Suis descendu on puiz
Ténébreux onquel disoit
Heraclytus estre Vereté cachée."
"There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not:
"The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid."
I
The utter desolation of the scene began to have its effect; I sat down to face the situation and, if possible, recall to mind some landmark1 which might aid me in extricating2 myself from my present position. If I could only find the ocean again all would be clear, for I knew one could see the island of Groix from the cliffs.
I laid down my gun, and kneeling behind a rock lighted a pipe. Then I looked at my watch. It was nearly four o'clock. I might have wandered far from Kerselec since daybreak.
Standing3 the day before on the cliffs below Kerselec with Goulven, looking out over the sombre moors5 among which I had now lost my way, these downs had appeared to me level as a meadow, stretching to the horizon, and although I knew how deceptive6 is distance, I could not realize that what from Kerselec seemed to be mere7 grassy8 hollows were great valleys covered with gorse and heather, and what looked like scattered9 boulders10 were in reality enormous cliffs of granite11.
"It's a bad place for a stranger," old Goulven had said: "you'd better take a guide;" and I had replied, "I shall not lose myself." Now I knew that I had lost myself, as I sat there smoking, with the sea-wind blowing in my face. On every side stretched the moorland, covered with flowering gorse and heath and granite boulders. There was not a tree in sight, much less a house. After a while, I picked up the gun, and turning my back on the sun tramped on again.
There was little use in following any of the brawling12 streams which every now and then crossed my path, for, instead of flowing into the sea, they ran inland to reedy pools in the hollows of the moors. I had followed several, but they all led me to swamps or silent little ponds from which the snipe rose peeping and wheeled away in an ecstasy13 of fright. I began to feel fatigued14, and the gun galled16 my shoulder in spite of the double pads. The sun sank lower and lower, shining level across yellow gorse and the moorland pools.
As I walked my own gigantic shadow led me on, seeming to lengthen17 at every step. The gorse scraped against my leggings, crackled beneath my feet, showering the brown earth with blossoms, and the brake bowed and billowed along my path. From tufts of heath rabbits scurried18 away through the bracken, and among the swamp grass I heard the wild duck's drowsy19 quack20. Once a fox stole across my path, and again, as I stooped to drink at a hurrying rill, a heron flapped heavily from the reeds beside me. I turned to look at the sun. It seemed to touch the edges of the plain. When at last I decided21 that it was useless to go on, and that I must make up my mind to spend at least one night on the moors, I threw myself down thoroughly22 fagged out. The evening sunlight slanted23 warm across my body, but the sea-winds began to rise, and I felt a chill strike through me from my wet shooting-boots. High overhead gulls24 were wheeling and tossing like bits of white paper; from some distant marsh25 a solitary26 curlew called. Little by little the sun sank into the plain, and the zenith flushed with the after-glow. I watched the sky change from palest gold to pink and then to smouldering fire. Clouds of midges danced above me, and high in the calm air a bat dipped and soared. My eyelids27 began to droop28. Then as I shook off the drowsiness29 a sudden crash among the bracken roused me. I raised my eyes. A great bird hung quivering in the air above my face. For an instant I stared, incapable30 of motion; then something leaped past me in the ferns and the bird rose, wheeled, and pitched headlong into the brake.
I was on my feet in an instant peering through the gorse. There came the sound of a struggle from a bunch of heather close by, and then all was quiet. I stepped forward, my gun poised31, but when I came to the heather the gun fell under my arm again, and I stood motionless in silent astonishment32. A dead hare lay on the ground, and on the hare stood a magnificent falcon33, one talon34 buried in the creature's neck, the other planted firmly on its limp flank. But what astonished me, was not the mere sight of a falcon sitting upon its prey35. I had seen that more than once. It was that the falcon was fitted with a sort of leash36 about both talons37, and from the leash hung a round bit of metal like a sleigh-bell. The bird turned its fierce yellow eyes on me, and then stooped and struck its curved beak38 into the quarry39. At the same instant hurried steps sounded among the heather, and a girl sprang into the covert40 in front. Without a glance at me she walked up to the falcon, and passing her gloved hand under its breast, raised it from the quarry. Then she deftly41 slipped a small hood42 over the bird's head, and holding it out on her gauntlet, stooped and picked up the hare.
