“It is hard, hard to leave them,” said the smith, with drooping head.  “All this comes upon you on account of the kindness you have shown my boy; you have had a poor reward from us.”

“Reward?” asked the other, a subtle smile hovering around his lips.  “I expect none, neither from you nor fate.  I belong to a poor sect, that does not consider whether its deeds will be repaid or not.  We love goodness, set a high value on it, and practise it, so far as our power extends, because it is so beautiful.  What have men called good?  Only that which keeps the soul calm.  And what is evil?  That which fills it with disquiet.  I tell you, that the hearts of those who pursue virtue, though they are driven from their homes, hunted and tortured like noxious beasts, are more tranquil than those of their powerful persecutors, who practise evil.  He who seeks any other reward for virtue, than virtue itself, will not lack disappointment.  It is neither you nor Ulrich, who drives me hence, but the mysterious ancient curse, that pursues my people when they seek to rest; it is, it is. . . .  Another time, to-morrow.  This is enough for to-day.”

When the doctor was alone, he pressed his hand to his brow and groaned aloud.  His whole life passed before his mind, and he found in it, besides terrible suffering, great and noble joys, and not an hour in which his desire for virtue was weakened.  He had spent happy years here in the peace of his simple home, and now must again set forth and wander on and on, with nothing before his eyes save an uncertain goal, at the end of a long, toilsome road.  What had hitherto been his happiness, increased his misery in this hour.  It was hard, unspeakably hard, to drag his wife and child through want and sorrow, and could Elizabeth, his wife, bear it again?

He found her in the tiny garden behind the horse, kneeling before a flower-bed to weed it.  As he greeted her pleasantly, she rose and beckoned to him.

“Let us sit down,” he said, leading her to the bench before the hedge, that separated the garden from the forest.  There he meant to tell her, that they must again shake the dust from their feet.

She had lost the power of speech on the rack in Portugal, and could only falter a few unintelligible words, when greatly excited, but her hearing had remained, and her husband understood how to read the expression of her eyes.  A great sorrow had drawn a deep line in the high, pure brow, and this also was eloquent; for when she felt happy and at peace it was scarcely perceptible, but if an anxious or sorrowful mood existed, the furrow contracted and deepened.  To-day it seemed to have entirely disappeared.  Her fair hair was drawn plainly and smoothly, over her temples, and the slender, slightly stooping figure, resembled a young tree, which the storm has bowed and deprived of strength and will to raise itself.

“Beautiful!” she exclaimed in a smothered tone, with much effort, but her bright glance clearly expressed the joy that filled her soul, as she pointed to the green foliage around her and the blue sky over their heads.