"Do you wish to see any of your family?" asked Scholtz.
"Farewell, my friends," said Pushkin, looking towards his books.
Whether at that moment he was taking leave of animate or inanimate friends I know not. After another pause, he said:
"Do you think I shall not last another hour?"
"No. But I thought you might like to see some of your friends."
He asked for several. When Spaski (another doctor) came near and tried to give him hope, Pushkin waved his hand in dissent, and from that moment apparently ceased to think about himself. All his anxiety was for his wife. By this time Prince and Princess Viasemsky, Turgueneff, Count Vielgorsky, and myself had come. Princess Viasemsky was with the wife, who, in terrible distress, glided like a spectre in and out of the room where her husband lay. He was on a couch with his back to the window and door, and unable to see her; though every time she entered or merely stood in the doorway he was conscious of it.
"Is my wife here?" he asked; "take her away." He was afraid to let her come near him lest she should be pained by his sufferings, though he bore them with wonderful fortitude.
"What is my wife doing?" he asked once of Spaski. "She, poor thing, is suffering innocently. Society will devour her!"
"I have been in thirty battles," said Dr. Arendt; "and I have seen many men die, but very few like him."