She passed a cord about the animal's legs and fastened the end of the thong43 to her girdle. Then she started to retrace44 her steps through the covert. As she passed me I raised my cap and she acknowledged my presence with a scarcely perceptible inclination45. I had been so astonished, so lost in admiration46 of the scene before my eyes, that it had not occurred to me that here was my salvation47. But as she moved away I recollected48 that unless I wanted to sleep on a windy moor4 that night I had better recover my speech without delay. At my first word she hesitated, and as I stepped before her I thought a look of fear came into her beautiful eyes. But as I humbly49 explained my unpleasant plight50, her face flushed and she looked at me in wonder.
"Surely you did not come from Kerselec!" she repeated.
Her sweet voice had no trace of the Breton accent nor of any accent which I knew, and yet there was something in it I seemed to have heard before, something quaint51 and indefinable, like the theme of an old song.
I explained that I was an American, unacquainted with Finistère, shooting there for my own amusement.
"An American," she repeated in the same quaint musical tones. "I have never before seen an American."
For a moment she stood silent, then looking at me she said. "If you should walk all night you could not reach Kerselec now, even if you had a guide."
This was pleasant news.
"But," I began, "if I could only find a peasant's hut where I might get something to eat, and shelter."
The falcon on her wrist fluttered and shook its head. The girl smoothed its glossy52 back and glanced at me.
"Look around," she said gently. "Can you see the end of these moors? Look, north, south, east, west. Can you see anything but moorland and bracken?"
"No," I said.
"The moor is wild and desolate53. It is easy to enter, but sometimes they who enter never leave it. There are no peasants' huts here."
"Well," I said, "if you will tell me in which direction Kerselec lies, to-morrow it will take me no longer to go back than it has to come."
She looked at me again with an expression almost like pity.
"Ah," she said, "to come is easy and takes hours; to go is different—and may take centuries."
I stared at her in amazement54 but decided that I had misunderstood her. Then before I had time to speak she drew a whistle from her belt and sounded it.
"Sit down and rest," she said to me; "you have come a long distance and are tired."
She gathered up her pleated skirts and motioning me to follow picked her dainty way through the gorse to a flat rock among the ferns.
"They will be here directly," she said, and taking a seat at one end of the rock invited me to sit down on the other edge. The after-glow was beginning to fade in the sky and a single star twinkled faintly through the rosy55 haze56. A long wavering triangle of water-fowl drifted southward over our heads, and from the swamps around plover57 were calling.
"They are very beautiful—these moors," she said quietly.
"Beautiful, but cruel to strangers," I answered.
"Beautiful and cruel," she repeated dreamily, "beautiful and cruel."
"Like a woman," I said stupidly.
"Oh," she cried with a little catch in her breath, and looked at me. Her dark eyes met mine, and I thought she seemed angry or frightened.
"Like a woman," she repeated under her breath, "How cruel to say so!" Then after a pause, as though speaking aloud to herself, "How cruel for him to say that!"
I don't know what sort of an apology I offered for my inane58, though harmless speech, but I know that she seemed so troubled about it that I began to think I had said something very dreadful without knowing it, and remembered with horror the pitfalls59 and snares60 which the French language sets for foreigners. While I was trying to imagine what I might have said, a sound of voices came across the moor, and the girl rose to her feet.
"No," she said, with a trace of a smile on her pale face, "I will not accept your apologies, monsieur, but I must prove you wrong, and that shall be my revenge. Look. Here come Hastur and Raoul."
Two men loomed61 up in the twilight62. One had a sack across his shoulders and the other carried a hoop63 before him as a waiter carries a tray. The hoop was fastened with straps64 to his shoulders, and around the edge of the circlet sat three hooded65 falcons66 fitted with tinkling67 bells. The girl stepped up to the falconer, and with a quick turn of her wrist transferred her falcon to the hoop, where it quickly sidled off and nestled among its mates, who shook their hooded heads and ruffled68 their feathers till the belled jesses tinkled69 again. The other man stepped forward and bowing respectfully took up the hare and dropped it into the game-sack.
