“Una città corrotta che vive sotto un principe ... mai non si può ridurre libera.”—Macchiavelli.
Gian Galeazzo’s three sons by Isabella of Valois had died in infancy1, leaving him with one daughter only, Valentina, whom in 1387 he had married to the Duke of Orleans, brother of Charles VI. of France, an alliance of immense immediate2 advantage to the Visconti, but of fatal issue for Milan and Italy generally, in days beyond even his far vision. After some years of marriage, his second wife, Caterina Visconte, had borne him a son, whom he had named Giovanni Maria, decreeing that every one of his descendants should thenceforth bear the name of Maria, as a token of his gratitude3 to the Virgin4, to whose intercession he attributed the birth of his heir. A second son, Filippo Maria, was born later. At the time of the Duke’s death the elder was only fourteen, and the younger ten. In addition to their youth, they had the enduring disadvantage of issuing from parents both of the same stock, which already, in the ferocity and capriciousness of Bernabò and the physical timidity and weakness of Gian Galeazzo himself, had shown signs of vitiation. This taint5 in the blood became in Giovanni Maria a moral disease, amounting to mania6, and in his brother an exaggerated misanthropy and timidity.
Giovanni Maria succeeded to the dukedom, and Filippo became by his father’s will Count of Pavia, which 117had been erected7 into an appanage of the sovereign House. The charge of the young Duke’s person and state immediately became the object of a wild scramble9 among the different parties in the city. The dead man’s will, appointing his widow regent, was utterly10 disregarded, and she and her adviser11, Francesco Barbavara, were driven out by Estorre and Carlo Visconte, two of Bernabò’s sons, who now reappeared after long exile, hoping to recover their heritage. The Duchess died in 1404, poisoned, it was believed, by her son. But this unhappy lady, who had seen her father entrapped12 and murdered and her whole family ruined by her husband, and whose sons were now helpless in the hands of robbers and foes13—who had been driven hither and thither14 in the whirl of faction15 and was already paralytic—might well sink beneath her sorrows, without the help of this unnatural16 crime, which there seems to have been no better reason than his general wickedness for laying to the young Duke’s charge.
Meanwhile Bernabò’s sons were swept away by other faction leaders, to return and be again overthrown18, as the fortunes of the struggle surged backwards19 and forwards. One after another of Gian Galeazzo’s great captains snatched and held the city for a time. Now Ottobuono Terzo—now Carlo Malatesta—now Facino Cane20, the most famous of them all, ruled in the name of the utterly incapable21 Prince, while out of the ruins of Gian Galeazzo’s vast State, which Venice, Florence and the Church had hastened to dismember, each faithless governor seized some remaining fragment wherewith to create a small independent dominion22 for himself. Thus while the great Duke’s conquests, further off, were quickly lost, cities close to the capital and long subject to the Visconti fell to these lesser23 depredators. Pavia and other towns were captured by Facino Cane, who kept the young Filippo a virtual 118prisoner, and Monza became the stronghold of Estorre Visconte and his spirited sister Valentina.
The confusion and struggle in Milan continued throughout the ten years of Giovanmaria’s reign8. The condition of the city was lamentable24. Peace and order were destroyed, and the names of Guelf and Ghibelline were heard again in the streets, inflaming25 household against household and awakening26 the horrors of civil war. The Duke made no attempt to rule for himself. His only share in the government was the execution of State prisoners, whom he caused to be torn to pieces, under his own eyes, by dogs trained for the purpose. The extraordinary passion for dogs, together with the hatred27 of humankind, visible in Bernabò and others of the Visconti, had become an extravagant28 ferocity in this degenerate29 member of the race. The story of Milan during his reign is like some dreadful dream, in which, when sleep has fallen on the incessant30 riots and fighting, through the darkness of the night stalk the awful figures of the maniac31 Prince, gloating in his sport, and his huntsman, Squarcia Giramo, beside him, with their terrible hounds in leash32, on the scent33 of human blood.
The Duke’s appetite for blood was rewarded with Dantesque fitness. He died in 1412, suffocated34 in his own blood in the precincts of the palace, under the daggers35 of three Milanese nobles, who had sworn to rid the world of a monster, and his body, lying in its blood in the Cathedral, whither it had been carried and left alone by the general horror, had for its only pall36 blood-red roses strewn upon it by a harlot.
At the moment of Giovanmaria’s murder, Facino Cane, who for some years had dominated Milan, lay on his death-bed. Filippo Maria Visconte, whose youth had passed in confinement37 at Pavia, now found himself at one stroke free, and in nominal38 possession at least of 119the Dukedom. He was twenty years old. The astute39 young man’s first step was to marry Beatrice Tenda, Facino’s widow, through whom he became at once master of Pavia and the State which the Condottiere had conquered for himself, and of Facino’s fine army and immense treasure. He then led his troops to Milan, where his entry was opposed by Estorre Visconte and a strong faction. The great stronghold of Porta Giovia was, however, held for the legitimate40 prince by the Castellan, Vincenzo Marliano, who roused the citizens against Estorre. That brave soldier, the Hector of his race, was overthrown, and he and his nephew Giovanni Carlo, with all their supporters, were compelled to fly after a few days. The young Duke marched in without opposition41 and was received with enthusiasm by the people.
The city felt at once the presence of a master. Order was restored, factions42 calmed, peaceful industry protected, and punishment inflicted43 on Giovanmaria’s murderers. Filippo proceeded to engage the most successful Condottieri of the day to defend and restore his State, seconding their valour and generalship in the field by the most careful and industrious44 diplomacy45 in every Court of Italy and the principal European kingdoms. The rebel Visconti were subdued46 by the death of Estorre and the surrender of Monza (1412), which the brave Valentina relinquished49, making honourable50 terms for herself and the remaining descendants of Bernabò. Lodi, Como, Piacenza and Brescia were recovered in the course of a few years, and in 1422 Genoa was won. Filippo’s rapid progress awakened51 the old terror of the Snake once again in Italy. The third Duke of Milan had indeed many of the successful qualities of his race, the craft, the patience, the untiring industry. But they were vitiated by his timidity of mind and body, which made him both suspicious and superstitious52. Supremely53 120perfidious himself, he dared trust no man, and constantly laid snares56 for his own agents, and ended by falling into them himself. Thus in 1424, fearful of the glory of his great general, Carmagnola, who had been the chief means of restoring his fortunes, he offended and alienated57 the Condottiere, with disastrous58 consequences. In his fear and dislike of all men he shut himself up in the innermost recesses59 of the Castle of Porta Giovia, and maintained as many precautions as if he dwelt in a city of traitors60. He tolerated few persons around him, except his astrologers, who ruled him through his fears. He dared take no step without consulting them. He was never seen by his subjects except upon some rare State occasion, surrounded by guards, or when some peasant, working in the solitary61 fields, spied him slipping hastily in his barge62 along the canals between Milan and his favourite country palace of Abbiategrasso.
This dark habit of life made him odious63 to the sunny-tempered Milanese. They shuddered64 at this pale fat man, who increased their horror by condemning65 his own wife to death in 1418. To Beatrice Tenda and her vast dowry Filippo owed almost entirely66 his possession of the Dukedom. Her years much exceeded her second husband’s, though the Duke, like his father, had never been young. Because he was tired of her, or because she was cross and avaricious67, as the chroniclers variously aver68, or more probably because she had served her purpose and was no longer of any use to him, Filippo accused her of infidelity. She was arrested and carried to the Castle of Binasco, together with her supposed lover, a handsome young knight69, Michele Orombello, who had solaced70 her dreary71 existence with his skill upon the lute72, and after having resisted torture inflicted to make her confess herself guilty, she was beheaded. Orombello and two 121of her ladies shared her fate. Ten years later the Duke married, for political reasons, the Princess Maria of Savoy. This poor lady was hardly less to be pitied than Beatrice. The Duke neglected her himself, yet jealously kept her secluded74 from all but her own women, allowing no man to appear in her presence. Meanwhile Agnese del Maino, the lady who had secured the tyrant75’s affections, reigned76 in the Castle as his wife in all but name. Filippo’s love for Agnese, a woman of spirit and culture, and his devotion to the daughter she bore him, his only child, Bianca Maria, were human traits in his otherwise unamiable character. Though no lover of learning, Filippo continued, as much as circumstances allowed, the Viscontean patronage77 of culture and letters, the tradition that had descended78 from his ancestors, the hosts of Petrarca. He kept up the University of Pavia and called great scholars to its chairs. The celebrated79 humanist, Pier80 Candido Decembrio, was for many years his secretary. He employed artists of renown81, including Brunelleschi and Pisanello, in various works. To his daughter the Duke was careful to give the scholarly training which with the revival82 of learning had become a necessary ornament83 for the women as well as the men of the great Italian Houses, and Bianca Maria added the accomplishments84 of Latin and Greek to the beauty and spirit with which nature had endowed her.
