“Money! Gold! Bah! What money can a wounded soldier like your humble9 servant have amassed10, with but his sword-hand left, which, being necessarily occupied, places not a finger at his command with which to scrape together the spoils of a routed enemy?”
“No gold from him,” said the magician. “His scars frank him.”
“Bravo, Monsieur le prophète! Bravissimo! Here I am. Shall I begin, mon sorcier, without further loss of time, to question you?”
Without waiting for an answer, he commenced, in stentorian11 tones. After half-a-dozen questions and answers, he asked: “Whom do I pursue at present?”
“Two persons.”
“Ha! Two? Well, who are they?”
“An Englishman, whom if you catch, he will kill you; and a French widow, whom if you find, she will spit in your face.”
“Monsieur le magicien calls a spade a spade, and knows that his cloth protects him. No matter! Why do I pursue them?”
“The widow has inflicted12 a wound on your heart, and the Englishman a wound on your head. They are each separately too strong for you; take care your pursuit does not unite them.”
“Bah! How could that be?”
“The Englishman protects ladies. He has got that fact into your head. The widow, if she sees, will marry him. It takes some time, she will reflect, to become a colonel, and the Englishman is unquestionably young.”
“I will cut his cock’s-comb for him,” he ejaculated with an oath and a grin; and in a softer tone he asked, “Where is she?”
“Near enough to be offended if you fail.”
“So she ought, by my faith. You are right, Monsieur le prophète! A hundred thousand thanks! Farewell!” And staring about him, and stretching his lank13 neck as high as he could, he strode away with his scars, and white waistcoat and gaiters, and his bearskin shako.
I had been trying to see the person who sat in the palanquin. I had only once an opportunity of a tolerably steady peep. What I saw was singular. The oracle14 was dressed, as I have said, very richly, in the Chinese fashion. He was a figure altogether on a larger scale than the interpreter, who stood outside. The features seemed to me large and heavy, and the head was carried with a downward inclination15! The eyes were closed, and the chin rested on the breast of his embroidered16 pelisse. The face seemed fixed17, and the very image of apathy18. Its character and pose seemed an exaggerated repetition of the immobility of the figure who communicated with the noisy outer world. This face looked blood-red; but that was caused, I concluded, by the light entering through the red silk curtains. All this struck me almost at a glance; I had not many seconds in which to make my observation. The ground was now clear, and the Marquis said, “Go forward, my friend.”
I did so. When I reached the magician, as we called the man with the black wand, I glanced over my shoulder to see whether the Count was near.
No, he was some yards behind; and he and the Marquis, whose curiosity seemed to be by this time satisfied, were now conversing19 generally upon some subject of course quite different.
I was relieved, for the sage20 seemed to blurt21 out secrets in an unexpected way; and some of mine might not have amused the Count.
I thought for a moment. I wished to test the prophet. A Church-of-England man was a rara avis in Paris.
“What is my religion?” I asked.
“A beautiful heresy22,” answered the oracle instantly.
“A heresy? — and pray how is it named?”
“Love.”
“Oh! Then I suppose I am a polytheist, and love a great many?”
“One.”
“But, seriously,” I asked, intending to turn the course of our colloquy23 a little out of an embarrassing channel, “have I ever learned any words of devotion by heart?”
“Yes.”
“Can you repeat them?”
“Approach.”
I did, and lowered my ear.
The man with the black wand closed the curtains, and whispered, slowly and distinctly, these words which, I need scarcely tell you, I instantly recognized:
“I may never see you more; and, oh! I that I could forget you! — go — farewell — for God’s sake, go!”
I started as I heard them. They were, you know, the last words whispered to me by the Countess.
“Good Heavens! How miraculous24! Words heard most assuredly, by no ear on earth but my own and the lady’s who uttered them, till now!”
I looked at the impassive face of the spokesman with the wand. There was no trace of meaning, or even of a consciousness that the words he had uttered could possibly interest me.
“What do I most long for?” I asked, scarcely knowing what I said.
“Paradise.”
“And what prevents my reaching it?”
“A black veil.”
Stronger and stronger! The answers seemed to me to indicate the minutest acquaintance with every detail of my little romance, of which not even the Marquis knew anything! And I, the questioner, masked and robed so that my own brother could not have known me!
