He is fully and nobly a man; yet, at the end--and he is no less a man for it--the wild sorrow at his heart breaks him down into a cry: O great, just, good God! Miserable me! Pompilia ends her words more quietly, in the faith that comes with death.

Caponsacchi has to live on, to bear the burden of the world.

But Pompilia has borne all she had to bear.

All pain and horror are behind her, as she lies in the stillness, dying.

And in the fading of this life, she knows she loves Caponsacchi in the spiritual world and will love him for ever.