But the Duke had neither means nor leisure amid the struggles of his ambition and the pressure of his fears for much attention to the peaceful arts. He was entirely occupied in redeeming86 his heritage and preserving it from the greed of Venice, the inveterate87 hate of Florence, the envy of the smaller States, and, from what he feared most of all, the ambition and intrigues89 of the Condottieri in his own employ. The fortunes of Italy were now, in fact, in the hands of the great 122military adventurers. After a century and a half of physical lassitude, during which her wars had been carried on by foreign mercenaries, she had bred a race of warriors90 who had learnt their craft so well in the camps of the German and English Condottieri that they had now superseded92 the foreigners. With hosts of trained and disciplined soldiers at their command, who knew no faith except to their leader, they took service now with one sovereign, now with another, and with their fickle94 arms and policy made and unmade States at their will. Facino Cane and Jacopo dal Verme had already played their parts, to the disruption of the Milanese State. Carmagnolo, after serving Duke Filippo for many years, went over to Venice, and for long balanced the two States one against the other, by his crafty95 conduct of the war, till he fell a victim to the superior cunning of the Doge and his councillors in 1432. And now, in the midst of the noise of battle and the ferment96 of intrigue88, in which all the years of Duke Filippo were wrapped, the great name of Sforza is first heard in Milanese story.
With the first Sforza and his son Francesco on the one side, and Braccio Montone and Niccolò Piccinino on the other, the age of the Condottieri culminated97. The whole of Italy was plunged98 into strife99 by these great leaders, in whom the old faction divisions of the country were revived, and cities and States split up once again into hostile parties, Guelfs and Ghibellines reappearing under the new names of Sforzeschi and Bracceschi. These rival forces were at once the salvation100 and the torment101 of Duke Filippo. The hope of succeeding to the heirless man’s dominions102—an elevation103 not beyond the attainment104 of an obscurely born individual, in an age and country in which men made themselves, and everything was possible to strength and ability—was a bait which drew them to his service; 123and with all his cunning and perfidious55 diplomacy he manipulated them for his own advantage, pitting them against each other, now encouraging one, now compassing his downfall by means of another. But they, too, were cunning. It was a game of wits, and Filippo often found himself outdone. Yet to the very end, though plagued, cajoled and defeated on all sides, he succeeded in circumventing105 all the efforts of either party to seat itself securely in Milan, preferring, with his strange spite towards mankind, to leave his kingdom to anarchy106 rather than adopt an heir.
In spite of him, however, destiny had raised up in a rustic107 race hailing from Cotignola, in the Romagna, a regenerator108 for the worn-out tyranny of the Visconti. Muzio Attendolo, the founder109 of the Sforza family, is pictured by legend as a peasant boy, who, when twelve years old, flung his woodman’s axe110 into a tree, and ran away to the wars. He appears to have been really the son of a small landowner, rich only in the possession of a progeny111 mighty112 in number and in strength. The name of Sforza is said to have attached itself to him, in consequence of some signal effort of his extraordinary strength and will. These qualities, joined to his great energy, raised him to the highest military fame. His life was chiefly spent in the wars of Naples and the Church, but he had just accepted service with the Duke of Milan, when one day he plunged into a swollen113 river, under the arrows of the enemy, to save a drowning boy, and sank beneath the weight of his armour114 (1424).
His son, Francesco, though only twenty-two, took command of his army, and soon showed equal valour and much greater ability. Engaged, in 1425, by Duke Filippo, he rapidly became a power in Milan, where he struggled with the rival Condottiere, Niccolò Piccinino, for supremacy115 in the councils of the Prince, and in the favour of the people. In 1432, Filippo gave 124him the highest mark of favour by promising116 him the hand of Bianca Maria, and with all solemnity the little girl of eight years old was betrothed117 to the great general. But no sooner had the Duke thus exalted118 Sforza, than he hastened to depress and humiliate119 him in every way. Niccolò Piccinino was given the chief command of the Visconte’s forces, and Francesco was fain at the time to abandon Milan, and his hopes of eventually possessing the Dukedom in his promised wife’s right, and to accept the standard of Pope Eugenius IV., Filippo’s bitter enemy. For many years the brilliant genius of Piccinino and the subtlety120 of the Duke were victorious121 over all enemies, and baffled every effort of Sforza to obtain his little princess and regain122 his footing in Milan. The climax123 of Filippo’s success came in 1435, when his Genoese fleet defeated the Neapolitans at Gaeta, and brought back captive the Kings of Naples and Navarre and a great company of lords and gentlemen. The Duke on this occasion completely belied124 his usual character and astonished the whole world by his kingly spirit. He received the two monarchs126 with the utmost honour, and immediately granted them their freedom. Moreover, he entertained them and their trains for a whole month, with great splendour and a joyous127 festivity, rare indeed in Milan during his reign. His generosity128 was doubtless calculated; in Alfonso of Naples he disarmed129 an enemy and made a lasting130 friend, and by cunningly rousing in that monarch125 a hope of succeeding to the Milanese state, he raised up an aspirant131 who might be useful as a weapon against the conflicting pretensions132 of Piccinino and Sforza.
Before long, however, fortune turned against the Duke. Sforza, at the head of the League of Venice, Florence and the Church, routed his generals and captured his provinces and cities. In this predicament, 125Filippo appealed to the great Condottiere’s ambition, and allured133 him once more by offering him his bride at last with a rich dowry of territory and gold. Francesco thereupon ceased to press the attack upon him, and the war became little more than a languid pretence134. Having thus nonplussed135 his foes, who were completely dependent on the caprice of their general, the Duke, with his interminable negotiations136, continually delayed the accomplishment85 of his promise, and meanwhile secretly endeavoured in every way to entangle137 and overthrow17 Francesco. In this he was only baffled by the almost equal craft and caution of his would-be son-in-law.
But as time went on, the Duke began to grow old and to weary of the eternal struggle. He was oppressed with languor138 and excessive fat. The fear of total blindness came upon him. Nearly all Italy was armed against him. The parties in the State grew ever more clamorous139, his captains more unmanageable. Each of the latter seized upon one of his cities and domineered over it as its Lord. Disasters accumulated upon him in the field. Piccinino’s daring raid into Florentine territory, in 1439-40, ended in the great defeat of Anghiari, and Sforza, enraged140 by the Duke’s duplicity, was capturing his cities for the League and devastating141 his territories far and wide. Meanwhile, the peace which all Italy sighed for was delayed by the great Condottiere, who, having triumphed over all his rivals, would not sheath his sword till he had secured Bianca Maria and the enormous dowry which he demanded with her. At last, yielding to the persuasion142 of his only friend, Niccolò III. of Ferrara, the general peacemaker, Filippo agreed to the marriage, and the maiden143 of seventeen was conducted to the city of Cremona, which was to be her rich portion, by the fatherly Marquis Niccolò, and there wedded144 to her mature bridegroom.
126Sforza’s purpose was, however, only half accomplished145. Though the lady was won, the Dukedom remained to be secured. But he had to reckon with his father-in-law’s antipathy146, doubtless originating in a deep-seated pride of race, and also with the hostile party—led by Niccolò Piccinino and his sons—which was all-powerful in Milan and virtually ruled the now decrepit147 Filippo. The Milanese armies before long moved once more against Sforza, who retaliated148 by accepting the command of the Venetian forces and carrying fire and sword right up to the walls of Milan. The terrified Filippo was compelled to seek reconciliation149 with his offended son-in-law, and to the chagrin150 of Venice, Sforza abandoned her side in the hour of success and rapidly won back for the Visconte the Milanese territories which he had just conquered for the Republic. At this juncture151 the Duke, plagued by the irreconcilable152 importunities of the two parties, used the only resource left to him wherewith to baffle them both. Without confirming his promises to Sforza he fell sick, and, obstinately153 refusing all remedies, let himself die (1447), reiterating154 with his last breath a wish that after his death everything might fall to ruin.
