The calm, cold weather broke late in February; a gale swept for two
nights and a day across the country, beating up the waters into little
jostling peaks and breaking from the forlorn trees branches that were
jerked hither and thither upon the waves, now coming to rest upon a
tussock of higher ground, now taken again by the shallow storm of the
floods, or tossed to lie against the bulwark of the dykes. The smoke
from the factory chimneys was snatched by the wind, and swirled wildly
away in coils and streamers, black smoke mingled with the dark masses of
cloud that drove across the disordered sky. Gulls from the Wash flew
inland,—the gulls, that more than any other bird attune themselves to
the season, in summer gleaming white, lovely and marbled, on the wing,
but in times of tempest matching the clouds, iron-gray, the most
desolate of birds.
It became unsafe for carts to travel along the road on the top of the
dyke, since one farm-cart, swaying already under an excessive load of
fodder, was caught by a gust of wind and overturned. After one moment of
perilous balance, it crashed down the embankment, dragging after it the
two frenzied horses, falling in a welter of broken limbs, tangled
harness, and splintered woodwork, while the trusses of hay broke from
their lashings and scattered into the borders of the flood.
The storm of wind and water raged round this disaster, and folk from the
village collected on the top of the dyke to gape down at the carter busy
amongst the wreckage, and surreptitiously at Malleson, the owner, who
stood alone, more in sorrow for his valiant horses than in regret over
his material loss. There was no hope of saving the horses,—they were
shire horses, stately and monumental,—by the time the crowd had
assembled their tragic struggle had already ceased. The carter was
sullenly bending down, unbuckling the harness; he would speak to no one.
On the top of the dyke the gale buffeted the little crowd, so that the
men (their hands buried in their pockets, their overcoats blown against
their legs as they stood with their backs to the winds, and their
mufflers streaming) stamped their feet to keep themselves warm, and the
women with pinched faces drew their black shawls more closely round
their heads and whispered dolefully together.