Ah, don't listen to the poor woman, Messire!" "Someone else has long been living in the basement and generally it never happens that anything goes back to what it used to be." "Never happens, you say That's true!" "But we shall try..." "Azazello!" "Welcome!" "Mogarych?" "Aloisy Mogarych!" "Was it you who, after reading Latunsky's article, wrote a denunciation saying that the master kept illegal literature?" "You wanted to move into his rooms?" "What are you doing?" "..." "Margot, don't disgrace yourself!" "I protest!" "It's not a disgrace!" "I put in a bathroom... the whitewashing alone... the vitriol..." "Well, it's nice that you put in a bathroom he needs to take baths." "Out!" "Now that's maybe even neater than what Ivan described!" "But, forgive me, was it you are you that same cat, sir who got on the tram?" "I am!" "It's pleasing to hear you address a cat so politely For some reason, cats are usually addressed familiarly though no cat has ever drunk bruderschaft with anyone!" "It seems to me that you're not so much a cat!" "Thank you!" "Anyway, they'll find me missing at the hospital..." "Well, how are they going to find you missing!" "By your medical records?" "Yes!" "And this is your landlord's house register..." "Who is registered in it?" "Aloisy Mogarych!" "...He's not there!" "...and, I beg you to notice, never has been!" "And if this landlord gets surprised tell him he dreamed Aloisy up!" "That's all, Messire!" "No, not all What, dear donna, will you order me to do with your retinue?" "I personally don't need them!" "Darling..." "Darling!" "Margarita Nikolaevna, ask them 'to let me stay a witch!" "Monsieur Jacques proposed to me and gave me five gold coins!" "I implore you comrades..." "I earnestly beg that you issue me a certificate as to where I spent last night!" "For the purpose of presenting it to the police and to my wife!" "We normally don't issue certificates but, very well, for you we'll make an exception." "Special!" "Write Hella!" "It is hereby certified... that the bearer, Nikolai Ivanovich spent the said night at Satan's ball." "having been summoned there in the capacity of a means of transportation make a parenthesis, Hella ...in the parenthesis put "hog"." "Signed" " Behemoth" "PAID" "And here..." "There!" "..." "Thank you comrades thank you!" "Let me go back, I can't be a vampire you know I almost did Rimsky in that time with Hella!" "And I'm not bloodthirsty..." "Let me go!" "What is all this raving?" "Kindly do not worry, Messire..." "Mustn't be rude on the telephone..." "Mustn't tell lies on the telephone!" "Understand?" "Will you do it again?" "Verily that is, I mean to say..." "Your ma... right after dinner..." "All right." "Home with you!" "So it's back to the Arbat basement?" "... ...And your novel?" "Pilate?" "It's hateful to me, this novel..." "I went through too much because of it!" "Don't listen to him, Messire he's too worn out!" "But you must write about something?" "If you've exhausted the procurator then why not start portraying, say, this Aloisy." "No editor would publish that and, besides, it's not interesting." "And what are you going to live on?" "...You'll have a beggarly existence!" "Willingly, willingly..." "She'll see reason, she'll leave me..." "I doubt that..." "And to you I say that your novel will still bring you surprises!" "That's very sad..." "No, no, it's not sad ...nothing terrible!" "Well, Margarita Nikolaevna , it has all been done!" "Do you have any claims against me?" "How can you!" "... ...how can you, Messire!" "Then take this from me as a memento!" "Farewell..." "Goodbye..." "And here's something I don't understand How is it midnight, midnight when it should have been morning long ago?" "The festive night It's nice to prolong it a little..." "Well I wish you happiness!" "Open up!" "Nobody!" "Just then the sun returned to Yershalaim and, before going to drown in the Mediterranean Sea sent farewell rays to the city hated by the procurator." "An excellent vintage but it is not Falerno?" "Caecuba, thirty years old!" "And so, what can you tell me about the mood of this city?" "I believe Procurator, that the mood of Yershalaim is now satisfactory!" "So it can be guaranteed that there is no threat of further disorders?" "Only one thing can be guaranteed in this world the power of great Caesar!" "May the gods grant him long life and universal peace!" "So you believe the troops can now be withdrawn?" "I believe Procurator that the cohort of the Lightning legion can go!" "It would be good if it paraded through the city in farewell!" "A very good thought..." "I will dismiss it the day after tomorrow and go myself!" "I swear to you by the feast of the twelve gods, I'd give a lot to be able to do