feat_summary_path: finished_summaries/cliffnotes/Far from the Madding Crowd/section_52_part_0.txt
feat_book_id: Far from the Madding Crowd.chapter 53
feat_summary_id: chapter 53
feat_summary: {"name": "Chapter 53", "url": "https://web.archive.org/web/20201101052914/https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/f/far-from-the-madding-crowd/summary-and-analysis/chapter-53", "summary": "A group of men congregated outside of Boldwood's house, watching the guests arrive and whispering rumors of Troy's reappearance. They were sure Bathsheba hadn't heard of it but weren't sure whether that was a good or bad omen. They sympathized with their mistress. Boldwood came out. Not noticing the watchers, he leaned on the gate, murmuring, \"I hope to God she'll come, or this night will be nothing but misery to me!\" A few minutes later, wheels were heard; Boldwood went to welcome Bathsheba. Tall, Smallbury, and Samway went to the malthouse. They saw Troy peeping in a window. \"The men, after recognizing Troy's features, withdrew across the orchard as quietly as they had come. The air was big with Bathsheba's fortunes to-night: every word everywhere concerned her.\" The men were unnerved by Troy's return and decided that they should warn Bathsheba. Laban was chosen to tell her but was reluctant; he entered Boldwood's house and left again. He couldn't bring himself to ruin everything. The men decided they had better all join together. Meanwhile, having stayed an hour and thus satisfied amenities, Bathsheba wished to leave. But before she could go, Boldwood found her and insisted on an answer to his proposal. Finally, she gave her promise: If she were truly a widow, she would not marry anyone, if not Boldwood. The man's restraint broke, and he told her of how he had suffered, of how much he loved her. Sobbing, Bathsheba finally agreed to marry him in six years. Boldwood gave her the ring. Bathsheba said it would be improper for her to wear it. When he persisted, she agreed to wear it just for the evening. Bathsheba descended from the little parlor to find the party somehow deadened. As one of her men stepped forward to talk to her, there was a knock at the door. Someone wished to speak to Mrs. Troy. Boldwood asked the man in; he was one of the few who did not recognize Troy. Bathsheba sank down at the base of the staircase, staring. Still unaware, Boldwood invited the stranger to have a drink. Troy strode in, turning down his collar and laughing. The truth suddenly dawned on Boldwood. Troy ordered Bathsheba to leave with him. She hesitated. Boldwood, in a strange voice, told her to go. Troy then pulled her roughly, and she screamed. There was a loud noise. Smoke filled the room. When Bathsheba had cried out, Boldwood's face had changed. He had taken a gun from the rack and had shot and killed Troy. He then attempted to shoot himself but was prevented by Samway. Boldwood said, \"There is another way for me to die.\" He kissed Bathsheba's hand, \"put on his hat, opened the door, and went into the darkness, nobody thinking of preventing him.\"", "analysis": "The action of this chapter is crowded and rapid. One event swiftly follows another, adding to the dramatic quality -- as Hardy well knew, having been in his earlier years a playwright. An atmosphere of inevitability surrounds the climax of the chapter. Once before Boldwood attempted to save Bathsheba from Troy, and when he found he was being tricked he had warned, \"I'll punish you yet!\" Since that time Boldwood's emotional instability has been made increasingly apparent. His determination to possess Bathsheba is that of a fanatic. Troy has changed little, and he is once again able to thwart Boldwood by trickery and deceit. Never a man of caution, he has ignored a premonition of disaster, and his dramatic gesture costs him his life. We may initially be shocked at Troy's murder, because the chapter has moved so quickly, but we are not really surprised by it once we pause to reflect."}
text: CONCURRITUR--HORAE MOMENTO
  
  
  Outside the front of Boldwood's house a group of men stood in the
  dark, with their faces towards the door, which occasionally opened
  and closed for the passage of some guest or servant, when a golden
  rod of light would stripe the ground for the moment and vanish again,
  leaving nothing outside but the glowworm shine of the pale lamp amid
  the evergreens over the door.
  
