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CHAPTER XLIV
BROUGHT HOME AT LAST
To my great delight I found that the weather, not
often friendly to lovers, and lately seeming so
hostile, had in the most important matter done me a
signal service. For when I had promised to take my
love from the power of those wretches, the only way of
escape apparent lay through the main Doone-gate. For
though I might climb the cliffs myself, especially with
the snow to aid me, I durst not try to fetch Lorna up
them, even if she were not half-starved, as well as
partly frozen; and as for Gwenny's door, as we called
it (that is to say, the little entrance from the wooded
hollow), it was snowed up long ago to the level of the
hills around. Therefore I was at my wit's end how to
get them out; the passage by the Doone-gate being long,
and dark, and difficult, and leading to such a weary
circuit among the snowy moors and hills.
But now, being homeward-bound by the shortest possible
track, I slipped along between the bonfire and the
boundary cliffs, where I found a caved way of snow
behind a sort of avalanche: so that if the Doones had
been keeping watch (which they were not doing, but
revelling), they could scarcely have discovered me.
And when I came to my old ascent, where I had often
scaled the cliff and made across the mountains, it
struck me that I would just have a look at my first and
painful entrance, to wit, the water-slide. I never for
a moment imagined that this could help me now; for I
never had dared to descend it, even in the finest
weather; still I had a curiosity to know what my old
friend was like, with so much snow upon him. But, to
my very great surprise, there was scarcely any snow
there at all, though plenty curling high overhead from
the cliff, like bolsters over it. Probably the
sweeping of the north-east wind up the narrow chasm had
kept the showers from blocking it, although the water
had no power under the bitter grip of frost. All my
water-slide was now less a slide than path of ice;
furrowed where the waters ran over fluted ridges;
seamed where wind had tossed and combed them, even
while congealing; and crossed with little steps
wherever the freezing torrent lingered. And here and
there the ice was fibred with the trail of sludge-
weed, slanting from the side, and matted, so as to make
resting-place.
Lo it was easy track and channel, as if for the very
purpose made, down which I could guide my sledge with
Lorna sitting in it. There were only two things to be
feared; one lest the rolls of snow above should fall in
and bury us; the other lest we should rush too fast,
and so be carried headlong into the black whirlpool at
the bottom, the middle of which was still unfrozen, and
looking more horrible by the contrast. Against this
danger I made provision, by fixing a stout bar across;
but of the other we must take our chance, and trust
ourselves to Providence.
I hastened home at my utmost speed, and told my mother
for God's sake to keep the house up till my return, and
to have plenty of fire blazing, and plenty of water
boiling, and food enough hot for a dozen people, and
the best bed aired with the warming-pan. Dear mother
smiled softly at my excitement, though her own was not
much less, I am sure, and enhanced by sore anxiety.
Then I gave very strict directions to Annie, and
praised her a little, and kissed her; and I even
endeavoured to flatter Eliza, lest she should be
disagreeable.
After this I took some brandy, both within and about
me; the former, because I had sharp work to do; and the
latter in fear of whatever might happen, in such great
cold, to my comrades. Also I carried some other
provisions, grieving much at their coldness: and then I
went to the upper linhay, and took our new light pony-
sledd, which had been made almost as much for pleasure
as for business; though God only knows how our girls
could have found any pleasure in bumping along so. On
the snow, however, it ran as sweetly as if it had been
made for it; yet I durst not take the pony with it; in
the first place, because his hoofs would break through
the ever-shifting surface of the light and piling snow;
and secondly, because these ponies, coming from the
forest, have a dreadful trick of neighing, and most of
all in frosty weather.
Therefore I girded my own body with a dozen turns of
hay-rope, twisting both the ends in under at the bottom
of my breast, and winding the hay on the skew a little,
that the hempen thong might not slip between, and so
cut me in the drawing. I put a good piece of spare
rope in the sledd, and the cross-seat with the back to
it, which was stuffed with our own wool, as well as two
or three fur coats; and then, just as I was starting,
out came Annie, in spite of the cold, panting for fear
of missing me, and with nothing on her head, but a
lanthorn in one hand.
'Oh, John, here is the most wonderful thing! Mother has
never shown it before; and I can't think how she could
make up her mind. She had gotten it in a great well
of a cupboard, with camphor, and spirits, and lavender.
