The triumvirs were haled to death, with their chief accomplices, amidst shouts of joy and fury, imprecations, laughter and dances.
The next day évariste, who had recovered some strength and could almost stand on his legs, was taken from his cell, brought before the Tribunal, and placed on the platform where so many victims, illustrious or obscure, had sat in succession. Now it groaned9 under the weight of seventy individuals, the majority members of the Commune, some jurors, like Gamelin, outlawed like him. Again he saw the jury-bench, the seat where he had been accustomed to loll, the place where he had terrorized unhappy prisoners, where he had affronted10 the scornful eyes of Jacques Maubel and Maurice Brotteaux, the appealing glances of the citoyenne Rochemaure, who had got him his post as juryman and whom he had recompensed with a sentence of death. Again he saw, looking down on the da?s where the judges sat in three mahogany armchairs, covered in red Utrecht velvet11, the busts12 of Chalier and Marat and that bust13 of Brutus which he had one day apostrophized. Nothing was altered, neither the axes, the fasces, the red caps of Liberty on the wall-paper, nor the insults shouted by the tricoteuses in the galleries to those about to die, nor yet the soul of Fouquier-Tinville, hard-headed, painstaking14, zealously15 turning over his murderous papers, and, in his character of perfect magistrate16, sending his friends of yesterday to the scaffold.
The citoyens Remacle, tailor and door-keeper, and Dupont senior, joiner, of the Place de Thionville, member of the Committee of Surveillance of the Section du Pont-Neuf, identified Gamelin (évariste), painter, ex-juror of the Revolutionary Tribunal, ex-member of the Council General of the Commune. For their services they received an assignat of a hundred sols from the funds of the Section; but, having been neighbours and friends of the outlaw7, they found it embarrassing to meet his eye. Anyhow, it was a hot day; they were thirsty and in a hurry to be off and drink a glass of wine.
Gamelin found difficulty in mounting the tumbril; he had lost a great deal of blood and his wounds pained him cruelly. The driver whipped up his jade18 and the procession got under way amid a storm of hooting19.
Some women recognized Gamelin and yelled:
"Go your ways, drinker of blood! murderer at eighteen francs a day!... He doesn't laugh now; look how pale he is, the coward!"
They were the same women who used in other days to insult conspirators20 and aristocrats21, extremists and moderates, all the victims sent by Gamelin and his colleagues to the guillotine.
The cart turned into the Quai des Morfondus, made slowly for the Pont-Neuf and the Rue17 de la Monnaie; its destination was the Place de la Révolution and Robespierre's scaffold. The horse was lame22; every other minute the driver's whip whistled about its ears. The crowd of spectators, a merry, excited crowd, delayed the progress of the escort, fraternizing with the gendarmes23, who pulled in their horses to a walk. At the corner of the Rue Honoré, the insults were redoubled. Parties of young men, at table in the fashionable restaurateurs' rooms on the mezzanine floor, ran to the windows, napkin in hand, and howled:
The cart having plunged25 into a heap of refuse that had not been removed during the two days of civil disorder26, the gilded27 youth screamed with delight:
Gamelin was thinking, and truth seemed to dawn on him.
"I die justly," he reflected. "It is just we should receive these outrages30 cast at the Republic, for we should have safeguarded her against them. We have been weak; we have been guilty of supineness. We have betrayed the Republic. We have earned our fate. Robespierre himself, the immaculate, the saint, has sinned from mildness, mercifulness; his faults are wiped out by his martyrdom. He was my exemplar, and I, too, have betrayed the Republic; the Republic perishes; it is just and fair that I die with her. I have been over sparing of blood; let my blood flow! Let me perish! I have deserved ..."
Such were his reflections when suddenly he caught sight of the signboard of the Amour peintre, and a torrent31 of bitter-sweet emotions swept tumultuously over his heart.
The shop was shut, the sun-blinds of the three windows on the mezzanine floor were drawn32 right down. As the cart passed in front of the window of the blue chamber33, a woman's hand, wearing a silver ring on the ring-finger, pushed aside the edge of the blind and threw towards Gamelin a red carnation34 which his bound hands prevented him from catching35, but which he adored as the token and likeness36 of those red and fragrant37 lips that had refreshed his mouth. His eyes filled with bursting tears, and his whole being was still entranced with the glamour38 of this farewell when he saw the blood-stained knife rise into view in the Place de la Révolution.
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1 dungeon | |
n.地牢,土牢 | |
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2 blithely | |
adv.欢乐地,快活地,无挂虑地 | |
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3 corrupt | |
v.贿赂,收买;adj.腐败的,贪污的 | |
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4 prosecutor | |
n.起诉人;检察官,公诉人 | |
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5 accomplices | |
从犯,帮凶,同谋( accomplice的名词复数 ) | |
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6 outlawed | |
宣布…为不合法(outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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7 outlaw | |
n.歹徒,亡命之徒;vt.宣布…为不合法 | |
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8 authorized | |
a.委任的,许可的 | |
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9 groaned | |
v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦 | |
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10 affronted | |
adj.被侮辱的,被冒犯的v.勇敢地面对( affront的过去式和过去分词 );相遇 | |
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11 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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12 busts | |
半身雕塑像( bust的名词复数 ); 妇女的胸部; 胸围; 突击搜捕 | |
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13 bust | |
vt.打破;vi.爆裂;n.半身像;胸部 | |
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14 painstaking | |
adj.苦干的;艰苦的,费力的,刻苦的 | |
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15 zealously | |
adv.热心地;热情地;积极地;狂热地 | |
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16 magistrate | |
n.地方行政官,地方法官,治安官 | |
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17 rue | |
n.懊悔,芸香,后悔;v.后悔,悲伤,懊悔 | |
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18 jade | |
n.玉石;碧玉;翡翠 | |
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19 hooting | |
(使)作汽笛声响,作汽车喇叭声( hoot的现在分词 ); 倒好儿; 倒彩 | |
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20 conspirators | |
n.共谋者,阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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21 aristocrats | |
n.贵族( aristocrat的名词复数 ) | |
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22 lame | |
adj.跛的,(辩解、论据等)无说服力的 | |
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23 gendarmes | |
n.宪兵,警官( gendarme的名词复数 ) | |
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24 vampires | |
n.吸血鬼( vampire的名词复数 );吸血蝠;高利贷者;(舞台上的)活板门 | |
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25 plunged | |
v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 );暴跌;骤降;突降 | |
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26 disorder | |
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调 | |
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27 gilded | |
a.镀金的,富有的 | |
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28 mired | |
abbr.microreciprocal degree 迈尔德(色温单位)v.深陷( mire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29 hurrah | |
int.好哇,万岁,乌拉 | |
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30 outrages | |
引起…的义愤,激怒( outrage的第三人称单数 ) | |
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31 torrent | |
n.激流,洪流;爆发,(话语等的)连发 | |
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32 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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33 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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34 carnation | |
n.康乃馨(一种花) | |
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35 catching | |
adj.易传染的,有魅力的,迷人的,接住 | |
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36 likeness | |
n.相像,相似(之处) | |
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37 fragrant | |
adj.芬香的,馥郁的,愉快的 | |
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38 glamour | |
n.魔力,魅力;vt.迷住 | |
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