And so it did. The city was immediately plunged into confusion and uproar155. Pretenders sprang up on every side, and the old faction trouble threatened to overwhelm all order. The cities subject to Milan rebelled, and once more the great State of the Visconti broke up into independent fragments. Meanwhile, in the midst of the tumult156 in the capital itself, the beautiful word Liberty, still remembered from the glorious days of Milan’s Republican freedom, was breathed by a few noble and disinterested157 citizens. It was acclaimed158 by the people, who thought it meant relief from taxation159, and was accepted by the various factions, each 127hoping to make profit out of it. Amid enormous enthusiasm the Golden Republic of St. Ambrogio was constituted, and the supreme54 authority delegated to a few leading men, who were called Captains and Defenders160 of the Liberty of Milan.
The first act of the Republic was to sweep away the Castle of Porta Giovia, stronghold and symbol of hated tyranny. The people exulted161 to see it fall, but many thoughtful men, remembering the predatories who coveted162 the rich city, were dismayed. Nor did the new Constitution prosper163. The Milanese had lost all capacity for self-government under the long-continued despotism of the Visconti. ‘Nothing could make Milan free,’ pronounced Macchiavelli later, ‘being altogether corrupt164, as was seen after the death of Filippo Visconte, when desiring to establish liberty she neither was able, nor knew how, to maintain it.’ The tyranny of hostile factions triumphed over the best intentions of the Republicans, and the thoughtless people arrayed themselves one against another, behind leaders whose only aim was to subjugate165 them. Those who had really pure motives167 were drawn168 hopelessly into the whirlpool, and the Defenders of Liberty oppressed each other, and the citizens generally, with every cruelty and injustice169.
Meanwhile the Duchy was claimed by the Guelf party for Alfonso of Aragon, on the strength of a will which his supporters had extracted from the dying Filippo. A pretension—first threat of the misfortune that was to fall later on Milan—was also advanced by the Duke of Orleans, son of Filippo’s sister, Valentina Visconte. The Emperor claimed the Duchy as a vacant fief. More dangerous than any of these pretenders was Venice, greedy to extend her empire. But strongest of all was the resolution of Francesco Sforza, who mended the flaw of illegitimacy 128in his wife’s claim by the strength of his good sword. General of the Milanese armies at Filippo’s death, he used his power to defend the State from the attacks of Venice, and to subdue47 it gradually to his own sway. But his enemies were strong. The Piccinini, Francesco and Jacopo, warred against him with arms and intrigue, in alliance with the old Guelf faction. They held Milan against him, but their councils were confused by passion and divisions, and the great general drew steadily170 nearer to the city. He defeated the Piccinini in the field, and outwitted their perfidious diplomacy with an equal craft. He leagued with Venice and Florence against the new Republic, defeated the Duke of Savoy, whom Filippo’s widow, Maria of Savoy, had enlisted171 against him, and cutting Milan off from all friends or help, laid siege to the capital itself.
Yet still the citizens clung to their illusion of liberty, and obstinately refused to submit to a new master. Amid fierce tumult they appointed fresh magistrates173 from the lowest ranks, persecuted174 and proscribed175 the nobles, and put an enormous price on the head of the ‘perfidious’ Francesco Sforza, decreeing death to any who breathed his name without a curse. But their resolution was useless. For some time they kept the invader176 at bay with great spirit, aided by his party foes; but the death of Francesco Piccinino at this juncture was a serious blow to the defence. All trade was stopped by the siege, and general ruin threatened this community, long used to wealth and ease. The city was now reduced to grievous straits by famine. The desperate struggles of the democratic leaders, Gio. Ossona and Gio. da Appiano, to maintain their rule by blood and torture in the face of the growing discontent and the ceaseless intrigues of Sforza’s partisans177, made them odious to all. Tumults178 broke out, and everywhere, 129says Corio, were heard lamentations, weeping and cries. The Captains of Liberty were no longer feared or obeyed. When in desperation they began to parley179 with Venice, the citizens unanimously agreed that submission180 to Sforza was a lesser evil than falling into the jaws181 of San Marco, and a rising of Ghibellines and friends of the Condottiere succeeded in sweeping182 away the Republic of St. Ambrogio, and opening the gates at last to the victorious Francesco, and to a new era of peace, prosperity and servitude (1450).
Amid the wild applause of countless183 thousands, the great warrior91 rode in, followed by his soldiers, whose necks and shoulders were hung round with loaves of bread. It was a fine thing to see—in Corio’s words—with what eagerness the people snatched off the bread, and with what voracity184 they devoured185 it. So enormous was the throng186, all shouting Sforza and Duca, that the conqueror187 and his horse were literally188 lifted up and carried on men’s shoulders. But even yet one or two, among them the high-hearted Ambrogio Trivulzio, opposed his entrance, demanding of him guarantees for the liberty of the city. They were overpowered, however, by the multitudes, and Francesco Sforza was proclaimed Duke by general consent of the citizens.
Milan had immediate consolation189 for her lost liberty. By the wise provision of the conqueror, such generous abundance flowed in after the herald190 loaves of the soldiers, that in three days it seemed as if there had been no siege at all. Order was restored with a firm and kindly191 hand, and the splendid feasts and tournaments, continuing for nine days, and drowning the memory of past afflictions, hid no cruel deeds of vengeance192 upon the Duke’s political opponents.
Italian historians generally agree in a favourable193 estimate of Francesco Sforza. Corio, the historian, whose 130father was a gentleman in the service of the Sforza, and he himself from his youth up, attached to the ducal household, describes the first Duke as liberalissimo, full of kindness, a lover of justice and religion, and declares that none observed faith better than he. This last, in fifteenth century Italy, was not saying much. More impartial194 writers, while praising his courage, ability and general humanity, recognise that his triumph was due as much to perfidy195 and political suppleness196 as to valour. He was a man of his time, and his moral standard was that expressed by Macchiavelli later, who, writing of the Sforza, excuses him on the ground that great men are ashamed to lose, not to gain, by deception197.
As Duke of Milan, Francesco still resorted to the same practices. The long tyranny of the Visconti, the strange cruelties and mysterious misanthropic198 habits of the later princes, the intercourse199 of the last Duke with astrologers and necromancers, which had wrapped him in a sort of diabolical200 atmosphere, made the idea of a despot repulsive201 and awful to the people, apart from their fear of oppression. But the brave, robust202 presence, the frank and genial203 manner of this lord of the battlefield and camp, who nothing esteemed204 astrologers, did much to overcome their prejudices, and his rejection205 of the gorgeous symbols of sovereignty prepared for his entry as superstitioni dei Re, and unfit for a simple soldier, was carefully calculated to win their confidence. But he dared not trust them. No sooner was he seated on the throne than with false assurances that his only motive166 was the safety and embellishment of the city, he began to rebuild the castle of Porta Giovia, and to fortify206 it with enormous walls, and with two huge round towers commanding the habitations of his subjects themselves, an ever visible warning against rebellion. The Milanese, however, made no attempt to shake off the yoke207. The bulk of the people resumed 131with joy their industrial occupations, too content with relief from immediate afflictions to question of the future. They might well, too, recognise that submission to the successful soldier was Milan’s only hope of salvation as an independent State.
In Italy, as a whole, the elevation of Francesco Sforza meant the boon208 of peace. It enrolled209 on the side of order and stability the chief element of disturbance210 in the country. For more than a century continual strife had been kept up by the Condottieri in their own interests. But now that the greatest of them all had attained211 a solid throne, the era of their irresponsible energies was over. The splendid title and wealth of the Visconti, and the immense resources of the Lombard capital, united with the military skill and renown of the Sforza, could consolidate212 and safeguard once again that great empire of the Snake, whose decrepitude213 had been the chief opportunity of the Condottieri, and the provocation214 of the late wars. On the part chosen by Milan depended largely the fate of the whole peninsula. The far-eyed ambition of the Visconti had chosen war. The new dynasty, on the contrary, preferred to develop the vast wealth of the State which it had won rather than increase its bounds, and was content to relinquish48 for the sake of peace all pretensions to the cities once belonging to the Visconti, and now usurped215 by Venice. Neither Francesco nor his successor sought the aggrandisement of their dominions. And where the Visconti, aggressive though they were, had studied the peace of Italy in the larger sense, they were nobly followed by the two first Sforza. Gian Galeazzo’s national policy—Italy for the Italians—his care to keep those Alpine216 gates, whose keys had been committed to Milan’s charge, locked against a possible invader, was adopted and carried on by the Sforza, through nearly half a century; and when it was reversed, and the flood of disaster and 132ruin let loose upon the country by Francesco’s younger son, the brilliant prince to whom Fate had denied no gift except just those two qualities which had made the Visconti great—judgment217 and knowledge of men—there is reason to believe that fear rather than ambition was the motive.