  "He was seen in Casterbridge this afternoon--so the boy said," one of
  them remarked in a whisper.  "And I for one believe it.  His body was
  never found, you know."
  
  "'Tis a strange story," said the next.  "You may depend upon't that
  she knows nothing about it."
  
  "Not a word."
  
  "Perhaps he don't mean that she shall," said another man.
  
  "If he's alive and here in the neighbourhood, he means mischief,"
  said the first.  "Poor young thing: I do pity her, if 'tis true.
  He'll drag her to the dogs."
  
  "O no; he'll settle down quiet enough," said one disposed to take a
  more hopeful view of the case.
  
  "What a fool she must have been ever to have had anything to do with
  the man!  She is so self-willed and independent too, that one is more
  minded to say it serves her right than pity her."
  
  "No, no.  I don't hold with 'ee there.  She was no otherwise than a
  girl mind, and how could she tell what the man was made of?  If 'tis
  really true, 'tis too hard a punishment, and more than she ought to
  hae.--Hullo, who's that?"  This was to some footsteps that were heard
  approaching.
  
  "William Smallbury," said a dim figure in the shades, coming up and
  joining them.  "Dark as a hedge, to-night, isn't it? I all but missed
  the plank over the river ath'art there in the bottom--never did such
  a thing before in my life.  Be ye any of Boldwood's workfolk?"  He
  peered into their faces.
  
  "Yes--all o' us.  We met here a few minutes ago."
  
  "Oh, I hear now--that's Sam Samway: thought I knowed the voice, too.
  Going in?"
  
  "Presently.  But I say, William," Samway whispered, "have ye heard
  this strange tale?"
  
  "What--that about Sergeant Troy being seen, d'ye mean, souls?" said
  Smallbury, also lowering his voice.
  
  "Ay: in Casterbridge."
  
  "Yes, I have.  Laban Tall named a hint of it to me but now--but I
  don't think it.  Hark, here Laban comes himself, 'a b'lieve."  A
  footstep drew near.
  
  "Laban?"
  
  "Yes, 'tis I," said Tall.
  
  "Have ye heard any more about that?"
  
  "No," said Tall, joining the group.  "And I'm inclined to think we'd
  better keep quiet.  If so be 'tis not true, 'twill flurry her, and do
  her much harm to repeat it; and if so be 'tis true, 'twill do no good
  to forestall her time o' trouble.  God send that it mid be a lie, for
  though Henery Fray and some of 'em do speak against her, she's never
  been anything but fair to me.  She's hot and hasty, but she's a brave
  girl who'll never tell a lie however much the truth may harm her, and
  I've no cause to wish her evil."
  
  "She never do tell women's little lies, that's true; and 'tis a thing
  that can be said of very few.  Ay, all the harm she thinks she says
  to yer face: there's nothing underhand wi' her."
  
  They stood silent then, every man busied with his own thoughts,
  during which interval sounds of merriment could be heard within.
  Then the front door again opened, the rays streamed out, the
  well-known form of Boldwood was seen in the rectangular area of
  light, the door closed, and Boldwood walked slowly down the path.
  
  "'Tis master," one of the men whispered, as he neared them. "We'd
  better stand quiet--he'll go in again directly.  He would think it
  unseemly o' us to be loitering here."
  
  Boldwood came on, and passed by the men without seeing them, they
  being under the bushes on the grass.  He paused, leant over the gate,
  and breathed a long breath.  They heard low words come from him.
  
  "I hope to God she'll come, or this night will be nothing but misery
  to me!  Oh my darling, my darling, why do you keep me in suspense
  like this?"
  
  He said this to himself, and they all distinctly heard it.  Boldwood
  remained silent after that, and the noise from indoors was again
  just audible, until, a few minutes later, light wheels could be
  distinguished coming down the hill.  They drew nearer, and ceased at
  the gate.  Boldwood hastened back to the door, and opened it; and the
  light shone upon Bathsheba coming up the path.
  
