He dragged and tore the gauze with quick frenzied movements, while from his lips came a succession of whimpering cries as of a dog imprisoned behind a door.
I smiled, I know I smiled, as I gazed at him from my armchair.
Stahl's eyes were shut; he was fast asleep.
Even when the wasted neck was stripped bare, those quick, frenzied movements still continued. What my eyes then saw I can never tell....
Thus died Alexis Bozevsky, the handsomest officer in the Imperial Guard.
XIX
After that all is dark. A blood-red abyss seems to open in my memory wherein everything is submerged—even my reason.
My reason! I have felt it totter and fall, like something detached and apart from myself; and I know that it has sunk into the grave that covers Alexis Bozevsky.