text:  Colonel " he cried at length seizing my hand "grant my only my solemn prayer--let me but once more look on her!"---- "On whom my friend?" "On my Seltanetta--on the daughter of the Khan of Avar--whom I love more than my life than my soul! She is ill she is dying--perhaps dead by this time--while I am wasting words--and I could not receive into my heart her last word--her last look--could not wipe away the icy tear of death! Oh why do not the ashes of the ruined sun fall on my head--why will not the earth bury me in its ruins!" He fell on my breast choking with grief in a tearless agony unable to pronounce a word