And when it was suddenly — and not quite unexpectedly — endangered by that “brute Montero,” it was a passionate indignation that gave him a new lease of life, as it were. Already, at the time of the President-Dictator’s visit to Sulaco, Moraga had sounded a note of warning from Sta. Marta about the War Minister. Montero and his brother made the subject of an earnest talk between the Dictator-President and the Nestor-inspirer of the party. But Don Vincente, a doctor of philosophy from the Cordova University, seemed to have an exaggerated respect for military ability, whose mysteriousness — since it appeared to be altogether independent of intellect — imposed upon his imagination. The victor of Rio Seco was a popular hero. His services were so recent that the President-Dictator quailed6 before the obvious charge of political ingratitude7. Great regenerating8 transactions were being initiated9 — the fresh loan, a new railway line, a vast colonization10 scheme. Anything that could unsettle the public opinion in the capital was to be avoided. Don Jose bowed to these arguments and tried to dismiss from his mind the gold-laced portent11 in boots, and with a sabre, made meaningless now at last, he hoped, in the new order of things.
Less than six months after the President-Dictator’s visit, Sulaco learned with stupefaction of the military revolt in the name of national honour. The Minister of War, in a barrack-square allocution to the officers of the artillery12 regiment13 he had been inspecting, had declared the national honour sold to foreigners. The Dictator, by his weak compliance14 with the demands of the European powers — for the settlement of long outstanding money claims — had showed himself unfit to rule. A letter from Moraga explained afterwards that the initiative, and even the very text, of the incendiary allocution came, in reality, from the other Montero, the ex-guerillero, the Commandante de Plaza17. The energetic treatment of Dr. Monygham, sent for in haste “to the mountain,” who came galloping18 three leagues in the dark, saved Don Jose from a dangerous attack of jaundice.
After getting over the shock, Don Jose refused to let himself be prostrated19. Indeed, better news succeeded at first. The revolt in the capital had been suppressed after a night of fighting in the streets. Unfortunately, both the Monteros had been able to make their escape south, to their native province of Entre-Montes. The hero of the forest march, the victor of Rio Seco, had been received with frenzied20 acclamations in Nicoya, the provincial21 capital. The troops in garrison22 there had gone to him in a body. The brothers were organizing an army, gathering23 malcontents, sending emissaries primed with patriotic24 lies to the people, and with promises of plunder25 to the wild llaneros. Even a Monterist press had come into existence, speaking oracularly of the secret promises of support given by “our great sister Republic of the North” against the sinister26 land-grabbing designs of European powers, cursing in every issue the “miserable Ribiera,” who had plotted to deliver his country, bound hand and foot, for a prey27 to foreign speculators.
Sulaco, pastoral and sleepy, with its opulent Campo and the rich silver mine, heard the din16 of arms fitfully in its fortunate isolation28. It was nevertheless in the very forefront of the defence with men and money; but the very rumours29 reached it circuitously30 — from abroad even, so much was it cut off from the rest of the Republic, not only by natural obstacles, but also by the vicissitudes31 of the war. The Monteristos were besieging32 Cayta, an important postal33 link. The overland couriers ceased to come across the mountains, and no muleteer would consent to risk the journey at last; even Bonifacio on one occasion failed to return from Sta. Marta, either not daring to start, or perhaps captured by the parties of the enemy raiding the country between the Cordillera and the capital. Monterist publications, however, found their way into the province, mysteriously enough; and also Monterist emissaries preaching death to aristocrats34 in the villages and towns of the Campo. Very early, at the beginning of the trouble, Hernandez, the bandit, had proposed (through the agency of an old priest of a village in the wilds) to deliver two of them to the Ribierist authorities in Tonoro. They had come to offer him a free pardon and the rank of colonel from General Montero in consideration of joining the rebel army with his mounted band. No notice was taken at the time of the proposal. It was joined, as an evidence of good faith, to a petition praying the Sulaco Assembly for permission to enlist35, with all his followers36, in the forces being then raised in Sulaco for the defence of the Five-Year Mandate of regeneration. The petition, like everything else, had found its way into Don Jose’s hands. He had showed to Mrs. Gould these pages of dirty-greyish rough paper (perhaps looted in some village store), covered with the crabbed37, illiterate38 handwriting of the old padre, carried off from his hut by the side of a mud-walled church to be the secretary of the dreaded39 Salteador. They had both bent40 in the lamplight of the Gould drawing-room over the document containing the fierce and yet humble41 appeal of the man against the blind and stupid barbarity turning an honest ranchero into a bandit. A postscript42 of the priest stated that, but for being deprived of his liberty for ten days, he had been treated with humanity and the respect due to his sacred calling. He had been, it appears, confessing and absolving43 the chief and most of the band, and he guaranteed the sincerity44 of their good disposition45. He had distributed heavy penances46, no doubt in the way of litanies and fasts; but he argued shrewdly that it would be difficult for them to make their peace with God durably47 till they had made peace with men.
