'Is it you, Pastor Z.?' he said mildly. 'Still up? It is late. I am happy now, my friend, for it will soon be day; I have had a long night. I am dying, but I bear within me a strong voice crying, 'Love is faith,' and I pray, bowing myself in humility before the God of Love. I have wandered from the right path, I was misled, misfortune pursued me, and I became, through my thoughtlessness, Julia's murderer. The crushing intelligence contained in Caldero's letter shook my trust in everything, for it is a relief to a guilty soul not to believe in a Judge. But my presumptuous folly was punished, my understanding became obscured. A light has burst upon me now, and since I have prayed I feel at peace. I prayed--for many years I neglected to do so--yes, I prayed with clasped hands, as my mother used to teach me when I was an innocent child. Alas, I ought always to have prayed thus.'
He ceased speaking, and leaning his head against his pillow, he looked steadfastly at me with a mild, glorified expression of countenance. I had sunk upon my knees at the side of his bed, and poured forth thanks to my God for the ray of light and hope which he had permitted to penetrate the darkened mind of the poor sufferer.
'Lord!' I entreated, 'grant him light!'
'Light,' he repeated, in a low whisper, 'Lord! more light. God be praised! there is light!'
He closed his eyes, heaved a long sigh, and in another world he received an explanation of that secret, the solution of which he had only grasped in his last hour.
He now reposes in the family vault by the side of his beloved Julia; the receptacle of the dead is full. The pieces of his shattered escutcheon lie scattered upon the floor around his coffin,[[7]] and the key of the vault will be needed no more!
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1]: "Too Old"--"For gammel"--is from a Danish work entitled "Haablös"--"Hopeless"--by Carit Etlar. The volume, which contains three tales, was published in Copenhagen in 1857.
[Footnote 2]: Councillor of state. Etatsraad is a Danish title, and an etatsraad's wife is styled Etatsraadinde.
[Footnote 3]: From a collection of Tales, in one volume, entitled 'Haablos'--'Hopeless.'