Gabriel perceived three grave-stones, a large and two smaller ones. The larger had engraved upon it a hunch of grapes the symbol of a Levi.... a lofty form, an old man had sunk down before the gravestones....
Gabriel wished to press forward, to address the form, to look it face to face.... though it should cost him a thousand lives:--but at that instant the old man's trembling voice again resounded....
Gabriel remained rooted to the ground.
"My God! my Lord! all-merciful, all-gracious God!... have I not yet made atonement for the sin of my youth?.... have I not for years done penitence; suffered, as no other man on earth?... Here at the grave of my dead, early lost, father--here at my twin brother's grave, who loved me so dearly, so infinitely deeply, my brother's, who in that fateful night awoke the inexpressibly bitter grief of remorseful despair.... oh would that I had then died, when with strong grasp you threw from off you the disloyal, the wicked shameless brother, would that I had then met my death from your dear fraternal hand!--but no, thou dear one; thou wert not destined to be a Cain, pure and blessed thou wert one day to close thy eyes in peaceful death.... but I, I woke from what seemed the sleep of death, to never ending nameless torment!... At the grave of the never-to-be-forgotten sweet companion of my youth Carpel, whom I would so gladly have once more folded in my arms ... and who peacefully slumbered under this turf, as I returned in despair to Prague, the city of my blissful innocent youth.... at this grave I have for years made my supplication unto thee all-merciful!... Thou, Omniscient, thou that seest into the depths of my soul, thou knowest, what I have suffered!... And still the cloud of thine indignation is not yet passed away.... Thou shalt not commit adultery stands ever written in my bible.... and never yet has my son hastened to my arms!..."
Gabriel scarcely breathed. Each word made its way to his heart like a flaming sword. In his breast raged a storm of emotion, that can neither be represented, nor described, nor conceived. In the inmost core of his being an infinite, all-embracing destroying change was brought to pass.... light suddenly flashed into his soul, and as the dim eyes of the body accustomed to profound obscurity close themselves painfully, if they suddenly gaze into the glowing fire-streams of a mighty volcano; so closed his spiritual eye for one instant before the impression of this trying moment. He was standing by his unhappy father! this form bowed low by sorrow and misery was his poor despairing father.... the mad Jacob!... the most ardent wish of his soul, the deepest longing of his tormented life was stilled, stilled at the moment in which he had given himself over with wild God-denying insolence to the profoundest despair.... that was no blind chance.... Gabriel assayed to speak, but his thought found no expression, his lips no sound.
"Father of all men! forgive me at last," Jacob began again in the most heart-rending accents of deepest despair; and his body seemed to collapse under the weight of his sorrow--"forgive me, Father of all!... I have sinned, I have gone astray, but I have suffered endless anguish, and thou, Father! art all-goodness.... Let me die at length, Father of all men.... let me rest by my dear ones.... forgive her also, the mother of my son.... and as a sign that thou hast forgiven me, restore my son to me, my son, before I die.... let me die on his heart.... I can die only on his heart, I ask for nothing more!... God! grant me my son!... Oh come to me, my son!... my son, where art thou?"
A silence deep as the grave reigned for a moment; then Gabriel cried: "Father, I am here!"
Both, father and son, stared speechlessly at one another for a space.... that was the image, that Gabriel had been vainly endeavouring for some hours to conjure up, his father, the wandering Jew of Aix, that form which had once imprinted its hot lips on his young forehead, they were all one and the same....
The highest pitch of madness was mirrored for a minute in Jacob's face.... but gradually and gradually the immense overpowering force of the joyful surprise seemed to drive away the evil spirit that hovered over his soul. His burning eyes, out of which madness had flashed, became wet.... a hot tear escaped from under his eyelashes and trickled slowly down his pale cheeks....
On a sudden, as if a ray of recognition had then for the first time struck him, he exclaimed, "he bears the fiery sign on his forehead! My God! it is my son!..."