Lizzie says it is a most magnificent sealskin cloak,
worth fifty pounds, or a farthing.'
'At any rate it is soft and warm,' said I, very calmly
flinging it into the bottom of the sledd. 'Tell mother
I will put it over Lorna's feet.'
'Lorna's feet! Oh, you great fool,' cried Annie, for
the first time reviling me; 'over her shoulders; and be
proud, you very stupid John.'
'It is not good enough for her feet,' I answered, with
strong emphasis; 'but don't tell mother I said so,
Annie. Only thank her very kindly.'
With that I drew my traces hard, and set my ashen staff
into the snow, and struck out with my best foot
foremost (the best one at snow-shoes, I mean), and the
sledd came after me as lightly as a dog might follow;
and Annie, with the lanthorn, seemed to be left behind
and waiting like a pretty lamp-post.
The full moon rose as bright behind me as a paten of
pure silver, casting on the snow long shadows of the
few things left above, burdened rock, and shaggy
foreland, and the labouring trees. In the great white
desolation, distance was a mocking vision; hills looked
nigh, and valleys far; when hills were far and valleys
nigh. And the misty breath of frost, piercing through
the ribs of rock, striking to the pith of trees,
creeping to the heart of man, lay along the hollow
places, like a serpent sloughing. Even as my own gaunt
shadow (travestied as if I were the moonlight's daddy-
longlegs), went before me down the slope; even I, the
shadow's master, who had tried in vain to cough, when
coughing brought good liquorice, felt a pressure on my
bosom, and a husking in my throat.
However, I went on quietly, and at a very tidy speed;
being only too thankful that the snow had ceased, and
no wind as yet arisen. And from the ring of low white
vapour girding all the verge of sky, and from the rosy
blue above, and the shafts of starlight set upon a
quivering bow, as well as from the moon itself and the
light behind it, having learned the signs of frost from
its bitter twinges, I knew that we should have a night
as keen as ever England felt. Nevertheless, I had work
enough to keep me warm if I managed it. The question
was, could I contrive to save my darling from it?
Daring not to risk my sledd by any fall from the
valley-cliffs, I dragged it very carefully up the steep
incline of ice, through the narrow chasm, and so to the
very brink and verge where first I had seen my Lorna,
in the fishing days of boyhood. As I then had a
trident fork, for sticking of the loaches, so I now had
a strong ash stake, to lay across from rock to rock,
and break the speed of descending. With this I moored
the sledd quite safe, at the very lip of the chasm,
where all was now substantial ice, green and black in
the moonlight; and then I set off up the valley,
skirting along one side of it.
The stack-fire still was burning strongly, but with
more of heat than blaze; and many of the younger Doones
were playing on the verge of it, the children making
rings of fire, and their mothers watching them. All
the grave and reverend warriors having heard of
rheumatism, were inside of log and stone, in the two
lowest houses, with enough of candles burning to make
our list of sheep come short.
All these I passed, without the smallest risk or
difficulty, walking up the channel of drift which I
spoke of once before. And then I crossed, with more of
care, and to the door of Lorna's house, and made the
sign, and listened, after taking my snow-shoes off.
But no one came, as I expected, neither could I espy a
light. And I seemed to hear a faint low sound, like
the moaning of the snow-wind. Then I knocked again
more loudly, with a knocking at my heart: and receiving
no answer, set all my power at once against the door.
In a moment it flew inwards, and I glided along the
passage with my feet still slippery. There in Lorna's
room I saw, by the moonlight flowing in, a sight which
drove me beyond sense.
Lorna was behind a chair, crouching in the corner, with
her hands up, and a crucifix, or something that looked
like it. In the middle of the room lay Gwenny Carfax,
stupid, yet with one hand clutching the ankle of a
struggling man. Another man stood above my Lorna,
trying to draw the chair away. In a moment I had him
round the waist, and he went out of the window with a
mighty crash of glass; luckily for him that window had
no bars like some of them. Then I took the other man
by the neck; and he could not plead for mercy. I bore
him out of the house as lightly as I would bear a baby,
yet squeezing his throat a little more than I fain
would do to an infant. By the bright moonlight I saw
that I carried Marwood de Whichehalse. For his
father's sake I spared him, and because he had been my
schoolfellow; but with every muscle of my body strung
with indignation, I cast him, like a skittle, from me
into a snowdrift, which closed over him. Then I looked
for the other fellow, tossed through Lorna's window,
and found him lying stunned and bleeding, neither able
to groan yet. Charleworth Doone, if his gushing blood
did not much mislead me.
