Chapter XXVIII: Escape
Though busily engaged in translating the extracts given in the last
five chapters, I was also laying matters in train for my escape
with Arowhena. And indeed it was high time, for I received an
intimation from one of the cashiers of the Musical Banks, that I
was to be prosecuted in a criminal court ostensibly for measles,
but really for having owned a watch, and attempted the
reintroduction of machinery.
I asked why measles? and was told that there was a fear lest
extenuating circumstances should prevent a jury from convicting me,
if I were indicted for typhus or small-pox, but that a verdict
would probably be obtained for measles, a disease which could be
sufficiently punished in a person of my age. I was given to
understand that unless some unexpected change should come over the
mind of his Majesty, I might expect the blow to be struck within a
very few days.
My plan was this--that Arowhena and I should escape in a balloon
together. I fear that the reader will disbelieve this part of my
story, yet in no other have I endeavoured to adhere more
conscientiously to facts, and can only throw myself upon his
charity.
I had already gained the ear of the Queen, and had so worked upon
her curiosity that she promised to get leave for me to have a
balloon made and inflated; I pointed out to her that no complicated
machinery would be wanted--nothing, in fact, but a large quantity
of oiled silk, a car, a few ropes, &c., &c., and some light kind of
gas, such as the antiquarians who were acquainted with the means
employed by the ancients for the production of the lighter gases
could easily instruct her workmen how to provide. Her eagerness to
see so strange a sight as the ascent of a human being into the sky
overcame any scruples of conscience that she might have otherwise
felt, and she set the antiquarians about showing her workmen how to
make the gas, and sent her maids to buy, and oil, a very large
quantity of silk (for I was determined that the balloon should be a
big one) even before she began to try and gain the King's
permission; this, however, she now set herself to do, for I had
sent her word that my prosecution was imminent.
As for myself, I need hardly say that I knew nothing about
balloons; nor did I see my way to smuggling Arowhena into the car;
nevertheless, knowing that we had no other chance of getting away
from Erewhon, I drew inspiration from the extremity in which we
were placed, and made a pattern from which the Queen's workmen were
able to work successfully. Meanwhile the Queen's carriage-builders
set about making the car, and it was with the attachments of this
to the balloon that I had the greatest difficulty; I doubt, indeed,
whether I should have succeeded here, but for the great
intelligence of a foreman, who threw himself heart and soul into
the matter, and often both foresaw requirements, the necessity for
which had escaped me, and suggested the means of providing for
them.
It happened that there had been a long drought, during the latter
part of which prayers had been vainly offered up in all the temples
of the air god. When I first told her Majesty that I wanted a
balloon, I said my intention was to go up into the sky and prevail
upon the air god by means of a personal interview. I own that this
proposition bordered on the idolatrous, but I have long since
repented of it, and am little likely ever to repeat the offence.
Moreover the deceit, serious though it was, will probably lead to
the conversion of the whole country.
When the Queen told his Majesty of my proposal, he at first not
only ridiculed it, but was inclined to veto it. Being, however, a
very uxorious husband, he at length consented--as he eventually
always did to everything on which the Queen had set her heart. He
yielded all the more readily now, because he did not believe in the
possibility of my ascent; he was convinced that even though the
balloon should mount a few feet into the air, it would collapse
immediately, whereon I should fall and break my neck, and he should
be rid of me. He demonstrated this to her so convincingly, that
she was alarmed, and tried to talk me into giving up the idea, but
on finding that I persisted in my wish to have the balloon made,
she produced an order from the King to the effect that all
facilities I might require should be afforded me.
At the same time her Majesty told me that my attempted ascent would
be made an article of impeachment against me in case I did not
succeed in prevailing on the air god to stop the drought. Neither
King nor Queen had any idea that I meant going right away if I
could get the wind to take me, nor had he any conception of the
existence of a certain steady upper current of air which was always
setting in one direction, as could be seen by the shape of the
higher clouds, which pointed invariably from south-east to north-
west. I had myself long noticed this peculiarity in the climate,
and attributed it, I believe justly, to a trade-wind which was
constant at a few thousand feet above the earth, but was disturbed
by local influences at lower elevations.
