Chapter 26

Sophie came at seven to dress me: she was very long indeed in accomplishing her task;
so long that Mr. Rochester, grown, I suppose, impatient of my delay, sent up to ask why I
did not come. She was just fastening my veil (the plain square of blond after all) to my
hair with a brooch; I hurried from under her hands as soon as I could.
“Stop!” she cried in French. “Look at yourself in the mirror: you have not taken one
peep.”
So I turned at the door: I saw a robed and veiled figure, so unlike my usual self that it
seemed almost the image of a stranger. “Jane!” called a voice, and I hastened down. I was
received at the foot of the stairs by Mr. Rochester.
“Lingerer!” he said, “my brain is on fire with impatience, and you tarry so long!”
He took me into the dining-room, surveyed me keenly all over, pronounced me “fair as a
lily, and not only the pride of his life, but the desire of his eyes,” and then telling me he
would give me but ten minutes to eat some breakfast, he rang the bell. One of his lately
hired servants, a footman, answered it.
“Is John getting the carriage ready?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is the luggage brought down?”
“They are bringing it down, sir.”
“Go you to the church: see if Mr. Wood (the clergyman) and the clerk are there: return
and tell me.”
The church, as the reader knows, was but just beyond the gates; the footman soon
returned.
“Mr. Wood is in the vestry, sir, putting on his surplice.”
“And the carriage?”
“The horses are harnessing.”
“We shall not want it to go to church; but it must be ready the moment we return: all the
boxes and luggage arranged and strapped on, and the coachman in his seat.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Jane, are you ready?”
I rose. There were no groomsmen, no bridesmaids, no relatives to wait for or marshal:
none but Mr. Rochester and I. Mrs. Fairfax stood in the hall as we passed. I would fain
have spoken to her, but my hand was held by a grasp of iron: I was hurried along by a
stride I could hardly follow; and to look at Mr. Rochester’s face was to feel that not a
second of delay would be tolerated for any purpose. I wonder what other bridegroom
ever looked as he did—so bent up to a purpose, so grimly resolute: or who, under such
steadfast brows, ever revealed such flaming and flashing eyes.

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I know not whether the day was fair or foul; in descending the drive, I gazed neither on
sky nor earth: my heart was with my eyes; and both seemed migrated into Mr.
Rochester’s frame. I wanted to see the invisible thing on which, as we went along, he
appeared to fasten a glance fierce and fell. I wanted to feel the thoughts whose force he
seemed breasting and resisting.
At the churchyard wicket he stopped: he discovered I was quite out of breath. “Am I
cruel in my love?” he said. “Delay an instant: lean on me, Jane.”
And now I can recall the picture of the grey old house of God rising calm before me, of a
rook wheeling round the steeple, of a ruddy morning sky beyond. I remember
something, too, of the green grave-mounds; and I have not forgotten, either, two figures
of strangers straying amongst the low hillocks and reading the mementoes graven on
the few mossy head-stones. I noticed them, because, as they saw us, they passed round
to the back of the church; and I doubted not they were going to enter by the side-aisle
door and witness the ceremony. By Mr. Rochester they were not observed; he was
earnestly looking at my face, from which the blood had, I daresay, momentarily fled: for
I felt my forehead dewy, and my cheeks and lips cold. When I rallied, which I soon did,
he walked gently with me up the path to the porch.
We entered the quiet and humble temple; the priest waited in his white surplice at the
lowly altar, the clerk beside him. All was still: two shadows only moved in a remote
corner. My conjecture had been correct: the strangers had slipped in before us, and they
now stood by the vault of the Rochesters, their backs towards us, viewing through the
rails the old time-stained marble tomb, where a kneeling angel guarded the remains of
Damer de Rochester, slain at Marston Moor in the time of the civil wars, and of
Elizabeth, his wife.
Our place was taken at the communion rails. Hearing a cautious step behind me, I
glanced over my shoulder: one of the strangers—a gentleman, evidently—was
advancing up the chancel. The service began. The explanation of the intent of
matrimony was gone through; and then the clergyman came a step further forward, and,
bending slightly towards Mr. Rochester, went on.
“I require and charge you both (as ye will answer at the dreadful day of judgment, when
the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed), that if either of you know any impediment
why ye may not lawfully be joined together in matrimony, ye do now confess it; for be
ye well assured that so many as are coupled together otherwise than God’s Word doth
allow, are not joined together by God, neither is their matrimony lawful.”
