The prisoners denied their guilt with indignation, and, when confronted with Terentyeva, denounced her vehemently as a liar.

The excruciating cross-examinations brought some of the prisoners to the verge of madness.

But as far as Strakhov was concerned, the hysterical fits of the women, the angry speeches of the men, the remarks of some of the accused, such as: "I shall tell everything, but only to the Tzar," served in his eyes as evidence of the Jews' guilt.

In his reports he assured his superior, Khovanski, that he had got on the track of a monstrous crime perpetrated by a whole Kahal, with the assistance of several Christian women who had been led astray by the Jews.
In communicating his findings to St.Petersburg, the White Russian governor-general presented the case as a crime committed on religious grounds.

In reply he received the fatal resolution of Emperor Nicholas, dated August 16, 1828, to the following effect: Whereas the above occurrence demonstrates that the Zhyds[1] make wicked use of the religious tolerance accorded to them, therefore, as a warning and as an example to others, let the Jewish schools (the synagogues) of Velizh be sealed up until farther orders, and let services be forbidden, whether in them or near them.
[Footnote 1: Compare Vol.