  Boldwood compressed his emotion to mere welcome: the men marked her
  light laugh and apology as she met him: he took her into the house;
  and the door closed again.
  
  "Gracious heaven, I didn't know it was like that with him!" said one
  of the men.  "I thought that fancy of his was over long ago."
  
  "You don't know much of master, if you thought that," said Samway.
  
  "I wouldn't he should know we heard what 'a said for the world,"
  remarked a third.
  
  "I wish we had told of the report at once," the first uneasily
  continued.  "More harm may come of this than we know of.  Poor Mr.
  Boldwood, it will be hard upon en.  I wish Troy was in--Well, God
  forgive me for such a wish!  A scoundrel to play a poor wife such
  tricks.  Nothing has prospered in Weatherbury since he came here.
  And now I've no heart to go in.  Let's look into Warren's for a few
  minutes first, shall us, neighbours?"
  
  Samway, Tall, and Smallbury agreed to go to Warren's, and went out at
  the gate, the remaining ones entering the house.  The three soon drew
  near the malt-house, approaching it from the adjoining orchard, and
  not by way of the street.  The pane of glass was illuminated as
  usual.  Smallbury was a little in advance of the rest when, pausing,
  he turned suddenly to his companions and said, "Hist!  See there."
  
  The light from the pane was now perceived to be shining not upon the
  ivied wall as usual, but upon some object close to the glass.  It was
  a human face.
  
  "Let's come closer," whispered Samway; and they approached on tiptoe.
  There was no disbelieving the report any longer.  Troy's face was
  almost close to the pane, and he was looking in.  Not only was he
  looking in, but he appeared to have been arrested by a conversation
  which was in progress in the malt-house, the voices of the
  interlocutors being those of Oak and the maltster.
  
  "The spree is all in her honour, isn't it--hey?" said the old man.
  "Although he made believe 'tis only keeping up o' Christmas?"
  
  "I cannot say," replied Oak.
  
  "Oh 'tis true enough, faith.  I cannot understand Farmer Boldwood
  being such a fool at his time of life as to ho and hanker after this
  woman in the way 'a do, and she not care a bit about en."
  
  The men, after recognizing Troy's features, withdrew across
  the orchard as quietly as they had come.  The air was big with
  Bathsheba's fortunes to-night: every word everywhere concerned her.
  When they were quite out of earshot all by one instinct paused.
  
  "It gave me quite a turn--his face," said Tall, breathing.
  
  "And so it did me," said Samway.  "What's to be done?"
  
  "I don't see that 'tis any business of ours," Smallbury murmured
  dubiously.
  
  "But it is!  'Tis a thing which is everybody's business," said
  Samway.  "We know very well that master's on a wrong tack, and that
  she's quite in the dark, and we should let 'em know at once.  Laban,
  you know her best--you'd better go and ask to speak to her."
  
  "I bain't fit for any such thing," said Laban, nervously.  "I should
  think William ought to do it if anybody.  He's oldest."
  
  "I shall have nothing to do with it," said Smallbury.  "'Tis a
  ticklish business altogether.  Why, he'll go on to her himself in a
  few minutes, ye'll see."
  
  "We don't know that he will.  Come, Laban."
  
  "Very well, if I must I must, I suppose," Tall reluctantly answered.
  "What must I say?"
  
  "Just ask to see master."
  
  "Oh no; I shan't speak to Mr. Boldwood.  If I tell anybody, 'twill be
  mistress."
  
  "Very well," said Samway.
  
  Laban then went to the door.  When he opened it the hum of bustle
  rolled out as a wave upon a still strand--the assemblage being
  immediately inside the hall--and was deadened to a murmur as he
  closed it again.  Each man waited intently, and looked around at
  the dark tree tops gently rocking against the sky and occasionally
  shivering in a slight wind, as if he took interest in the scene,
  which neither did.  One of them began walking up and down, and then
  came to where he started from and stopped again, with a sense that
  walking was a thing not worth doing now.
  
  "I should think Laban must have seen mistress by this time," said
  Smallbury, breaking the silence.  "Perhaps she won't come and speak
  to him."
  