During the last century of the Viscontean domination, Milan, which had suffered little herself from the wars of Gian Galeazzo and Filippo Maria, and had never been taxed beyond her strength by those able tyrants218, had grown into an enormous centre of trade. The rich produce of the East, transmitted from Venice and the other Italian ports, and the exports of the country itself, passed through the Milanese warehouses219 to the marts of the North. The Milanese woollen fabrics220 clothed all well-to-do Europe, and her smiths forged the panoply221 of the knights222 and men-at-arms on every battlefield and in every jousting-list of Christendom and of civilised Heathenesse as well. So great were the workshops of the master armourers that two of them alone are said to have armed on one occasion four thousand horsemen and two thousand foot soldiers for Duke Filippo in the space of a few days. The abundant products of the fertile plains around flowed into the capital, and with increasing population and wealth new industries arose, adding to the general prosperity, so that this city could with ease keep up an army which would have beggared Venice or Florence. In her almost inexhaustible resources lay the secret of her power in Italy, and of her great influence even in the Councils of Europe.
The new Duke laboured to breed, by all the arts of peace, yet greater wealth, and to secure its full advantage for the State. Especially he desired that Milan should have a due share in that splendid patrimony223 of light and learning which Italy was now inheriting 133across the chasm224 of the Middle Ages from her rediscovered Past. This man of war, bred up from childhood in the camp, entertained all the liberal ideals of the day. He particularly honoured virtuous225 and learned men, Corio tells us, and to his encouragement of art the city owed many beautiful buildings. In his patronage of the humanities, as in all his affairs, the Duke was nobly supported by his wife, Bianca Maria Visconte. This lady—donna d’animo virile—had been from their marriage-day the prop226 of his ambition and resolve. Her invincible227 spirit had never allowed him to flinch228 a moment from his task of conquest, had restored his courage under misfortune, and had even inspired him by donning helmet and cuirass, and herself leading troops to his succour on the battlefield. Aided by her clever mother, Agnese del Maino, Bianca Maria had acted for him in critical moments in his absence, with invariable constancy and promptitude, so that he was wont229 to declare that he had more confidence in her than in his whole army. In the acquisition of Milan she was his chief councillor, and now that the throne of her ancestors was won, she claimed her full share of it. One may suspect that this conqueror of men—not alone in history—was somewhat mastered by the young woman at his side. Bianca Maria is celebrated by the chroniclers for her goodness. ‘This lady,’ says Cagnola, ‘in piety230, compassion231, charity, and beauty of person, as well as every other virtue232, surpassed all the women of our age, and was the splendour and mirror of all Italian women.’
Francesco left the government of his sons entirely to this notable lady. She herself superintended their Greek and Latin studies. But instruction in the art of ruling was the chief feature of her training, and that famous pedant233, Filelfo, the Florentine, who was one of their tutors, had to remember that his task was to form 134princes, not merely men of letters. She was careful to have them taught chivalrous234 exercises, habits of courtesy, and the good manners proper to princes; and so rigorous was her discipline that no boys were ever better behaved than the ‘fantastick’ of after days, Galeazzo Maria, and he who was to betray Italy, Lodovico il Moro.
With the change from the worn-out domination of the Visconti, rooted in the Middle Ages, to the rule of the soldier of fortune, who owed his success to personal genius and character, the Renaissance235 era, that opportunity of individual talent, may be said to have opened in Milan. The aspect of the city soon showed the operation of a new vitality236 and enthusiasm, in the splendid buildings which now arose, and in the activity of all artistic237 and industrial employments. But Duke Francesco’s designs for the improvement of his State were hampered238 by the last convulsive struggles of the long-continued wars of North Italy. It was some years before Venice, Savoy, and the rest of Milan’s enemies were quieted and propitiated239 by the arms and the prudent240 diplomacy of the new ruler, who with time found means of overcoming all the dangers which threatened him. An alliance with Louis XI. of France protected the Duke from the pretensions of Orleans. With Cosimo de’ Medici he maintained a loyal friendship, and thus disarmed Florence, and with Naples he concluded a treaty of peace, which was sealed by the marriage of his daughter Ippolita to King Ferdinand’s son, Alfonso of Calabria. Francesco was well aware, however, of the secret hostility241 harboured against him by a strong party in the city, and was ever on his guard. The death of Jacopo Piccinino, in 1465, rid him of the last survivor242 of the great family of Condottieri, who had been his most formidable foes and rivals. Historians have charged Francesco with a share in the horrid243 deception by which 135this brilliant captain was decoyed to his destruction at the hands of Ferdinand of Naples.
A year later (1466), when the Duke himself died, his dynasty seemed to be securely founded in Milan. Yet, in the absence of the heir, the Duchess and her councillors hastened to put the Castle into a state of defence, and to take every precaution against rebellion. Galeazzo Maria, was hurriedly summoned from France, where he was fighting for Louis XI. in the Barons’ War. His return was accomplished with the utmost speed and secrecy244, and the story of his passage through the dominions of Savoy, disguised as the servant of a travelling merchant, the attempt to capture him as he passed by a certain castle in the mountains, his escape into sanctuary245, and thence, after three days’ concealment246, into the fastnesses of the hills, where by difficult ways he was conducted into his own territory, strikes at once that note of romance and extravagance which accompanies the strange personality of Galeazzo Maria Sforza throughout his short course to the grave.
Once in his own dominions the new duke had nothing to fear. The habit of servitude had become only too confirmed in the Milanese, and they sealed their submission to the House of Sforza by accepting Francesco’s son without protest as their Lord. Galeazzo, born too late to remember aught but the triumphant247 days of his House, or to have known any interruption in the flattery, servility and fear which waited on princes in the fifteenth century, found himself at twenty-two monarch of a great State and vast riches, lord of the lives and destinies of large populations, and master, in all the vigour248 and freshness of his youth and of the unexhausted Sforza blood, of that incomparable treasure of delight and varied249 human experience which the Renaissance of learning, of knowledge, of beauty, had added to the 136heritage of power bequeathed to the Italian tyrants by their immediate ancestors. Is it a wonder that the princes of that bright new day, in all the pride of the restored faith in human greatness and possibility, should have believed themselves more than men, and like the old Roman emperors, whose histories they read and whose heirs they considered themselves, should have assumed the proud appellation250 of Divi—Gods? These favourites of Time and Fortune lacked, however, one thing: that discipline of the will—more rigorous than the self-mortification of the apostles of asceticism—which the religion of beauty and joy requires in its followers252.
In Galeazzo Maria Sforza the characters of a Renaissance tyrant appear in an exaggerated light. A strain of the bizarre, inherited from his Visconte ancestors, working in the strong new blood of the Sforza, produced in him an extravagance of temperament253 which ruled all his thoughts and acts. He had been instructed in the new learning by Filelfo and other humanists of repute; but from the classic example and precept254 thus set before him by men who themselves often abused the ideals which they taught his unbalanced nature had learnt only licence. His hot passions, romantically shown in youth by his love for Lucrezia Landriani, and his adoration255 of the child she bore him, that famous Caterina, afterwards Lady of Forlì, developed rapidly into unbridled lust256. His vanity was nothing less than preposterous257, and his care for his tall and splendid person, and in especial for his beautiful white hands, was a sort of idolatry. His insatiable appetite for gorgeous surroundings and rich display glutted258 itself with an orgy of colour and ornamentation, rioted in costly259 fabrics and priceless gems260 and gaudy261 equipages. Never before in Italy had such pomp been seen as accompanied his journey, in 1471, to 137visit Lorenzo de’ Medici, who, as head of the Florentine Republic, had been entertained a short time before in Milan. With him went his consort262, the beautiful Bona of Savoy, the princess who was to have married Edward IV. of England, had not her fickle suitor fallen in love with Elisabeth Woodville instead. Bona became Galeazzo’s wife in 1467.
