Pagina 147 van 788

He kept several hounds; what torture, when a petty official and a

kennel live close by! Whenever I went out into the garden with a

book to enjoy the light of the moon and the coolness of the

evening, immediately a dog would rush up and wag its tail and

prick up its ears as if it were mad. I was often terrified. My

heart foreboded some misfortune from those dogs, and so it came

to pass: for when I went into the garden on a certain morning, a

hound throttled at my feet my beloved little King Charles

spaniel! Ah, he was a lovely little dog; Prince Sukin44 gave him

to me as a present to remember him by-clever, and lively as a

squirrel; I have his portrait, only I don't want to go to my desk

now. Seeing it strangled, owing to my great distress I had a

fainting spell, spasms, palpitation of the heart; perhaps my

health might have suffered even more severely.