“You said I loved someone. Am I loved in return?” I asked.
“Try.”
I was speaking lower than before, and stood near the dark man with the beard, to prevent the necessity of his speaking in a loud key.
“Does anyone love me?” I repeated.
“Secretly,” was the answer.
“Much or little?” I inquired.
“Too well.”
“How long will that love last?”
“Till the rose casts its leaves.”
The rose — another allusion25!
“Then — darkness!” I sighed. “But till then I live in light.”
“The light of violet eyes.”
Love, if not a religion, as the oracle had just pronounced it, is, at least, a superstition26. How it exalts27 the imagination! How it enervates28 the reason! How credulous29 it makes us!
All this which, in the case of another I should have laughed at, most powerfully affected30 me in my own. It inflamed31 my ardor32, and half crazed my brain, and even influenced my conduct.
The spokesman of this wonderful trick — if trick it were — now waved me backward with his wand, and as I withdrew, my eyes still fixed upon the group, and this time encircled with an aura of mystery in my fancy; backing toward the ring of spectators, I saw him raise his hand suddenly, with a gesture of command, as a signal to the usher33 who carried the golden wand in front.
The usher struck his wand on the ground, and, in a shrill34 voice, proclaimed: “The great Confu is silent for an hour.”
Instantly the bearers pulled down a sort of blind of bamboo, which descended35 with a sharp clatter36, and secured it at the bottom; and then the man in the tall fez, with the black beard and wand, began a sort of dervish dance. In this the men with the gold wands joined, and finally, in an outer ring, the bearers, the palanquin being the center of the circles described by these solemn dancers, whose pace, little by little, quickened, whose gestures grew sudden, strange, frantic37, as the motion became swifter and swifter, until at length the whirl became so rapid that the dancers seemed to fly by with the speed of a mill-wheel, and amid a general clapping of hands, and universal wonder, these strange performers mingled38 with the crowd, and the exhibition, for the time at least, ended.
The Marquis d’Harmonville was standing39 not far away, looking on the ground, as one could judge by his attitude and musing40. I approached, and he said:
“The Count has just gone away to look for his wife. It is a pity she was not here to consult the prophet; it would have been amusing, I daresay, to see how the Count bore it. Suppose we follow him. I have asked him to introduce you.”
With a beating heart, I accompanied the Marquis d’Harmonville.
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1
impervious
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| adj.不能渗透的，不能穿过的，不易伤害的 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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3
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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4
affluent
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| adj.富裕的，富有的，丰富的，富饶的 | |
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premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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festive
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| adj.欢宴的，节日的 | |
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7
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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8
gendarmes
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| n.宪兵，警官( gendarme的名词复数 ) | |
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9
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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10
amassed
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| v.积累，积聚( amass的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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stentorian
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| adj.大声的，响亮的 | |
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12
inflicted
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| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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lank
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| adj.瘦削的；稀疏的 | |
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14
oracle
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| n.神谕，神谕处，预言 | |
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15
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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16
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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18
apathy
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| n.漠不关心，无动于衷；冷淡 | |
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19
conversing
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| v.交谈，谈话( converse的现在分词 ) | |
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20
sage
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| n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的 | |
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blurt
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| vt.突然说出，脱口说出 | |
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heresy
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| n.异端邪说；异教 | |
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colloquy
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| n.谈话，自由讨论 | |
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24
miraculous
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| adj.像奇迹一样的，不可思议的 | |
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25
allusion
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| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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exalts
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| 赞扬( exalt的第三人称单数 )； 歌颂； 提升； 提拔 | |
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enervates
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| v.使衰弱，使失去活力( enervate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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29
credulous
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| adj.轻信的，易信的 | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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31
inflamed
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| adj.发炎的，红肿的v.（使）变红，发怒，过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32
ardor
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| n.热情，狂热 | |
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33
usher
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| n.带位员，招待员；vt.引导，护送；vi.做招待，担任引座员 | |
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34
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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35
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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36
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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frantic
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| adj.狂乱的，错乱的，激昂的 | |
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38
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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39
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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40
musing
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| n. 沉思，冥想 adj. 沉思的, 冥想的 动词muse的现在分词形式 | |
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