Besides his Duchess, all the great feudatories and ministers of State, arrayed in cloth of gold and silver, accompanied the Duke, himself a magnificent figure in royal crimson263. The courtiers wore velvet264 and finest silk, the dresses of the chamberlains and pages were exquisite265 with needlework, the lackeys266 were in silk and cloth of silver, and the very cooks and scullions in velvet and satin. An immense train of horses, with trappings of silver and gold, carried grooms267 in silken liveries of the Sforza colours, purple and white. Mules268, with housings of white and purple damask embroidered269 with the devices of the Sforza in silver, bore litters hung with gorgeous stuffs, and containing beds of cloth of gold. Huntsmen leading five hundred couple of dogs, falconers with highly trained hawks272 upon their wrists followed, and a host of trumpeters, pipers, musicians and jesters played their lively part in the procession. The description of this gallant273 train, winding274 out in all its fresh new bravery into the green Lombard plain from the serrated walls and gates of the medi?val city, in the radiance of a May morning, suggests something of what Milan once was and of the lost beauty of Renaissance pageantry. The luxury and extravagance of the Milanese visitors greatly impressed the Florentines, and, according to Macchiavelli, helped to corrupt them and induce them to abandon their sober habits for pleasures and vanities.
Galeazzo’s love of decoration vented275 itself in the adornment276 of his palaces with paintings and works 138of art. He employed a host of artists, and in his impatience277 and excitement demanded miracles of them. He would have marble palaces and painted chambers278 rise as at the stroke of a magician’s wand; and an oft-told tale relates how he commanded a certain artist to decorate a whole wall with portraits of the ducal family in a single night. And woe279 to those who displeased280 him. The glittering, gaudy figure of this prince, with the great black eyes and hawk271 nose, and the white effeminate hands, dressed in the motley parti-coloured dress, red and white, used by the Dukes of Milan, moves through the pages of history in an alternation of black shadow and garish281 light. He was pointed172 out in whispers as the murderer of his own mother. It is true that his imperious temper had quickly resented Bianca Maria’s attempt to share in the government and to retain the power which her influence on her husband had given her. A short struggle had ensued between the mother and son, and ended by the defeated Duchess resolving to withdraw to her dower city of Cremona and there exercise her lawful282 authority. But neither did this division of the State suit the new Duke, and he detained her in the Castle of Melegnano, where, devoured by anger and grief, she fell sick after a few months and died, poisoned, according to common belief. But the accusation283 appears to rest only on Galeazzo’s general reputation for wickedness, and the ingratitude284 and want of filial piety which he had already shown himself capable of towards his mother. He is not a singular instance, however, of a young sovereign disagreeing with a dominant285 queen-mother. With as scant286 evidence, the death of his first betrothed, Dorotea Gonzaga, which freed him to make the more advantageous287 alliance with Bona, is laid to Galeazzo’s charge.
GALEAZZO MARIA SFORZA, BY PIERO POLLAIUOLO (UFFIZI, FLORENCE)
To face p. 138] ???? [Alinari, Florence
139To such a personality as this prince’s, so conspicuous288 and so frenzied289, legend readily clings, even in his own lifetime, and the imaginations which peered into the secrets of his dungeons290 carried, perhaps, some of their morbid292 visions with them. We must, however, believe the contemporary writers, who record hideous293 deeds committed by the Duke even in the light of day, grim pranks294 of punishment and devices of cruelty inflicted upon offenders295, under his own eyes. There was a strange touch of imagination in his adjustment of torments296 to offences, and often a kind of wild justice and sympathy for the oppressed, horribly manifested, as when he punished a priest, who had refused the funeral rites251 to a poor man, by burying him alive in the same grave as the corpse297. Galeazzo Sforza was in fact an embodied298 paradox—a monster of vices270 and virtues299, as he has been called, or better still, in his daughter Caterina’s word, a ‘Fantastick.’ This mad, bad prince had the theoretic admiration300 of his age for virtue, and was possessed301 with a very rage for cultivating it in his subjects. Abuses, such as bribery302 of magistrates, corruption303 in the public administration, oppressive restrictions304 on trade and commerce, were vigorously put down. He allowed none but himself to take money from petitioners305, or to seize other people’s property. His passion for justice and good government had planted so many gallows306 in his realm, that when his young bride came to Milan she trembled at the spectacle and fell on her knees, imploring307 pardon for prisoners and offenders, a boon immediately granted to her compassionate308 beauty. Though greedy of treasure and guilty of robbing his rich subjects, Galeazzo was punctual and exact in paying his servants—a rare virtue in an Italian prince. So trustworthy was his word as a sovereign that men regarded it as if it had been money. He had great personal attractions, was merry, affable and familiar 140with those around him, and willingly gave audience to his subjects. The courage which the populace expect of a prince was conspicuous in him—a man who never knew fear, as his fearless daughter Caterina proudly describes him.
Better still, Galeazzo Sforza knew men. No one of proved worth and activity had to fear his caprices. Cecco Simonetta, his father’s faithful minister, was retained in the highest offices throughout his reign; and his chief engineer and architect, Bartolommeo Gadio, kept undisturbed command of the great works of the Castello. Nor did the Duke’s heated temper affect his political judgment. He reconciled himself with Savoy, and with Lorenzo de’ Medici and Ferdinand of Naples formed that triple alliance which gave Italy her most splendid period of peace. In the cordial relations which he maintained with France he never forgot Milan’s appointed task of guarding the gate of Italy. Within his own dominions he held party passions in check, and followed his father’s prudent policy of employing in the important offices of State foreigners like the Sicilian Simonetta, and men who owed everything to the House of Sforza, and of diminishing the influence of the great nobles.
141
BRIDGE OVER NAVIGLIO NEAR SAN MARCO
With peace without and order within, the tide of prosperity rose ever higher in the populous309 city. The vast lands of the Duchy were everywhere being brought to full fertility by irrigation works and the draining of wastes. Palaces surrounded by beautiful gardens and fruitful orchards310 and vineyards were springing up where before had been wilderness311. Great schemes for new waterways between the different cities of the State were in hand, and all the immense increase of the country’s resources, resulting from improved agriculture and greater facilities of traffic, flowed by a thousand streams into the coffers of the capital. An extraordinary vitality seemed to possess all classes in this morning of the Renaissance. The larger horizons revealed to the spirit by the revival of ancient literature and thought, the multiplicity of new interests created by increased knowledge, the joy of the release from the medi?val sense 142of guilt73 and sorrow, gave to this age the vigour and enthusiasm of a regenerated312 world. Milan was one vast hive of vivacious313 energies, busy in commerce, in art and all kinds of handiwork, in learning, poetry, music. The Duke’s excited spirit was eager for all intellectual and artistic novelties. His Court was thronged314 with scholars and philosophers. Not content with the magnificent library of Pavia, he formed a fine collection of books in Milan, and printing-presses were set up in the city at this time. But above all else Galeazzo loved music. Milan had been from early times the resort of troubadours, minstrels and those skilled in ‘divers musicks,’ but never before had such beautiful singers been heard there as the Duke summoned from Flanders and all parts of Europe to compose the choir315 of the ducal chapel316 in the Castello. Music and the chase were Galeazzo’s favourite diversions; and the vast hunting-grounds and deep forests of the Duchy, full of wild boars and stags and all sorts of beasts and birds, the wide meres317 and watery318 channels crowded with waterfowl, were continually visited by gallant hunting and hawking319 trains. The picturesque320 interest of that far-off princely life, rich in all the adornments of rarest art, and fresh with the springing joy of that hopeful age, is enhanced for us by its dimness. It has all the poetic321 charm of a half-obliterated fresco322. These historic figures appear to our vision in that stiffness and innocence323 and decorative324 grace, that mingling325 of medi?val romance and Renaissance beauty with which they were doubtless represented by the primitive326 painters who covered the walls of Galeazzo’s palaces in Milan and Pavia with scenes of the ducal life—frescoes, alas327! long perished.
