On the evening of the 28th of May, 1797, at the moment when, his glorious campaign in Italy finished, Bonaparte was enthroned with Josephine at Montebello, surrounded by ministers from foreign courts; when the Corinthian horses, having descended1 from the Duomo, and the Lion of Saint Mark, having fallen from its column, were on their way to Paris; when Pichegru, relieved from service on account of vague suspicions, had just been made president of the Five Hundred, and Barbé-Marbois president of the Ancients—a horseman, who was travelling, as Virgil says, "under the friendly silence of the moon" ("Per amica silentia lun?"), and who was trotting2 upon a powerful horse along the road from Macon to Bourg, left that road a little above the village of Polias. He jumped, or rather made his horse jump, the ditch which separated the road from the plowed3 fields, and followed the banks of the river Veyle for about five hundred yards, where he was not liable to meet either villager or traveller. There, doubtless no longer fearing to be recognized or noticed, he allowed his coat to slip from his shoulders to the saddle, thereby4 discovering a belt in which he carried two pistols and a hunting-knife. Then he lifted his hat and wiped his perspiring5 forehead. The traveller was a young man of twenty-eight or nine years of age, handsome, distinguished6, and well-built; and it was evident that he was prepared to repel7 force by force if any one should have the temerity8 to attack him.
[Pg 384]
And, by the way, the precaution which had caused him to put a pair of pistols in his belt was by no means an unwarranted one. The Thermidorean reaction, suppressed in Paris on the 13th Vendémiaire, had taken refuge in the provinces, where it had assumed gigantic proportions. Lyons was become its headquarters; on one side, by way of N?mes, it stretched out its hand to Marseilles, and on the other, by way of Bourg in Bresse, as far as Besan?on. For further information regarding this reaction we might refer our reader to our romance "The Companions of Jehu," or to Charles Nodier's "Souvenirs de la Revolution et de l'Empire"; but as the reader will probably not have either of these two works at hand, we will briefly9 reproduce here what is necessary for our purpose.
It was not to be wondered at that the Thermidorean reaction, suppressed in the first capital of France, had taken up its abode10 in the second, with branches at Marseilles and Besan?on. What Lyons suffered after the revolt is well known. The guillotine was too slow, and Collot d'Herbois and Fouché supplemented it with grape and canister. There were few families at that time, belonging either to the rich commercial classes or the nobility, who had not lost one or more of its members. The time had now come to avenge11 the lost father, brother or son; and they were avenged12 openly, publicly, in broad daylight. "You caused the death of my father, my son, or my brother," they would say to the informer, and then they would immediately strike him down.
"Speculation13 in regard to murder," says Nodier, "was largely indulged in among the upper classes. There, secrets of murder were recounted in the salons15 which would have terrified the galleys16. Men played Charlemagne with death for the stakes, without even taking the trouble to lower their voices when they discussed their plans of killing17. The women, sweet alleviators of all the passions of men, took part in these dreadful discussions of death. Since horrible hags no longer wore guillotines for ear-rings,[Pg 385] 'adorable furies,' as Corneille would have said, wore daggers19 for breast-pins. If you objected on sentimental20 grounds to these frightful21 excesses, they would take you to the Brotteaux and make you tread, in spite of yourself, upon the elastic22 springy soil, saying: 'Our relatives are there.' What a picture do these exceptional times present, whose nameless, indefinable character cannot be expressed by the facts themselves, so inadequate23 are words to reproduce the unheard of confusion of ideas, so antipathetic in themselves, the union of the most refined methods with implacable fury, the horrifying24 compact between the doctrines25 of humanity and deeds worthy26 of cannibalism27. How can we convey an adequate impression of this impossible time when prison-cells did not protect the prisoners, when the executioner, who came in search of his victim, found, to his astonishment28, that he had been preceded by the assassin—this never-ending 2d of September, renewed every day by respectable young men who had just left a salon14, and who were expected in a boudoir?
"It was, it must be admitted, a localized monomania—a craving29 for rage and murder which had sprung into life under the wings of revolutionary harpies; an appetite for larceny30, sharpened by confiscations; a thirst for blood, inflamed31 by the sight of blood. It was the frenzy32 of a generation nourished, like Achilles, upon the marrow33 of wild animals; a generation which had no model or ideal other than Schiller's brigands34 and the free-booters of the Middle Ages. It was the sharp irresistible35 desire to renew society by the means which had destroyed it—crime. It was the inevitable36 result of the immutable37 tendency of compensation in remarkable38 times; the Titans after Chaos39; Python after the deluge40; a flock of vultures after the battle; the unerring law of retaliation41 for those unaccountable scourges42 which demand death for death, corpse43 for corpse, which pays itself with usury44, and which Holy Writ45 counts among the treasures of Providence46.
