简.爱 英文版 Jane Eyre
夏洛蒂.勃朗特 Charlotte Bronte
CHAPTER XX Page 1
Good God! What a cry!
The night -- its silence -- its rest, was rent in twain by a savage,a sharp, a shrilly sound that ran from end to end of ThornfieldHall.
My pulse stopped: my heart stood still; my stretched arm wasparalysed. The cry died, and was not renewed. Indeed, whateverbeing uttered that fearful shriek could not soon repeat it: notthe widest-winged condor on the Andes could, twice in succession,send out such a yell from the cloud shrouding his eyrie. The thingdelivering such utterance must rest ere it could repeat the effort.
It came out of the third storey; for it passed overhead. Andoverhead -- yes, in the room just above my chamber-ceiling -- I nowheard a struggle: a deadly one it seemed from the noise;and a half-smothered voice shouted -
"Help! help! help!" three times rapidly.
"Will no one come?" it cried; and then, while the staggering andstamping went on wildly, I distinguished through plank and plaster:-
"Rochester! Rochester! for God's sake, come!"
A chamber-door opened: some one ran, or rushed, along the gallery.Another step stamped on the flooring above and something fell; andthere was silence.
I had put on some clothes, though horror shook all my limbs; I issuedfrom my apartment. The sleepers were all aroused: ejaculations,terrified murmurs sounded in every room; door after door unclosed;one looked out and another looked out; the gallery filled. Gentlemenand ladies alike had quitted their beds; and "Oh! what is it?" --"Who is hurt?" -- "What has happened?" -- "Fetch a light!" -- "Isit fire?" -- "Are there robbers?" -- "Where shall we run?" wasdemanded confusedly on all hands. But for the moonlight they wouldhave been in complete darkness. They ran to and fro; they crowdedtogether: some sobbed, some stumbled: the confusion was inextricable.
"Where the devil is Rochester?" cried Colonel Dent. "I cannotfind him in his bed. "
"Here! here!" was shouted in return. "Be composed, all of you:I'm coming. "
And the door at the end of the gallery opened, and Mr. Rochesteradvanced with a candle: he had just descended from the upper storey.One of the ladies ran to him directly; she seized his arm: it wasMiss Ingram.
"What awful event has taken place?" said she. "Speak! let usknow the worst at once!"
"But don't pull me down or strangle me, " he replied: for the MissesEshton were clinging about him now; and the two dowagers, in vastwhite wrappers, were bearing down on him like ships in full sail.
"All's right! -- all's right!" he cried. "It's a mere rehearsal ofMuch Ado about Nothing. Ladies, keep off, or I shall wax dangerous. "
And dangerous he looked: his black eyes darted sparks. Calminghimself by an effort, he added -
"A servant has had the nightmare; that is all. She's an excitable,nervous person: she construed her dream into an apparition, orsomething of that sort, no doubt; and has taken a fit with fright.Now, then, I must see you all back into your rooms; for, till thehouse is settled, she cannot be looked after. Gentlemen, have thegoodness to set the ladies the example. Miss Ingram, I am sureyou will not fail in evincing superiority to idle terrors. Amy andLouisa, return to your nests like a pair of doves, as you are.Mesdames" (to the dowagers), "you will take cold to a dead certainty,if you stay in this chill gallery any longer. "
And so, by dint of alternate coaxing and commanding, he contrivedto get them all once more enclosed in their separate dormitories.I did not wait to be ordered back to mine, but retreated unnoticed,as unnoticed I had left it.
Not, however, to go to bed: on the contrary, I began and dressedmyself carefully. The sounds I had heard after the scream, and thewords that had been uttered, had probably been heard only by me;for they had proceeded from the room above mine: but they assuredme that it was not a servant's dream which had thus struck horrorthrough the house; and that the explanation Mr. Rochester had givenwas merely an invention framed to pacify his guests. I dressed,then, to be ready for emergencies. When dressed, I sat a longtime by the window looking out over the silent grounds and silveredfields and waiting for I knew not what. It seemed to me that someevent must follow the strange cry, struggle, and call.
No: stillness returned: each murmur and movement ceased gradually,and in about an hour Thornfield Hall was again as hushed as adesert. It seemed that sleep and night had resumed their empire.Meantime the moon declined: she was about to set. Not liking tosit in the cold and darkness, I thought I would lie down on my bed,dressed as I was. I left the window, and moved with little noiseacross the carpet; as I stooped to take off my shoes, a cautioushand tapped low at the door.
