you with me to call on them. Though when that happens the battle is already half won,
particularly as I should tell you beforehand, of course, exactly what line to take with each
Judge. The real difficulty comes with the Judges who turn me away at the start — and that’s
sure to happen too. I shall go on petitioning them, of course, but we shall have to do
without them, though one can afford to do that, since dissent by individual Judges cannot
affect the result. Well then, if I get a sufficient number of Judges to subscribe to the
affidavit, I shall then deliver it to the Judge who is actually conducting your trial. Possibly
I may have secured his signature too, then everything will be settled fairly soon, a little
sooner than usual. Generally speaking, there should be no difficulties worth mentioning
after that, the accused at this stage feels supremely confident. Indeed it’s remarkable, but
true, that people’s confidence mounts higher at this stage than after their acquittal. There’s
no need for them to do much more. The Judge is covered by the guarantees of the other
Judges subscribing to the affidavit, and so he can grant an acquittal with an easy mind, and
though some formalities will remain to he settled, he will undoubtedly grant the acquittal
to please me and his other friends. Then you can walk out of the Court a free man.” “So
then I’m free,” said K. doubtfully. “Yes,” said the painter, “but only ostensibly free, or
more exactly, provisionally free. For the Judges of the lowest grade, to whom my
acquaintances belong, haven’t the power to grant a final acquittal, that power is reserved
for the highest Court of all, which is quite inaccessible to you, to me, and to all of us. What
the prospects are up there we do not know and, I may say in passing, do not even want to
know. The great privilege, then, of absolving from guilt our Judges do not possess, but
they do have the right to take the burden of the charge off your shoulders. That is to say,
when you are acquitted in this fashion the charge is lifted from your shoulders for the time
being, but it continues to hover above you and can, as soon as an order comes from on
high, be laid upon you again. As my connection with the Court is such a close one, I can
also tell you how in the regulations of the Law Court offices the distinction between
definite and ostensible acquittal is made manifest. In definite acquittal the documents
relating to the case are said to be completely annulled, they simply vanish from sight, not
only the charge but also the records of the case and even the acquittal are destroyed,
everything is destroyed. That’s not the case with ostensible acquittal. The documents
remain as they were, except that the affidavit is added to them and a record of the acquittal
and the grounds for granting it. The whole dossier continues to circulate, as the regular
official routine demands, passing on to the higher Courts, being referred to the lower ones again, and thus swinging backwards and forwards with greater or smaller oscillations,
longer or shorter delays. These peregrinations are incalculable. A detached observer might
sometimes fancy that the whole case had been forgotten, the documents lost, and the
acquittal made absolute. No one really acquainted with the Court could think such a thing.
No document is ever lost, the Court never forgets anything. One day — quite unexpectedly –
– some Judge will take up the documents and look at them attentively, recognize that in
this case the charge is still valid, and order an immediate arrest. I have been speaking on
the assumption that a long time elapses between the ostensible acquittal and the new arrest;
that is possible and I have known of such cases, but it is just as possible for the acquitted
man to go straight home from the Court and find officers already waiting to arrest him
again. Then, of course, all his freedom is at an end.” “And the case begins all over again?”