"The unexpected amalgamation47 of these bands, whose[Pg 386] object was at first unknown, exhibited at first in a slight degree the inevitable confusion of ranks, conditions, and persons which is noticeable in all factions48 and parties which are the outgrowth of a disorganized society; but there was less in this case than had ever been seen before. That portion of the lower classes which participated in the movement did not lack the varnish49 of manner which is the result of expensive vices50; an aristocratic populace which ran from one debauch51 to another, and from one excess to another, in the wake of the nobility of name and fortune, as if to prove that there is nothing more facile of emulation52 than a bad example. The remainder concealed53 beneath a most refined exterior54 a more odious55 depravity, because it had to break down the barriers of conventionality and education. Never before had so many assassins in silk stockings been seen; and it would have been a great mistake to imagine that luxurious56 habits existed in an inverse57 ratio to ferocity of character. Pitiless examples of mad fury were no less common among men of the world than among men of the people, and death was found to possess no less cruel refinements58 when inflicted59 by the dagger18 of the dandy than when inflicted by the knife of the butcher.
"The proscribed60 had at first eagerly sought the shelter of the prisons as a refuge. When this melancholy61 bulwark62 was destroyed, like everything else that men had formerly63 held sacred—like the churches and the tombs—the administration endeavored to provide for the safety of the victims by sending them out of the provinces. To protect them from private vengeance64, the authorities sent them sixty or eighty miles away from their wives and children, among men who knew neither their names nor their station. The fatal move only resulted in changing the place of sepulchre. These parties in death exchanges delivered their prey65 from one department to another with the regularity66 of commercial transactions. Never had business-like habits been thus degraded to horrible traffic. Nor were these barbarous drafts, payable67 in men's heads, protested when they came due.[Pg 387] As soon as the letter of advice arrived they would coolly balance debits68 and credits, and carry forward the balances, and the check drawn69 in blood would be honored at sight.
"This spectacle, the very idea of which is revolting to the soul, was often renewed. Picture to yourself one of those long carts with racks in which animals are taken to the shambles70, and hurdled71 upon them in confusion, men, their hands and feet securely tied with cords, their heads hanging down, swaying with each jolt72 of the cart, panting for breath, in despair and terror, for crimes of which the greatest was an excited outburst which had spent itself in threatening words. Do not imagine for a second that the feast of the martyrs73 or the expiatory74 honors of the sacrifice were prepared for them on their return, or that they were even allowed the empty satisfaction of offering for a moment an impossible resistance to an attack without peril75, as in the arenas76 of Constantius and Gallus. The assassins surprised them as they lay; and they were murdered in their bonds, and the club, reddened with blood, continued to play upon their bodies long after they had ceased to feel."
Nodier once saw and described to me a septuagenarian noted77 for his gentleness of manner and that scrupulous78 courtesy which is esteemed79 above all else in provincial80 salons; one of those men of breeding who are becoming almost extinct, and who used to make one visit to Paris to pay their court to the minister, and to be present at the king's card-party and hunting-party, and who owed to this happy memory the privilege of dining from time to time with the intendant, and of giving their opinion on important occasions upon questions of etiquette81. Nodier saw him—while women looked on calmly holding their children in their arms, and while the latter clapped their little hands—Nodier saw him, and I quote his very words, "wearying his withered82 old arm striking a corpse with his gold-headed cane83, in which the assassins had neglected to extinguish[Pg 388] the last spark of life, and which had just betrayed its agony by a final convulsion."
And now that we have tried to give some idea of the state of the country through which the traveller was passing, no wonder will be felt at the precautions which he had deemed advisable to take, nor at the attention he paid to every turn of the country, with which he seemed wholly unfamiliar84. In fact, he had not followed the banks of the Veyle for more than a mile and a half before he reined85 in his horse, stood up in his stirrups, and, leaning over his saddle, tried to pierce the darkness, which had deepened since a cloud had passed over the face of the moon. He began to despair of finding his way without being forced to secure the services of a guide, either at Montech or at Saint-Denis, when a voice, coming apparently86 from the depths of the river, startled him, so unexpected was it. It said in the most cordial tone: "Can I assist you in any way, citizen?"
"Faith, yes," replied the traveller; "and as I cannot come to you, not knowing where you are, perhaps you will be so good as to come to me, since you apparently do know where I am."