My next business was to break the plan to Arowhena, and to devise
the means for getting her into the car. I felt sure that she would
come with me, but had made up my mind that if her courage failed
her, the whole thing should come to nothing. Arowhena and I had
been in constant communication through her maid, but I had thought
it best not to tell her the details of my scheme till everything
was settled. The time had now arrived, and I arranged with the
maid that I should be admitted by a private door into Mr.
Nosnibor's garden at about dusk on the following evening.
I came at the appointed time; the girl let me into the garden and
bade me wait in a secluded alley until Arowhena should come. It
was now early summer, and the leaves were so thick upon the trees
that even though some one else had entered the garden I could have
easily hidden myself. The night was one of extreme beauty; the sun
had long set, but there was still a rosy gleam in the sky over the
ruins of the railway station; below me was the city already
twinkling with lights, while beyond it stretched the plains for
many a league until they blended with the sky. I just noted these
things, but I could not heed them. I could heed nothing, till, as
I peered into the darkness of the alley, I perceived a white figure
gliding swiftly towards me. I bounded towards it, and ere thought
could either prompt or check, I had caught Arowhena to my heart and
covered her unresisting cheek with kisses.
So overjoyed were we that we knew not how to speak; indeed I do not
know when we should have found words and come to our senses, if the
maid had not gone off into a fit of hysterics, and awakened us to
the necessity of self-control; then, briefly and plainly, I
unfolded what I proposed; I showed her the darkest side, for I felt
sure that the darker the prospect the more likely she was to come.
I told her that my plan would probably end in death for both of us,
and that I dared not press it--that at a word from her it should be
abandoned; still that there was just a possibility of our escaping
together to some part of the world where there would be no bar to
our getting married, and that I could see no other hope.
She made no resistance, not a sign or hint of doubt or hesitation.
She would do all I told her, and come whenever I was ready; so I
bade her send her maid to meet me nightly--told her that she must
put a good face on, look as bright and happy as she could, so as to
make her father and mother and Zulora think that she was forgetting
me--and be ready at a moment's notice to come to the Queen's
workshops, and be concealed among the ballast and under rugs in the
car of the balloon; and so we parted.
I hurried my preparations forward, for I feared rain, and also that
the King might change his mind; but the weather continued dry, and
in another week the Queen's workmen had finished the balloon and
car, while the gas was ready to be turned on into the balloon at
any moment. All being now prepared I was to ascend on the
following morning. I had stipulated for being allowed to take
abundance of rugs and wrappings as protection from the cold of the
upper atmosphere, and also ten or a dozen good-sized bags of
ballast.
I had nearly a quarter's pension in hand, and with this I fee'd
Arowhena's maid, and bribed the Queen's foreman--who would, I
believe, have given me assistance even without a bribe. He helped
me to secrete food and wine in the bags of ballast, and on the
morning of my ascent he kept the other workmen out of the way while
I got Arowhena into the car. She came with early dawn, muffled up,
and in her maid's dress. She was supposed to be gone to an early
performance at one of the Musical Banks, and told me that she
should not be missed till breakfast, but that her absence must then
be discovered. I arranged the ballast about her so that it should
conceal her as she lay at the bottom of the car, and covered her
with wrappings. Although it still wanted some hours of the time
fixed for my ascent, I could not trust myself one moment from the
car, so I got into it at once, and watched the gradual inflation of
the balloon. Luggage I had none, save the provisions hidden in the
ballast bags, the books of mythology, and the treatises on the
machines, with my own manuscript diaries and translations.
I sat quietly, and awaited the hour fixed for my departure--quiet
outwardly, but inwardly I was in an agony of suspense lest
Arowhena's absence should be discovered before the arrival of the
King and Queen, who were to witness my ascent. They were not due
yet for another two hours, and during this time a hundred things
might happen, any one of which would undo me.
At last the balloon was full; the pipe which had filled it was
removed, the escape of the gas having been first carefully
precluded. Nothing remained to hinder the balloon from ascending
but the hands and weight of those who were holding on to it with
ropes. I strained my eyes for the coming of the King and Queen,
but could see no sign of their approach. I looked in the direction
of Mr. Nosnibor's house--there was nothing to indicate disturbance,
but it was not yet breakfast time. The crowd began to gather; they
were aware that I was under the displeasure of the court, but I
could detect no signs of my being unpopular. On the contrary, I
received many kindly expressions of regard and encouragement, with
good wishes as to the result of my journey.