The picture of the city at this time would be bright indeed but for the plague-spots of vice93 and cruelty in the ruler, and of corruption in the people. Acquiescence328 in tyranny, and the new luxury of life, had bred 143effeminacy and servility in the citizens. But there were some among them who could not forget their shame. This motley prince, himself an early and crude product of the still undisciplined spirit of the Renaissance, was destined329 to perish by the operation of that same spirit. The very arrogance330 of blood and brain which drove him to excess swelled331 the indignation of the youths who assembled in the school of the humanist Cola Montana, and followed the finger of their preceptor as he pointed with scorn to the spectacle of the Duke passing with extravagant pomp across the Piazza332 dell’ Arengo, and to the obsequious333 train of nobles and magistrates in gorgeous attire334 attending him, and contrasted the degradation335 and pusillanimity336 of these courtiers with the noble simplicity337 of the Carthaginian and Roman patriots338 who had won immortal339 fame by giving their lives for their country. Cola, who was himself secretly envenomed against the Duke on account of personal wrongs, never ceased to hold up before his pupils the example of Brutus and the lofty ideal of virtue and self-sacrifice which inspired their classic ancestors. Inflamed340 by his eloquence341 and by a mingling of pedantic342 pride and youthful enthusiasm, these sons of fathers who remembered the brief hope of the Ambrosian Republic formed a resolution to rid the State of the monstrous343 tyranny which oppressed it. Girolamo Olgiati, Gio. Ant. Lampugnano and Carlo Visconte were the chief conspirators344. The lofty indignation of the two latter was aggravated345 by personal grievances346, but the motives of Olgiati, whose sensitive mind had been moulded for years by Cola Montana, seems to have been pure of all egoism except a beautiful self-conceit. They communicated their plot to a few trusty comrades, and went about the city secretly stirring up discontent. In spite of the general prosperity poverty existed, and it happened that the season had been bad and scarcity347 threatened. The populace could 144not see beyond this immediate evil, and all groaned348 together under the taxation which they supposed went only to provide for the limitless luxury of the Court. Many citizens were hereditary349 Guelfs and foes of the Sforza. The idea of rebellion was familiar enough in every North Italian city, and the conspirators received so much sympathy and so many promises of adherence350 that the excited vision of young Olgiati pictured the whole city awaiting the signal of the great deed to rise and set him and his fellows at the head of a Republic as noble as those of antiquity351. Day and night Lampugnano’s house was crowded with enthusiasts352 for liberty. All preparations were made for the rising, deputies were appointed to ensure the safety of the city in the confusion which was sure to follow the overthrow of the government, and the day and the particulars of the great act of judgment on the tyrant were carefully arranged.
On St. Thomas Day (1476), Duke Galeazzo entered early in the morning into his capital, after a short victorious campaign against the encroachments of Burgundy in the mountains of Savoy. Let it be remembered of him that his last deed was thus to beat back invaders353 of Italy. As he rode to Milan from his Castle of Abbiategrasso, in the bitter cold which had numbed354 the streams and fogged the air, three ravens355 slowly rose and flew across his path, one after the other, uttering hoarse356 croaks357. The Duke seized a gun and fired at these evil augurs358, and was half-minded to turn back. He went forward, however, but a heavy presentiment359 of ill had fallen on his soul. As he rode in, welcomed by the nobles who had thronged the city to do him homage360, the conspirators noted361 his heavy countenance362, and knew that the hour was at hand. Instead of mirth he carried gloom into the Castle, all prepared for his coming, and though it was the season 145of joy, he ordered the ornaments363 of the chapel to be draped in black, and bade the Flemish priest, Cordiero and his thirty fellow-singers from beyond the mountains, chant every day in the Mass a verse from the Office of the Dead. Nevertheless the great Christmas festivities took place as usual, and the tall figure of the Prince, robed to the feet in crimson damask, and accompanied by the fair Duchess and a crowd of nobles, stalked gesticulating though the splendid chambers of the Castello, vaunting, in the midst of a strange and mournful oppression, his own magnificence, and the glory and enduring strength of his House.
The next day was the Feast of St. Stephen. Very early in the morning, Gio. Antonio Lampugnano and Girolamo Olgiati knelt and heard Mass together, like knights entering into battle. A great crowd gathered in S. Stefano, where the Duke was to attend Mass later. Some of the conspirators mingled364 with the people, while the three leaders waited in a house close by. The slow moments passed. At last the appointed hour arrived and the procession was at hand. Girolamo, in his confession365, tells the rest in breathless words. Soon a noise; it is the Prince. We hide our daggers, and in an instant stand in the church. The Duke passes, I transfix him, he falls and expires.
Corio, who was one of the Duke’s chamberlains and was present in the church, describes how Galeazzo entered between the Ferrarese and Pisan Envoys366, preceded by a pompous367 train of guards and servants. The writer saw the daggers flash from the little group of conspirators and bury themselves in the gaudy body of the Prince, and heard his one cry, O Nostra Donna! as he fell back in a pool of blood. In the uproar which immediately arose, Lampugnano was killed as he fled through the press of shrieking368 women; but Girolamo and Carlo Visconte, with their accomplices369, 146succeeded in escaping from the church. The mangled370 body of the tyrant was carried into the adjoining Canonica, and its gory371 dress was exchanged for a robe of white cloth of gold, and all the ducal ornaments and insignia set upon it. Meanwhile Girolamo, hounded by the rage and terror of his father out of his home, whither he had fled, took refuge with a priest and waited in violent agitation372, his exalted brain seething373 with hopes and fears. The people must be even now rushing to arms. His friends must be coming to find him and place themselves under his command. They would sack the palaces of Cecco Simonetta and the hated ministers, seize the gates, abolish the taxes, proclaim a glorious Republic. The hours went by and nothing happened. Hearing a great noise, he looked eagerly out and saw the lacerated remains374 of his comrade Lampugnano being dragged along by yelling children with every hideous insult.
Hope began to desert him. He was sought, not by friends and admirers, but by officers of justice, and fleeing miserably375 from one refuge to another, was soon captured. In his dungeon291, the mind of the young man—he was twenty-three—maintained its exaltation, though it was a wonder, says Corio, that amid such torments as he underwent, the afflicted376 spirit did not abandon the agonised body. He managed to compose a long relation in Latin of all the circumstances of the plot, a document of poignant377 human interest which shows the effect of the prevailing378 enthusiasm for antiquity upon a serious and lofty soul. Even at the last frightful379 moment, when the iron of the executioner was at his breast, the fainting youth had courage to animate380 himself in the tongue of Brutus and Cato with the words—Collect thyself, Hieronimo. The memory of thy deed shall live long. Mors acerba, fama perpetua!