And thus speaking he covered his pistols, and the hand which was playing with them, with his cloak.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
trotting
|
|
| 小跑，急走( trot的现在分词 )； 匆匆忙忙地走 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
plowed
|
|
| v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
thereby
|
|
| adv.因此，从而 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
perspiring
|
|
| v.出汗，流汗( perspire的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
distinguished
|
|
| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
repel
|
|
| v.击退，抵制，拒绝，排斥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
temerity
|
|
| n.鲁莽，冒失 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
abode
|
|
| n.住处，住所 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
avenge
|
|
| v.为...复仇，为...报仇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
avenged
|
|
| v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的过去式和过去分词 )；为…报复 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
speculation
|
|
| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
salon
|
|
| n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
salons
|
|
| n.（营业性质的）店( salon的名词复数 )；厅；沙龙（旧时在上流社会女主人家的例行聚会或聚会场所）；（大宅中的）客厅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
galleys
|
|
| n.平底大船，战舰( galley的名词复数 )；（船上或航空器上的）厨房 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
killing
|
|
| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
dagger
|
|
| n.匕首，短剑，剑号 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
daggers
|
|
| 匕首，短剑( dagger的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
sentimental
|
|
| adj.多愁善感的，感伤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
frightful
|
|
| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
elastic
|
|
| n.橡皮圈，松紧带；adj.有弹性的；灵活的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
inadequate
|
|
| adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
horrifying
|
|
| a.令人震惊的，使人毛骨悚然的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
doctrines
|
|
| n.教条( doctrine的名词复数 )；教义；学说；（政府政策的）正式声明 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
worthy
|
|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
cannibalism
|
|
| n.同类相食；吃人肉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
astonishment
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
craving
|
|
| n.渴望,热望 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
larceny
|
|
| n.盗窃（罪） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
inflamed
|
|
| 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 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
frenzy
|
|
| n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
marrow
|
|
| n.骨髓；精华；活力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
brigands
|
|
| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
irresistible
|
|
| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
immutable
|
|
| adj.不可改变的，永恒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
chaos
|
|
| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
deluge
|
|
| n./vt.洪水，暴雨，使泛滥 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
retaliation
|
|
| n.报复，反击 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
scourges
|
|
| 带来灾难的人或东西，祸害( scourge的名词复数 )； 鞭子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
corpse
|
|
| n.尸体，死尸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
usury
|
|
| n.高利贷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
writ
|
|
| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
providence
|
|
| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
amalgamation
|
|
| n.合并，重组；；汞齐化 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
factions
|
|
| 组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
varnish
|
|
| n.清漆；v.上清漆；粉饰 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
vices
|
|
| 缺陷( vice的名词复数 )； 恶习； 不道德行为； 台钳 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
debauch
|
|
| v.使堕落，放纵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
emulation
|
|
| n.竞争；仿效 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
concealed
|
|
| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
exterior
|
|
| adj.外部的，外在的；表面的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
odious
|
|
| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
luxurious
|
|
| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
inverse
|
|
| adj.相反的，倒转的，反转的；n.相反之物；v.倒转 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
refinements
|
|
| n.（生活）风雅；精炼( refinement的名词复数 )；改良品；细微的改良；优雅或高贵的动作 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
inflicted
|
|
| 把…强加给，使承受，遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
proscribed
|
|
| 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 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
melancholy
|
|
| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
bulwark
|
|
| n.堡垒，保障，防御 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
formerly
|
|
| adv.从前，以前 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
vengeance
|
|
| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
prey
|
|
| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
regularity
|
|
| n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
payable
|
|
| adj.可付的，应付的，有利益的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
debits
|
|
| n.（簿记中的）收方，借方( debit的名词复数 )；从账户中提取的款项v.记入（账户）的借方( debit的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
shambles
|
|
| n.混乱之处；废墟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
hurdled
|
|
| vi.克服困难（hurdle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
jolt
|
|
| v.（使）摇动，（使）震动，（使）颠簸 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
martyrs
|
|
| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
expiatory
|
|
| adj.赎罪的，补偿的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
75
peril
|
|
| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
arenas
|
|
| 表演场地( arena的名词复数 )； 竞技场； 活动或斗争的场所或场面； 圆形运动场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
scrupulous
|
|
| adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
esteemed
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
provincial
|
|
| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
etiquette
|
|
| n.礼仪，礼节；规矩 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
withered
|
|
| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
cane
|
|
| n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
unfamiliar
|
|
| adj.陌生的，不熟悉的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
reined
|
|
| 勒缰绳使（马）停步( rein的过去式和过去分词 )； 驾驭； 严格控制； 加强管理 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
apparently
|
|
| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |