Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/288

288THE HALLIG.

us up, then another, till we entered into a small boarded
chamber under the roof. The only window of this mis-
erable abode looked over the city wall upon the open
field, and its broken sash freely admitted the wind and
the full moonlight, so that I could as distinctly see
every object as if it had been day. Perhaps, too, my
sight may have been clearer than usual. On a straw
bed in the corner lay a dying person. I knew it by the
rattling in the chest. Alas ! he was the only, the last
stay of his family, who were standing about his bed, a
wife with six children and the seventh on her breast.
The children wrung their hands and wept aloud; but
the mother stared fixedly, with a pale unchanging face,
for she had no more tears. The nursling alone uncon-
cerned, lay on her despairing bosom, draining the little
nutriment it afforded. The dying man raised himself
feebly, and gazed with hollow eyes at his family. In
every feature was expressed a longing desire to find
some consolation for them ; his thin fingers grasped
convulsively at the straws lying about him, as if he
hoped to find among them an ear of wheat to remind
him of that God who giveth bread to the hungry ; but
the straws were empty, his heart, too, was void, and his
sighs became groans of despair. The children wept still
louder, the mother's knees failed, and she sank down
by the side of her husband.
  "' Where hast thou brought me ?' said I, softly, to
the angel. 'Help here, if thou canst, or let us depart
hence, that I may weep over the misery of mankind.'
  "But the angel replied — and his words sounded like
the breath of morning which precedes the rising day —
  "'The eyes of our heavenly Father behold all his