Never before, perhaps, had Hernandez’s head been in less jeopardy48 than when he petitioned humbly49 for permission to buy a pardon for himself and his gang of deserters by armed service. He could range afar from the waste lands protecting his fastness, unchecked, because there were no troops left in the whole province. The usual garrison of Sulaco had gone south to the war, with its brass50 band playing the Bolivar march on the bridge of one of the O.S.N. Company’s steamers. The great family coaches drawn51 up along the shore of the harbour were made to rock on the high leathern springs by the enthusiasm of the senoras and the senoritas standing15 up to wave their lace handkerchiefs, as lighter52 after lighter packed full of troops left the end of the jetty.
Nostromo directed the embarkation53, under the superintendendence of Captain Mitchell, red-faced in the sun, conspicuous55 in a white waistcoat, representing the allied56 and anxious goodwill57 of all the material interests of civilization. General Barrios, who commanded the troops, assured Don Jose on parting that in three weeks he would have Montero in a wooden cage drawn by three pair of oxen ready for a tour through all the towns of the Republic.
“And then, senora,” he continued, baring his curly iron-grey head to Mrs. Gould in her landau —“and then, senora, we shall convert our swords into plough-shares and grow rich. Even I, myself, as soon as this little business is settled, shall open a fundacion on some land I have on the llanos and try to make a little money in peace and quietness. Senora, you know, all Costaguana knows — what do I say? — this whole South American continent knows, that Pablo Barrios has had his fill of military glory.”
Charles Gould was not present at the anxious and patriotic send-off. It was not his part to see the soldiers embark54. It was neither his part, nor his inclination58, nor his policy. His part, his inclination, and his policy were united in one endeavour to keep unchecked the flow of treasure he had started single-handed from the re-opened scar in the flank of the mountain. As the mine developed he had trained for himself some native help. There were foremen, artificers and clerks, with Don Pepe for the gobernador of the mining population. For the rest his shoulders alone sustained the whole weight of the “Imperium in Imperio,” the great Gould Concession59 whose mere60 shadow had been enough to crush the life out of his father.
Mrs. Gould had no silver mine to look after. In the general life of the Gould Concession she was represented by her two lieutenants61, the doctor and the priest, but she fed her woman’s love of excitement on events whose significance was purified to her by the fire of her imaginative purpose. On that day she had brought the Avellanos, father and daughter, down to the harbour with her.
Amongst his other activities of that stirring time, Don Jose had become the chairman of a Patriotic Committee which had armed a great proportion of troops in the Sulaco command with an improved model of a military rifle. It had been just discarded for something still more deadly by one of the great European powers. How much of the market-price for second-hand62 weapons was covered by the voluntary contributions of the principal families, and how much came from those funds Don Jose was understood to command abroad, remained a secret which he alone could have disclosed; but the Ricos, as the populace called them, had contributed under the pressure of their Nestor’s eloquence63. Some of the more enthusiastic ladies had been moved to bring offerings of jewels into the hands of the man who was the life and soul of the party.
There were moments when both his life and his soul seemed overtaxed by so many years of undiscouraged belief in regeneration. He appeared almost inanimate, sitting rigidly64 by the side of Mrs. Gould in the landau, with his fine, old, clean-shaven face of a uniform tint66 as if modelled in yellow wax, shaded by a soft felt hat, the dark eyes looking out fixedly67. Antonia, the beautiful Antonia, as Miss Avellanos was called in Sulaco, leaned back, facing them; and her full figure, the grave oval of her face with full red lips, made her look more mature than Mrs. Gould, with her mobile expression and small, erect68 person under a slightly swaying sunshade.
