The innkeeper shook his head: "Impossible, unless you fly through the
air," he said. But, presently remembering that he himself had to go
some leagues on the road to the capital, he begged permission to join
the party, which was cheerfully given.
The Master then retired to say his morning prayers, and gave orders
for breakfast and dinner.
"But why art thou delaying?" inquired the innkeeper. "How can you
arrive for Sabbath?"
The Baal Shem did not, however, abate one jot of his prayers, and it
was not till eve that they set out. All through the night they
travelled, and in the morning the innkeeper found himself, to his
confusion, not where he had reckoned to part with the others, but in
the environs of the capital. The Baal Shem took up his quarters in a
humble district, while the dazed innkeeper wandered about the streets
of the great city, undecided what to do. All at once he heard screams
and saw a commotion, and people began to run to and fro; and then he
saw men carrying a beautiful dead girl in bridal costume, and in the
midst of them one, who by his Sabbath garments and his white shoes was
evidently the bridegroom, mazed and ghastly pale. He heard people
telling one another that death had seized her as she stood under the
canopy, before the word could be said or the glass broken that should
have made her the wife of the richest man in the capital. The
innkeeper ran towards them and he said--
"Do not despair. Last night I was hundreds of miles from here. I came
here with a great wonder-worker. Mayhap he will be able to help you."
The bridegroom went with him to seek out the Baal Shem at the far end
of the town, and offered a vast sum for the restoration of his
beloved.
"Nay, keep thy money," said the Master. And he fared back with the
twain to see the corpse, which had been laid in an apartment.
As soon as he had looked upon the face of the bride he said: "Let a
grave be dug; and let the washers prepare her for the tomb. And then
let her be reclad in her marriage vestments. I will go to the
graveyard and await her coming."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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