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infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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taint
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| n.污点；感染；腐坏；v.使感染；污染 | |
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mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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ERECTED
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| adj. 直立的，竖立的，笔直的 vt. 使 ... 直立，建立 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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scramble
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| v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料 | |
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utterly
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adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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entrapped
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| v.使陷入圈套，使入陷阱( entrap的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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foes
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| 敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 ) | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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faction
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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overthrow
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overthrown
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backwards
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cane
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incapable
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dominion
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lesser
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lamentable
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inflaming
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awakening
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hatred
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extravagant
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degenerate
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incessant
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maniac
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leash
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scent
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suffocated
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daggers
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pall
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confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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38
nominal
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| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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39
astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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40
legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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41
opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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42
factions
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| 组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
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43
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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44
industrious
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| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
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45
diplomacy
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| n.外交；外交手腕，交际手腕 | |
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46
subdued
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| adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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47
subdue
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| vt.制服，使顺从，征服；抑制，克制 | |
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48
relinquish
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| v.放弃，撤回，让与，放手 | |
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49
relinquished
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| 交出，让给( relinquish的过去式和过去分词 )； 放弃 | |
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50
honourable
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| adj.可敬的；荣誉的，光荣的 | |
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51
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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52
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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53
supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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54
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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55
perfidious
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| adj.不忠的，背信弃义的 | |
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56
snares
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| n.陷阱( snare的名词复数 )；圈套；诱人遭受失败（丢脸、损失等）的东西；诱惑物v.用罗网捕捉，诱陷，陷害( snare的第三人称单数 ) | |
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57
alienated
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| adj.感到孤独的，不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 )；使不友好；转让；让渡（财产等） | |
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58
disastrous
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| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
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59
recesses
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| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
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60
traitors
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| 卖国贼( traitor的名词复数 )； 叛徒； 背叛者； 背信弃义的人 | |
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61
solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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62
barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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63
odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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64
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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65
condemning
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| v.（通常因道义上的原因而）谴责( condemn的现在分词 )；宣判；宣布…不能使用；迫使…陷于不幸的境地 | |
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66
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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67
avaricious
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| adj.贪婪的，贪心的 | |
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68
aver
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| v.极力声明；断言；确证 | |
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69
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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70
solaced
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| v.安慰，慰藉( solace的过去分词 ) | |
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71
dreary
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| adj.令人沮丧的，沉闷的，单调乏味的 | |
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72
lute
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| n.琵琶，鲁特琴 | |
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73
guilt
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| n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责 | |
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74
secluded
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| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
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75
tyrant
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| n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人 | |
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76
reigned
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| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
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77
patronage
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| n.赞助，支援，援助；光顾，捧场 | |
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78
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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79
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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80
pier
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| n.码头；桥墩，桥柱；[建]窗间壁，支柱 | |
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81
renown
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| n.声誉，名望 | |
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82
revival
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| n.复兴，复苏，（精力、活力等的）重振 | |
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83
ornament
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| v.装饰，美化；n.装饰，装饰物 | |
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84
accomplishments
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| n.造诣；完成( accomplishment的名词复数 )；技能；成绩；成就 | |
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85
accomplishment
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| n.完成，成就，（pl.）造诣，技能 | |
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86
redeeming
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| 补偿的，弥补的 | |
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87
inveterate
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| adj.积习已深的，根深蒂固的 | |
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88
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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89
intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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90
warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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91
warrior
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| n.勇士，武士，斗士 | |
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92
superseded
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| [医]被代替的，废弃的 | |
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93
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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94
fickle
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| adj.(爱情或友谊上)易变的，不坚定的 | |
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95
crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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96
ferment
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| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
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97
culminated
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| v.达到极点( culminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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98
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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99
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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100
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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101
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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102
dominions
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| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
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103
elevation
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| n.高度；海拔；高地；上升；提高 | |
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104
attainment
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| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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105
circumventing
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| v.设法克服或避免（某事物），回避( circumvent的现在分词 )；绕过，绕行，绕道旅行 | |
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106
anarchy
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| n.无政府状态；社会秩序混乱，无秩序 | |
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107
rustic
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| adj.乡村的，有乡村特色的；n.乡下人，乡巴佬 | |
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108
regenerator
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| n.收革者，交流换热器，再生器；蓄热器 | |
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109
Founder
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| n.创始者，缔造者 | |
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110
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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111
progeny
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| n.后代，子孙；结果 | |
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112
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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113
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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114
armour
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| （=armor）n.盔甲；装甲部队 | |
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115
supremacy
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| n.至上；至高权力 | |
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116
promising
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| adj.有希望的，有前途的 | |
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117
betrothed
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| n. 已订婚者 动词betroth的过去式和过去分词 | |
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118
exalted
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| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
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119
humiliate
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| v.使羞辱，使丢脸[同]disgrace | |
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120
subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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121
victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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122
regain
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| vt.重新获得，收复，恢复 | |
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123
climax
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| n.顶点；高潮；v.(使)达到顶点 | |
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124
belied
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| v.掩饰( belie的过去式和过去分词 )；证明（或显示）…为虚假；辜负；就…扯谎 | |
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125
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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126
monarchs
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| 君主，帝王( monarch的名词复数 ) | |
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127
joyous
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| adj.充满快乐的；令人高兴的 | |
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128
generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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129
disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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130
lasting
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| adj.永久的，永恒的；vbl.持续，维持 | |
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131
aspirant
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| n.热望者；adj.渴望的 | |
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132
pretensions
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| 自称( pretension的名词复数 )； 自命不凡； 要求； 权力 | |
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133
allured
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| 诱引，吸引( allure的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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134
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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135
nonplussed
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| adj.不知所措的，陷于窘境的v.使迷惑( nonplus的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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136
negotiations
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| 协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过 | |
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137
entangle
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| vt.缠住，套住；卷入，连累 | |
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138
languor
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| n.无精力，倦怠 | |
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139
clamorous
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| adj.吵闹的，喧哗的 | |
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140
enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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141
devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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142
persuasion
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| n.劝说；说服；持有某种信仰的宗派 | |
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143
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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144
wedded
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| adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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145
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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146
antipathy
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| n.憎恶；反感，引起反感的人或事物 | |
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147
decrepit
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| adj.衰老的，破旧的 | |
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148
retaliated
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| v.报复，反击( retaliate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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149
reconciliation
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| n.和解，和谐，一致 | |
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150
chagrin
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| n.懊恼；气愤；委屈 | |
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151
juncture
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| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
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152
irreconcilable
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| adj.（指人）难和解的，势不两立的 | |
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153
obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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154
reiterating
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| 反复地说，重申( reiterate的现在分词 ) | |
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155
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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156
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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157
disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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158
acclaimed
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| adj.受人欢迎的 | |
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159
taxation
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| n.征税，税收，税金 | |
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160
defenders
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| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
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161
exulted
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| 狂喜，欢跃( exult的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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162
coveted
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| adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图 | |
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163
prosper
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| v.成功，兴隆，昌盛；使成功，使昌隆，繁荣 | |
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164
corrupt
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| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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165
subjugate
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| v.征服；抑制 | |
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166
motive
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| n.动机，目的；adv.发动的，运动的 | |
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167
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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168
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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169
injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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170
steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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171
enlisted
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| adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持） | |
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172
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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173
magistrates
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| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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174
persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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175
proscribed
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| v.正式宣布（某事物）有危险或被禁止( proscribe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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176
invader
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| n.侵略者，侵犯者，入侵者 | |
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177
partisans
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| 游击队员( partisan的名词复数 )； 党人； 党羽； 帮伙 | |
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178
tumults
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| 吵闹( tumult的名词复数 )； 喧哗； 激动的吵闹声； 心烦意乱 | |
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179
parley
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| n.谈判 | |
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180
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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181
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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182
sweeping
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| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
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183
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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184
voracity
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| n.贪食，贪婪 | |
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185
devoured
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| 吞没( devour的过去式和过去分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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186
throng
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| n.人群，群众；v.拥挤，群集 | |
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187
conqueror
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| n.征服者，胜利者 | |
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188
literally
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| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
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189
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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190
herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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191
kindly
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| adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地 | |
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192
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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193
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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194
impartial
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| adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的 | |
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195
perfidy
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| n.背信弃义，不忠贞 | |
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196
suppleness
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| 柔软； 灵活； 易弯曲； 顺从 | |
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197
deception
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| n.欺骗，欺诈；骗局，诡计 | |
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198
misanthropic
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| adj.厌恶人类的，憎恶（或蔑视）世人的；愤世嫉俗 | |
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199
intercourse
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| n.性交；交流，交往，交际 | |
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200
diabolical
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| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
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201
repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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202