It was no time to linger now; I fastened my shoes in a
moment, and caught up my own darling with her head upon
my shoulder, where she whispered faintly; and telling
Gwenny to follow me, or else I would come back for her,
if she could not walk the snow, I ran the whole
distance to my sledd, caring not who might follow me.
Then by the time I had set up Lorna, beautiful and
smiling, with the seal-skin cloak all over her, sturdy
Gwenny came along, having trudged in the track of my
snow-shoes, although with two bags on her back. I set
her in beside her mistress, to support her, and keep
warm; and then with one look back at the glen, which
had been so long my home of heart, I hung behind the
sledd, and launched it down the steep and dangerous
way.
Though the cliffs were black above us, and the road
unseen in front, and a great white grave of snow might
at a single word come down, Lorna was as calm and happy
as an infant in its bed. She knew that I was with her;
and when I told her not to speak, she touched my hand
in silence. Gwenny was in a much greater fright,
having never seen such a thing before, neither knowing
what it is to yield to pure love's confidence. I could
hardly keep her quiet, without making a noise myself.
With my staff from rock to rock, and my weight thrown
backward, I broke the sledd's too rapid way, and
brought my grown love safely out, by the selfsame road
which first had led me to her girlish fancy, and my
boyish slavery.
Unpursued, yet looking back as if some one must be
after us, we skirted round the black whirling pool, and
gained the meadows beyond it. Here there was hard
collar work, the track being all uphill and rough; and
Gwenny wanted to jump out, to lighten the sledd and to
push behind. But I would not hear of it; because it
was now so deadly cold, and I feared that Lorna might
get frozen, without having Gwenny to keep her warm.
And after all, it was the sweetest labour I had ever
known in all my life, to be sure that I was pulling
Lorna, and pulling her to our own farmhouse.
Gwenny's nose was touched with frost, before we had
gone much farther, because she would not keep it quiet
and snug beneath the sealskin. And here I had to stop
in the moonlight (which was very dangerous) and rub it
with a clove of snow, as Eliza had taught me; and
Gwenny scolding all the time, as if myself had frozen
it. Lorna was now so far oppressed with all the
troubles of the evening, and the joy that followed
them, as well as by the piercing cold and difficulty of
breathing, that she lay quite motionless, like fairest
wax in the moonlight--when we stole a glance at her,
beneath the dark folds of the cloak; and I thought that
she was falling into the heavy snow-sleep, whence there
is no awaking.
Therefore, I drew my traces tight, and set my whole
strength to the business; and we slipped along at a
merry pace, although with many joltings, which must
have sent my darling out into the cold snowdrifts but
for the short strong arm of Gwenny. And so in about an
hour's time, in spite of many hindrances, we came home
to the old courtyard, and all the dogs saluted us. My
heart was quivering, and my cheeks as hot as the
Doones' bonfire, with wondering both what Lorna would
think of our farm-yard, and what my mother would think
of her. Upon the former subject my anxiety was wasted,
for Lorna neither saw a thing, nor even opened her
heavy eyes. And as to what mother would think of her,
she was certain not to think at all, until she had
cried over her.
And so indeed it came to pass. Even at this length of
time, I can hardly tell it, although so bright before
my mind, because it moves my heart so. The sledd was
at the open door, with only Lorna in it; for Gwenny
Carfax had jumped out, and hung back in the clearing,
giving any reason rather than the only true one--that
she would not be intruding. At the door were all our
people; first, of course, Betty Muxworthy, teaching me
how to draw the sledd, as if she had been born in it,
and flourishing with a great broom, wherever a speck of
snow lay. Then dear Annie, and old Molly (who was very
quiet, and counted almost for nobody), and behind them,
mother, looking as if she wanted to come first, but
doubted how the manners lay. In the distance Lizzie
stood, fearful of encouraging, but unable to keep out
of it.
