These heights, like all the crests4 which surround the basin of that entrenched5 camp, are fortified6, both with complete works and with connecting trenches7 and batteries; save in the gap between the isolated hill and the ridge8 I have mentioned the guns are everywhere. In this gap, in the hollow of it and upon the hillside, is a little village which, like all the villages on the actual line of the encircling forts, is wholly dominated by the soldiery; these furnish it with all its trade, these give it its few adventures and its manner of life. The peasants are woken summer and winter by the sound of bugles9; the heavy firing of practice is a usual thing to them; a profitable commerce with a garrison10 twice as numerous as the civil population enriches those who work upon their land.
[Pg 168]
In this village there lived one of those families which are poor in a country of free men through their own fault; they had land, of course; no rent was asked of them; they were in a community which had now for many ages administered itself, and had for more than a hundred years forgotten the oppression of a territorial11 class. Nevertheless, by some vice12 of temperament13, they lived like slatterns, and if they cultivated at all some tiny patch of their ruined and weedy holding, it was but just so much as would keep their souls within their bodies, and they preferred chance begging and barefoot jobs at the railway-station or in the streets of the town. Their house was more a cave than a hut; it was dug out of the hillside, with beaten earth walls, save where the front portion of it jutted14 out, and was roofed with old bits of corrugated15 iron borrowed or stolen from the sappers. These were supported by a jumble16 of ramshackle wood, old railway-sleepers, and here and there were gaps stopped roughly with canvas.
In such a place, surrounded by brothers and sisters of all ages, and the only houseworker to a drunken and worthless mother, lived, by accident, one of those women who have such great power in this world. Her ugliness was singular; it had nothing to do with that power save perhaps to enhance it. Her hair, which was sparse17 and crisp, was of a bright, unpleasing red, harsh and offensive; her eyes were green and stood very far apart in her head;[Pg 169] her mouth was large and very decided18 and firm. It is not by any recapitulation of her features (though any one who had once seen them would always remember them) that one can give the impression of her power. This rather proceeded from a gesture, a manner, and a whole being which was the continual outer manifestation19 of a certain kind of soul. There was strength in all her gestures, an upstanding challenge in the poise21 of her body whether she worked or walked, and a sort of creative handling of things whenever she grasped them which at once arrested the attention of a man. Her excessive poverty and the gross carelessness of her surroundings, by contrast greatly enhanced these things.
The young soldiers cared very little for mysteries; their religion was indifferent to them, their knowledge of the perils22 and of the adventures of the soul was less than that of children; for those who might have guessed at the mysterious things which everywhere surround our existence, even at twenty-one, had such imaginings drowned and purged23 out of them by continual labour in the open air, by hours of grooming24 and of riding, by the deep and glorious fatigue25 of such a life, by sleep in the night, by hunger and by fellowship. Nevertheless, among the more leisured, that is, among the non-commissioned officers, there was one man who fell under the spell. He was handsome, unintelligent, lacking in judgment26, and perhaps twenty-five years of age. His father was a large farmer to the north of Rheims;[Pg 170] he had a very fair allowance from home; he was regular and did his service well; he was, so far as the non-commissioned ranks can be in any army, popular with the men. This fellow felt the spell. He felt it neither deeply nor violently, for his nature was one on which the great emotions could have no play; but he would seek such duties as brought him to the village, he would intrigue27 to be sent upon any inspection28 of the reserve forces or with provisions up into the forts, or upon any other business which would give him for a few moments a chance of seeing her at the door of that miserable29 hovel, and of exchanging half-a-dozen words from the saddle. His leave he would often spend in the inn of that village, some said in her company (but I doubt if this were true); he would have taken her once into Nancy to see some public show or other, but she would not go.
Between the end of winter and the start for camp, the thing had become as much a habit to him as his own name, and by a sort of code which the regiment30 observed, his habit was respected and passed by; indeed, to have become so immeshed regarded no one but himself, and the singular net that had been thrown over him was not one which others envied. But there was one who envied him.
When he had been Vaguemestre, that is, the sergeant31 deputed to fetch the letters of the regiment, and often also when he had gone out to note the condition of the reserve horses or upon any[Pg 171] other message, he had taken with him one of the two-year men, a Belgian who had crossed the frontier to find work in his teens, and was not ill content to have been caught by the conscription, for he was utterly32 destitute33 and knew neither father nor mother. This man was dark, short and broad; he was kindly34 in temper and, one would have said, an animal for stupidity. He was possessed35 of great physical strength; he was a faithful servant and follower36 where he was employed. And his Sergeant who thus favoured him would often see to it that his service should be lightened in one way or another, and made his life more easy to him than it was to the other drivers of the battery. He was popular, every one helped him, he had done harm to no one, he was always willing. He very rarely spoke37, amid all that voluble clatter38 of young men, and when he did, it was to crack some simple peasant joke or to repeat some old tag of a proverb.
