two o'clock
The sitting of the circuit court began between nine and ten . The programme of the day was promptly entered upon , with noticeable haste . The cases came on one after another and ended quickly , like a church service without a choir , so that no mind could form a complete picture of all this parti-coloured mass of faces , movements , words , misfortunes , true sayings and lies , all racing by like a river in flood ... . By two o'clock a great deal had been done : two prisoners had been sentenced to service in convict battalions , one of the privileged class had been sentenced to deprivation of rights and imprisonment , one had been acquitted , one case had been adjourned . At precisely two o'clock the presiding judge announced that the case `` of the peasant Nikolay Harlamov , charged with the murder of his wife , '' would next be heard . The composition of the court remained the same as it had been for the preceding case , except that the place of the defending counsel was filled by a new personage , a beardless young graduate in a coat with bright buttons . The president gave the order -- `` Bring in the prisoner ! ''