The two essays [Footnote: The twenty-first chapter of Du Maillot's Hommes Illustres; and the fifth of d'Avranches's Ancêtres de la Révolution. Löwe has an excellent digest of this data.] dealing1 with the man have scarcely touched his capabilities2. His exploits in and about Paris and his Gascon doings, while important enough in the outcome, are but the gesticulations of a puppet: the historian's real concern is with the hands that manoeuvered above Cazaio; and whether or no Achille Cazaio organized the riots in Toulouse and Guienne and Béarn is a question with which, at this late day, there can be little profitable commerce.
One recommends this Cazaio rather to the spinners of romance: with his morality—a trifle buccaneerish on occasion—once discreetly3 palliated, history affords few heroes more instantly taking to the fancy….One casts a hankering eye toward this Cazaio's rumored4 parentage, his hopeless and life-long adoration5 of Claire de Puysange, his dealings with d'Argenson and King Louis le Bien-Aimé, the obscure and mischievous6 imbroglios7 in Spain, and finally his aggrandizement8 and his flame-lit death, as du Maillot, say, records these happenings: and one finds therein the outline of an impelling9 hero, and laments10 that our traffic must be with a stolid11 and less livelily tinted12 Bulmer. And with a sigh one passes on toward the labor13 prearranged….
To-night Cazaio's desires were astir, and consciousness of his own power was tempting14 him. He had never troubled Poictesme much: the Taunenfels were accessible on that side, and so long as he confined his depredations15 to the frontier, the Duc de Puysange merely shrugged16 and rendered his annual tribute; it was not a great sum, and the Duke preferred to pay it rather than forsake17 his international squabbles to quash a purely18 parochial nuisance like a bandit, who was, too, a kinsman….
Meanwhile Cazaio had grown stronger than de Puysange knew. It was a time of disaffection: the more violent here and there were beginning to assert that before hanging a superfluous19 peasant or two de Puysange ought to bore himself with inquiries20 concerning the abstract justice of the action. For everywhere the irrational21 lower classes were grumbling22 about the very miseries23 and maltreatments that had efficiently24 disposed of their fathers for centuries: they seemed not to respect tradition: already they were posting placards in the Paris boulevards,—"Shave the King for a monk25, hang the Pompadour, and break Machault on the wheel,"—and already a boy of twelve, one Joseph Guillotin, was running about the streets of Saintes yonder. So the commoners flocked to Cazaio in the Taunenfels until, little by little, he had gathered an army about him.
And at Bellegarde, de Soyecourt had only a handful of men, Cazaio meditated26 to-night. And the woman was there,—the woman whose eyes were blue and incurious, whose face was always scornful.
In history they liken Achille Cazaio to Simon de Montfort, and the Gracchi, and other graspers at fruit as yet unripe27; or, if the perfervid word of d'Avranches be accepted, you may regard him as "le Saint-Jean de la Révolution glorieuse." But I think you may with more wisdom regard him as a man of strong passions, any one of which, for the time being, possessed28 him utterly29.
Now he struck his palm upon the table.
"I have never seen a woman one-half so beautiful, Dom Michel. I am more than ever in love with her."
"In that event," the Friar considered, "it is, of course, unfortunate she should have a brand-new husband. Husbands are often thought much of when they are a novelty."
The Dominican spread out his hands, and afterward32 reached for the bottle. "Milanese armor!" said Dom Michel Frégose. [Footnote: The same ecclesiastic33 who more lately dubbed34 himself, with Maréchal de Richelieu's encouragement, l'Abbé de Trans, and was discreditably involved in the forgeries35 of Madame de St. Vincent.]
"Yet I am master of Poictesme," Cazaio thundered, "I have ten men to de
"Undoubtedly37 you could take Bellegarde—and the woman along with the castle,—if you decided38 they were worth the price of a little killing39. I think they are not worth it, I strongly advise you to have up a wench from the village, to put out the light, and exercise your imagination."
Cazaio shook his head. "No, Dom Michel, you churchmen live too lewdly40 to understand the tyranny of love."
Puysange,—and, besides, de Puysange will be here in two days."
Cazaio snapped his fingers. "He will arrive after the fair." Cazaio uncorked the ink-bottle with an august gesture.
"Write!" said Achille Cazaio.
点击收听单词发音
1 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 capabilities | |
n.能力( capability的名词复数 );可能;容量;[复数]潜在能力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
3 discreetly | |
ad.(言行)审慎地,慎重地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
4 rumored | |
adj.传说的,谣传的v.传闻( rumor的过去式和过去分词 );[古]名誉;咕哝;[古]喧嚷 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 adoration | |
n.爱慕,崇拜 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 mischievous | |
adj.调皮的,恶作剧的,有害的,伤人的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 imbroglios | |
n.一团糟,错综复杂的局面( imbroglio的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 aggrandizement | |
n.增大,强化,扩大 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 impelling | |
adj.迫使性的,强有力的v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 laments | |
n.悲恸,哀歌,挽歌( lament的名词复数 )v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 stolid | |
adj.无动于衷的,感情麻木的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 tinted | |
adj. 带色彩的 动词tint的过去式和过去分词 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 labor | |
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 tempting | |
a.诱人的, 吸引人的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 depredations | |
n.劫掠,毁坏( depredation的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 shrugged | |
vt.耸肩(shrug的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 forsake | |
vt.遗弃,抛弃;舍弃,放弃 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 purely | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 superfluous | |
adj.过多的,过剩的,多余的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 inquiries | |
n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 );疑问;探究;打听 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 irrational | |
adj.无理性的,失去理性的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 grumbling | |
adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 miseries | |
n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 );痛苦的事;穷困;常发牢骚的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 efficiently | |
adv.高效率地,有能力地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 monk | |
n.和尚,僧侣,修道士 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 meditated | |
深思,沉思,冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 ); 内心策划,考虑 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 unripe | |
adj.未成熟的;n.未成熟 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 utterly | |
adv.完全地,绝对地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 bungled | |
v.搞糟,完不成( bungle的过去式和过去分词 );笨手笨脚地做;失败;完不成 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 rascal | |
n.流氓;不诚实的人 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 ecclesiastic | |
n.教士,基督教会;adj.神职者的,牧师的,教会的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 dubbed | |
v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 );把…称为;配音;复制 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 forgeries | |
伪造( forgery的名词复数 ); 伪造的文件、签名等 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 thwarted | |
阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 ); 使受挫折; 挫败; 横过 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 undoubtedly | |
adv.确实地,无疑地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 killing | |
n.巨额利润;突然赚大钱,发大财 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 lewdly | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 trifling | |
adj.微不足道的;没什么价值的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |