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had happened,--these words called for a reply. And the reply must
correspond to the condition into which I had lashed myself, and which
was increasing and must continue to increase. Rage has its laws.
"'Do not lie, wretch. Do not lie!' I roared.
"With my left hand I seized her hands. She disengaged herself. Then,
without dropping my dagger, I seized her by the throat, forced her to
the floor, and began to strangle her. With her two hands she clutched
mine, tearing them from her throat, stifling. Then I struck her a blow
with the dagger, in the left side, between the lower ribs.
"
When people say that they do not remember what they do in a fit of
fury, they talk nonsense. It is false. I remember everything.
"
I did not lose my consciousness for a single moment. The more I lashed
myself to fury, the clearer my mind became, and I could not help seeing
what I did. I cannot say that I knew in advance what I would do, but at
the moment when I acted, and it seems to me even a little before, I knew
what I was doing, as if to make it possible to repent, and to be able to
say later that I could have stopped.
"I knew that I struck the blow between the ribs, and that the dagger
entered.
"
At the second when I did it, I knew that I was performing a horrible
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