1ST OFFICER. Alexis! Have you the tsar's edict with you?

2ND OFFICER. I have it.

1ST OFFICER. Give it here.

MISSAIL. Why do you look at me so fixedly?

1ST OFFICER. This is why; from Moscow there has fled a

certain wicked heretic - Grishka Otrepiev. Have you

heard this?

MISSAIL. I have not heard it.

OFFICER. Not heard it? Very good. And the tsar has

ordered to arrest and hang the fugitive heretic. Do you

know this?

MISSAIL. I do not know it.

OFFICER. (To VARLAAM.) Do you know how to read?

VARLAAM. In my youth I knew how, but I have forgotten.

OFFICER. (To MISSAIL.) And thou?

MISSAIL. God has not made me wise.

OFFICER. So then here's the tsar's edict.

MISSAIL. What do I want it for?

OFFICER. It seems to me that this fugitive heretic, thief,

swindler, is - thou.

MISSAIL. I? Good gracious! What are you talking about?

OFFICER. Stay! Hold the doors. Then we shall soon get

at the truth.

HOSTESS. O the cursed tormentors! Not to leave even the

old man in peace!

OFFICER. Which of you here is a scholar?

GREGORY. (Comes forward.) I am a scholar!

OFFICER. Oh, indeed! And from whom did you learn?

GREGORY. From our sacristan.

OFFICER (Gives him the edict.) Read it aloud.

GREGORY. (Reads.) "An unworthy monk of the Monastery

Of Chudov, Gregory, of the family of Otrepiev, has fallen

into heresy, taught by the devil, and has dared to vex

the holy brotherhood by all kinds of iniquities and acts

of lawlessness. And, according to information, it has

been shown that he, the accursed Grishka, has fled to the

Lithuanian frontier."

OFFICER. (To MISSAIL.) How can it be anyone but you?

GREGORY. "And the tsar has commanded to arrest him - "

OFFICER. And to hang!

GREGORY. It does not say here "to hang."

OFFICER. Thou liest. What is meant is not always put into

writing. Read: to arrest and to hang.

GREGORY. "And to hang. And the age of the thief

Grishka" (looking at VARLAAM) "about fifty, and his

height medium; he has a bald head, grey beard, fat

belly."

(All glance at VARLAAM.) 1ST OFFICER, My lads! Here is Grishka! Hold him!