At the moment when Porthos, more accustomed to the darkness than these men, coming from open daylight, was looking round him to see if through this artificial midnight Aramis were not making him some signal, he felt his arm gently touched, and a voice low as a breath murmured in his ear, “Come.”
“Oh!” said Porthos.
“Hush!” said Aramis, if possible, yet more softly.
And amidst the noise of the third brigade, which continued to advance, the imprecations of the guards still left alive, the muffled1 groans3 of the dying, Aramis and Porthos glided4 unseen along the granite5 walls of the cavern6. Aramis led Porthos into the last but one compartment7, and showed him, in a hollow of the rocky wall, a barrel of powder weighing from seventy to eighty pounds, to which he had just attached a fuse. “My friend,” said he to Porthos, “you will take this barrel, the match of which I am going to set fire to, and throw it amidst our enemies; can you do so?”
“Parbleu!” replied Porthos; and he lifted the barrel with one hand. “Light it!”
“Stop,” said Aramis, “till they are all massed together, and then, my Jupiter, hurl8 your thunderbolt among them.”
“Light it,” repeated Porthos.
“On my part,” continued Aramis, “I will join our Bretons, and help them to get the canoe to the sea. I will wait for you on the shore; launch it strongly, and hasten to us.”
“Light it,” said Porthos, a third time.
“But do you understand me?”
“Parbleu!” said Porthos again, with laughter that he did not even attempt to restrain, “when a thing is explained to me I understand it; begone, and give me the light.”
Aramis gave the burning match to Porthos, who held out his arm to him, his hands being engaged. Aramis pressed the arm of Porthos with both his hands, and fell back to the outlet9 of the cavern where the three rowers awaited him.
Porthos, left alone, applied10 the spark bravely to the match. The spark — a feeble spark, first principle of conflagration11 — shone in the darkness like a glow-worm, then was deadened against the match which it set fire to, Porthos enlivening the flame with his breath. The smoke was a little dispersed12, and by the light of the sparkling match objects might, for two seconds, be distinguished13. It was a brief but splendid spectacle, that of this giant, pale, bloody14, his countenance15 lighted by the fire of the match burning in surrounding darkness! The soldiers saw him, they saw the barrel he held in his hand — they at once understood what was going to happen. Then, these men, already choked with horror at the sight of what had been accomplished16, filled with terror at thought of what was about to be accomplished, gave out a simultaneous shriek17 of agony. Some endeavored to fly, but they encountered the third brigade, which barred their passage; others mechanically took aim and attempted to fire their discharged muskets18; others fell instinctively19 upon their knees. Two or three officers cried out to Porthos to promise him his liberty if he would spare their lives. The lieutenant20 of the third brigade commanded his men to fire; but the guards had before them their terrified companions, who served as a living rampart for Porthos. We have said that the light produced by the spark and the match did not last more than two seconds; but during these two seconds this is what it illumined: in the first place, the giant, enlarged in the darkness; then, at ten paces off, a heap of bleeding bodies, crushed, mutilated, in the midst of which some still heaved in the last agony, lifting the mass as a last respiration21 inflating22 the sides of some old monster dying in the night. Every breath of Porthos, thus vivifying the match, sent towards this heap of bodies a phosphorescent aura, mingled23 with streaks24 of purple. In addition to this principal group scattered25 about the grotto26, as the chances of death or surprise had stretched them, isolated27 bodies seemed to be making ghastly exhibitions of their gaping28 wounds. Above ground, bedded in pools of blood, rose, heavy and sparkling, the short, thick pillars of the cavern, of which the strongly marked shades threw out the luminous29 particles. And all this was seen by the tremulous light of a match attached to a barrel of powder, that is to say, a torch which, whilst throwing a light on the dead past, showed death to come.
As I have said, this spectacle did not last above two seconds. During this short space of time an officer of the third brigade got together eight men armed with muskets, and, through an opening, ordered them to fire upon Porthos. But they who received the order to fire trembled so that three guards fell by the discharge, and the five remaining balls hissed30 on to splinter the vault31, plow32 the ground, or indent33 the pillars of the cavern.
A burst of laughter replied to this volley; then the arm of the giant swung round; then was seen whirling through the air, like a falling star, the train of fire. The barrel, hurled34 a distance of thirty feet, cleared the barricade35 of dead bodies, and fell amidst a group of shrieking36 soldiers, who threw themselves on their faces. The officer had followed the brilliant train in the air; he endeavored to precipitate37 himself upon the barrel and tear out the match before it reached the powder it contained. Useless! The air had made the flame attached to the conductor more active; the match, which at rest might have burnt five minutes, was consumed in thirty seconds, and the infernal work exploded. Furious vortices of sulphur and nitre, devouring38 shoals of fire which caught every object, the terrible thunder of the explosion, this is what the second which followed disclosed in that cavern of horrors. The rocks split like planks39 of deal beneath the axe40. A jet of fire, smoke, and debris41 sprang from the middle of the grotto, enlarging as it mounted. The large walls of silex tottered43 and fell upon the sand, and the sand itself, an instrument of pain when launched from its hard bed, riddled44 the faces with its myriad45 cutting atoms. Shrieks46, imprecations, human life, dead bodies — all were engulfed47 in one terrific crash.