He paused, as the custom is. When is the pause after that sentence ever broken by
reply? Not, perhaps, once in a hundred years. And the clergyman, who had not lifted his
eyes from his book, and had held his breath but for a moment, was proceeding: his hand
was already stretched towards Mr. Rochester, as his lips unclosed to ask, “Wilt thou
have this woman for thy wedded wife?”—when a distinct and near voice said—
“The marriage cannot go on: I declare the existence of an impediment.”
The clergyman looked up at the speaker and stood mute; the clerk did the same; Mr.
Rochester moved slightly, as if an earthquake had rolled under his feet: taking a firmer
footing, and not turning his head or eyes, he said, “Proceed.”
Profound silence fell when he had uttered that word, with deep but low intonation.
Presently Mr. Wood said—

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“I cannot proceed without some investigation into what has been asserted, and evidence
of its truth or falsehood.”
“The ceremony is quite broken off,” subjoined the voice behind us. “I am in a condition
to prove my allegation: an insuperable impediment to this marriage exists.”
Mr. Rochester heard, but heeded not: he stood stubborn and rigid, making no movement
but to possess himself of my hand. What a hot and strong grasp he had! and how like
quarried marble was his pale, firm, massive front at this moment! How his eye shone,
still watchful, and yet wild beneath!
Mr. Wood seemed at a loss. “What is the nature of the impediment?” he asked. “Perhaps
it may be got over—explained away?”
“Hardly,” was the answer. “I have called it insuperable, and I speak advisedly.”
The speaker came forward and leaned on the rails. He continued, uttering each word
distinctly, calmly, steadily, but not loudly—
“It simply consists in the existence of a previous marriage. Mr. Rochester has a wife now
living.”
My nerves vibrated to those low-spoken words as they had never vibrated to thunder—
my blood felt their subtle violence as it had never felt frost or fire; but I was collected,
and in no danger of swooning. I looked at Mr. Rochester: I made him look at me. His
whole face was colourless rock: his eye was both spark and flint. He disavowed nothing:
he seemed as if he would defy all things. Without speaking, without smiling, without
seeming to recognise in me a human being, he only twined my waist with his arm and
riveted me to his side.
“Who are you?” he asked of the intruder.
“My name is Briggs, a solicitor of —— Street, London.”
“And you would thrust on me a wife?”
“I would remind you of your lady’s existence, sir, which the law recognises, if you do
not.”
“Favour me with an account of her—with her name, her parentage, her place of abode.”
“Certainly.” Mr. Briggs calmly took a paper from his pocket, and read out in a sort of
official, nasal voice:—
“‘I affirm and can prove that on the 20th of October A.D. —— (a date of fifteen years
back), Edward Fairfax Rochester, of Thornfield Hall, in the county of ——, and of
Ferndean Manor, in ——shire, England, was married to my sister, Bertha Antoinetta
Mason, daughter of Jonas Mason, merchant, and of Antoinetta his wife, a Creole, at ——
church, Spanish Town, Jamaica. The record of the marriage will be found in the register
of that church—a copy of it is now in my possession. Signed, Richard Mason.’”
“That—if a genuine document—may prove I have been married, but it does not prove
that the woman mentioned therein as my wife is still living.”
“She was living three months ago,” returned the lawyer.
“How do you know?”
“I have a witness to the fact, whose testimony even you, sir, will scarcely controvert.”

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“Produce him—or go to hell.”
“I will produce him first—he is on the spot. Mr. Mason, have the goodness to step
forward.”
Mr. Rochester, on hearing the name, set his teeth; he experienced, too, a sort of strong
convulsive quiver; near to him as I was, I felt the spasmodic movement of fury or
despair run through his frame. The second stranger, who had hitherto lingered in the
background, now drew near; a pale face looked over the solicitor’s shoulder—yes, it was
Mason himself. Mr. Rochester turned and glared at him. His eye, as I have often said, was
a black eye: it had now a tawny, nay, a bloody light in its gloom; and his face flushed—
olive cheek and hueless forehead received a glow as from spreading, ascending heart-
fire: and he stirred, lifted his strong arm—he could have struck Mason, dashed him on
the church-floor, shocked by ruthless blow the breath from his body—but Mason
shrank away, and cried faintly, “Good God!” Contempt fell cool on Mr. Rochester—his
passion died as if a blight had shrivelled it up: he only asked—“What have you to say?”
