Page:Garshin - A Red Flower (1911).djvu/14

 body into thy hands. But the soul—no; oh, no! &hellip;"

The attendants still held him, though he had ceased to struggle. The warm bath and the Spanish fly had produced the desired effect. But when they removed him almost insensible from the water and set him down on the tabouret, the remainder of his strength and insane thoughts once more broke forth.

"Why? why?" shouted he. "I did not wish anyone harm. Why kill me? Oh, oh, oh! Oh, Lord! Oh, you martyrs before me! I pray to you, deliver me. &hellip;"

Feeling a burning on the nape of his neck, he began his struggles with the attendants anew. The nurse could not manage him, and did not know what to do. "You can't do anything with him," remarked the soldier who assisted in the operation. "It must be removed."

These simple words brought the patient into a trembling. "Removed? &hellip; Remove what? Remove whom? Remove me?" cried he, and in deathly agony he closed his eyes. The soldier grasped the two ends of a rough towel, and pressing it down tightly drew it quickly across the neck of the patient,