"_Yes, but I should like to see Jukovskii too. Give me some water, I
feel sick._" Scholtz felt his pulse, and found that the hand was cold,
and the pulse weak and quick; he left the room for some drink, and they
sent for me. I was not at home at this moment, and I know not how it
happened, but none of their messengers ever reached me. In the meanwhile
Zadler and Salomon arrived. Scholtz left the patient, who affectionately
shook hands with him, but without speaking a single word. Soon after
Arendt made his appearance. He was convinced at the first glance that
there was not the slightest hope. They began to apply cold fomentations
with ice to the patient's stomach, and to give cooling drinks; a
treatment which soon produced the desired effect; he grew more tranquil.
Before Arendt's departure, he said to him, "_Beg the Emperor to pardon
me._" Arendt now departed, leaving him to the care of Spasskii, the
family physician, who, during that whole night, never quitted the
bedside. "_I am very bad_," said Pushkin, when Spasskii came into the
room. Spasskii endeavoured to tranquillize him; but Pushkin waved his
hand in a negative manner. From this moment he seemed to have ceased to
entertain any anxiety about himself; and all his thoughts were now
turned towards his wife. "_Do not give my wife any useless hope_;" he
said to Spasskii; "_do not conceal from her what is the matter, she is
no pretender to sentiment; you know her well. As for me, do as you
please with me; I consent to every thing, and I am ready for every
thing._" At this moment were already assembled the Princess Viazemskii,
the Prince, Turgenieff, the Count Vielhorskii, and myself. The princess
was with the poor wife, whose condition it is impossible to describe.
She from time to time stole, like a ghost, into the room where lay her
dying husband; he could not see her, (he was lying on a sofa, with his
face turned from the window and the door;) but every time that she
entered, or even stopped at the door, he felt her presence. "_My wife is
here--is she not?_" he said. "_Take her away._" He was afraid to admit
her, because he did not wish her to perceive the sufferings which he
overmastered with astonishing courage. "_What is my wife doing?_" he
once enquired of Spasskii. "_Poor thing! she suffers innocently. The
world will tear her to pieces._" In general, from the beginning to the
end of his sufferings, (except during two or three hours of the first
night, when th