  The door opened.  Tall appeared, and joined them.
  
  "Well?" said both.
  
  "I didn't like to ask for her after all," Laban faltered out.  "They
  were all in such a stir, trying to put a little spirit into the
  party.  Somehow the fun seems to hang fire, though everything's there
  that a heart can desire, and I couldn't for my soul interfere and
  throw damp upon it--if 'twas to save my life, I couldn't!"
  
  "I suppose we had better all go in together," said Samway, gloomily.
  "Perhaps I may have a chance of saying a word to master."
  
  So the men entered the hall, which was the room selected and arranged
  for the gathering because of its size.  The younger men and maids
  were at last just beginning to dance.  Bathsheba had been perplexed
  how to act, for she was not much more than a slim young maid herself,
  and the weight of stateliness sat heavy upon her.  Sometimes she
  thought she ought not to have come under any circumstances; then she
  considered what cold unkindness that would have been, and finally
  resolved upon the middle course of staying for about an hour only,
  and gliding off unobserved, having from the first made up her mind
  that she could on no account dance, sing, or take any active part in
  the proceedings.
  
  Her allotted hour having been passed in chatting and looking on,
  Bathsheba told Liddy not to hurry herself, and went to the small
  parlour to prepare for departure, which, like the hall, was decorated
  with holly and ivy, and well lighted up.
  
  Nobody was in the room, but she had hardly been there a moment when
  the master of the house entered.
  
  "Mrs. Troy--you are not going?" he said.  "We've hardly begun!"
  
  "If you'll excuse me, I should like to go now."  Her manner was
  restive, for she remembered her promise, and imagined what he was
  about to say.  "But as it is not late," she added, "I can walk home,
  and leave my man and Liddy to come when they choose."
  
  "I've been trying to get an opportunity of speaking to you," said
  Boldwood.  "You know perhaps what I long to say?"
  
  Bathsheba silently looked on the floor.
  
  "You do give it?" he said, eagerly.
  
  "What?" she whispered.
  
  "Now, that's evasion!  Why, the promise.  I don't want to intrude
  upon you at all, or to let it become known to anybody.  But do give
  your word!  A mere business compact, you know, between two people who
  are beyond the influence of passion."  Boldwood knew how false this
  picture was as regarded himself; but he had proved that it was the
  only tone in which she would allow him to approach her.  "A promise
  to marry me at the end of five years and three-quarters.  You owe it
  to me!"
  
  "I feel that I do," said Bathsheba; "that is, if you demand it.  But
  I am a changed woman--an unhappy woman--and not--not--"
  
  "You are still a very beautiful woman," said Boldwood.  Honesty and
  pure conviction suggested the remark, unaccompanied by any perception
  that it might have been adopted by blunt flattery to soothe and win
  her.
  
  However, it had not much effect now, for she said, in a passionless
  murmur which was in itself a proof of her words: "I have no feeling
  in the matter at all.  And I don't at all know what is right to do
  in my difficult position, and I have nobody to advise me.  But I
  give my promise, if I must.  I give it as the rendering of a debt,
  conditionally, of course, on my being a widow."
  
  "You'll marry me between five and six years hence?"
  
  "Don't press me too hard.  I'll marry nobody else."
  
  "But surely you will name the time, or there's nothing in the promise
  at all?"
  
  "Oh, I don't know, pray let me go!" she said, her bosom beginning to
  rise.  "I am afraid what to do! I want to be just to you, and to be
  that seems to be wronging myself, and perhaps it is breaking the
  commandments.  There is considerable doubt of his death, and then it
  is dreadful; let me ask a solicitor, Mr. Boldwood, if I ought or no!"
  