"Am I wanted?" I asked.
"Are you up?" asked the voice I expected to hear, viz. , my master's.
"Yes, sir. "
"And dressed?"
"Yes. "
"Come out, then, quietly. "
I obeyed. Mr. Rochester stood in the gallery holding a light.
"I want you, " he said: "come this way: take your time, and makeno noise. "
My slippers were thin: I could walk the matted floor as softly asa cat. He glided up the gallery and up the stairs, and stopped inthe dark, low corridor of the fateful third storey: I had followedand stood at his side.
"Have you a sponge in your room?" he asked in a whisper.
"Yes, sir. "
"Have you any salts -- volatile salts?"
"Yes. "
"Go back and fetch both. "
I returned, sought the sponge on the washstand, the salts in mydrawer, and once more retraced my steps. He still waited; he helda key in his hand: approaching one of the small, black doors, heput it in the lock; he paused, and addressed me again.
"You don't turn sick at the sight of blood?"
"I think I shall not: I have never been tried yet. "
I felt a thrill while I answered him; but no coldness, and nofaintness.
"Just give me your hand, " he said: "it will not do to risk afainting fit. "
I put my fingers into his. "Warm and steady, " was his remark: heturned the key and opened the door.
I saw a room I remembered to have seen before, the day Mrs.Fairfax showed me over the house: it was hung with tapestry; butthe tapestry was now looped up in one part, and there was a doorapparent, which had then been concealed. This door was open;a light shone out of the room within: I heard thence a snarling,snatching sound, almost like a dog quarrelling. Mr. Rochester,putting down his candle, said to me, "Wait a minute, " and he wentforward to the inner apartment. A shout of laughter greeted hisentrance; noisy at first, and terminating in Grace Poole's own goblinha! ha! SHE then was there. He made some sort of arrangementwithout speaking, though I heard a low voice address him: he cameout and closed the door behind him.
"Here, Jane!" he said; and I walked round to the other side of alarge bed, which with its drawn curtains concealed a considerableportion of the chamber. An easy-chair was near the bed-head: aman sat in it, dressed with the exception of his coat; he was still;his head leant back; his eyes were closed. Mr. Rochester held thecandle over him; I recognised in his pale and seemingly lifelessface -- the stranger, Mason: I saw too that his linen on one side,and one arm, was almost soaked in blood.
"Hold the candle, " said Mr. Rochester, and I took it: he fetcheda basin of water from the washstand: "Hold that, " said he. Iobeyed. He took the sponge, dipped it in, and moistened thecorpse-like face; he asked for my smelling-bottle, and applied itto the nostrils. Mr. Mason shortly unclosed his eyes; he groaned.Mr. Rochester opened the shirt of the wounded man, whose arm andshoulder were bandaged: he sponged away blood, trickling fastdown.
"Is there immediate danger?" murmured Mr. Mason.
"Pooh! No -- a mere scratch. Don't be so overcome, man: bearup! I'll fetch a surgeon for you now, myself: you'll be able tobe removed by morning, I hope. Jane, " he continued.
"Sir?"
"I shall have to leave you in this room with this gentleman, foran hour, or perhaps two hours: you will sponge the blood as Ido when it returns: if he feels faint, you will put the glass ofwater on that stand to his lips, and your salts to his nose. Youwill not speak to him on any pretext -- and -- Richard, it will beat the peril of your life if you speak to her: open your lips --agitate yourself- -and I'll not answer for the consequences. "
Again the poor man groaned; he looked as if he dared not move; fear,either of death or of something else, appeared almost to paralysehim. Mr. Rochester put the now bloody sponge into my hand, andI proceeded to use it as he had done. He watched me a second,then saying, "Remember! -- No conversation, " he left the room. Iexperienced a strange feeling as the key grated in the lock, andthe sound of his retreating step ceased to be heard.
Here then I was in the third storey, fastened into one of its mysticcells; night around me; a pale and bloody spectacle under my eyesand hands; a murderess hardly separated from me by a single door:yes -- that was appalling -- the rest I could bear; but I shudderedat the thought of Grace Poole bursting out upon me.
