ame insensible; but I awoke next morning after nine o'clock
when they knocked at my door. My general orders are that if I don't open
the door and call, by nine o'clock, Matreona is to come and bring my
tea. When I now opened the door to her, the thought suddenly struck
me--how could he have come in, since the door was locked? I made
inquiries and found that Rogojin himself could not possibly have come
in, because all our doors were locked for the night.

"Well, this strange circumstance--which I have described with so
much detail--was the ultimate cause which led me to taking my final
determination. So that no logic, or logical deductions, had anything to
do with my resolve;--it was simply a matter of disgust.

"It was impossible for me to go on living when life was full of such
detestable, strange, tormenting forms. This ghost had humiliated
me;--nor could I bear to be subordinate to that dark, horrible force
which was embodied in the form of the loathsome insect. It was only
towards evening, when I had quite made up my mind on this point, that I
began to feel easier."

VII.

"I HAD a small pocket pistol. I had procured it while still a boy, at
that droll age when the stories of duels and highwaymen begin to delight
one, and when one imagines oneself nobly standing fire at some future
day, in a duel.

"There were a couple of old bullets in the bag which contained the
pistol, and powder enough in an old flask for two or three charges.

"The pistol was a wretched thing, very crooked and wouldn't carry
farther than fifteen paces at the most. However, it would send your
skull flying well enough if you pressed the muzzle of it against your
temple.

"I determined to die at Pavlofsk at sunrise, in the park--so as to make
no commotion in the house.

"This 'explanation' will make the matter clear enough to the police.
Students of psychology, and anyone else who likes, may make what they
please of it. I should not like this paper, however, to be made public.
I request the prince to keep a copy himself, and to give a copy to
Aglaya Ivanovna Epanchin. This is my last will and testament. As for
my skeleton, I bequeath it to the Medical Academy for the benefit of
science.

"I recognize no jurisdiction over myself, and I know that I am now
beyond the power of laws and judges.

"A little while ago a very amusing idea struck me. What if I were now to
commit some terrible crime--murder ten fellow-creatures, for instance,
o