He murmured Bianca's name and closed his eyes, while a happy smile lit
up his worn, thin face. His breast rose and fell with his irregular
breathing, shaken now and then by his cough and feverish shivering, and
often he cried out like one inspired: "Infinite labour, measureless
reward! All, all fulfilled!"
Frau Schimmel realised that the end had come. After he had received the
sacrament, the old lady laid his hand upon the curly head of his son.
Melchior gazed fondly into the sweet face of his child, and quietly
closed his eyes.
The priest who administered extreme unction to him was fond of telling
the story of this last sacrament, for he had never seen any dying man
exhibit greater confidence and faith.
Frau Schimmel cried herself nearly blind.
On the third day after the death of Doctor Melchior Ueberhell, his mortal
remains were carried to rest with great ceremony, and buried in the place
that he himself had chosen during his lifetime.
Between his wife and his mother, rose the little mound that marked his
resting-place, and later many who visited the churchyard used to stop
beside the graves of Bianca and Melchior, perhaps because of the creeping
roses which had been planted beneath the cross of his beloved, and which
spread so luxuriantly that they soon covered the husband's grave as well
as the wife's, and in the month of June decked them both with a wondrous
wealth of blossom.
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