How the doctor did gabble to-day.... April 1. 'T is over. Life is ended. I really shall die to-day. It is hot out of doors ... almost stifling .... or is it that my chest is already refusing to breathe? My little comedy has been played through. The curtain is falling. In becoming annihilated, I shall cease to be superfluous... Akh, how brilliant that sun is! Those powerful rays exhale eternity... Farewell, Teréntievna!... This morning, as she sat by the window, she fell to weeping .... perhaps over me ... and perhaps, because she herself must die before long also. I made her promise "not to hurt" Trésor. It is difficult for me to write.... I drop my pen... 'T is time! Death is already drawing near with increasing rumble, like a carriage by night on the pavement: it is here, it is hovering around me, like that faint breath which made the hair of the prophet stand upright on his head... I am dying... Live on, ye living. And may the young life play At the entrance of the grave, And Nature the indifferent With beauty beam forever! _Note of the Editor._--Under this last line there is the profile of a head with a large crest-curl and moustache, with eyes _en face_, and ray-like eyelashes; and under the head some one has written the following words: The abov manuscript has been read And the Contints Thereof Bin Approved By Pyetr Zudotyéshin M M M M Dear Sir Pyetr Zudotyéshin. My Dear Sir. But as the chirography of these lines does not in the least agree with the chirography in which the remainder of the note-book is written, the editor considers himself justified in concluding that the above-mentioned lines were added afterward by another person; the more so, as it has come to his (the editor's) knowledge that Mr. Tchulkatúrin really did die on the night of April 1-2, 18.., in his natal estate--Ovétchi Vódy. FOOTNOTES: [3] Sheep's-Waters or Springs.--TRANSLATOR. [4] Easter.--TRANSLATOR. [5] A decidedly vulgar pun in the original.--TRANSLATOR. [6] Derived from _tchulók_, stocking.--TRANSLATOR. [7] Meaning male serfs. The women and children were not reckoned.--TRANSLATOR. [8] The large music-room, also used for dancing, as a play-room for the children in winter, and so forth, in Russian houses.--TRANSLATOR. [9] By M. Y. Lérmontoff. [10] The pronunciation is also indicated as being faulty.--TRANSLATOR. [11] Ran themselves off their legs.--TRANSLATOR. [12] The mazurka, which is still a great favourite in Russia, greatly resembles the cotillon in everything except the steps, which are vivacious. Both the cotillon and the mazurka are danced--one before, the other after supper--at Court balls and other dances.--TRANSLATOR. [13] Utterly insignificant.--TRANSLATOR. [14] The page is called a kazák, and dressed accordingly.--TRANSLATOR.