The woman did not answer, and I thought, "Is it possible to jest about such things! It is against nature."
The cold was so severe that after five or six minutes I shut the window. Sorlé got up and made a fire in the stove.
The whole city was in commotion; men were shouting and dogs barking. Sâfel, who had been wakened by all these noises, went to dress himself in the warm room. I looked very tenderly on this poor little one, his eyes still heavy with sleep; and as I thought that we were to be fired upon, that we must hide ourselves in cellars, and all of us be in danger of being killed for matters which did not concern us, and about which nobody had asked our opinion, I was full of indignation. But what distressed me most was to hear Zeffen sob and say that it would have been better for her and her children to stay with Baruch at Saverne and all die together.
Then the words of the prophet came to me: "Is not this thy fear, thy confidence, thy hope, and the uprightness of thy ways?
"Remember, I pray thee, who ever perished being innocent, or where were the righteous cut off.
"No, they that plough iniquity and sow wickedness, reap the same.
"By the blast of God they perish, and by the breath of his nostrils are they consumed.
"But thee, his servant, he shall redeem from death.
"Thou shalt come to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season."
In this way I strengthened my heart, while I heard the great tumult of the panic-stricken crowd, running and trying to save their property.