Chapter XV: Letter 8: Be a man, stop and make answer? (5)

On the 29th of October she writes: ‘And how changed everything is in Troitskoye since you left! The theatre is shut up, there has not been a single performance, the pianos are mute, and even the maids do not sing. But why am I telling you this? you are surrounded by your kinsfolk, you are happy, contented....’

She writes her a few more lines on the 6th of November, and ends her letter with the English words: ‘God bless you!’ Did Mary know that that blessing came from a dying hand? Less than two months later, on the 9th of January 1810, Princess Ekaterina Romanovna was no more.

Five years before her death, on the 22nd of October 1806, she concluded her Memoirs with these words: ‘With an honest heart and pure intentions I have had to endure many calamities; I should have been crushed under them if my conscience had not been clear ... now I look forward without fear and uneasiness to my approaching dissolution.’

What a woman! What a rich and vigorous life!

BAZAROV