"It was a happy day when you entered my house," said I. "The Lord be
thanked for it!"
He laughed, and said: "Come now, Father Moses; come! Have I done
anything more than was natural? Why do you wonder at it?"
He went at once to get his things and carry them to his new room; and
then went away, so as not to disturb us.
How we are mistaken! This sergeant, whom Frichard had sent to plague
us, at the end of a fortnight was one of our family; he consulted our
comfort in everything--and, notwithstanding all the years that have
passed since then, I cannot think of that good man without emotion.
When we were alone, Baruch told us that he could not stay at Phalsburg;
that he had come to bring his family, with everything that he could
provide for them in the first hurried moments; but that, in the midst
of such dangers, when the enemy could not long delay coming, his duty
was to guard his house, and prevent, as much as possible, the pillage
of his goods.
This seemed right, though it made us none the less grieved to have him
go. We thought of the pain of living apart from each other; of hearing
no tidings; of being all the time uncertain about the fate of our
beloved ones! Meanwhile we were all busy. Sorle and Zeffen prepared
the children's bed; Baruch took out the provisions which he had
brought; Safel played with the two little ones, and I went and came,
thinking about our troubles.
At last, when the best room was ready for Zeffen and the children, as
the German gate was already shut, and the French gate would be open
only until two o'clock at the latest, for strangers to leave the city,
Baruch exclaimed: "Zeffen, the moment has come!"
He had scarcely said the words when the great agony began--cries,
embraces, and tears!
Ah! it is a great joy to be loved, the only true joy of life. But what
sorrow to be separated! And how our family loved each other! How
Zeffen and Baruch embraced one another! How they leaned over their
little ones, how they looked at them, and began to sob again!
What can be said at such a moment? I sat by the window, with my hands
before my face, without strength to speak. I thought to myself: "My
God, must it be that a single man shall hold in his hands the fate of
us all! Must it be that, for his pleasure, for the gratification of
his pride, everything shall be confounded, overturned, torn asunder!
My God, shall these troubles never end? Hast thou no pity on thy poor
creatures?"
I did not raise my eyes, but I heard the lamentations which rent my
heart, and which lasted till the moment when Baruch, perceiving that
Zeffen was quite exhausted, ran out, exclaiming: "It must be! It must
be! Adieu, Zeffen! Adieu, my children! Adieu, all!"
No one followed him.
We heard the carriage roll away, and then was the great sorrow--that
sorrow of which it is written:
"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down; yea, we wept when we
remembered Zion.
"We hanged our harps upon the willows.
"For there they that carried us away captive, required of us a song,
saying: 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion!'
"How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?"
X