nt physicians as Dr. Knothe and his
son. His surroundings were ideal, and each of the household had for
him an attachment tender, filial and sincere. It was necessary to his
welfare that his life should be without vexation, and he asked his
sister to entreat their mother to avoid anything which might cause him
pain.

On his part, he tried to spare his mother also from unpleasant news,
and desired his sister to assist him in concealing from her the real
facts. He had had another terrible crisis in which he had been ill for
more than a month with cephalalgic fever, and he had grown very thin.

Though several of Balzac's biographers have criticized Madame Hanska
most bitterly for holding Balzac in Russia, and some have even gone so
far as to censure her for his early death, it will be remembered that
his health had long begun to fail, and that no constitution could long
endure the severe strain he had given his. No climate could help his
worn-out body to a sufficient degree. Balzac himself praised the
conduct of the entire Hanski family. The following is only one of his
numerous testimonies to their devotion.

"Alas! I have no good news to send. In all that regards the
affection, the tenderness of all, the desire to root out the evil
weeds which encumber the path of my life, mother and children are
sublime; but the chief thing of all is still subject to
entanglements and delays, which make me doubt whether it is God's
will that your brother should ever be happy, at least in that way;
but as regards sincere mutual love, delicacy and goodness, it
would be impossible to find another family like this. We live
together as if there were only one heart amongst the four; this is
repetition, but it cannot be helped, it is the only definition of
the life I lead here."

The situation of the author of the _Comedie humaine_ was at this time
most pitiable. Broken in health and living in a climate to which his
constitution refused to be acclimated,[*] weighed down by a load of
debt which he was unable to liquidate in his state of health (his work
having amounted to very little during his stay in Russia), consumed
with a burning passion for the woman who had become the overpowering
figure in the latter half of his literary career, possessing a pride
that was making him sacrifice his very life rather than give up his
long-sought treasure, the diamond of Poland, his very soul became so
imbued with this devouring pa