An inaudible reply escaped Mason’s white lips.
“The devil is in it if you cannot answer distinctly. I again demand, what have you to say?”
“Sir—sir,” interrupted the clergyman, “do not forget you are in a sacred place.” Then
addressing Mason, he inquired gently, “Are you aware, sir, whether or not this
gentleman’s wife is still living?”
“Courage,” urged the lawyer,—“speak out.”
“She is now living at Thornfield Hall,” said Mason, in more articulate tones: “I saw her
there last April. I am her brother.”
“At Thornfield Hall!” ejaculated the clergyman. “Impossible! I am an old resident in this
neighbourhood, sir, and I never heard of a Mrs. Rochester at Thornfield Hall.”
I saw a grim smile contort Mr. Rochester’s lips, and he muttered—
“No, by God! I took care that none should hear of it—or of her under that name.” He
mused—for ten minutes he held counsel with himself: he formed his resolve, and
announced it—
“Enough! all shall bolt out at once, like the bullet from the barrel. Wood, close your book
and take off your surplice; John Green (to the clerk), leave the church: there will be no
wedding to-day.” The man obeyed.
Mr. Rochester continued, hardily and recklessly: “Bigamy is an ugly word!—I meant,
however, to be a bigamist; but fate has out-manoeuvred me, or Providence has checked
me,—perhaps the last. I am little better than a devil at this moment; and, as my pastor
there would tell me, deserve no doubt the sternest judgments of God, even to the
quenchless fire and deathless worm. Gentlemen, my plan is broken up:—what this
lawyer and his client say is true: I have been married, and the woman to whom I was
married lives! You say you never heard of a Mrs. Rochester at the house up yonder,
Wood; but I daresay you have many a time inclined your ear to gossip about the
mysterious lunatic kept there under watch and ward. Some have whispered to you that
she is my bastard half-sister: some, my cast-off mistress. I now inform you that she is
my wife, whom I married fifteen years ago,—Bertha Mason by name; sister of this
resolute personage, who is now, with his quivering limbs and white cheeks, showing
you what a stout heart men may bear. Cheer up, Dick!—never fear me!—I’d almost as

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soon strike a woman as you. Bertha Mason is mad; and she came of a mad family; idiots
and maniacs through three generations! Her mother, the Creole, was both a madwoman
and a drunkard!—as I found out after I had wed the daughter: for they were silent on
family secrets before. Bertha, like a dutiful child, copied her parent in both points. I had
a charming partner—pure, wise, modest: you can fancy I was a happy man. I went
through rich scenes! Oh! my experience has been heavenly, if you only knew it! But I
owe you no further explanation. Briggs, Wood, Mason, I invite you all to come up to the
house and visit Mrs. Poole’s patient, and my wife! You shall see what sort of a being I
was cheated into espousing, and judge whether or not I had a right to break the
compact, and seek sympathy with something at least human. This girl,” he continued,
looking at me, “knew no more than you, Wood, of the disgusting secret: she thought all
was fair and legal; and never dreamt she was going to be entrapped into a feigned union
with a defrauded wretch, already bound to a bad, mad, and embruted partner! Come all
of you—follow!”
Still holding me fast, he left the church: the three gentlemen came after. At the front
door of the hall we found the carriage.
“Take it back to the coach-house, John,” said Mr. Rochester coolly; “it will not be wanted
to-day.”
At our entrance, Mrs. Fairfax, Adèle, Sophie, Leah, advanced to meet and greet us.
“To the right-about—every soul!” cried the master; “away with your congratulations!
Who wants them? Not I!—they are fifteen years too late!”
He passed on and ascended the stairs, still holding my hand, and still beckoning the
gentlemen to follow him, which they did. We mounted the first staircase, passed up the
gallery, proceeded to the third storey: the low, black door, opened by Mr. Rochester’s
master-key, admitted us to the tapestried room, with its great bed and its pictorial
cabinet.
“You know this place, Mason,” said our guide; “she bit and stabbed you here.”
He lifted the hangings from the wall, uncovering the second door: this, too, he opened.
