CHAPTER XXXVI 539
secret , and wanting to take another wife while he had one living : but I pity him , for my part ."
" You said he was alive ?" I exclaimed . " Yes , yes : he is alive ; but many think he had better he dead ."
" Why ? How ?" My blood was again running cold . " Where is he ?" I demanded . " Is he in England ?"
" Ay -- ay -- he ' s in England ; he can ' t get out of England , I fancy -- he ' s a fixture now ."
What agony was this ! And the man seemed resolved to protract it . " He is stone-blind ," he said at last . " Yes , he is stone-blind , is Mr . Edward ."
I had dreaded worse . I had dreaded he was mad . I summoned strength to ask what had caused this calamity .
" It was all his own courage , and a body may say , his kindness , in a way , ma ' am : he wouldn ' t leave the house till every one else was out before him . As he came down the great staircase at last , after Mrs . Rochester had flung herself from the battlements , there was a great crash -- all fell . He was taken out from under the ruins , alive , but sadly hurt : a beam had fallen in such a way as to protect him partly ; but one eye was knocked out , and one hand so crushed that Mr . Carter , the surgeon , had to amputate it directly . The other eye inflamed : he lost the sight of that also . He is now helpless , indeed -- blind and a cripple ."
" Where is he ? Where does he now live ?"
" At Ferndean , a manor-house on a farm he has , about thirty miles off : quite a desolate spot ."
" Who is with him ?"