Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/293

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CONCLUSION.

of perfect reconciliation. Could he have chosen his
own burial-place, he would have selected no other.
  In hours of special excitement, man is easily inclined
to give a remarkable coincidence, a deeper significance
than perhaps he ought. We shall, therefore, leave it
to our readers to decide whether Hold was right, when
afterward, in conversation with his wife upon the dis-
covery of Godber's body on the grave of his former ship-
mates, he expressed himself as follows : "It seems to
me as if God had designed by this circumstance to give
me great consolation. I can now think of Godber with-
out any doubts of his forgiveness. This union in death
with those whom he regarded, justly or unjustly, as
having been sacrificed by his unfaithfulness, strikes me
as an affirmative answer to the question of survivors,
'Was his repentance accepted ?' We should think of
him with peace, since we have seen him sleeping peace-
fully by the side of those with whose death his cousin
reproached him. I, at least, must thank God that he
so ordered it, and would not willingly have seen the
body of Godber lying elsewhere. He was to go first
where the voice of'reconciliation called him. Maria
belonged not there, and, therefore, they were separated.
The last moments of his life had expiated his offense
toward her, and they are now reunited in the everlast-
ing habitations."
  If our narrative has won your sympathy, kind reader,
we beg you also to take leave of Godber without re-
proaching him for his weakness. Who shall measure
the strength of passion whose glowing flame often con-
sumes, in one unhappy moment, all that we call our
truth and our duty, and we stand before their ashes,