Page:Karl Marx The Man and His Work.pdf/82

80 Marx, I am sorry to say you have got the smallpox—the children must leave the house immediately." You can imagine the distress and grief of the entire household at this verdict. What was to be done? The Liebknechts fearlessly offered to shelter the girls in their home, and by noon they had entered into exile, carrying their few belongings with them.

"I kept growing worse, hour after hour, the smallpox breaking out in the worst form. I suffered very, very much. Awful, burning pains in my face, complete sleepnessness, in deadly fear for Karl, who nursed me with the greatest tenderness, finally the loss of all senses save the inner sense of consciousness, which remained clear. I lay abed by the open window, so that the cold November air blew in upon me. At the same time there was a red hot fire in the stove; ice was placed upon my burning lips, and from time to time Bordeaux wine was infused in small quantities. I could hardly swallow, my hearing kept growing weaker, at last the eyes closed completely—who could tell if I should ever be able to see the light of day again?

"But my constitution was victorious, the tenderest, most faithful nursing assisted—and so I am sitting here again in complete health, but with disfigured face, marked by scars and a dark red coloring—quite a la hauteur de la mode couleur de Magenta! Christmas eve came and for the first time since my illness the poor children were allowed to return to their sadly missed home. This first meeting was indescribably pathetic. The girls were deeply affected and could hardly repress their tears when they saw me. But five weeks previous I had made quite an acceptable appearance beside my blooming daughters. Due to the surprising fact that I still had no gray hair and possessed good teeth and figure, I belonged to the class of well-preserved women—but now all this was gone! I felt as though I were a hippopotamus, belonging, rather to the Zoological Garden than to the Caucasian race. But do not let me frighten you too much. My appearance has improved quite a little, and the scars are beginning to heal.

"I had scarcely recovered sufficiently to be able to leave my bed, when my dearly beloved Karl took sick. Excessive fear, anxiety and vexations of every sort and description threw him upon his sick bed. For the first time, his chronic liver trouble had become acute. But thank heavens, he recovered after an illness of four weeks. In the meantime, the Tribune had placed us at half-pay again and, instead of getting some receipts from the book, we were obliged to meet a note. Added to this, was the enormous expense of the most terrible of sicknesses. In short, you now have an idea how we fared last winter.