ey exceeded all measure of human endurance,) he was
astonishingly firm. "I have been in thirty battles," said Dr Arendt; "I
have seen numbers of dying men; but I have very seldom seen any thing
like this." And it is peculiarly remarkable that, during these last
hours of his life, he seemed, as it were, to have become another person;
the tempest, which a few hours back had agitated his soul with
uncontrollable passion, was gone, and left not a trace behind; not a
word, not a recollection of what had happened. On the previous day he
had received an invitation to the funeral of Gretch's son. He remembered
this amid his own sufferings. "_If you see Gretch_," said he to
Spasskii, "_give him my compliments, and say that I feel a heartfelt
sympathy in his loss._" He was asked, whether he did not desire to
confess and take the sacrament. He willingly consented, and it was
determined that the priest should be sent for in the morning. At
midnight Dr Arendt returned. Whatever was the subject of the
conversation, it was evident that what the dying man had heard from the
physician tranquillized, consoled, and fortified him. Fulfilling a
desire (of which he was already, aware) on the part of those who had
expressed a touching anxiety respecting his eternal welfare, he
confessed and took the holy sacrament. Down to five o'clock in the
morning, there had not taken place the slightest change in his
condition. But about five o'clock the pain in the abdomen became
intolerable, and its force mastered the strength of his soul: he began
to groan; they again sent for Arendt. At his arrival it was found
necessary to administer a clyster; but it did no good, and only seemed
to increase the patient's sufferings, which at length reached the
highest pitch, and continued till seven o'clock in the morning. What
would have been the feelings of his unhappy wife, if she had been able,
during the space of these two eternal hours, to hear his groans? I am
confident that her reason could not have borne this agonizing trial. But
this is what happened: she was lying, in a state of complete exhaustion,
in the drawing-room, close to the doors which were all that separated
her from her husband's bed. At the first dreadful cry he uttered, the
Princess Viazemskii, who was in the drawing-room with her, darted to her
side, dreading that something might happen. But she still lay immovable,
(although she had been speaking a moment before,) a heavy lethargic
slumber h