The communication sank deep into Gertrude's mind. Her nature was rathera timid one; and probably of all remedies that the white wizard couldhave suggested there was not one which would have filled her with so muchaversion as this, not to speak of the immense obstacles in the way of itsadoption.

Casterbridge, the county-town, was a dozen or fifteen miles off; andthough in those days, when men were executed for horse-stealing, arson,and burglary, an assize seldom passed without a hanging, it was notlikely that she could get access to the body of the criminal unaided. Andthe fear of her husband's anger made her reluctant to breathe a word ofTrendle's suggestion to him or to anybody about him.

She did nothing for months, and patiently bore her disfigurement asbefore. But her woman's nature, craving for renewed love, through themedium of renewed beauty (she was but twenty-five), was ever stimulatingher to try what, at any rate, could hardly do her any harm. 'What cameby a spell will go by a spell surely,' she would say. Whenever herimagination pictured the act she shrank in terror from the possibility ofit: then the words of the conjuror, 'It will turn your blood,' were seento be capable of a scientific no less than a ghastly interpretation; themastering desire returned, and urged her on again.

There was at this time but one county paper, and that her husband onlyoccasionally borrowed. But old-fashioned days had old-fashioned means,and news was extensively conveyed by word of mouth from market to market,or from fair to fair, so that, whenever such an event as an execution wasabout to take place, few within a radius of twenty miles were ignorant ofthe coming sight; and, so far as Holmstoke was concerned, someenthusiasts had been known to walk all the way to Casterbridge and backin one day, solely to witness the spectacle. The next assizes were inMarch; and when Gertrude Lodge heard that they had been held, sheinquired stealthily at the inn as to the result, as soon as she couldfind opportunity.

She was, however, too late. The time at which the sentences were to becarried out had arrived, and to make the journey and obtain admission atsuch short notice required at least her husband's assistance. She darednot tell him, for she had found by delicate experiment that thesesmouldering village beliefs made him furious if mentioned, partly becausehe half entertained them himself. It was therefore necessary to wait foranother opportunity.

Her determination received a fillip from learning that two epilepticchildren had attended from this very village of Holmstoke many yearsbefore with beneficial results, though the experiment had been stronglycondemned by the neighbouring clergy. April, May, June, passed; and itis no overstatement to say that by the end of the last-named monthGertrude well-nigh longed for the death of a fellow-creature. Instead ofher formal prayers each night, her unconscious prayer was, 'O Lord, hangsome guilty or innocent person soon!'

This time she made earlier inquiries, and was altogether more systematicin her proceedings. Moreover, the season was summer, between thehaymaking and the harvest, and in the leisure thus afforded him herhusband had been holiday-taking away from home.

The assizes were in July, and she went to the inn as before. There wasto be one execution--only one--for arson.

Her greatest problem was not how to get to Casterbridge, but what meansshe should adopt for obtaining admission to the jail. Though access forsuch purposes had formerly never been denied, the custom had fallen intodesuetude; and in contemplating her possible difficulties, she was againalmost driven to fall back upon her husband. But, on sounding him aboutthe assizes, he was so uncommunicative, so more than usually cold, thatshe did not proceed, and decided that whatever she did she would doalone.

Fortune, obdurate hitherto, showed her unexpected favour. On theThursday before the Saturday fixed for the execution, Lodge remarked toher that he was going away from home for another day or two on businessat a fair, and that he was sorry he could not take her with him.

She exhibited on this occasion so much readiness to stay at home that helooked at her in surprise. Time had been when she would have shown deepdisappointment at the loss of such a jaunt. However, he lapsed into hisusual taciturnity, and on the day named left Holmstoke.

It was now her turn. She at first had thought of driving, but onreflection held that driving would not do, since it would necessitate herkeeping to the turnpike-road, and so increase by tenfold the risk of herghastly errand being found out. She decided to ride, and avoid thebeaten track, notwithstanding that in her husband's stables there was noanimal just at present which by any stretch of imagination could beconsidered a lady's mount, in spite of his promise before marriage toalways keep a mare for her. He had, however, many cart-horses, fine onesof their kind; and among the rest was a serviceable creature, an equineAmazon, with a back as broad as a sofa, on which Gertrude hadoccasionally taken an airing when unwell. This horse she chose.

