The Fatal Christmas Party — Far from the Madding Crowd

Villagers whisper Troy was seen in Casterbridge as Bathsheba arrives at Boldwood's hall in black silk; Boldwood has bought her a ring she wears for one night only and extracted a promise of marriage in six years amid tears and Christmas games that feel grotesque against her dread. Troy enters masked in a greatcoat, unveils at Boldwood's once cheerful welcome, and commands Bathsheba home before the assembled guests; Boldwood's voice from the fireplace orders her to go with her husband, but she sits frozen in mental gutta serena, light gone within though calm without. Troy seizes her arm; her quick low scream sends Boldwood to the gun-rack above the oak partition, and the charge at arm's length drops Troy without spreading shot. Boldwood rigs the second barrel with a handkerchief on the trigger; Samway deflects the intended self-destruction into the ceiling beam while guests stand stupefied in smoke. He kisses Bathsheba's hand, murmurs there is another way to die, puts on his hat, and walks into the dark unhindered. Hardy ends the Christmas party in grey smoke and paralysis: murder without chase, wifehood resumed in horror, fiddlers silenced, and the farmer's decade of courtship turned to irrevocable blood while Bathsheba faints beside the body.