Far from the Madding Crowd
Page 48
CHAPTER XLVII
ADVENTURES BY THE SHORE
Troy wandered along towards the south. A composite feeling, made upof disgust with the, to him, humdrum tediousness of a farmer's life,gloomy images of her who lay in the churchyard, remorse, and ageneral averseness to his wife's society, impelled him to seek ahome in any place on earth save Weatherbury. The sad accessories ofFanny's end confronted him as vivid pictures which threatened to beindelible, and made life in Bathsheba's house intolerable. At threein the afternoon he found himself at the foot of a slope more thana mile in length, which ran to the ridge of a range of hills lyingparallel with the shore, and forming a monotonous barrier betweenthe basin of cultivated country inland and the wilder scenery of thecoast. Up the hill stretched a road nearly straight and perfectlywhite, the two sides approaching each other in a gradual taper tillthey met the sky at the top about two miles off. Throughout thelength of this narrow and irksome inclined plane not a sign of lifewas visible on this garish afternoon. Troy toiled up the road with alanguor and depression greater than any he had experienced for many aday and year before. The air was warm and muggy, and the top seemedto recede as he approached.
At last he reached the summit, and a wide and novel prospect burstupon him with an effect almost like that of the Pacific upon Balboa'sgaze. The broad steely sea, marked only by faint lines, which hada semblance of being etched thereon to a degree not deep enough todisturb its general evenness, stretched the whole width of his frontand round to the right, where, near the town and port of Budmouth,the sun bristled down upon it, and banished all colour, to substitutein its place a clear oily polish. Nothing moved in sky, land, orsea, except a frill of milkwhite foam along the nearer angles of theshore, shreds of which licked the contiguous stones like tongues.
He descended and came to a small basin of sea enclosed by the cliffs.Troy's nature freshened within him; he thought he would rest andbathe here before going farther. He undressed and plunged in.Inside the cove the water was uninteresting to a swimmer, beingsmooth as a pond, and to get a little of the ocean swell, Troypresently swam between the two projecting spurs of rock whichformed the pillars of Hercules to this miniature Mediterranean.Unfortunately for Troy a current unknown to him existed outside,which, unimportant to craft of any burden, was awkward for a swimmerwho might be taken in it unawares. Troy found himself carried tothe left and then round in a swoop out to sea.
He now recollected the place and its sinister character. Manybathers had there prayed for a dry death from time to time, and, likeGonzalo also, had been unanswered; and Troy began to deem it possiblethat he might be added to their number. Not a boat of any kind wasat present within sight, but far in the distance Budmouth lay uponthe sea, as it were quietly regarding his efforts, and beside thetown the harbour showed its position by a dim meshwork of ropes andspars. After well-nigh exhausting himself in attempts to get back tothe mouth of the cove, in his weakness swimming several inches deeperthan was his wont, keeping up his breathing entirely by his nostrils,turning upon his back a dozen times over, swimming _en papillon_, andso on, Troy resolved as a last resource to tread water at a slightincline, and so endeavour to reach the shore at any point, merelygiving himself a gentle impetus inwards whilst carried on in thegeneral direction of the tide. This, necessarily a slow process,he found to be not altogether so difficult, and though there was nochoice of a landing-place--the objects on shore passing by him in asad and slow procession--he perceptibly approached the extremity of aspit of land yet further to the right, now well defined against thesunny portion of the horizon. While the swimmer's eyes were fixedupon the spit as his only means of salvation on this side of theUnknown, a moving object broke the outline of the extremity, andimmediately a ship's boat appeared manned with several sailor lads,her bows towards the sea.
All Troy's vigour spasmodically revived to prolong the struggle yet alittle further. Swimming with his right arm, he held up his left tohail them, splashing upon the waves, and shouting with all his might.From the position of the setting sun his white form was distinctlyvisible upon the now deep-hued bosom of the sea to the east of theboat, and the men saw him at once. Backing their oars and puttingthe boat about, they pulled towards him with a will, and in five orsix minutes from the time of his first halloo, two of the sailorshauled him in over the stern.
They formed part of a brig's crew, and had come ashore for sand.Lending him what little clothing they could spare among them as aslight protection against the rapidly cooling air, they agreed toland him in the morning; and without further delay, for it wasgrowing late, they made again towards the roadstead where theirvessel lay.
And now night drooped slowly upon the wide watery levels in front;and at no great distance from them, where the shoreline curved round,and formed a long riband of shade upon the horizon, a series ofpoints of yellow light began to start into existence, denoting thespot to be the site of Budmouth, where the lamps were being lightedalong the parade. The cluck of their oars was the only sound of anydistinctness upon the sea, and as they laboured amid the thickeningshades the lamp-lights grew larger, each appearing to send a flamingsword deep down into the waves before it, until there arose, amongother dim shapes of the kind, the form of the vessel for which theywere bound.