  "Say the words, dear one, and the subject shall be dismissed;
  a blissful loving intimacy of six years, and then marriage--O
  Bathsheba, say them!" he begged in a husky voice, unable to sustain
  the forms of mere friendship any longer.  "Promise yourself to me; I
  deserve it, indeed I do, for I have loved you more than anybody in
  the world!  And if I said hasty words and showed uncalled-for heat
  of manner towards you, believe me, dear, I did not mean to distress
  you; I was in agony, Bathsheba, and I did not know what I said.  You
  wouldn't let a dog suffer what I have suffered, could you but know
  it!  Sometimes I shrink from your knowing what I have felt for you,
  and sometimes I am distressed that all of it you never will know.  Be
  gracious, and give up a little to me, when I would give up my life
  for you!"
  
  The trimmings of her dress, as they quivered against the light,
  showed how agitated she was, and at last she burst out crying.  "And
  you'll not--press me--about anything more--if I say in five or six
  years?" she sobbed, when she had power to frame the words.
  
  "Yes, then I'll leave it to time."
  
  She waited a moment.  "Very well.  I'll marry you in six years from
  this day, if we both live," she said solemnly.
  
  "And you'll take this as a token from me."
  
  Boldwood had come close to her side, and now he clasped one of her
  hands in both his own, and lifted it to his breast.
  
  "What is it?  Oh I cannot wear a ring!" she exclaimed, on seeing
  what he held; "besides, I wouldn't have a soul know that it's an
  engagement!  Perhaps it is improper?  Besides, we are not engaged in
  the usual sense, are we?  Don't insist, Mr. Boldwood--don't!"  In her
  trouble at not being able to get her hand away from him at once, she
  stamped passionately on the floor with one foot, and tears crowded to
  her eyes again.
  
  "It means simply a pledge--no sentiment--the seal of a practical
  compact," he said more quietly, but still retaining her hand in
  his firm grasp.  "Come, now!" And Boldwood slipped the ring on her
  finger.
  
  "I cannot wear it," she said, weeping as if her heart would break.
  "You frighten me, almost.  So wild a scheme!  Please let me go home!"
  
  "Only to-night: wear it just to-night, to please me!"
  
  Bathsheba sat down in a chair, and buried her face in her
  handkerchief, though Boldwood kept her hand yet.  At length she
  said, in a sort of hopeless whisper--
  
  "Very well, then, I will to-night, if you wish it so earnestly.  Now
  loosen my hand; I will, indeed I will wear it to-night."
  
  "And it shall be the beginning of a pleasant secret courtship of six
  years, with a wedding at the end?"
  
  "It must be, I suppose, since you will have it so!" she said, fairly
  beaten into non-resistance.
  
  Boldwood pressed her hand, and allowed it to drop in her lap.  "I am
  happy now," he said.  "God bless you!"
  
  He left the room, and when he thought she might be sufficiently
  composed sent one of the maids to her.  Bathsheba cloaked the effects
  of the late scene as she best could, followed the girl, and in a few
  moments came downstairs with her hat and cloak on, ready to go.  To
  get to the door it was necessary to pass through the hall, and before
  doing so she paused on the bottom of the staircase which descended
  into one corner, to take a last look at the gathering.
  
  There was no music or dancing in progress just now.  At the lower
  end, which had been arranged for the work-folk specially, a group
  conversed in whispers, and with clouded looks.  Boldwood was standing
  by the fireplace, and he, too, though so absorbed in visions arising
  from her promise that he scarcely saw anything, seemed at that moment
  to have observed their peculiar manner, and their looks askance.
  
  "What is it you are in doubt about, men?" he said.
  
  One of them turned and replied uneasily: "It was something Laban
  heard of, that's all, sir."
  
  "News?  Anybody married or engaged, born or dead?" inquired the
  farmer, gaily.  "Tell it to us, Tall.  One would think from your
  looks and mysterious ways that it was something very dreadful
  indeed."
  
  "Oh no, sir, nobody is dead," said Tall.
  
  "I wish somebody was," said Samway, in a whisper.
  
  "What do you say, Samway?" asked Boldwood, somewhat sharply.  "If you
  have anything to say, speak out; if not, get up another dance."
  
  "Mrs. Troy has come downstairs," said Samway to Tall.  "If you want
  to tell her, you had better do it now."
  