Whenever possible Antonia attended her father; her recognized devotion weakened the shocking effect of her scorn for the rigid65 conventions regulating the life of Spanish-American girlhood. And, in truth, she was no longer girlish. It was said that she often wrote State papers from her father’s dictation, and was allowed to read all the books in his library. At the receptions — where the situation was saved by the presence of a very decrepit69 old lady (a relation of the Corbelans), quite deaf and motionless in an armchair — Antonia could hold her own in a discussion with two or three men at a time. Obviously she was not the girl to be content with peeping through a barred window at a cloaked figure of a lover ensconced in a doorway70 opposite — which is the correct form of Costaguana courtship. It was generally believed that with her foreign upbringing and foreign ideas the learned and proud Antonia would never marry — unless, indeed, she married a foreigner from Europe or North America, now that Sulaco seemed on the point of being invaded by all the world.
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1
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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mandate
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| n.托管地；命令，指示 | |
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3
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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elixir
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| n.长生不老药，万能药 | |
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everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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quailed
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| 害怕，发抖，畏缩( quail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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7
ingratitude
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| n.忘恩负义 | |
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regenerating
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| v.新生，再生( regenerate的现在分词 )；正反馈 | |
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initiated
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| n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入 | |
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10
colonization
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| 殖民地的开拓，殖民，殖民地化； 移殖 | |
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portent
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| n.预兆；恶兆；怪事 | |
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artillery
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| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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compliance
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| n.顺从；服从；附和；屈从 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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din
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| n.喧闹声，嘈杂声 | |
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plaza
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| n.广场，市场 | |
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galloping
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| adj. 飞驰的, 急性的 动词gallop的现在分词形式 | |
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prostrated
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| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的过去式和过去分词 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
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20
frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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23
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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patriotic
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| adj.爱国的，有爱国心的 | |
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plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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28
isolation
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| n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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circuitously
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| 曲折地 | |
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vicissitudes
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| n.变迁，世事变化；变迁兴衰( vicissitude的名词复数 )；盛衰兴废 | |
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32
besieging
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的现在分词 ) | |
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postal
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| adj.邮政的，邮局的 | |
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aristocrats
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| n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 ) | |
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enlist
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| vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍 | |
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followers
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| 追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件 | |
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crabbed
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| adj.脾气坏的；易怒的；（指字迹）难辨认的；（字迹等）难辨认的v.捕蟹( crab的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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illiterate
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| adj.文盲的；无知的；n.文盲 | |
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39
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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40
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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41
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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42
postscript
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| n.附言，又及；(正文后的)补充说明 | |
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43
absolving
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| 宣告…无罪，赦免…的罪行，宽恕…的罪行( absolve的现在分词 )； 不受责难，免除责任 [义务] ,开脱（罪责） | |
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44
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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45
disposition
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| n.性情，性格；意向，倾向；排列，部署 | |
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46
penances
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| n.（赎罪的）苦行，苦修( penance的名词复数 ) | |
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47
durably
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| adv.经久地，坚牢地 | |
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48
jeopardy
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| n.危险；危难 | |
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49
humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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50
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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51
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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52
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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embarkation
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| n. 乘船, 搭机, 开船 | |
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54
embark
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| vi.乘船，着手，从事，上飞机 | |
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55
conspicuous
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| adj.明眼的，惹人注目的；炫耀的，摆阔气的 | |
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56
allied
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| adj.协约国的；同盟国的 | |
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57
goodwill
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| n.善意，亲善，信誉，声誉 | |
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58
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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60
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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61
lieutenants
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| n.陆军中尉( lieutenant的名词复数 )；副职官员；空军；仅低于…官阶的官员 | |
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62
second-hand
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| adj.用过的，旧的，二手的 | |
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63
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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64
rigidly
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| adv.刻板地，僵化地 | |
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rigid
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| adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的 | |
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66
tint
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| n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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fixedly
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| adv.固定地；不屈地，坚定不移地 | |
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68
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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decrepit
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| adj.衰老的，破旧的 | |
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doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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