worthless officer! ill weeds are cleared out of the field!'

Only at the very end of the letter there was a sincere note from

Tyeglev's heart. 'Ah, Your Excellency,' he concluded his epistle, 'I

am an orphan, I had no one to love me as a child--and all held aloof

from me ... and I myself destroyed the only heart that gave itself to

me!'

Semyon found in the pocket of Tyeglev's great-coat a little album from

which his master was never separated. But almost all the pages had

been torn out; only one was left on which there was the following

calculation:

Napoleon was born Ilya Tyeglev was born

on August 15th, 1769. on January 7th, 1811.

1769 1811

15 7

8* 1+

----- -----

Total 1792 Total 1819

* August--the 8th month + January--the 1st month

of the year. of the year.

1 1

7 8

9 1

2 9

--- ---

Total 19! Total 19!

Napoleon died on May Ilya Tyeglev died on

5th, 1825. April 21st, 1834.

1825 1834

5 21

5* 7+

----- -----

Total 1835 Total 1862

* May--the 5th month + July--the 7th month

of the year. of the year.

1 1

8 8

3 6

5 23

-- --

Total 17! Total 17!

Poor fellow! Was not this perhaps why he became an artillery officer?

As a suicide he was buried outside the cemetery--and he was

immediately forgotten.

XVIII

The day after Tyeglev's burial (I was still in the village waiting for

my brother) Semyon came into the hut and announced that Ilya wanted to

see me.

'What Ilya?' I asked.

'Our pedlar.'

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