In a room without a window, there burnt a fire guarded by a high and strong fender, and
a lamp suspended from the ceiling by a chain. Grace Poole bent over the fire, apparently
cooking something in a saucepan. In the deep shade, at the farther end of the room, a
figure ran backwards and forwards. What it was, whether beast or human being, one
could not, at first sight, tell: it grovelled, seemingly, on all fours; it snatched and growled
like some strange wild animal: but it was covered with clothing, and a quantity of dark,
grizzled hair, wild as a mane, hid its head and face.
“Good-morrow, Mrs. Poole!” said Mr. Rochester. “How are you? and how is your charge
to-day?”
“We’re tolerable, sir, I thank you,” replied Grace, lifting the boiling mess carefully on to
the hob: “rather snappish, but not ’rageous.”
A fierce cry seemed to give the lie to her favourable report: the clothed hyena rose up,
and stood tall on its hind-feet.
“Ah! sir, she sees you!” exclaimed Grace: “you’d better not stay.”
“Only a few moments, Grace: you must allow me a few moments.”
“Take care then, sir!—for God’s sake, take care!”

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The maniac bellowed: she parted her shaggy locks from her visage, and gazed wildly at
her visitors. I recognised well that purple face,—those bloated features. Mrs. Poole
advanced.
“Keep out of the way,” said Mr. Rochester, thrusting her aside: “she has no knife now, I
suppose, and I’m on my guard.”
“One never knows what she has, sir: she is so cunning: it is not in mortal discretion to
fathom her craft.”
“We had better leave her,” whispered Mason.
“Go to the devil!” was his brother-in-law’s recommendation.
“’Ware!” cried Grace. The three gentlemen retreated simultaneously. Mr. Rochester
flung me behind him: the lunatic sprang and grappled his throat viciously, and laid her
teeth to his cheek: they struggled. She was a big woman, in stature almost equalling her
husband, and corpulent besides: she showed virile force in the contest—more than once
she almost throttled him, athletic as he was. He could have settled her with a well-
planted blow; but he would not strike: he would only wrestle. At last he mastered her
arms; Grace Poole gave him a cord, and he pinioned them behind her: with more rope,
which was at hand, he bound her to a chair. The operation was performed amidst the
fiercest yells and the most convulsive plunges. Mr. Rochester then turned to the
spectators: he looked at them with a smile both acrid and desolate.
“That is my wife,” said he. “Such is the sole conjugal embrace I am ever to know—such
are the endearments which are to solace my leisure hours! And this is what I wished to
have” (laying his hand on my shoulder): “this young girl, who stands so grave and quiet
at the mouth of hell, looking collectedly at the gambols of a demon, I wanted her just as
a change after that fierce ragout. Wood and Briggs, look at the difference! Compare
these clear eyes with the red balls yonder—this face with that mask—this form with
that bulk; then judge me, priest of the gospel and man of the law, and remember with
what judgment ye judge ye shall be judged! Off with you now. I must shut up my prize.”
We all withdrew. Mr. Rochester stayed a moment behind us, to give some further order
to Grace Poole. The solicitor addressed me as he descended the stair.
“You, madam,” said he, “are cleared from all blame: your uncle will be glad to hear it—if,
indeed, he should be still living—when Mr. Mason returns to Madeira.”
“My uncle! What of him? Do you know him?”
“Mr. Mason does. Mr. Eyre has been the Funchal correspondent of his house for some
years. When your uncle received your letter intimating the contemplated union
between yourself and Mr. Rochester, Mr. Mason, who was staying at Madeira to recruit
his health, on his way back to Jamaica, happened to be with him. Mr. Eyre mentioned the
intelligence; for he knew that my client here was acquainted with a gentleman of the
name of Rochester. Mr. Mason, astonished and distressed as you may suppose, revealed
the real state of matters. Your uncle, I am sorry to say, is now on a sick bed; from which,
considering the nature of his disease—decline—and the stage it has reached, it is
unlikely he will ever rise. He could not then hasten to England himself, to extricate you
from the snare into which you had fallen, but he implored Mr. Mason to lose no time in
taking steps to prevent the false marriage. He referred him to me for assistance. I used
all despatch, and am thankful I was not too late: as you, doubtless, must be also. Were I
not morally certain that your uncle will be dead ere you reach Madeira, I would advise

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you to accompany Mr. Mason back; but as it is, I think you had better remain in England
till you can hear further, either from or of Mr. Eyre. Have we anything else to stay for?”
he inquired of Mr. Mason.
