He then repeated that the comic papers would turn the book into ridicule, that the Ultramontanes and Socialists would make capital out of it against him, and that I, too, would make myself many enemies by it. It was a matter of indifference to him, but I ought to be on my guard. I repeated that I was not in the least anxious on the subject, as his opinion was the only thing I cared about. He then stood up, came with me as far as the door of the antechamber, and shook hands with me on parting. About a fortnight later I read in the papers an account of the death of Bismarck-Bohlen, our comrade during the French campaign. The news was doubly sad. The merry Count had become a melancholy man and had taken his own life. Italian papers gave the following particulars of his last days. In consequence of a distressing complaint he had for the past five years spent the winter in Venice, where he occupied a handsomely furnished flat in the Zattere. This year he had arrived on the 7th of October, accompanied by his valet. He seemed to be utterly prostrate in health, and had not gone out for several days previous to the catastrophe, nor seen any one except his servant and the doctor. The report proceeds as follows: “On the evening of the 15th he retired to his bedroom. As, up to 10 o’clock next morning, he had not rung the bell the servant came to his door, listened, and then knocked. Receiving no answer he opened the door, when he saw his master lying on the bed, covered with blood, and holding a revolver in his hand. The doctor and the German Consul were sent for. The former certified that the Count was dead, and that his death took place under peculiarly ghastly circumstances. The track of blood showed that he had, in his dressing-room, opened the veins of both arms and both legs, at the same time giving himself two gashes in the throat. All this was not sufficient to kill him, and so he had dragged himself, streaming with blood, from the dressing-room into the bedroom, seized a revolver and fired a bullet into his head between the ear and eye.”