Part 34 (2/2)
And she clung to him in a perfect extasy of joy. ”You see--now I am dying by your side--it has happened as I said”--she whispered in his ear. ”And you have kept your word; you wanted to lead me to bliss--now I am indeed blessed.”
The blind man was like one in the very whirlwind of a celestial revelation.
”Oh, sweet martyr! You have done what no man ever did. We, when we deny ourselves and subdue ourselves, we hope for a future reward and fear future punishment--but you have renounced all, and fought the fight without hope and without fear. You have sacrificed yourself freely and without compulsion, and have bled to death in silence. What is all that heroism and chast.i.ty have ever achieved in comparison with this deed?
No--it is no power of the devil that has accomplished this. It is not with dying lips that the evil one seeks to tempt--nor with the kiss of death that he entangles his victims. It is a higher power--yes--now I see and know it! Beata, your death has released me from my bonds--there is a love, that is G.o.d--and we have loved each other with such a love, and for that love's sake we shall find mercy.”
”Amen!” said the girl, and with a smile of rapture she clasped his head that had sunk upon her breast. And there was peace--the peace of G.o.d, in their souls. Her breath was now short and weak, but she clasped him to her with all her remaining strength. He pressed her to his breast and rubbed her frozen limbs, and breathed on her with his warm breath.
He implored her with a thousand loving words.
”Do not die, my child, my wife--gift of G.o.d, stay with me. G.o.d who gave you to me, will let you stay with me one day--one hour, only one little hour that I may make up to you for all you have suffered!”
In vain! the cold hand could no longer stroke his head; it fell by her side.
”Beata!” he called in her ear. ”I abandoned you in life, but in death I will not forsake you, I will die with you.”
She still heard, a sigh of rapture answered him as from a happy bride--it was her last--then she bowed her head and slept, softly and peacefully, with a smile on her lips. She was gone like the night-moth whose fate it is never to rejoice in the light of the sun, that is s.n.a.t.c.hed away by the first frosts of winter, without a sound, without a wail--out of darkness into darkness.
Donatus still listened for a while to hear if the stilled heart beat no more--not a breath, not a throb, all was over. Long, long did he lie so, the body clasped to his heart; then he rose, and saying half-aloud as though she still could hear, ”Come, my child,” he laid the slender form across his shoulders like a dead lamb, and went out into the open air.
Snow was falling, softly and lightly spreading a white coverlet under his feet over which he glided inaudibly, feeling his way by the rocky wall. Whither was he going, what did he seek? He could not answer himself these questions, the time for thought was over; one feeling alone possessed him, and that was love. All seemed light to his blind eyes; a slight form rose out of the darkness, and floated before him with a sad but blissful smile. It was Beata's glorified spirit. She pointed out the way, and signed to him to follow with a look of unutterable love.
”Yes, I am coming, I follow,” he cried, and hurried on as fast as he could through the snow--after her. Presently the sweet vision reached a spot where the rock ended precipitously, a perpendicular cliff of more than a thousand fathoms. She stood still and looked round. ”Wait, I am coming!” he cried. Once more she beckoned, then she soared up and floated across the abyss up--away. By this time he too had reached the spot, and without a shudder he sprang after her; but his mortal body with its burden weighed him down. He slid into the abyss in a cloud of snow, and the loosened ma.s.s came plunging after him, a thundering avalanche that filled the air with an ocean of snow.
But just as the air that clings to a heavy body when it is plunged into the depths of the sea rises to rejoin its parent element in s.h.i.+ning globules, the spirit of the engulfed Donatus rose from the deep to its eternal home.
The earth lay dead and dumb as if the sun could never rise again, as if love had perished for ever--and yet it will return, bringing softer airs, under whose quickening breath Heaven and earth shall once more be reconciled.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: Himmelsschlussel--keys of Heaven--is the pretty German name.]
[Footnote 2: The Adige lower down.]
[Footnote 3: In German the corpse-owl.]
[Footnote 4: The translator is indebted for these verses to the kindness of a friend.]
THE END.
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