so today!" "The procurator doesn't like Yershalaim!" "?" "Good heavens!" "there's no more hopeless place on earth!" "Magicians, sorcerers, wizards these flocks of pilgrims!" "..." "Fanatics!" "..." "Fanatics!" "..." "Just take this messiah they suddenly started expecting this year!" "Every moment you think you're about to witness the most unpleasant bloodshed!" "The shifting of troops all the time reading denunciations and calumnies half of which, moreover, are written against yourself!" "You must agree, it's boring!" "Well, but let's get back to business!" "I ask you to tell me about the execution..." "What precisely interests the procurator?" "Were there any attempts on the part of the crowd to display rebelliousness?" "..." "That is the main thing, of course!" "None...!" "...there were no crowds..." "Very good..." "You personally establish that death took place?" "The procurator may be certain of it!" "And tell me were they given the drink before being hung on the posts?" "Yes!" "...But he, refused to drink it." "Who?" "Forgive me Did I not name him?" "Ha-Nozri!" "Madman!" "...To die of sunburn!" "Why refuse what is offered by law?" "In what terms did he refuse it?" "He said, that he was grateful and laid no blame for the taking of his life!" "On whom?" "That he did not say, Hegemon..." "Did he try to preach anything in the soldiers' presence?" "No, Hegemon!" "...he was not loquacious this time!" "The only thing he said was that among human vices he considered cowardice one of the first!" "This was said with regard to what?" "That was impossible to understand..." "He generally behaved himself strangely - as always..." "What was this strangeness?" "The whole time he kept trying to peer into the eyes of one or another of those around him and kept smiling some sort of lost smile." "Nothing else?" "Nothing else..." "The matter consists in the following though we have been unable - so far at least to discover any admirers or followers of his it is none the less impossible to guarantee that there are none!" "And so I ask you to immediately remove from the view..." ".. bodies of all three executed men and to bury them in secrecy and silence so that not another word or whisper is heard of them or a thought!" "Understood, Hegemon!" "In view of the complexity and responsibility of the matter allow me to go immediately!" "I will walk you out!" "There are two more questions First your enormous merits in this difficult job as the head of the secret service for the procurator of Judea give me the pleasant opportunity of reporting them to Rome!" "I merely fulfill my duty in the imperial service..." "I am happy to serve under your command, Hegemon!" "That pleases me very much And so, the second question It concerns this... what's his name Judas of Kiriath" "They say, that he supposed to get some money for receiving so cordially this madman philosopher..." "He will..." "And is it a large sum?" "That no one can say, Hegemon!" "Not even you...?" "Alas, not even I!" "But he will get the money this evening, that I do know!" "He is summoned for tonight to the palace of Kaifa!" "Ah, that greedy old man of Kiriath!" "He is an old man, isn't he?" "The procurator is never mistaken but he is mistaken this time!" "...the man from Kiriath is a young man." "You don't say...?" "Can you describe his character for me?" "A fanatic?" "Oh, no, Procurator..." "So." "And anything else?" "Very handsome!" "What else..." "He has some passion, perhaps?" "He has one passion." "Procurator A passion for money!" "Ah so!" "The thing is this I have just received information that he is going to be killed tonight!" "You spoke too flatteringly of me Procurator..." "In my opinion, I do not deserve your report This information I do not have." "You deserve the highest reward..." "But there is such information!" "May I be so bold as to ask who supplied it?" "Permit me not to say for the time being the more so as it is accidental, obscure and uncertain." "But it is my duty to foresee everything." "That is my job and most of all I must trust my presentiment for it has never yet deceived me!" "The information is that one of Ha-Nozri's secret friends indignant at the monstrous betrayal by this money-changer!" "... ...is plotting with his accomplices to kill him tonight!" "And to foist the money paid for the betrayal on the high priest, with a note..." ""I return the cursed money."" "Imagine, is it going to be pleasant for the high priest to receive such a gift on the night of the feast?" "Not only not pleasant but I believe, Procurator that it will cause a very great scandal!" "I am of the same opinion myself..." "And therefore I ask you to occupy yourself with this matter!" "That is, to take all measures