Page:Ossendowski - The Shadow of the Gloomy East.djvu/214

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198
THE SHADOW OF THE GLOOMY EAST

has never seen before. We shall devour carrion, treebark, clay, feed on our own brats. Then only will Lenin fall or some other Communist tyrant, and the mob will tear him to pieces in the streets of Moscow, as of yore it tore to pieces Dimitri the Impostor; then we shall pocket the sharpened knife, come out into the streets, into the broad highways, lie hidden in bushes or behind walls and fences, and muttering in our Russian highwayman slang the slogan, 'Kill and go to prison!' we shall cut the throats and rip up the bellies of the passers-by, and we shall exist as long as there will be anything left to be torn to pieces. And then, when there will be nothing more left, we shall fall upon our knees and roar for the whole world to hear us:

"'We are miserable sinners, we have committed terrible crimes! We have killed our father, conscience, and our mother country! Now we lay our guilt open like a foul wound, imploring you, O civilised nations, to come and deliver usI'"