But one day the head of the room who happened to have no stripes and was no more than an older soldier, or, as it was called in that service, "an ancient," found him sitting on his bed and crying. The lout39 was crying in a gentle but despairing sort of way. The ancient was a rough man, a miner and rather brutal40. He would have none of it. And just as he was making things rough for the Belgian, the Sergeant's voice came down the wooden corridors calling him to saddle the two beasts: and all the Belgian did was to refuse. It was a quite unheard-of[Pg 172] thing. There was no elasticity41 in the service; and if any one in authority said "Do this," to say "I will not," or even to be slow in obedience42, was as grave, or rather as unknown, as is a crime of violence among wealthy men.
Now the Sergeant, with more womanliness and discernment than one would have thought any one could have shown in such a place, made no noise about it, but came in to see what miracle had happened. He saw the lad sitting there upon his bed with his coarse face full of despair, and he did not in the least understand what could have happened. The eyes of the lad were as full of wonder and of terror and of hopelessness as though he had seen some full tragedy of human life. The Sergeant shrugged43 his shoulders and let him be, and to save his being worried sent him off upon an easy job until he should come round. Then taking another man to saddle the two horses and to accompany him, he went off upon his usual round towards the hills, upon some official errand or other which he had managed to secure. But when he got there he found in the village, without leave, and having run and panted through the newly ploughed fields, this Belgian fellow, looking like an angry dog, sullen44, and with new tears in his eyes, standing20 outside the door of the hovel.
He ordered him back; he rode his horse after him as the Belgian obeyed, and began trudging45 suddenly away, and said that he would not report it, but that[Pg 173] it was a piece of madness, and that if that sort of thing went on it ended in Africa.
The Belgian said nothing, but plodded46 off, his enormous strength apparent in every step; and apparent also in the set of his neck and shoulders, and the bending of his head, something of doom47. When he got back to quarters he got a ball cartridge48 from the workroom—no one knows how—he put it in one of the gunner's carbines, which he took from the rack—he had never handled such a weapon before—pulled off the boot from his sockless right foot, put the barrel of the thing in his mouth, and with his toe pressed down the trigger. In this way he killed himself.
I have told the thing exactly as it happened. Then many of the young men first knew that our lives are not wholly of our own ordering, or, to put it better, learned that to ride one's destiny needs in the soul of a man a training, a quickness and a constancy like that which, in the body, helps a man to ride a strong horse and to control him.
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1
eastward
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| adv.向东；adj.向东的；n.东方，东部 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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dedicated
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| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
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crests
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| v.到达山顶（或浪峰）( crest的第三人称单数 )；到达洪峰，达到顶点 | |
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5
entrenched
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| adj.确立的，不容易改的(风俗习惯) | |
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fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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trenches
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| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
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8
ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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9
bugles
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| 妙脆角，一种类似薯片但做成尖角或喇叭状的零食； 号角( bugle的名词复数 )； 喇叭； 匍匐筋骨草； （装饰女服用的）柱状玻璃（或塑料）小珠 | |
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10
garrison
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| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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11
territorial
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| adj.领土的，领地的 | |
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12
vice
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| n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的 | |
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13
temperament
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| n.气质，性格，性情 | |
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14
jutted
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| v.（使）突出( jut的过去式和过去分词 )；伸出；（从…）突出；高出 | |
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15
corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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jumble
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| vt.使混乱，混杂；n.混乱；杂乱的一堆 | |
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sparse
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| adj.稀疏的，稀稀落落的，薄的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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manifestation
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| n.表现形式；表明；现象 | |
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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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poise
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| vt./vi. 平衡，保持平衡；n.泰然自若，自信 | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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23
purged
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| 清除（政敌等）( purge的过去式和过去分词 )； 涤除（罪恶等）； 净化（心灵、风气等）； 消除（错事等）的不良影响 | |
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24
grooming
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| n. 修饰, 美容，（动物）梳理毛发 | |
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25
fatigue
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| n.疲劳，劳累 | |
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26
judgment
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| n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见 | |
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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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28
inspection
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| n.检查，审查，检阅 | |
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29
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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30
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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32
utterly
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| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
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33
destitute
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| adj.缺乏的；穷困的 | |
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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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35
possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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36
follower
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| n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒 | |
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37
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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38
clatter
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| v./n.(使)发出连续而清脆的撞击声 | |
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39
lout
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| n.粗鄙的人；举止粗鲁的人 | |
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40
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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41
elasticity
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| n.弹性，伸缩力 | |
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42
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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43
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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44
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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45
trudging
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的现在分词形式） | |
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46
plodded
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| v.沉重缓慢地走（路）( plod的过去式和过去分词 )；努力从事；沉闷地苦干；缓慢进行（尤指艰难枯燥的工作） | |
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47
doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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48
cartridge
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| n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
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