Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/121

121

REMORSE.

into the grave, it fell from his trembling hands, and as
the staff struck the coffins they gave back a hollow
sound. Godber, pale as death and trembling in every
limb, fell back upon the bystanders.
  But here we must go back a little to follow Godber's
inward struggles up to this moment. With the discov-
ery of the bodies of his drowned companions a dark
cloud had come over his spirits, which he had made
every exertion to drive away, or at least to conceal from
others. The stiff stem lines in the face of his captain,
when he stood by his corpse on the strand among the
sea-washed graves, seemed to inquire of him, " Why
did my pilot leave the ship before me ?" and as he
turned to look away, he saw Maria slowly going up to
her own dwelling, and it seemed as if he heard her sigh,
"Godber, why hast thou forsaken thy betrothed bride ?"
It grew dark before his eyes, an icy hand was laid upon
his heart, a mocking laugh rang in his ears : " twice
forsworn !" He hastened from that fearful place as if
pursued by a curse, and stood again in the presence of
Idalia before he had recovered his senses. If she had
met him with tears or even with the reproaches of
anger, he would have fallen upon her neck, and wept
out on her bosom the sorrows and bitterness of his full
heart. But she came toward him with her usual gen-
tle smile — that smile which had so often charmed him
as if with magic power ; but now in his present mood
it was only repulsive to him ; it was too contradictory
to all his feelings, and it did not recur to him that she
was yet unacquainted with what he had just seen, and
therefore could not be expected to show sympathy for
the fate of his lost companions. Instead of bending