And so the new year dawned familiarly on all. But the Great Day dawned not yet on the world; only on one, under Gaffer Gregory's roof, the morning of new life had suddenly arisen.
The long struggle with want and toil had worn out the delicate frame of the goldsmith's widowed daughter, and on the new year's morning the worn and patient face lay motionless on the pillow with an unutterable peace stamped on it from the soul which had learned the full meaning of the words, "Behold the Man."
Still, on earth, remained the shadow of the irreparable wrongs; not on those who had suffered, but on those who had wrought them.
Bruno's sightless eyes had indeed opened on a vision of peace beside which all earthly light is dark. But from Ivo, who came and did faithful service to him in his castle, the vision of his crime could never depart on this side the grave.
To the Burgomaster's wife the calumny proved but as a purifying fire, making her fair with a more heavenly beauty than before. But to Gammer Trüdchen the harvest of the evil words she had sown was ever returning.
And in the miser's house and heart the blank of the worn-out life he might have saved lay heavy; while the blessed spirit thus set free was resting with Him she had so faithfully loved in the Paradise of God.
On the wrong-doers fell indeed healing dews of forgiveness.
But the brows of the sufferers were glorious with the likeness of the thorn-crowned Lord, and with His own crown of forgiving love.
But to all these forgiven and forgiving, the cry, "Apparebit repentina," the Day shall appear, had become glad tidings of great joy, because to the heart of each had come, as the command of love and the inspiration of life, "Ecce Homo," Behold the Man!