I must keep to my post, however. I must watch this ghastlycountenance -- these blue, still lips forbidden to unclose --these eyes now shut, now opening, now wandering through the room,now fixing on me, and ever glazed with the dulness of horror. I mustdip my hand again and again in the basin of blood and water, andwipe away the trickling gore. I must see the light of the unsnuffedcandle wane on my employment; the shadows darken on the wrought,antique tapestry round me, and grow black under the hangings ofthe vast old bed, and quiver strangely over the doors of a greatcabinet opposite -- whose front, divided into twelve panels, bore,in grim design, the heads of the twelve apostles, each enclosed inits separate panel as in a frame; while above them at the top rosean ebon crucifix and a dying Christ.
According as the shifting obscurity and flickering gleam hoveredhere or glanced there, it was now the bearded physician, Luke,that bent his brow; now St. John's long hair that waved; and anonthe devilish face of Judas, that grew out of the panel, and seemedgathering life and threatening a revelation of the arch-traitor --of Satan himself -- in his subordinate's form.
Amidst all this, I had to listen as well as watch: to listen forthe movements of the wild beast or the fiend in yonder side den.But since Mr. Rochester's visit it seemed spellbound: all thenight I heard but three sounds at three long intervals, -- a stepcreak, a momentary renewal of the snarling, canine noise, and adeep human groan.
Then my own thoughts worried me. What crime was this that livedincarnate in this sequestered mansion, and could neither be expellednor subdued by the owner? -- what mystery, that broke out now infire and now in blood, at the deadest hours of night? What creaturewas it, that, masked in an ordinary woman's face and shape, utteredthe voice, now of a mocking demon, and anon of a carrion-seekingbird of prey?
And this man I bent over -- this commonplace, quiet stranger --how had he become involved in the web of horror? and why had theFury flown at him? What made him seek this quarter of the houseat an untimely season, when he should have been asleep in bed? Ihad heard Mr. Rochester assign him an apartment below -- whatbrought him here! And why, now, was he so tame under the violenceor treachery done him? Why did he so quietly submit to theconcealment Mr. Rochester enforced? Why DID Mr. Rochester enforcethis concealment? His guest had been outraged, his own lifeon a former occasion had been hideously plotted against; and bothattempts he smothered in secrecy and sank in oblivion! Lastly, Isaw Mr. Mason was submissive to Mr. Rochester; that the impetuouswill of the latter held complete sway over the inertness of theformer: the few words which had passed between them assured me ofthis. It was evident that in their former intercourse, the passivedisposition of the one had been habitually influenced by the activeenergy of the other: whence then had arisen Mr. Rochester's dismaywhen he heard of Mr. Mason's arrival? Why had the mere name ofthis unresisting individual -- whom his word now sufficed to controllike a child -- fallen on him, a few hours since, as a thunderboltmight fall on an oak?
Oh! I could not forget his look and his paleness when he whispered:"Jane, I have got a blow -- I have got a blow, Jane. " I could notforget how the arm had trembled which he rested on my shoulder:and it was no light matter which could thus bow the resolute spiritand thrill the vigorous frame of Fairfax Rochester.
"When will he come? When will he come?" I cried inwardly, asthe night lingered and lingered -- as my bleeding patient drooped,moaned, sickened: and neither day nor aid arrived. I had, againand again, held the water to Mason's white lips; again and againoffered him the stimulating salts: my efforts seemed ineffectual:either bodily or mental suffering, or loss of blood, or all threecombined, were fast prostrating his strength. He moaned so, andlooked so weak, wild, and lost, I feared he was dying; and I mightnot even speak to him.
The candle, wasted at last, went out; as it expired, I perceivedstreaks of grey light edging the window curtains: dawn wasthen approaching. Presently I heard Pilot bark far below, out ofhis distant kennel in the courtyard: hope revived. Nor was itunwarranted: in five minutes more the grating key, the yieldinglock, warned me my watch was relieved. It could not have lastedmore than two hours: many a week has seemed shorter.
Mr. Rochester entered, and with him the surgeon he had been tofetch.