Betty was going to poke her broom right in under the
sealskin cloak, where Lorna lay unconscious, and where
her precious breath hung frozen, like a silver cobweb;
but I caught up Betty's broom, and flung it clean away
over the corn chamber; and then I put the others by,
and fetched my mother forward.
'You shall see her first,' I said: 'is she not your
daughter? Hold the light there, Annie.'
Dear mother's hands were quick and trembling, as she
opened the shining folds; and there she saw my Lorna
sleeping, with her black hair all dishevelled, and she
bent and kissed her forehead, and only said, 'God bless
her, John!' And then she was taken with violent
weeping, and I was forced to hold her.
'Us may tich of her now, I rackon,' said Betty in her
most jealous way; 'Annie, tak her by the head, and I'll
tak her by the toesen. No taime to stand here like
girt gawks. Don'ee tak on zo, missus. Ther be vainer
vish in the zea--Lor, but, her be a booty!'
With this, they carried her into the house, Betty
chattering all the while, and going on now about
Lorna's hands, and the others crowding round her, so
that I thought I was not wanted among so many women,
and should only get the worst of it, and perhaps do
harm to my darling. Therefore I went and brought
Gwenny in, and gave her a potful of bacon and peas, and
an iron spoon to eat it with, which she did right
heartily.
Then I asked her how she could have been such a fool as
to let those two vile fellows enter the house where
Lorna was; and she accounted for it so naturally, that
I could only blame myself. For my agreement had been
to give one loud knock (if you happen to remember) and
after that two little knocks. Well these two drunken
rogues had come; and one, being very drunk indeed, had
given a great thump; and then nothing more to do with
it; and the other, being three-quarters drunk, had
followed his leader (as one might say) but feebly, and
making two of it. Whereupon up jumped Lorna, and
declared that her John was there.
All this Gwenny told me shortly, between the whiles of
eating, and even while she licked the spoon; and then
there came a message for me that my love was sensible,
and was seeking all around for me. Then I told Gwenny
to hold her tongue (whatever she did among us), and not
to trust to women's words; and she told me they all
were liars, as she had found out long ago; and the only
thing to believe in was an honest man, when found.
Thereupon I could have kissed her as a sort of tribute,
liking to be appreciated; yet the peas upon her lips
made me think about it; and thought is fatal to action.
So I went to see my dear.
That sight I shall not forget; till my dying head falls
back, and my breast can lift no more. I know not
whether I were then more blessed, or harrowed by it.
For in the settle was my Lorna, propped with pillows
round her, and her clear hands spread sometimes to the
blazing fireplace. In her eyes no knowledge was of
anything around her, neither in her neck the sense of
leaning towards anything. Only both her lovely hands
were entreating something, to spare her, or to love
her; and the lines of supplication quivered in her sad
white face.
'All go away, except my mother,' I said very quietly,
but so that I would be obeyed; and everybody knew it.
Then mother came to me alone; and she said, 'The frost
is in her brain; I have heard of this before, John.'
'Mother, I will have it out,' was all that I could
answer her; 'leave her to me altogether; only you sit
there and watch.' For I felt that Lorna knew me, and no
other soul but me; and that if not interfered with, she
would soon come home to me. Therefore I sat gently by
her, leaving nature, as it were, to her own good time
and will. And presently the glance that watched me, as
at distance and in doubt, began to flutter and to
brighten, and to deepen into kindness, then to beam
with trust and love, and then with gathering tears to
falter, and in shame to turn away. But the small
entreating hands found their way, as if by instinct, to
my great projecting palms; and trembled there, and
rested there.
For a little while we lingered thus, neither wishing to
move away, neither caring to look beyond the presence
of the other; both alike so full of hope, and comfort,
and true happiness; if only the world would let us be.
And then a little sob disturbed us, and mother tried to
make believe that she was only coughing. But Lorna,
guessing who she was, jumped up so very rashly that she
almost set her frock on fire from the great ash log;
and away she ran to the old oak chair, where mother was
by the clock-case pretending to be knitting, and she
took the work from mother's hands, and laid them both
upon her head, kneeling humbly, and looking up.
'God bless you, my fair mistress!' said mother, bending
nearer, and then as Lorna's gaze prevailed, 'God bless
you, my sweet child!'
And so she went to mother's heart by the very nearest
road, even as she had come to mine; I mean the road of
pity, smoothed by grace, and youth, and gentleness.
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