There were others who suffered with him in the barbaric prison-house. What he endured was no less, no more, than they were made to bear. Happy indeed were those whom death released from misery3 and anguish4 that tongue could never tell, nor pen describe. Hell itself, as pictured by maddest brain of the most fiendish fanatic5, could not have shown greater resources in the way of physical and mental torture. The Black Hole of Calcutta lacked many of the special horrors of the inner den6 in which the prophet's prisoners were herded7 during all the awful hours of night. The bloodstained walls of the Tower of London, if walls could speak, whispering of the rack, the thumbscrew, and the boot, might tell indeed of sharper anguish, sooner over. The secret history of the Spanish Inquisition, if published, would reveal not less ingenuity—perhaps greater, in the refined subtleties8 of cruelty. But the prison at Khartum excelled them all at least in one respect—the prolongation of the agony inflicted9.
Not for weeks or months, but for years, if life endured, the prisoner had to suffer. Wearing three sets of shackles10, with an iron ring round his neck, to[Pg vi] which was attached a heavy chain, Renshaw—the White Kaffir—the man of culture and social ease in London, but here the reviled11 unbeliever, when night came was thrust into a stone-walled room measuring some thirty feet each way. A large pillar, supporting the roof, reduced the space available. Two prisoners, in chains, were dying of smallpox12 in a corner; some thirty others, suffering from various diseases, lay about the floor, which reeked13 with filth14 and swarmed15 with vermin. A compound stench, sickening and over-powering, assailed16 the nostrils17, and every moment this increased as more prisoners, and yet more, were driven in for the night. The groans18 of the sick, the screams of the mad, the curses of others as they fought fiercely for places against one or another of the walls, blended in awful tumult19 as the door was closed upon the darkness within. Yet again and again that door was opened, and more prisoners were crowded in; until, at last, they fought and bit and raved20 even for standing21 room.
Night after night, for nearly four years, Renshaw, the man of delicate fibre and refined training, the son of Western civilization, lived through such scenes as these, amid incidental horrors of bestiality that cannot be set down. When the uproar22 in the prison attained23 exceptional violence, the guards threw back the doors, and lashed24 with their hide-whips at the heads and faces of the nearest prisoners, and every time that this occurred some of them, struggling to move back, fell to the ground, and were trampled26 under foot.
Renshaw was the only white prisoner among the Soudanese and Egyptians who thus endured the tender mercies of the Prophet—the Prophet for whom, it was said, the Angels had fought and would fight again, until every follower27 of the Cross accepted the Koran of Mahommed. For, like many of the greatest crimes that stain the annals of mankind,[Pg vii] this prison discipline, in theory, was designed to benefit the souls of the captives. The White Kaffir, as an unbeliever, a dog and an outcast, was a special object of the Mahdi's solicitation28. Only let him believe and his fetters should be struck off, or, at least, some of them. He had but to cry aloud in fervent29 faith, "There is but one God, and Mahommed is his Prophet!"
But it was a cry that never passed the lips of Wilson Renshaw. The lash25 was tried again and again. Fifteen to twenty lashes30 at first; then a hundred; then a hundred and fifty. But still the bleeding lips in which the white man's teeth were biting in his anguish would not blaspheme. "Will you not cry out?" the gaoler asked. "Dog of a Christian31, are thy head and heart of stone?" No answer; and again and yet again the lash descended32.
If only death would come, kind death to end this pain of mutilated flesh; this still sharper pain of degradation33 and humiliation34! But death came not. Courage, indomitable pride of race, a godlike quality of patience, armed the White Kaffir to endure the slings35 and arrows of his dreadful fate. Death he would welcome with a sigh of gladness, but these barbarians36 should never, never break his spirit.
At last the rigour of his sufferings was abated37. Out of the mists of what seemed an interminable period of delirium38, he awoke to a change of his treatment that caused him much surprise. No longer was he to be half starved. At night he was allowed to sleep alone in a rough, dark hut in a corner of the prison compound. Each day he was permitted, though still fettered39, to go down to the river, on the banks of which the prison was placed, and wash in the waters of the Nile. From all of these changes it became apparent that his life, and not his death, was now desired. The motive40 for the change he had yet to realize. A whisper here and there, a chance word from his gaolers, with sundry41 indica[Pg viii]tions, fugitive42 and various, at length convinced him that this amelioration of his fate could have but one sinister43 explanation, and one inspiring motive. If not the Mahdi himself, then some of the more covetous44 of his leading followers45 must be drawing payment from some mysterious source, a subsidy46 for holding him secure, here under the burning African sun, remote and cut off from all chance of rescue or escape.
