"yesterday morning the prince came to see me. among other things he asked me to come down to his villa. i knew he would come and persuade me to this step, and that he would adduce the argument that it would be easier for me to die ‘among people and green trees,’ as he expressed it. but today he did not say ‘die,’ he said ‘live.’ it is pretty much the same to me, in my position, which he says. when i asked him why he made such a point of his ‘green trees,’ he told me, to my astonishment, that he had heard that last time i was in pavlofsk i had said that i had come ‘to have a last look at the trees.’