Far from the Madding Crowd the baby. Mother and child are then placed in a coffin and sent home to Weatherbury for interment. Gabriel, who has long known of Troy's relationship with Fanny, tries to conceal the child's existence – but Bathsheba agrees that the coffin can be left in her house overnight, from her sense of duty towards a former servant of the household. Her new servant, Liddy, repeats the rumour that Fanny had a child; when all the servants are in bed, Bathsheba unscrews the lid and sees the two bodies inside. Troy then comes home from Casterbridge, where he had gone to
The Madding Crowd were made available to the band's fans for the first time. Included among these were the original demos for "The Madding Crowd." These demos were recorded in 1998 and 1999 between the band's independently released album "Three" and their first mainstream hit of "Absolutely (Story of a Girl)." Of the songs included in the demo album, five were later recorded and included on the actual release of the album in, more or less, an unaltered, though more produced, form. One more track, "Side To Side" carries the same melody and many of the same lyrics as "257 Weeks" but is