I was speaking to one gentleman of my acquaintance, and telling him
the substance of what I intended to do when I had got into the
presence of the air god (what he thought of me I cannot guess, for
I am sure that he did not believe in the objective existence of the
air god, nor that I myself believed in it), when I became aware of
a small crowd of people running as fast as they could from Mr.
Nosnibor's house towards the Queen's workshops. For the moment my
pulse ceased beating, and then, knowing that the time had come when
I must either do or die, I called vehemently to those who were
holding the ropes (some thirty men) to let go at once, and made
gestures signifying danger, and that there would be mischief if
they held on longer. Many obeyed; the rest were too weak to hold
on to the ropes, and were forced to let them go. On this the
balloon bounded suddenly upwards, but my own feeling was that the
earth had dropped off from me, and was sinking fast into the open
space beneath.
This happened at the very moment that the attention of the crowd
was divided, the one half paying heed to the eager gestures of
those coming from Mr. Nosnibor's house, and the other to the
exclamations from myself. A minute more and Arowhena would
doubtless have been discovered, but before that minute was over, I
was at such a height above the city that nothing could harm me, and
every second both the town and the crowd became smaller and more
confused. In an incredibly short time, I could see little but a
vast wall of blue plains rising up against me, towards whichever
side I looked.
At first, the balloon mounted vertically upwards, but after about
five minutes, when we had already attained a very great elevation,
I fancied that the objects on the plain beneath began to move from
under me. I did not feel so much as a breath of wind, and could
not suppose that the balloon itself was travelling. I was,
therefore, wondering what this strange movement of fixed objects
could mean, when it struck me that people in a balloon do not feel
the wind inasmuch as they travel with it and offer it no
resistance. Then I was happy in thinking that I must now have
reached the invariable trade wind of the upper air, and that I
should be very possibly wafted for hundreds or even thousands of
miles, far from Erewhon and the Erewhonians.
Already I had removed the wrappings and freed Arowhena; but I soon
covered her up with them again, for it was already very cold, and
she was half stupefied with the strangeness of her position.
And now began a time, dream-like and delirious, of which I do not
suppose that I shall ever recover a distinct recollection. Some
things I can recall--as that we were ere long enveloped in vapour
which froze upon my moustache and whiskers; then comes a memory of
sitting for hours and hours in a thick fog, hearing no sound but my
own breathing and Arowhena's (for we hardly spoke) and seeing no
sight but the car beneath us and beside us, and the dark balloon
above.
Perhaps the most painful feeling when the earth was hidden was that
the balloon was motionless, though our only hope lay in our going
forward with an extreme of speed. From time to time through a rift
in the clouds I caught a glimpse of earth, and was thankful to
perceive that we must be flying forward faster than in an express
train; but no sooner was the rift closed than the old conviction of
our being stationary returned in full force, and was not to be
reasoned with: there was another feeling also which was nearly as
bad; for as a child that fears it has gone blind in a long tunnel
if there is no light, so ere the earth had been many minutes
hidden, I became half frightened lest we might not have broken away
from it clean and for ever. Now and again, I ate and gave food to
Arowhena, but by guess-work as regards time. Then came darkness, a
dreadful dreary time, without even the moon to cheer us.
With dawn the scene was changed: the clouds were gone and morning
stars were shining; the rising of the splendid sun remains still
impressed upon me as the most glorious that I have ever seen;
beneath us there was an embossed chain of mountains with snow fresh
fallen upon them; but we were far above them; we both of us felt
our breathing seriously affected, but I would not allow the balloon
to descend a single inch, not knowing for how long we might not
need all the buoyancy which we could command; indeed I was thankful
to find that, after nearly four-and-twenty hours, we were still at
so great a height above the earth.
