“To-day, December 22, we were led out to Semionovsky Square. There the death warrant was read over to us all, we were given the cross to kiss, swords were snapped above our heads, and our last toilet was performed (white shirts). Then, three of us were placed against posts for execution. I was the sixth; we were called up in threes, so I came in the second group, and I had a few moments left to live. I thought of you, brother, and of yours; at that last moment you alone were in my thoughts, and then I realized how much I loved you, beloved brother! I had time to kiss Plestcheyev and Dourov, who were beside me, and bid them farewell. At last the retreat was sounded, those tied to the posts were fetched back, and it was read out to us that His Imperial Majesty was pleased to spare our lives.”[37] In Dostoevsky’s novels we shall come across again and again more or less direct allusions to the death sentence and to the condemned man’s last hours. I cannot dwell on this for the moment. Before starting out for Semipalatinsk, he was granted half an hour to take leave of his brother Michael. Of the two, he was the calmer, a friend relates, and said: “In the settlement, dear brother, the convicts are not wild beasts, just men, better men than I perhaps, more deserving, too, maybe. Yes, we shall meet again, I hope: I am sure we shall see each other again. Only do write to me and send me books. I shall soon let you know which to send: surely reading is permitted there.” (This, says the narrator, was a white lie to comfort his brother.) “As soon as I am released, I shall begin to write. I have _lived_ during these last months, and in the days before me, what shall I not see and live through? After all that I shall not lack material for writing.”[38] During the four years of Siberia which followed, Dostoevsky was not permitted to write to his family. At any rate the existing volume of correspondence contains no letters from this period, nor do Orest Müller’s _Documents_ (_Materialen_), published in 1883, indicate any. But since the issue of these _Documents_ numerous Dostoevsky letters have been found and published; doubtless still more will yet be discovered. According to Müller, Dostoevsky left the penal settlement on March 2, 1854: according to official records, on January 23. These same archives mention nineteen letters written by Fyodor Dostoevsky between March 16, 1854 and September 11, 1856 to his brother, relatives, and friends during the years of military service at Semipalatinsk, where his sentence was completed. The French translation gives only twelve of these letters, omitting (and why I cannot tell) that admirable letter dated February 22, 1854, which, originally translated and printed in Numbers 12 and 13 of _La Vogue_, 1886, now only with difficulty accessible, was reprinted in the February issue of the _Nouvelle Revue Française_, 1922.