And for the first time in all these years I fell asleep on the stone floor of my dark cell with a happy smile, realising that my plan was crowned with complete success, passing from the realm of eccentricity to the domain of stern and austere reality.  And the fear which I felt while falling asleep in the presence of my jailer, my fear of his resolute look, of his revolver; my timid desire to hear a word of praise from him, or to call forth perhaps a smile on his lips, re-echoed in my soul as the harmonious clanking of my eternal and last chains.

Thus I pass my last years.  As before, my health is sound and my free spirit is clear.  Let some call me a fool and laugh at me; in their pitiful blindness let others regard me as a saint and expect me to perform miracles; an upright man to some people, to others—­a liar and a deceiver—­I myself know who I am, and I do not ask them to understand me.  And if there are people who will accuse me of deception, of baseness, even of the lack of simple honour—­for there are scoundrels who are convinced to this day that I committed murder—­ no one will dare accuse me of cowardice, no one will dare say that I could not perform my painful duty to the end.  From the beginning till the end I remained firm and unbribable; and though a bugbear, a fanatic, a dark horror to some people, I may awaken in others a heroic dream of the infinite power of man.

I have long discontinued to receive visitors, and with the death of the Warden of our prison, my only true friend, whom I visited occasionally, my last tie with this world was broken.  Only I and my ferocious jailer, who watches every movement of mine with mad suspicion, and the black grate which has caught in its iron embrace and muzzled the infinite—­this is my life.  Silently accepting the low bows, in my cold estrangement from the people I am passing my last road.

I am thinking of death ever more frequently, but even before death I do not bend my fearless look.  Whether it brings me eternal rest or a new unknown and terrible struggle, I am humbly prepared to accept it.

Farewell, my dear reader!  Like a vague phantom you appeared before my eyes and passed, leaving me alone before the face of life and death.  Do not be angry because at times I deceived you and lied—­ you, too, would have lied perhaps in my place.  Nevertheless I loved you sincerely, and sincerely longed for your love; and the thought of your sympathy for me was quite a support to me in my moments and days of hardship.  I am sending you my last farewell and my sincere advice.  Forget about my existence, even as I shall henceforth forget about yours forever.