  "Do you know what they mean?" the farmer asked Bathsheba, across the
  room.
  
  "I don't in the least," said Bathsheba.
  
  There was a smart rapping at the door.  One of the men opened it
  instantly, and went outside.
  
  "Mrs. Troy is wanted," he said, on returning.
  
  "Quite ready," said Bathsheba.  "Though I didn't tell them to send."
  
  "It is a stranger, ma'am," said the man by the door.
  
  "A stranger?" she said.
  
  "Ask him to come in," said Boldwood.
  
  The message was given, and Troy, wrapped up to his eyes as we have
  seen him, stood in the doorway.
  
  There was an unearthly silence, all looking towards the newcomer.
  Those who had just learnt that he was in the neighbourhood recognized
  him instantly; those who did not were perplexed.  Nobody noted
  Bathsheba.  She was leaning on the stairs.  Her brow had heavily
  contracted; her whole face was pallid, her lips apart, her eyes
  rigidly staring at their visitor.
  
  Boldwood was among those who did not notice that he was Troy.  "Come
  in, come in!" he repeated, cheerfully, "and drain a Christmas beaker
  with us, stranger!"
  
  Troy next advanced into the middle of the room, took off his cap,
  turned down his coat-collar, and looked Boldwood in the face.  Even
  then Boldwood did not recognize that the impersonator of Heaven's
  persistent irony towards him, who had once before broken in upon his
  bliss, scourged him, and snatched his delight away, had come to do
  these things a second time.  Troy began to laugh a mechanical laugh:
  Boldwood recognized him now.
  
  Troy turned to Bathsheba.  The poor girl's wretchedness at this time
  was beyond all fancy or narration.  She had sunk down on the lowest
  stair; and there she sat, her mouth blue and dry, and her dark eyes
  fixed vacantly upon him, as if she wondered whether it were not all
  a terrible illusion.
  
  Then Troy spoke.  "Bathsheba, I come here for you!"
  
  She made no reply.
  
  "Come home with me: come!"
  
  Bathsheba moved her feet a little, but did not rise.  Troy went
  across to her.
  
  "Come, madam, do you hear what I say?" he said, peremptorily.
  
  A strange voice came from the fireplace--a voice sounding far off
  and confined, as if from a dungeon.  Hardly a soul in the assembly
  recognized the thin tones to be those of Boldwood.  Sudden despair
  had transformed him.
  
  "Bathsheba, go with your husband!"
  
  Nevertheless, she did not move.  The truth was that Bathsheba was
  beyond the pale of activity--and yet not in a swoon.  She was in a
  state of mental _gutta serena_; her mind was for the minute totally
  deprived of light at the same time no obscuration was apparent from
  without.
  
  Troy stretched out his hand to pull her her towards him, when she
  quickly shrank back.  This visible dread of him seemed to irritate
  Troy, and he seized her arm and pulled it sharply.  Whether his grasp
  pinched her, or whether his mere touch was the cause, was never
  known, but at the moment of his seizure she writhed, and gave a
  quick, low scream.
  
  The scream had been heard but a few seconds when it was followed by
  sudden deafening report that echoed through the room and stupefied
  them all.  The oak partition shook with the concussion, and the place
  was filled with grey smoke.
  
  In bewilderment they turned their eyes to Boldwood.  At his back,
  as stood before the fireplace, was a gun-rack, as is usual in
  farmhouses, constructed to hold two guns.  When Bathsheba had cried
  out in her husband's grasp, Boldwood's face of gnashing despair had
  changed.  The veins had swollen, and a frenzied look had gleamed in
  his eye.  He had turned quickly, taken one of the guns, cocked it,
  and at once discharged it at Troy.
  
  Troy fell.  The distance apart of the two men was so small that
  the charge of shot did not spread in the least, but passed like a
  bullet into his body.  He uttered a long guttural sigh--there was
  a contraction--an extension--then his muscles relaxed, and he lay
  still.
  
