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.
'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!
[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.']
[Footnote 4: See 'Eventyr og Folkesagn.'--_Espen til Ahner_.]
[Footnote 6: One mile Danish is equal to more than four English miles.]
[Footnote 7: At the death of the last representative of a noble family in Sweden, the escutcheon is usually broken over his coffin.]
LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET, AND CHARING CROSS.
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Danes Sketched by Themselves. Vol. II (of 3), by Various