"Now, Carter, be on the alert, " he said to this last: "I give youbut half-an-hour for dressing the wound, fastening the bandages,getting the patient downstairs and all. "
"No doubt of it; it is nothing serious; he is nervous, his spiritsmust be kept up. Come, set to work. "
Mr. Rochester drew back the thick curtain, drew up the hollandblind, let in all the daylight he could; and I was surprised andcheered to see how far dawn was advanced: what rosy streaks werebeginning to brighten the east. Then he approached Mason, whomthe surgeon was already handling.
"Now, my good fellow, how are you?" he asked.
"She's done for me, I fear, " was the faint reply.
"Not a whit! -- courage! This day fortnight you'll hardly be a pinthe worse of it: you've lost a little blood; that's all. Carter,assure him there's no danger. "
"I can do that conscientiously, " said Carter, who had now undonethe bandages; "only I wish I could have got here sooner: he wouldnot have bled so much -- but how is this? The flesh on the shoulderis torn as well as cut. This wound was not done with a knife:there have been teeth here!"
"She bit me, " he murmured. "She worried me like a tigress, whenRochester got the knife from her. "
"You should not have yielded: you should have grappled with herat once, " said Mr. Rochester.
"But under such circumstances, what could one do?" returned Mason."Oh, it was frightful!" he added, shuddering. "And I did notexpect it: she looked so quiet at first. "
"I warned you, " was his friend's answer; "I said -- be on yourguard when you go near her. Besides, you might have waited tillto- morrow, and had me with you: it was mere folly to attempt theinterview to-night, and alone. "
"I thought I could have done some good. "
"You thought! you thought! Yes, it makes me impatient to hearyou: but, however, you have suffered, and are likely to sufferenough for not taking my advice; so I'll say no more. Carter --hurry! -- hurry! The sun will soon rise, and I must have him off. "
; andthere was silence.silveredfields and waiting for I.
"Directly, sir; the shoulder is just bandaged. I must look to thisother wound in the arm: she has had her teeth here too, I think. "
"She sucked the blood: she said she'd drain my heart, " said Mason.
I saw Mr. Rochester shudder: a singularly marked expression of disgust,horror, hatred, warped his countenance almost to distortion;but he only said -
"Come, be silent, Richard, and never mind her gibberish: don'trepeat it. "
"I wish I could forget it, " was the answer.
that space in the sky opposite my casement.
"You will when you are out of the country: when you get back toSpanish Town, you may think of her as dead and buried -- or rather,you need not think of her at all. "
"Impossible to forget this night!"
said: "come this way.
"It is not impossible: have some energy, man. You thought youwere as dead as a herring two hours since, and you are all aliveand talking now. There! -- Carter has done with you or nearly so;I'll make you decent in a trice. Jane" (he turned to me for thefirst time since his re-entrance), "take this key: go down intomy bedroom, and walk straight forward into my dressing-room: openthe top drawer of the wardrobe and take out a clean shirt andneck-handkerchief: bring them here; and be nimble. "
I went; sought the repository he had mentioned, found the articlesnamed, and returned with them.
"Now, " said he, "go to the other side of the bed while I order histoilet; but don't leave the room: you may be wanted again. "
I retired as directed.
"Was anybody stirring below when you went down, Jane?" inquiredMr. Rochester presently.
"No, sir; all was very still. "
"We shall get you off cannily, Dick: and it will be better, bothfor your sake, and for that of the poor creature in yonder. I havestriven long to avoid exposure, and I should not like it to comeat last. Here, Carter, help him on with his waist-coat. Wheredid you leave your furred cloak? You can't travel a mile withoutthat, I know, in this damned cold climate. In your room? -- Jane,run down to Mr. Mason's room, -- the one next mine, -- and fetcha cloak you will see there. "
Again I ran, and again returned, bearing an immense mantle linedand edged with fur.
"Now, I've another errand for you, " said my untiring master; "youmust away to my room again. What a mercy you are shod with velvet,Jane! -- a clod-hopping messenger would never do at this juncture.You must open the middle drawer of my toilet-table and take out alittle phial and a little glass you will find there, -- quick!"
I flew thither and back, bringing the desired vessels.
"That's well! Now, doctor, I shall take the liberty of administeringa dose myself, on my own responsibility. I got this cordial atRome, of an Italian charlatan -- a fellow you would have kicked,Carter. It is not a thing to be used indiscriminately, but it isgood upon occasion: as now, for instance. Jane, a little water. "