On Friday afternoon one of the men brought it round. She was dressed,and before going down looked at her shrivelled arm. 'Ah!' she said toit, 'if it had not been for you this terrible ordeal would have beensaved me!'

When strapping up the bundle in which she carried a few articles ofclothing, she took occasion to say to the servant, 'I take these in caseI should not get back to-night from the person I am going to visit. Don'tbe alarmed if I am not in by ten, and close up the house as usual. Ishall be at home to-morrow for certain.' She meant then to privatelytell her husband: the deed accomplished was not like the deed projected.He would almost certainly forgive her.

And then the pretty palpitating Gertrude Lodge went from her husband'shomestead; but though her goal was Casterbridge she did not take thedirect route thither through Stickleford. Her cunning course at firstwas in precisely the opposite direction. As soon as she was out ofsight, however, she turned to the left, by a road which led into Egdon,and on entering the heath wheeled round, and set out in the true course,due westerly. A more private way down the county could not be imagined;and as to direction, she had merely to keep her horse's head to a point alittle to the right of the sun. She knew that she would light upon afurze-cutter or cottager of some sort from time to time, from whom shemight correct her bearing.

Though the date was comparatively recent, Egdon was much less fragmentaryin character than now. The attempts--successful and otherwise--atcultivation on the lower slopes, which intrude and break up the originalheath into small detached heaths, had not been carried far; EnclosureActs had not taken effect, and the banks and fences which now exclude thecattle of those villagers who formerly enjoyed rights of commonagethereon, and the carts of those who had turbary privileges which keptthem in firing all the year round, were not erected. Gertrude,therefore, rode along with no other obstacles than the prickly furzebushes, the mats of heather, the white water-courses, and the naturalsteeps and declivities of the ground.

Her horse was sure, if heavy-footed and slow, and though a draughtanimal, was easy-paced; had it been otherwise, she was not a woman whocould have ventured to ride over such a bit of country with a half-deadarm. It was therefore nearly eight o'clock when she drew rein to breathethe mare on the last outlying high point of heath-land towardsCasterbridge, previous to leaving Egdon for the cultivated valleys.

She halted before a pool called Rushy-pond, flanked by the ends of twohedges; a railing ran through the centre of the pond, dividing it inhalf. Over the railing she saw the low green country; over the greentrees the roofs of the town; over the roofs a white flat facade, denotingthe entrance to the county jail. On the roof of this front specks weremoving about; they seemed to be workmen erecting something. Her fleshcrept. She descended slowly, and was soon amid corn-fields and pastures.In another half-hour, when it was almost dusk, Gertrude reached the WhiteHart, the first inn of the town on that side.

Little surprise was excited by her arrival; farmers' wives rode onhorseback then more than they do now; though, for that matter, Mrs. Lodgewas not imagined to be a wife at all; the innkeeper supposed her someharum-skarum young woman who had come to attend 'hang-fair' next day.Neither her husband nor herself ever dealt in Casterbridge market, sothat she was unknown. While dismounting she beheld a crowd of boysstanding at the door of a harness-maker's shop just above the inn,looking inside it with deep interest.

'What is going on there?' she asked of the ostler.

'Making the rope for to-morrow.'

She throbbed responsively, and contracted her arm.

''Tis sold by the inch afterwards,' the man continued. 'I could get youa bit, miss, for nothing, if you'd like?'

She hastily repudiated any such wish, all the more from a curiouscreeping feeling that the condemned wretch's destiny was becominginterwoven with her own; and having engaged a room for the night, satdown to think.

Up to this time she had formed but the vaguest notions about her means ofobtaining access to the prison. The words of the cunning-man returned toher mind. He had implied that she should use her beauty, impaired thoughit was, as a pass-key. In her inexperience she knew little about jailfunctionaries; she had heard of a high-sheriff and an under-sheriff; butdimly only. She knew, however, that there must be a hangman, and to thehangman she determined to apply.