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But when they saw that the enemy preferred a regular siege, they

were delighted, I am told and reassured, for the thing would drag

on for two months at least. You're laughing, you don't believe me

again? Of course, you're right, too. You're right, you're right.

These are special cases, I admit. But you must observe this, my

dear Rodion Romanovitch, the general case, the case for which all

legal forms and rules are intended, for which they are calculated

and laid down in books, does not exist at all, for the reason

that every case, every crime, for instance, so soon as it

actually occurs, at once becomes a thoroughly special case and

sometimes a case unlike any that's gone before. Very comic cases

of that sort sometimes occur. If I leave one man quite alone, if

I don't touch him and don't worry him, but let him know or at

least suspect every moment that I know all about it and am

watching him day and night, and if he is in continual suspicion

and terror, he'll be bound to lose his head.