'The Jews are going to bury their last prophet to-day,' said a lounger
on the 'Jungfernstieg' to one of his associates. 'See how they are
gathering from all corners! And any one of them who meets the hearse
must follow it.'
'It is old Philip Moses,' replied the other: 'he was the only honest
Jew in Hamburg, and some say he is the last of the old Mosaic type in
the world. He died in the belief, notwithstanding all their wanderings
and miseries, that _his_ nation were the holiest on earth, and God's
favourite people. When he was dying, they say, he had his windows
opened, expecting that their Messiah would come flying in to carry him
and his people away back to the promised land.'
'What absurd folly!' exclaimed the first speaker laughing; 'however, we
must admit that he was consistent to the last.'
And ridiculing the Jews, they entered one of the pavilions near the
Alster.
Towards evening, a young man in a travelling dress stood at the gate of
the churchyard belonging to the Jewish community, and gazed sadly and
earnestly at a female figure, which, in a deep mourning dress, was
kneeling by a newly-made grave. The traveller was the young painter
Veit, who had engaged post-horses for that very evening to take him
from his native town on his way towards Italy, where he intended to
bury himself and his hopeless passion amidst the classic ruins of Rome.
Benjamina's self-sacrificing devotion to her grandfather, and his
patriarchal adherence to the faith of his ancestors, which held up to
execration every departure from that faith, and the intermingling
with those whose religion was different, had entirely destroyed his
long-cherished hopes; but he determined once again to see his beloved
Benjamina, once more to be assured of her sentiments towards him, and
then to take a last and sad farewell.
With this resolution he had approached her dwelling, just as the
hearse, containing the mortal remains of old Philip Moses, was leaving
it. Seeing this, he mingled among the mourners and followed the funeral
_cortege_, although the passers-by wondered to see a fair-haired
Christian, in a travelling garb, among the mumbling Jews who
accompanied the dead to his last resting-place.
When the mournful ceremony was ended, and they had all left the grave,
Veit felt that he could not tear himself away; it seemed as if he found
himself impelled to wait there the last scene of his sorrowful fate. He
also thought that Benjamina would visit the tomb before night. This
expectation was realized, for she did come, later in the evening, with
flowers to strew over her grandfather's grave. When he perceived her
approaching, he stepped aside, not to disturb her in her pious duty;
but he felt that _this_ was the sad and solemn place where he was to
take leave of her for life. He remained at a little distance, gazing at
her, as she knelt in prayer by the grave, and it was not until she rose
to depart that he approached her slowly and silently. He held in his
hand a cross of shining mother-of-pearl, which his mother had given him
when a child, bidding him present it to her to whom in future he should
give his heart. When packing his portmanteaus and desk, he had stumbled
on this maternal gift, so long laid by, and he had now brought it to
offer it as a parting _souvenir_ to her he loved so hopelessly. It
seemed to shine with peculiar brightness in the clear moonlight.
'Benjamina!' he exclaimed; and she raised her beautiful dark eyes from
the grave, and recognized him. But when she saw the shining cross in
his hand, she sank on her knees, and folded her hands across her
breast.
'Heavens! it is fulfilled!' she exclaimed. 'His spirit shows me the
symbol of peace and redemption at this grave.'
'What!' cried Veit, in deep anxiety, 'at _this_ grave?'
'At _this_ grave I was to be released, were his last words to me, as an
angel enlightened his mind at the moment of death. And see, his spirit
has led you here with that holy symbol in your hand, the sign of that
faith, believing in which I shall be united to your crucified Redeemer
for ever.'
'Praised be the name of that Redeemer!' cried the happy Veit, 'and
blessed be that spirit which in death permitted you to seek redemption!
Now there is nothing to prevent our union, and I claim you as my bride
in the face of the Almighty, and by this grave, where I had feared our
final parting was to have taken place.'
They joined their hands over the old man's grave, and Benjamina then
told how her departed grandfather, in his last moments, seemed to have
understood that the noble predictions of David and the prophets
respecting the Messiah had been fulfilled, that he had made the sign of
a cross on his death-bed with his cold stiffening hand, and with a
smile of ineffable happiness had yielded up his spirit in her arms.
'It was ordained, and it has been wonderfully fulfilled!' exclaimed
Veit, as he and Benjamina knelt together by the new-made grave.
The following year, on the anniversary of that day, a happy Christian
couple stood by a tomb, which was thickly strewed with fresh flowers;
within that tomb reposed the aged Philip Moses, with his face turned
towards the east. Benjamina clasped her beloved husband's hand in one
of hers, while with the other she pressed the mother-of-pearl cross to
her heart.
'Now he knows the truth,' said she, 'and has seen the promised land,
and the holy city which is lightened by the glory of God, and where the
redeemed out of every kindred, and people, and nation of the earth
shall be blessed for evermore!'