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Marx-Engels Correspondence 1864

Marx To Jenny Marx
In London


Source: MECW Volume 41, p. 523;
First published: in the language of the original (German), in Annali, an. 1, Milan, 1958.


[Manchester,] 9 May 1864

Dear Jenny,

Poor Lupus died today, at 10 minutes past 5 in the afternoon. I have just left his death-bed.

I went to see him on the evening of the day I arrived from London, but he was unconscious. The next morning he recognised me. I saw him in company with Engels and the two doctors and, when we were leaving, he called after us (in a weak voice): ‘You will come back, won’t you?’ It was a moment of lucidity. Soon afterwards he relapsed into a state of apathy. Up till Thursday — or really Friday — evening, things hung in the balance so that there was some doubt about the outcome. But he was unconscious from Friday evening until the moment of his passing away. So long did it take for him to die, though he was not in pain. He was unquestionably the victim of that bombastic bungler. I shall write at greater length tomorrow.

In him we have lost one of our few friends and fellow fighters.

He was a man in the best sense of the word. His funeral will be on Friday.

Your
Karl