Diary of Marie Bashkirtseff
CZENUKFR

Tuesday, 6 June 1876

I read back over yesterday's entry, the last page. People will not understand it — the thing is that I was writing as I suffered, and between each word there are three words of pain and tears.

# Mardi 6 juin 1876

The heat is unbearable.

Il fait une chaleur insupportable.

Sultan Abdul Aziz has killed himself, or been killed.1 I know well enough — they feared it. Mourad V is starting badly — or rather, no: since the death of the deposed sovereign can serve the peace of the State, Mourad is right.

Le sultan Abdul Aziz s'est tué ou a été tué. Je sais bien, on le craignait, Mourad V commence mal, d'ailleurs non, puisque cette mort du souverain déposé peut être utile au repos de l'État, Mourad a raison.

But to the devil with it all!

Mais au diable !

Notes

Sultan Abdul Aziz of the Ottoman Empire was deposed on 30 May 1876 and found dead on 4 June — officially a suicide, though murder was widely suspected. He was succeeded by Murad V (r. 1876). Marie's awareness of this current event is characteristic of her habits of political self-education. ↩