To walk across country without much regard to roads was not new
to Tess, and she showed her old agility in the performance. The
intercepting city, ancient Melchester, they were obliged to pass
through in order to take advantage of the town bridge for crossing a
large river that obstructed them. It was about midnight when they
went along the deserted streets, lighted fitfully by the few lamps,
keeping off the pavement that it might not echo their footsteps.
The graceful pile of cathedral architecture rose dimly on their left
hand, but it was lost upon them now. Once out of the town they
followed the turnpike-road, which after a few miles plunged across an
open plain. Though the sky was dense with cloud, a diffused light from some
fragment of a moon had hitherto helped them a little. But the moon
had now sunk, the clouds seemed to settle almost on their heads, and
the night grew as dark as a cave. However, they found their way
along, keeping as much on the turf as possible that their tread might
not resound, which it was easy to do, there being no hedge or fence
of any kind. All around was open loneliness and black solitude, over
which a stiff breeze blew.
They had proceeded thus gropingly two or three miles further when
on a sudden Clare became conscious of some vast erection close in
his front, rising sheer from the grass. They had almost struck
themselves against it.
"What monstrous place is this?" said Angel. "It hums," said she.
"Hearken!" He listened. The wind, playing upon the edifice, produced a booming
tune, like the note of some gigantic one-stringed harp. No other
sound came from it, and lifting his hand and advancing a step or
two, Clare felt the vertical surface of the structure. It seemed to
be of solid stone, without joint or moulding. Carrying his fingers
onward he found that what he had come in contact with was a colossal
rectangular pillar; by stretching out his left hand he could feel a
similar one adjoining. At an indefinite height overhead something
made the black sky blacker, which had the semblance of a vast
architrave uniting the pillars horizontally. They carefully entered
beneath and between; the surfaces echoed their soft rustle; but they
seemed to be still out of doors. The place was roofless. Tess drew
her breath fearfully, and Angel, perplexed, said-"What can it be?"
Feeling sideways they encountered another tower-like pillar, square
and uncompromising as the first; beyond it another and another. The
place was all doors and pillars, some connected above by continuous
architraves. "A very Temple of the Winds," he said.