"These are my piqueurs," said the girl, turning to me with a gentle dignity. "Raoul is a good fauconnier, and I shall some day make him grand veneur. Hastur is incomparable."
"Did I not tell you, monsieur, that I should prove you wrong?" she continued. "This, then, is my revenge, that you do me the courtesy of accepting food and shelter at my own house."
Before I could answer she spoke71 to the falconers, who started instantly across the heath, and with a gracious gesture to me she followed. I don't know whether I made her understand how profoundly grateful I felt, but she seemed pleased to listen, as we walked over the dewy heather.
"Are you not very tired?" she asked.
"Don't you think your gallantry is a little old-fashioned?" she said; and when I looked confused and humbled72, she added quietly, "Oh, I like it, I like everything old-fashioned, and it is delightful73 to hear you say such pretty things."
The moorland around us was very still now under its ghostly sheet of mist. The plovers74 had ceased their calling; the crickets and all the little creatures of the fields were silent as we passed, yet it seemed to me as if I could hear them beginning again far behind us. Well in advance, the two tall falconers strode across the heather, and the faint jingling75 of the hawks76' bells came to our ears in distant murmuring chimes.
Suddenly a splendid hound dashed out of the mist in front, followed by another and another until half-a-dozen or more were bounding and leaping around the girl beside me. She caressed77 and quieted them with her gloved hand, speaking to them in quaint terms which I remembered to have seen in old French manuscripts.
Then the falcons on the circlet borne by the falconer ahead began to beat their wings and scream, and from somewhere out of sight the notes of a hunting-horn floated across the moor. The hounds sprang away before us and vanished in the twilight, the falcons flapped and squealed78 upon their perch79, and the girl, taking up the song of the horn, began to hum. Clear and mellow80 her voice sounded in the night air.
"Chasseur, chasseur, chassez encore,
Quittez Rosette et Jeanneton,
Tonton, tonton, tontaine, tonton,
Ou, pour, rabattre, dès l'aurore,
Que les Amours soient de planton,
Tonton, tontaine, tonton."
As I listened to her lovely voice a grey mass which rapidly grew more distinct loomed up in front, and the horn rang out joyously81 through the tumult82 of the hounds and falcons. A torch glimmered83 at a gate, a light streamed through an opening door, and we stepped upon a wooden bridge which trembled under our feet and rose creaking and straining behind us as we passed over the moat and into a small stone court, walled on every side. From an open doorway84 a man came and, bending in salutation, presented a cup to the girl beside me. She took the cup and touched it with her lips, then lowering it turned to me and said in a low voice, "I bid you welcome."
At that moment one of the falconers came with another cup, but before handing it to me, presented it to the girl, who tasted it. The falconer made a gesture to receive it, but she hesitated a moment, and then, stepping forward, offered me the cup with her own hands. I felt this to be an act of extraordinary graciousness, but hardly knew what was expected of me, and did not raise it to my lips at once. The girl flushed crimson85. I saw that I must act quickly.
"Mademoiselle," I faltered86, "a stranger whom you have saved from dangers he may never realize empties this cup to the gentlest and loveliest hostess of France."
"In His name," she murmured, crossing herself as I drained the cup. Then stepping into the doorway she turned to me with a pretty gesture and, taking my hand in hers, led me into the house, saying again and again: "You are very welcome, indeed you are welcome to the Chateau87 d'Ys."