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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203
genial
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| adj.亲切的，和蔼的，愉快的，脾气好的 | |
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204
esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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205
rejection
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| n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃 | |
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206
fortify
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| v.强化防御，为…设防；加强，强化 | |
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207
yoke
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| n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶 | |
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208
boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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209
enrolled
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| adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起 | |
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210
disturbance
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| n.动乱，骚动；打扰，干扰；(身心)失调 | |
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211
attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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212
consolidate
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| v.使加固，使加强；(把...)联为一体，合并 | |
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213
decrepitude
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| n.衰老；破旧 | |
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214
provocation
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| n.激怒，刺激，挑拨，挑衅的事物，激怒的原因 | |
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215
usurped
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| 篡夺，霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 )； 盗用； 篡夺，篡权 | |
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216
alpine
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| adj.高山的；n.高山植物 | |
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217
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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218
tyrants
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| 专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 )； 暴君似的人； （古希腊的）僭主； 严酷的事物 | |
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219
warehouses
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| 仓库，货栈( warehouse的名词复数 ) | |
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220
fabrics
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| 织物( fabric的名词复数 )； 布； 构造； （建筑物的）结构（如墙、地面、屋顶）：质地 | |
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221
panoply
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| n.全副甲胄，礼服 | |
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222
knights
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| 骑士； （中古时代的）武士( knight的名词复数 )； 骑士； 爵士； （国际象棋中）马 | |
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223
patrimony
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| n.世袭财产，继承物 | |
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224
chasm
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| n.深坑，断层，裂口，大分岐，利害冲突 | |
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225
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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226
prop
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| vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山 | |
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227
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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228
flinch
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| v.畏缩，退缩 | |
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229
wont
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| adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯 | |
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230
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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231
compassion
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| n.同情，怜悯 | |
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232
virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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233
pedant
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| n.迂儒；卖弄学问的人 | |
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234
chivalrous
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| adj.武士精神的；对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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235
renaissance
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| n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴 | |
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236
vitality
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| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
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237
artistic
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| adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的 | |
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238
hampered
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| 妨碍，束缚，限制( hamper的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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239
propitiated
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| v.劝解，抚慰，使息怒( propitiate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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240
prudent
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| adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的 | |
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241
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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242
survivor
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| n.生存者，残存者，幸存者 | |
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243
horrid
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| adj.可怕的；令人惊恐的；恐怖的；极讨厌的 | |
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244
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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245
sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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246
concealment
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| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
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247
triumphant
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| adj.胜利的，成功的；狂欢的，喜悦的 | |
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248
vigour
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| （=vigor）n.智力，体力，精力 | |
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249
varied
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| adj.多样的，多变化的 | |
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250
appellation
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| n.名称，称呼 | |
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251
rites
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| 仪式，典礼( rite的名词复数 ) | |
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252
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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253
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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254
precept
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| n.戒律；格言 | |
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255
adoration
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| n.爱慕，崇拜 | |
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256
lust
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| n.性(淫)欲；渴(欲)望；vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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257
preposterous
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| adj.荒谬的，可笑的 | |
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258
glutted
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| v.吃得过多( glut的过去式和过去分词 )；（对胃口、欲望等）纵情满足；使厌腻；塞满 | |
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259
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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260
gems
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| growth； economy； management； and customer satisfaction 增长 | |
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261
gaudy
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| adj.华而不实的；俗丽的 | |
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262
consort
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| v.相伴；结交 | |
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263
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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264
velvet
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| n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的 | |
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265
exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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266
lackeys
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| n.听差( lackey的名词复数 )；男仆（通常穿制服）；卑躬屈膝的人；被待为奴仆的人 | |
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267
grooms
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| n.新郎( groom的名词复数 )；马夫v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的第三人称单数 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗 | |
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268
mules
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| 骡( mule的名词复数 )； 拖鞋； 顽固的人； 越境运毒者 | |
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269
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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270
vices
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| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
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271
hawk
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| n.鹰，骗子；鹰派成员 | |
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272
hawks
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| 鹰( hawk的名词复数 )； 鹰派人物，主战派人物 | |
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273
gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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274
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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275
vented
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| 表达，发泄（感情，尤指愤怒）( vent的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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276
adornment
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| n.装饰；装饰品 | |
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277
impatience
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| n.不耐烦，急躁 | |
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278
chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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279
woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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280
displeased
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| a.不快的 | |
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281
garish
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|
| adj.华丽而俗气的，华而不实的 | |
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282
lawful
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| adj.法律许可的，守法的，合法的 | |
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283
accusation
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| n.控告，指责，谴责 | |
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284
ingratitude
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| n.忘恩负义 | |
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285
dominant
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|
| adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因 | |
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286
scant
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| adj.不充分的，不足的；v.减缩，限制，忽略 | |
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287
advantageous
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| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
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288
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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289
frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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290
dungeons
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| n.地牢( dungeon的名词复数 ) | |
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291
dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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292
morbid
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| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
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293
hideous
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| adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的 | |
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294
pranks
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| n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 ) | |
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295
offenders
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| n.冒犯者( offender的名词复数 )；犯规者；罪犯；妨害…的人（或事物） | |
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296
torments
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| （肉体或精神上的）折磨，痛苦( torment的名词复数 )； 造成痛苦的事物[人] | |
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297
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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298
embodied
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| v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含 | |
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299
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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300
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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301
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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302
bribery
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| n.贿络行为，行贿，受贿 | |
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303
corruption
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| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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304
restrictions
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| 约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则） | |
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305
petitioners
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| n.请求人，请愿人( petitioner的名词复数 )；离婚案原告 | |
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306
gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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307
imploring
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| 恳求的，哀求的 | |
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308
compassionate
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| adj.有同情心的，表示同情的 | |
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309
populous
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| adj.人口稠密的，人口众多的 | |
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310
orchards
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| （通常指围起来的）果园( orchard的名词复数 ) | |
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311
wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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312
regenerated
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| v.新生，再生( regenerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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313
vivacious
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| adj.活泼的，快活的 | |
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314
thronged
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| v.成群，挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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315
choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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316
chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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317
meres
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| abbr.matrix of environmental residuals for energy systems 能源系统环境残留矩阵 | |
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318
watery
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| adj.有水的，水汪汪的；湿的，湿润的 | |
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319
hawking
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| 利用鹰行猎 | |
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320
picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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321
poetic
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| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
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322
fresco
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| n.壁画；vt.作壁画于 | |
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323
innocence
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| n.无罪；天真；无害 | |
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324
decorative
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| adj.装饰的，可作装饰的 | |
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325
mingling
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| adj.混合的 | |
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326
primitive
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| adj.原始的；简单的；n.原(始)人，原始事物 | |
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327
alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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328
acquiescence
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| n.默许；顺从 | |
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329
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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330
arrogance
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| n.傲慢，自大 | |
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331
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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332
piazza
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| n.广场；走廊 | |
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333
obsequious
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| adj.谄媚的，奉承的，顺从的 | |
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334
attire
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| v.穿衣，装扮[同]array；n.衣着；盛装 | |
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335
degradation
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| n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变 | |
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336
pusillanimity
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| n.无气力，胆怯 | |
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337
simplicity
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| n.简单，简易；朴素；直率，单纯 | |
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338
patriots
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| 爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 ) | |
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339
immortal
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| adj.不朽的；永生的，不死的；神的 | |
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340
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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341
eloquence
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| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
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342
pedantic
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| adj.卖弄学问的；迂腐的 | |
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343
monstrous
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| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
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344
conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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345
aggravated
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| 使恶化( aggravate的过去式和过去分词 )； 使更严重； 激怒； 使恼火 | |
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346
grievances
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| n.委屈( grievance的名词复数 )；苦衷；不满；牢骚 | |
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347
scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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348
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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349
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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350
adherence
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| n.信奉，依附，坚持，固着 | |
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351
antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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352
enthusiasts
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| n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 ) | |
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353
invaders
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| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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354
numbed
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| v.使麻木，使麻痹( numb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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355
ravens
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| n.低质煤；渡鸦( raven的名词复数 ) | |
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356
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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357
croaks
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| v.呱呱地叫( croak的第三人称单数 )；用粗的声音说 | |
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358
augurs
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| n.（古罗马的）占兆官( augur的名词复数 )；占卜师，预言者v.预示，预兆，预言( augur的第三人称单数 )；成为预兆；占卜 | |
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359
presentiment
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| n.预感，预觉 | |
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360
homage
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| n.尊敬，敬意，崇敬 | |
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361
noted
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| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
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362
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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363
ornaments
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| n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 )；点缀；装饰品；首饰v.装饰，点缀，美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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364
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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365
confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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366
envoys
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| 使节( envoy的名词复数 )； 公使； 谈判代表； 使节身份 | |
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367
pompous
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| adj.傲慢的，自大的；夸大的；豪华的 | |
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368
shrieking
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| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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369
accomplices
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| 从犯，帮凶，同谋( accomplice的名词复数 ) | |
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370
mangled
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| vt.乱砍（mangle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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371
gory
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| adj.流血的；残酷的 | |
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372
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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373
seething
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| 沸腾的，火热的 | |
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374
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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375
miserably
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| adv.痛苦地；悲惨地；糟糕地；极度地 | |
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376
afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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377
poignant
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| adj.令人痛苦的，辛酸的，惨痛的 | |
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378
prevailing
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| adj.盛行的；占优势的；主要的 | |
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379
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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380
animate
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| v.赋于生命，鼓励；adj.有生命的，有生气的 | |
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