Fanny Robin goes to the camp to find Sergeant Troy

Fanny Robin’s journey from Weatherbury to the barracks at Casterbridge exposes the gap between her understanding of her relationship with Sergeant Troy and his evasive response to her request for marriage. Her disappearance first alarms the farm; her arrival at the barracks then reveals that she believes Troy has promised to marry her, while he treats the promise as something that can be deferred.

Disappearance from Weatherbury

Fanny is the youngest servant at Bathsheba Everdene’s farm. One evening she fails to return, and the household is especially concerned because she has seemed low in spirits and was seen leaving in her indoor working gown, without even a bonnet. A witness recalls that she carried a bundle. Bathsheba asks the farm workers to make quiet inquiries in nearby villages, stressing that there is not yet reason for alarm, but says she feels responsible because Fanny has no living friends or relations.

The household suspects that Fanny may have gone to meet a man. Bathsheba has heard of no suitor in the parish, while Maryann reports that Fanny’s young man lives in Casterbridge and is believed to be a soldier. Fanny has kept his name private. Bathsheba therefore sends William Smallbury to the barracks to discover who he is and speak with him if Fanny has not returned the following day.

The report from Casterbridge

William returns through the snow with news that the Eleventh Dragoon Guards have left Casterbridge for Melchester and onward. Their sudden departure, announced before the regiment was ready to march, gives him a reason to believe Fanny has followed her soldier. He reports that the troops passed near Weatherbury, where Gabriel Oak saw them go, and that they marched to the song “The Girl I Left Behind Me.” William’s account identifies the regiment as the likely destination of Fanny’s journey, but does not establish that she has found Troy.

At the barracks window

The scene follows Fanny as she approaches the barracks wall at night and tries to signal through a window. After several attempts, she strikes the fifth window with a snowball. A man answers from inside. When she asks whether he is Sergeant Troy, he confirms his identity; she then calls herself his wife, Fanny Robin. His astonishment and the exchange that follows make clear that the two do not understand the relationship in the same way.

Fanny explains that she asked which window was his and came because he had told her she might. Troy says he did not expect her and had not thought she would come. He cannot leave the barracks: the bugle has sounded, the gates are closed, and he is due for orderly duty the next day. When Fanny asks whether he can come to her, he refuses on those grounds. She says she walked part of the way from Weatherbury and travelled the rest by carrier. Her journey has brought her to him, but it cannot secure an immediate meeting beyond the wall.

The deferred marriage

Fanny presses Troy to say when they will marry. He first says he does not quite remember the promise; she insists that he does, explaining that she loves him and that his words have weighed heavily on her. Troy then concedes that if he said he would marry her, he will do so. The concession sounds definite, but the practical arrangements he names keep the marriage in the future.

Fanny says she has money and asks whether they will marry by banns or licence. Troy thinks they should use banns. She explains that because her lodgings are in St. Mary’s parish and the barracks are in another parish, the banns must be published in both. She asks whether he will arrange for them to be called the next day. Troy says not tomorrow, but that they will settle it in a few days. He also admits that he has not yet obtained the officers’ permission, despite having led her to think he had nearly secured it before leaving Casterbridge.

Troy asks Fanny to leave and proposes seeing her the following day at Mrs. Twills’s in North Street. Fanny accepts the delay, apologizes for having worried him, and leaves after saying goodnight. Once she has moved away, laughter and an indistinct expostulation are heard from within the barracks. The contrast between Fanny’s earnest questions and the barracks’ response closes the encounter without resolving the marriage: she departs with another proposed meeting, while the promised arrangements remain incomplete.

Significance in the plot

The journey links Fanny’s disappearance from Weatherbury to the unresolved promise between her and Troy. Its details make the uncertainty concrete: Fanny travels to find him, identifies herself as his wife, and asks about the required banns in two parishes; Troy acknowledges his earlier promise but postpones the next steps and has not secured permission from his officers. The exchange thus establishes both Fanny’s expectation and the obstacles, practical and personal, that keep the marriage unsettled.