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收听单词发音
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1
landmark
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| n.陆标，划时代的事，地界标 | |
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2
extricating
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| v.使摆脱困难，脱身( extricate的现在分词 ) | |
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3
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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4
moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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5
moors
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| v.停泊，系泊（船只）( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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6
deceptive
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| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
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7
mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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8
grassy
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| adj.盖满草的；长满草的 | |
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9
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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10
boulders
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| n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾 | |
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11
granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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12
brawling
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| n.争吵，喧嚷 | |
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13
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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14
fatigued
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| adj. 疲乏的 | |
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15
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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16
galled
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| v.使…擦痛( gall的过去式和过去分词 )；擦伤；烦扰；侮辱 | |
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17
lengthen
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| vt.使伸长，延长 | |
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18
scurried
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
drowsy
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| adj.昏昏欲睡的，令人发困的 | |
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20
quack
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| n.庸医；江湖医生；冒充内行的人；骗子 | |
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21
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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slanted
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| 有偏见的； 倾斜的 | |
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gulls
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| n.鸥( gull的名词复数 )v.欺骗某人( gull的第三人称单数 ) | |
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25
marsh
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| n.沼泽，湿地 | |
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solitary
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| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
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27
eyelids
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| n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 )；眼睛也不眨一下；不露声色；面不改色 | |
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28
droop
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| v.低垂，下垂；凋萎，萎靡 | |
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drowsiness
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| n.睡意；嗜睡 | |
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30
incapable
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| adj.无能力的，不能做某事的 | |
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31
poised
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| a.摆好姿势不动的 | |
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32
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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33
falcon
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| n.隼，猎鹰 | |
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34
talon
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| n.爪；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物 | |
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prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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36
leash
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| n.牵狗的皮带，束缚；v.用皮带系住 | |
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talons
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| n.（尤指猛禽的）爪( talon的名词复数 )；（如爪般的）手指；爪状物；锁簧尖状突出部 | |
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beak
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| n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻 | |
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quarry
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| n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找 | |
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40
covert
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| adj.隐藏的；暗地里的 | |
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41
deftly
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| adv.灵巧地，熟练地，敏捷地 | |
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42
hood
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| n.头巾，兜帽，覆盖；v.罩上，以头巾覆盖 | |
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43
thong
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| n.皮带；皮鞭；v.装皮带 | |
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44
retrace
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| v.折回；追溯，探源 | |
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45
inclination
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| n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好 | |
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46
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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47
salvation
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| n.（尤指基督）救世，超度，拯救，解困 | |
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48
recollected
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| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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49
humbly
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| adv. 恭顺地，谦卑地 | |
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50
plight
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| n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定 | |
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51
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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52
glossy
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| adj.平滑的；有光泽的 | |
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53
desolate
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| adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂 | |
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54
amazement
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| n.惊奇，惊讶 | |
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55
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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56
haze
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| n.霾，烟雾；懵懂，迷糊；vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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57
plover
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| n.珩，珩科鸟，千鸟 | |
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58
inane
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| adj.空虚的，愚蠢的，空洞的 | |
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59
pitfalls
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| （捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误 | |
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60
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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61
loomed
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| v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近 | |
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62
twilight
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| n.暮光，黄昏；暮年，晚期，衰落时期 | |
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63
hoop
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| n.（篮球）篮圈，篮 | |
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64
straps
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| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
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65
hooded
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| adj.戴头巾的；有罩盖的；颈部因肋骨运动而膨胀的 | |
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66
falcons
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| n.猎鹰( falcon的名词复数 ) | |
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67
tinkling
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| n.丁当作响声 | |
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68
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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69
tinkled
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| （使）发出丁当声，（使）发铃铃声( tinkle的过去式和过去分词 )； 叮当响着发出，铃铃响着报出 | |
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70
saluted
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| v.欢迎，致敬( salute的过去式和过去分词 )；赞扬，赞颂 | |
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71
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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72
humbled
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| adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低 | |
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73
delightful
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| adj.令人高兴的，使人快乐的 | |
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74
plovers
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| n.珩，珩科鸟（如凤头麦鸡）( plover的名词复数 ) | |
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75
jingling
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| 叮当声 | |
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76
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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77
caressed
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| 爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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78
squealed
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| v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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79
perch
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| n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于 | |
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80
mellow
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| adj.柔和的；熟透的；v.变柔和；(使)成熟 | |
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81
joyously
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| ad.快乐地, 高兴地 | |
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82
tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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83
glimmered
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| v.发闪光，发微光( glimmer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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84
doorway
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| n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径 | |
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85
crimson
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| n./adj.深(绯)红色(的)；vi.脸变绯红色 | |
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86
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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87
chateau
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| n.城堡，别墅 | |
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