Yet escapes were planned, for even among these barbarous people there were a few who felt compassion47 for the hapless condition of the White Kaffir; and when it began to be rumoured48 that he was a man of high consideration in his native country, others, moved by cupidity49 and the prospect50 of a great reward, found means of letting Renshaw know that, on conditions, they were willing to secure him at least a chance of freedom. But every plan fell through. The Mahdi's spies were everywhere, and those who fell under suspicion of seeking to aid Renshaw to break free from his captivity51 received a punishment so terrible that he shrank from listening to any further offer of assistance.
Presently his condition underwent yet further betterment. He became a prisoner at large—though still fettered and still closely watched. Employment he had none, save the performance of a few menial offices. Books he had none, save Al-Koran, the volume containing the religious, social, commercial, military, and legal code of Islam. But here, in the heart of this dreadful land, among the dark people of the Dark Continent, he now learned to look upon the book of life itself from a new and startling standpoint. Before him was unfolded a new and terrible chapter of history in the making, a chapter which revealed the slow marshalling of millions of the dark-skinned races, eager to wrest52 dominion53 and supremacy54 from the white-skinned masters of the world.
点击收听单词发音
1 fetters | |
n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 );束缚v.给…上脚镣,束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 swollen | |
adj.肿大的,水涨的;v.使变大,肿胀 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 fanatic | |
n.狂热者,入迷者;adj.狂热入迷的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 den | |
n.兽穴;秘密地方;安静的小房间,私室 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 herded | |
群集,纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 ); 放牧; (使)向…移动 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 subtleties | |
细微( subtlety的名词复数 ); 精细; 巧妙; 细微的差别等 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 inflicted | |
把…强加给,使承受,遭受( inflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 shackles | |
手铐( shackle的名词复数 ); 脚镣; 束缚; 羁绊 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 reviled | |
v.辱骂,痛斥( revile的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 smallpox | |
n.天花 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 reeked | |
v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的过去式和过去分词 );散发臭气;发出难闻的气味 (of sth);明显带有(令人不快或生疑的跡象) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 filth | |
n.肮脏,污物,污秽;淫猥 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 swarmed | |
密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 ); 云集; 成群地移动; 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 assailed | |
v.攻击( assail的过去式和过去分词 );困扰;质问;毅然应对 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 nostrils | |
鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 groans | |
n.呻吟,叹息( groan的名词复数 );呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 tumult | |
n.喧哗;激动,混乱;吵闹 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 raved | |
v.胡言乱语( rave的过去式和过去分词 );愤怒地说;咆哮;痴心地说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 uproar | |
n.骚动,喧嚣,鼎沸 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 attained | |
(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) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 lashed | |
adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 );煽动;紧系;怒斥 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 lash | |
v.系牢;鞭打;猛烈抨击;n.鞭打;眼睫毛 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 trampled | |
踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 follower | |
n.跟随者;随员;门徒;信徒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 solicitation | |
n.诱惑;揽货;恳切地要求;游说 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 fervent | |
adj.热的,热烈的,热情的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 lashes | |
n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 );鞭子;突然猛烈的一击;急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 );煽动;紧系;怒斥 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 descended | |
a.为...后裔的,出身于...的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 degradation | |
n.降级;低落;退化;陵削;降解;衰变 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 humiliation | |
n.羞辱 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 slings | |
抛( sling的第三人称单数 ); 吊挂; 遣送; 押往 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 barbarians | |
n.野蛮人( barbarian的名词复数 );外国人;粗野的人;无教养的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 abated | |
减少( abate的过去式和过去分词 ); 减去; 降价; 撤消(诉讼) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 delirium | |
n. 神智昏迷,说胡话;极度兴奋 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 fettered | |
v.给…上脚镣,束缚( fetter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 motive | |
n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 sundry | |
adj.各式各样的,种种的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 fugitive | |
adj.逃亡的,易逝的;n.逃犯,逃亡者 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 sinister | |
adj.不吉利的,凶恶的,左边的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
44 covetous | |
adj.贪婪的,贪心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
45 followers | |
追随者( follower的名词复数 ); 用户; 契据的附面; 从动件 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
46 subsidy | |
n.补助金,津贴 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
47 compassion | |
n.同情,怜悯 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
48 rumoured | |
adj.谣传的;传说的;风 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
49 cupidity | |
n.贪心,贪财 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
50 prospect | |
n.前景,前途;景色,视野 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
51 captivity | |
n.囚禁;被俘;束缚 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
52 wrest | |
n.扭,拧,猛夺;v.夺取,猛扭,歪曲 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
53 dominion | |
n.统治,管辖,支配权;领土,版图 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
54 supremacy | |
n.至上;至高权力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |