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And yet her tears flowed without ceasing, and a wasting seized the beauty of her face, and her soul was suspended from her nostrils. 15.11.13 And it being the fifteenth of August (and it was the fifth day of that week at the time), on which the Dormition of our most blameless Lady and Mother of God is celebrated, in the morning, after certain of the sons of Asclepius had anointed the head of the emperor with whatever they thought best, they departed for home, not for no reason nor because of some pressing need, but because they knew the imminent danger that hung over the emperor. For there were three chief physicians, the extraordinary Nicholas Kallikles, and a certain other Michael Pantechnes, who took his surname from his family, and the .....libos Michael the eunuch. The empress, however, surrounded by the whole chorus of her kinsmen forcing her to partake of food ....... not having partaken and of some sleep m...... having passed continuous and whole nights ..... for the care of the emperor ........ was persuaded. But when a final fainting spell came upon the emperor again .....she perceived having given up hope for .... life, and she cast herself upon the ... and wailed continuously and beat herself and lamented over such evils that had befallen. And she wished to vomit forth her life immediately, but was unable. 15.11.14 But the emperor, although dying and overcome by his suffering, as if becoming stronger even than death .... cared for the empress and tried to calm such distress with one of his daughters. And this was the third by birth, the porphyrogenita Eudokia. For Maria, another one so called, like Maria, was not at that time sitting at the feet of my lord as that other one once did, but busying herself with the parts about his head, she was giving him water from a small cup, not to drink from some drinking vessel, so that he would not often have difficulty in swallowing, as his palate and his very tongue and pharynx were inflamed, wishing to revive him. And he at that time offered firm and manly advice, yet it was his last. And: "Why," he said, "do you wear yourself out, so tormented by our end, and compel us to depart before our pressing death? Will you not then look to yourself and to the present evils, but instead give yourself up to the sea of grief that has flowed over you?" These things he said to her, but for the empress it rather tore open the wound of her misfortune. 15.11.15 But I was in every state of mind, and I swear to my friends present and to those people who will later encounter this writing, by the all-knowing God, that I was no better than those who are mad, but had become wholly a creature of passion. At that point, scorning both philosophy and reason, now I busied myself with my father and the services to him and, watching the movements of his pulse, I was much concerned about the emperor's breathing; now I turned to my mother and tried to restore her as far as I was able. But...... the parts and altogether incurable ...... the emperor could not recover from the final fainting spell, and the Augusta's soul hastened to depart with the emperor. 15.11.16 So things were ......and truly, that which is sung in the psalms, the pains of death at that time surrounded us. And then indeed I perceived that I was out of my mind .... for I was raving and did not know what to do or where to turn, seeing both the empress thrown into the sea of misfortunes and the emperor driven by continuous fainting spells to the last extremity of his life. But he, being able to recover again from a second fainting spell when cold water and drops of rose-water were sprinkled on him by my dearest sister Maria, enjoined the same things about the same matters to the empress. And again he fell into a third fainting spell .... and a departure seemed to the royal bed