round upon the landscape as he walked, and at the distance of three or
four miles perceived the roofs of a village and the tower of a church.
He instantly made towards the latter object. The village was quite
still, it being that motionless hour of rustic daily life which fills
the interval between the departure of the field-labourers to their work,
and the rising of their wives and daughters to prepare the breakfast for
their return. Hence he reached the church without observation, and the
door being only latched he entered. The hay-trusser deposited his basket
by the font, went up the nave till he reached the altar-rails, and
opening the gate entered the sacrarium, where he seemed to feel a
sense of the strangeness for a moment; then he knelt upon the
footpace. Dropping his head upon the clamped book which lay on the
Communion-table, he said aloud--

"I, Michael Henchard, on this morning of the sixteenth of September, do
take an oath before God here in this solemn place that I will avoid all
strong liquors for the space of twenty-one years to come, being a year
for every year that I have lived. And this I swear upon the book before
me; and may I be strook dumb, blind, and helpless, if I break this my
oath!"

When he had said it and kissed the big book, the hay-trusser arose,
and seemed relieved at having made a start in a new direction. While
standing in the porch a moment he saw a thick jet of wood smoke suddenly
start up from the red chimney of a cottage near, and knew that the
occupant had just lit her fire. He went round to the door, and the
housewife agreed to prepare him some breakfast for a trifling payment,
which was done. Then he started on the search for his wife and child.

The perplexing nature of the undertaking became apparent soon enough.