attempted to put him into Yulia Mihailovna's carriage, trying all he
could to persuade his Excellency "to seek repose." But I don't know
why he did not insist. Andrey Antonovitch, of course, would not hear of
repose, and was set on going to the fire; but that was not a sufficient
reason. It ended in his taking him to the fire in his droshky. He told
us afterwards that Lembke was gesticulating all the way and "shouting
orders that it was impossible to obey owing to their unusualness." It
was officially reported later on that his Excellency had at that time
been in a delirious condition "owing to a sudden fright."

There is no need to describe how the ball ended. A few dozen rowdy
fellows, and with them some ladies, remained in the hall. There were
no police present. They would not let the orchestra go, and beat
the musicians who attempted to leave. By morning they had pulled all
Prohoritch's stall to pieces, had drunk themselves senseless, danced the
Kamarinsky in its unexpurgated form, made the rooms in a shocking mess,
and only towards daybreak part of this hopelessly drunken rabble reached
the scene of the fire to make fresh disturbances there. The other part
spent the night in the rooms dead drunk, with disastrous consequences
to the velvet sofas and the floor. Next morning, at the earliest
possibility, they were dragged out by their legs into the street. So
ended the fete for the benefit of the governesses of our province.

IV

The fire frightened the inhabitants of the riverside just because it
was evidently a case of arson. It was curious that at the first cry of
"fire" another cry was raised that the Shpigulin men had done it. It
is now well known that three Shpigulin men really did have a share in
setting fire to the town, but that was all; all the other factory
hands were completely acquitted, not only officially but also by public
opinion. Besides those three rascals (of whom one has been caught and
confessed and the other two have so far escaped), Fedka the convict
undoubtedly had a hand in the arson. That is all that is known for
certain about the fire till now; but when it comes to conjectures it's
a very different matter. What had led these three rascals to do it? Had
they been instigated by anyone? It is very difficult to answer all these
questions even now.

Owing to the strong wind, the fact that the houses at the riverside were
almost all wooden, and that they had been set fire to in three
places,