Book 2 Chapter 19 An Old General of Repute

The old General was not ignorant of this; it all happened within
his knowledge; but these cases no more touched his conscience
than accidents brought on by thunderstorms, floods, etc. These
cases occurred as a consequence of the fulfilment of regulations
prescribed "from above" by His Imperial Majesty. These
regulations had to be carried out without fail, and therefore it
was absolutely useless to think of the consequences of their
fulfilment. The old General did not even allow himself to think
of such things, counting it his patriotic duty as a soldier not
to think of them for fear of getting weak in the carrying out of
these, according to his opinion, very important obligations. Once
a week the old General made the round of the cells, one of the
duties of his position, and asked the prisoners if they had any
requests to make. The prisoners had all sorts of requests. He
listened to them quietly, in impenetrable silence, and never
fulfilled any of their requests, because they were all in
disaccord with the regulations. Just as Nekhludoff drove up to
the old General's house, the high notes of the bells on the
belfry clock chimed "Great is the Lord," and then struck two. The
sound of these chimes brought back to Nekhludoff's mind what he
had read in the notes of the Decembrists [the Decembrists were a
group who attempted, but failed, to put an end to absolutism in
Russia at the time of the accession of Nicholas the First] about
the way this sweet music repeated every hour re-echoes in the
hearts of those imprisoned for life.