He stood doubting for some time, as though he could scarcely credit the remote resemblance in this thin, pale face, to another that lived in his memory, but at last, with a pained surprise, he became convinced of its identity.
"Gabriel! my brother! is it really you ?" And the rigidly set face of the Cathedral servant, which seemed to have acquired the immobility of its pillars and statues, relaxed with an affectionate smile.
"When did you come?
Where have you been?
What is your life?
Why have you come ?" "Wooden Staff" expressed his surprise by incessant questions, never giving his brother time to answer.
Gabriel at length explained, that he had arrived the previous night, and that he had waited outside the church since early dawn in the hopes of seeing his brother.
"I have now come from Madrid, but before that I was in many places: in England, in France, in Belgium, who knows where besides.

I have wandered from one town to another, always struggling against hunger and the cruelty of men.

My footsteps have been dogged by poverty and the police.

When I rest a little, worn out by this Wandering Jew's existence, Justice, inspired by fear, orders me to move on, and so once again I begin my march.

I am a man to be feared, Esteban, even as you now see me, with my body ruined before old age, and the certainty before me of a speedy death.