to protect Judas of Kiriath!" "The hegemon's order will be carried out!" "But I must reassure the hegemon the evil-doers' plot is very hard to bring off..." "Only think..." "To track the man down, to kill him and besides that to find out how much he got and manage to return the money to Kaifa!" "...and all that in one night...?" "Tonight?" "And none the less he will be killed tonight!" "I have a presentiment, I tell you!" "... ...Never once has it deceived me!" "So they will kill him, Hegemon!" "?" "Yes!" "...and all hope lies in your efficiency alone, which amazes everyone." "I salute you!" "...and wish you health and joy!" "Ah, yes, I completely forgot!" "I owe you something..." "Really, Procurator you owe me nothing!" "But of course!" "..." "As I was riding into Yershalaim, remember... .. the crowd of beggars..." "I wanted to throw them some money but I didn't have any, and so I took it from you!" "Oh, Procurator it was a trifle!" "One ought to remember trifles, too..." "I expect a report on the burial, and also on the matter to do with Judas of Kiriath this same night!" "do you hear, Aphranius, this night!" "...I salute you!" "Be well!" "I have lost.. irretrievably!" "...some petty, worthless and belated actions..." "I deceive myself!" "Banga!" "Banga!" "Show me the money..." "Niza!" "Niza!" "Ah, it's you Yudas?" "..." "I didn't recognize you at once That's good, though..." "With us, if someone's not recognized, it's a sign he'll get rich..." "Where are you going, Niza?" "And what do you want to know that for?" "But why We had it all arranged you said you'd be home all evening I wanted to come to you." "Ah, no, no!" "...I was bored." "You're having a feast, and what am I supposed to do?" "Sit and listen to you sighing on the terrace?" "And be afraid, on top of it, that the serving-woman will tell him about it?" "No, no, I decided to go out of town and listen to the nightingales..." "How, out of town?" "..." "Alone?" "Of course, alone!" "Let me accompany you, Niza..." "Why are you silent, Niza?" "Won't I be bored with you?" "Well, all right, come along." "But where...?" "...where?" "Go to the olive estate, to Gethsemane, beyond the Kedron, understand?" "I'll go ahead, but don't follow on my heels." "I'll go ahead..." "When you cross the stream..." "you know where the grotto is?" "I know..." "I'll be there..." "Only don't you dare come after me at once, be patient wait here." "How much did you just get?" "Speak!" "Speak, if you want to save your life!" "Thirty tetradrachmas!" "I have it all with me!" "Here's the money!" "..." "Take it, but grant me my life!" "Niza!" "You're alive!" "?" "I'm walking beside you, so I suppose I am!" "We have as much free time as we need The storm would come only towards evening and cowardice was undoubtedly one of the most terrible vices." "No, philosopher, I disagree with you it is the most terrible vice!" "I was no coward that time, in the Valley of the Virgins when the fierce Germans had almost torn Ratslayer the Giant to pieces!" "But, good heavens, philosopher!" "..." "How can you think that, for the sake of a man who has committed a crime against Caesar his career would ruin the procurator of Judea?" "Yes!" "I will ruin!" "I will ruin!" "...yesterday I still would not but tonight after weighing everything I agree to ruin it!" "...to ruin it!" "NOW we shall always be together Where there's one - there will be the other!" "Whenever I am remembered you will at once be remembered, too!" "I, the foundling the son of unknown parents and you the son of an astrologer-king and a miller's daughter the beautiful Pila." "Yes, and don't you forget me remember me the astrologer's son!" "The head of the secret guard is waiting to see you!" "I ask to be tried." "Procurator.!" "You turned out to be right!" "I was unable to protect Judas of Kiriath he has been stabbed to death!" "This is the bag of money the killers left at the high priest's house!" "The blood on this bag is the blood of Judas of Kiriath!" "How much is there, I wonder?" "Thirty tetradrachmas." "Not much..." "Where is the murdered man?" "That I do not know..." "We will begin a search in the morning." "But you do know for certain that he was killed?" "I have been working in Judea for fifteen years, Procurator!" "I began my service under Valerius Grams I do not have to see the corpse in order to say that a man has been killed!" "Forgive me, Aphranius!" "I'm not properly awake yet that's why I said it." "I sleep badly In my sleep I keep seeing a moonbeam." "Quite funny, imagine, it's as if I am walking along this moonbeam." "So tell me I would like to know your thoughts on this matter?" "Where are you going to look for him?" "Sit down, head of the secret service..."