The end of Constantin Gane

One evening, after the count, [Alexandru Mironescu n.n.] came into contact through the pipe with Constantin Gane, who was in the cell below us, on the first floor. He was at the end of his tether, barely breathing. He suffered from spondylosis.

– Gentlemen,” said the professor, “his life is barely flickering, he’s on his last legs!” Shortly afterwards, with a last effort, Constantine Gane stood up at the window and shouted through the blinds:

“This is Constantine Gane. You know I’m dying in this prison, innocent!”

After this last cry, which he addressed to this evil world, he was carried out on his arms by a caraliu on duty and taken to the hospital, from where he was brought back a few days later, still on his arms, for he weighed no more than thirty-five kilos. He stayed in the cell with the others for only a few hours before leaving for the world of freedom and eternal peace. It was twelve o’clock at night when, like a hailstorm, the hammering on the pipe began. It was the news of the death of the man who had written “Past Lives of Ladies and Gentlemen”. He left in the middle of the night…

(George Ungureanu – Camera zero, Alexandru Bogza Cultural Foundation Publishing House, Câmpulung Moldovenesc, 2009, p. 151)