In a couple of hours we had passed the ranges, which must have been
some hundred and fifty miles across, and again I saw a tract of
level plain extending far away to the horizon. I knew not where we
were, and dared not descend, lest I should waste the power of the
balloon, but I was half hopeful that we might be above the country
from which I had originally started. I looked anxiously for any
sign by which I could recognise it, but could see nothing, and
feared that we might be above some distant part of Erewhon, or a
country inhabited by savages. While I was still in doubt, the
balloon was again wrapped in clouds, and we were left to blank
space and to conjectures.
The weary time dragged on. How I longed for my unhappy watch! I
felt as though not even time was moving, so dumb and spell-bound
were our surroundings. Sometimes I would feel my pulse, and count
its beats for half-an-hour together; anything to mark the time--to
prove that it was there, and to assure myself that we were within
the blessed range of its influence, and not gone adrift into the
timelessness of eternity.
I had been doing this for the twentieth or thirtieth time, and had
fallen into a light sleep: I dreamed wildly of a journey in an
express train, and of arriving at a railway station where the air
was full of the sound of locomotive engines blowing off steam with
a horrible and tremendous hissing; I woke frightened and uneasy,
but the hissing and crashing noises pursued me now that I was
awake, and forced me to own that they were real. What they were I
knew not, but they grew gradually fainter and fainter, and after a
time were lost. In a few hours the clouds broke, and I saw beneath
me that which made the chilled blood run colder in my veins. I saw
the sea, and nothing but the sea; in the main black, but flecked
with white heads of storm-tossed, angry waves.
Arowhena was sleeping quietly at the bottom of the car, and as I
looked at her sweet and saintly beauty, I groaned, and cursed
myself for the misery into which I had brought her; but there was
nothing for it now.
I sat and waited for the worst, and presently I saw signs as though
that worst were soon to be at hand, for the balloon had begun to
sink. On first seeing the sea I had been impressed with the idea
that we must have been falling, but now there could be no mistake,
we were sinking, and that fast. I threw out a bag of ballast, and
for a time we rose again, but in the course of a few hours the
sinking recommenced, and I threw out another bag.
Then the battle commenced in earnest. It lasted all that afternoon
and through the night until the following evening. I had seen
never a sail nor a sign of a sail, though I had half blinded myself
with straining my eyes incessantly in every direction; we had
parted with everything but the clothes which we had upon our backs;
food and water were gone, all thrown out to the wheeling
albatrosses, in order to save us a few hours or even minutes from
the sea. I did not throw away the books till we were within a few
feet of the water, and clung to my manuscripts to the very last.
Hope there seemed none whatever--yet, strangely enough we were
neither of us utterly hopeless, and even when the evil that we
dreaded was upon us, and that which we greatly feared had come, we
sat in the car of the balloon with the waters up to our middle, and
still smiled with a ghastly hopefulness to one another.
* * *
He who has crossed the St. Gothard will remember that below
Andermatt there is one of those Alpine gorges which reach the very
utmost limits of the sublime and terrible. The feelings of the
traveller have become more and more highly wrought at every step,
until at last the naked and overhanging precipices seem to close
above his head, as he crosses a bridge hung in mid-air over a
roaring waterfall, and enters on the darkness of a tunnel, hewn out
of the rock.
What can be in store for him on emerging? Surely something even
wilder and more desolate than that which he has seen already; yet
his imagination is paralysed, and can suggest no fancy or vision of
anything to surpass the reality which he had just witnessed. Awed
and breathless he advances; when lo! the light of the afternoon sun
welcomes him as he leaves the tunnel, and behold a smiling valley--
a babbling brook, a village with tall belfries, and meadows of
brilliant green--these are the things which greet him, and he
smiles to himself as the terror passes away and in another moment
is forgotten.
So fared it now with ourselves. We had been in the water some two
or three hours, and the night had come upon us. We had said
farewell for the hundredth time, and had resigned ourselves to meet
the end; indeed I was myself battling with a drowsiness from which
it was only too probable that I should never wake; when suddenly,
Arowhena touched me on the shoulder, and pointed to a light and to
a dark mass which was bearing right upon us. A cry for help--loud
and clear and shrill--broke forth from both of us at once; and in
another five minutes we were carried by kind and tender hands on to
the deck of an Italian vessel.
Erewhon : Chapter XXIX - Conclusion
Erewhon