  Boldwood was seen through the smoke to be now again engaged with the
  gun.  It was double-barrelled, and he had, meanwhile, in some way
  fastened his hand-kerchief to the trigger, and with his foot on the
  other end was in the act of turning the second barrel upon himself.
  Samway his man was the first to see this, and in the midst of the
  general horror darted up to him.  Boldwood had already twitched
  the handkerchief, and the gun exploded a second time, sending its
  contents, by a timely blow from Samway, into the beam which crossed
  the ceiling.
  
  "Well, it makes no difference!" Boldwood gasped.  "There is another
  way for me to die."
  
  Then he broke from Samway, crossed the room to Bathsheba, and kissed
  her hand.  He put on his hat, opened the door, and went into the
  darkness, nobody thinking of preventing him.
  
  
  
  
feat_summary_name: Chapter 53
target: A group of men congregated outside of Boldwood's house, watching the guests arrive and whispering rumors of Troy's reappearance. They were sure Bathsheba hadn't heard of it but weren't sure whether that was a good or bad omen. They sympathized with their mistress. Boldwood came out. Not noticing the watchers, he leaned on the gate, murmuring, "I hope to God she'll come, or this night will be nothing but misery to me!" A few minutes later, wheels were heard; Boldwood went to welcome Bathsheba. Tall, Smallbury, and Samway went to the malthouse. They saw Troy peeping in a window. "The men, after recognizing Troy's features, withdrew across the orchard as quietly as they had come. The air was big with Bathsheba's fortunes to-night: every word everywhere concerned her." The men were unnerved by Troy's return and decided that they should warn Bathsheba. Laban was chosen to tell her but was reluctant; he entered Boldwood's house and left again. He couldn't bring himself to ruin everything. The men decided they had better all join together. Meanwhile, having stayed an hour and thus satisfied amenities, Bathsheba wished to leave. But before she could go, Boldwood found her and insisted on an answer to his proposal. Finally, she gave her promise: If she were truly a widow, she would not marry anyone, if not Boldwood. The man's restraint broke, and he told her of how he had suffered, of how much he loved her. Sobbing, Bathsheba finally agreed to marry him in six years. Boldwood gave her the ring. Bathsheba said it would be improper for her to wear it. When he persisted, she agreed to wear it just for the evening. Bathsheba descended from the little parlor to find the party somehow deadened. As one of her men stepped forward to talk to her, there was a knock at the door. Someone wished to speak to Mrs. Troy. Boldwood asked the man in; he was one of the few who did not recognize Troy. Bathsheba sank down at the base of the staircase, staring. Still unaware, Boldwood invited the stranger to have a drink. Troy strode in, turning down his collar and laughing. The truth suddenly dawned on Boldwood. Troy ordered Bathsheba to leave with him. She hesitated. Boldwood, in a strange voice, told her to go. Troy then pulled her roughly, and she screamed. There was a loud noise. Smoke filled the room. When Bathsheba had cried out, Boldwood's face had changed. He had taken a gun from the rack and had shot and killed Troy. He then attempted to shoot himself but was prevented by Samway. Boldwood said, "There is another way for me to die." He kissed Bathsheba's hand, "put on his hat, opened the door, and went into the darkness, nobody thinking of preventing him."
feat_summary_analysis: The action of this chapter is crowded and rapid. One event swiftly follows another, adding to the dramatic quality -- as Hardy well knew, having been in his earlier years a playwright. An atmosphere of inevitability surrounds the climax of the chapter. Once before Boldwood attempted to save Bathsheba from Troy, and when he found he was being tricked he had warned, "I'll punish you yet!" Since that time Boldwood's emotional instability has been made increasingly apparent. His determination to possess Bathsheba is that of a fanatic. Troy has changed little, and he is once again able to thwart Boldwood by trickery and deceit. Never a man of caution, he has ignored a premonition of disaster, and his dramatic gesture costs him his life. We may initially be shocked at Troy's murder, because the chapter has moved so quickly, but we are not really surprised by it once we pause to reflect.