“No, no—let us be gone,” was the anxious reply; and without waiting to take leave of Mr.
Rochester, they made their exit at the hall door. The clergyman stayed to exchange a few
sentences, either of admonition or reproof, with his haughty parishioner; this duty done,
he too departed.
I heard him go as I stood at the half-open door of my own room, to which I had now
withdrawn. The house cleared, I shut myself in, fastened the bolt that none might
intrude, and proceeded—not to weep, not to mourn, I was yet too calm for that, but—
mechanically to take off the wedding dress, and replace it by the stuff gown I had worn
yesterday, as I thought, for the last time. I then sat down: I felt weak and tired. I leaned
my arms on a table, and my head dropped on them. And now I thought: till now I had
only heard, seen, moved—followed up and down where I was led or dragged—watched
event rush on event, disclosure open beyond disclosure: but now, I thought.
The morning had been a quiet morning enough—all except the brief scene with the
lunatic: the transaction in the church had not been noisy; there was no explosion of
passion, no loud altercation, no dispute, no defiance or challenge, no tears, no sobs: a
few words had been spoken, a calmly pronounced objection to the marriage made; some
stern, short questions put by Mr. Rochester; answers, explanations given, evidence
adduced; an open admission of the truth had been uttered by my master; then the living
proof had been seen; the intruders were gone, and all was over.
I was in my own room as usual—just myself, without obvious change: nothing had
smitten me, or scathed me, or maimed me. And yet where was the Jane Eyre of
yesterday?—where was her life?—where were her prospects?
Jane Eyre, who had been an ardent, expectant woman—almost a bride, was a cold,
solitary girl again: her life was pale; her prospects were desolate. A Christmas frost had
come at midsummer; a white December storm had whirled over June; ice glazed the ripe
apples, drifts crushed the blowing roses; on hayfield and cornfield lay a frozen shroud:
lanes which last night blushed full of flowers, to-day were pathless with untrodden
snow; and the woods, which twelve hours since waved leafy and fragrant as groves
between the tropics, now spread, waste, wild, and white as pine-forests in wintry
Norway. My hopes were all dead—struck with a subtle doom, such as, in one night, fell
on all the first-born in the land of Egypt. I looked on my cherished wishes, yesterday so
blooming and glowing; they lay stark, chill, livid corpses that could never revive. I
looked at my love: that feeling which was my master’s—which he had created; it
shivered in my heart, like a suffering child in a cold cradle; sickness and anguish had
seized it; it could not seek Mr. Rochester’s arms—it could not derive warmth from his
breast. Oh, never more could it turn to him; for faith was blighted—confidence
destroyed! Mr. Rochester was not to me what he had been; for he was not what I had
thought him. I would not ascribe vice to him; I would not say he had betrayed me; but
the attribute of stainless truth was gone from his idea, and from his presence I must
go: that I perceived well. When—how—whither, I could not yet discern; but he himself,
I doubted not, would hurry me from Thornfield. Real affection, it seemed, he could not
have for me; it had been only fitful passion: that was balked; he would want me no
more. I should fear even to cross his path now: my view must be hateful to him. Oh, how
blind had been my eyes! How weak my conduct!

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My eyes were covered and closed: eddying darkness seemed to swim round me, and
reflection came in as black and confused a flow. Self-abandoned, relaxed, and effortless,
I seemed to have laid me down in the dried-up bed of a great river; I heard a flood
loosened in remote mountains, and felt the torrent come: to rise I had no will, to flee I
had no strength. I lay faint, longing to be dead. One idea only still throbbed life-like
within me—a remembrance of God: it begot an unuttered prayer: these words went
wandering up and down in my rayless mind, as something that should be whispered,
but no energy was found to express them—
“Be not far from me, for trouble is near: there is none to help.”
It was near: and as I had lifted no petition to Heaven to avert it—as I had neither joined
my hands, nor bent my knees, nor moved my lips—it came: in full heavy swing the
torrent poured over me. The whole consciousness of my life lorn, my love lost, my hope
quenched, my faith death-struck, swayed full and mighty above me in one sullen mass.
That bitter hour cannot be described: in truth, “the waters came into my soul; I sank in
deep mire: I felt no standing; I came into deep waters; the floods overflowed me.”