The three first compartments48 became one sepulchral49 sink into which fell grimly back, in the order of their weight, every vegetable, mineral, or human fragment. Then the lighter50 sand and ash came down in turn, stretching like a winding51 sheet and smoking over the dismal52 scene. And now, in this burning tomb, this subterranean53 volcano, seek the king’s guards with their blue coats laced with silver. Seek the officers, brilliant in gold, seek for the arms upon which they depended for their defense54. One single man has made of all of those things a chaos55 more confused, more shapeless, more terrible than the chaos which existed before the creation of the world. There remained nothing of the three compartments — nothing by which God could have recognized His handiwork. As for Porthos, after having hurled the barrel of powder amidst his enemies, he had fled, as Aramis had directed him to do, and had gained the last compartment, into which air, light, and sunshine penetrated56 through the opening. Scarcely had he turned the angle which separated the third compartment from the fourth when he perceived at a hundred paces from him the bark dancing on the waves. There were his friends, there liberty, there life and victory. Six more of his formidable strides, and he would be out of the vault; out of the vault! a dozen of his vigorous leaps and he would reach the canoe. Suddenly he felt his knees give way; his knees seemed powerless, his legs to yield beneath him.
“Oh! oh!” murmured he, “there is my weakness seizing me again! I can walk no further! What is this?”
Aramis perceived him through the opening, and unable to conceive what could induce him to stop thus —“Come on, Porthos! come on,” he cried; “come quickly!”
“Oh!” replied the giant, making an effort that contorted every muscle of his body —“oh! but I cannot.” While saying these words, he fell upon his knees, but with his mighty57 hands he clung to the rocks, and raised himself up again.
“Quick! quick!” repeated Aramis, bending forward towards the shore, as if to draw Porthos towards him with his arms.
“Here I am,” stammered58 Porthos, collecting all his strength to make one step more.
“In the name of Heaven! Porthos, make haste! the barrel will blow up!”
“Make haste, monseigneur!” shouted the Bretons to Porthos, who was floundering as in a dream.
But there was no time; the explosion thundered, earth gaped59, the smoke which hurled through the clefts60 obscured the sky; the sea flowed back as though driven by the blast of flame which darted61 from the grotto as if from the jaws62 of some gigantic fiery63 chimera64; the reflux took the bark out twenty toises; the solid rocks cracked to their base, and separated like blocks beneath the operation of the wedge; a portion of the vault was carried up towards heaven, as if it had been built of cardboard; the green and blue and topaz conflagration and black lava65 of liquefactions clashed and combated an instant beneath a majestic66 dome67 of smoke; then oscillated, declined, and fell successively the mighty monoliths of rock which the violence of the explosion had not been able to uproot68 from the bed of ages; they bowed to each other like grave and stiff old men, then prostrating69 themselves, lay down forever in their dusty tomb.
This frightful70 shock seemed to restore Porthos the strength that he had lost; he arose, a giant among granite giants. But at the moment he was flying between the double hedge of granite phantoms71, these latter, which were no longer supported by the corresponding links, began to roll and totter42 round our Titan, who looked as if precipitated72 from heaven amidst rocks which he had just been launching. Porthos felt the very earth beneath his feet becoming jelly-tremulous. He stretched both hands to repulse73 the falling rocks. A gigantic block was held back by each of his extended arms. He bent74 his head, and a third granite mass sank between his shoulders. For an instant the power of Porthos seemed about to fail him, but this new Hercules united all his force, and the two walls of the prison in which he was buried fell back slowly and gave him place. For an instant he appeared, in this frame of granite, like the angel of chaos, but in pushing back the lateral75 rocks, he lost his point of support, for the monolith which weighed upon his shoulders, and the boulder76, pressing upon him with all its weight, brought the giant down upon his knees. The lateral rocks, for an instant pushed back, drew together again, and added their weight to the ponderous77 mass which would have been sufficient to crush ten men. The hero fell without a groan2 — he fell while answering Aramis with words of encouragement and hope, for, thanks to the powerful arch of his hands, for an instant he believed that, like Enceladus, he would succeed in shaking off the triple load. But by degrees Aramis beheld78 the block sink; the hands, strung for an instant, the arms stiffened79 for a last effort, gave way, the extended shoulders sank, wounded and torn, and the rocks continued to gradually collapse80.
“Porthos! Porthos!” cried Aramis, tearing his hair. “Porthos! where are you? Speak!”
“Here, here,” murmured Porthos, with a voice growing evidently weaker, “patience! patience!”
Scarcely had he pronounced these words, when the impulse of the fall augmented81 the weight; the enormous rock sank down, pressed by those others which sank in from the sides, and, as it were, swallowed up Porthos in a sepulcher82 of badly jointed83 stones. On hearing the dying voice of his friend, Aramis had sprung to land. Two of the Bretons followed him, with each a lever in his hand — one being sufficient to take care of the bark. The dying rattle84 of the valiant85 gladiator guided them amidst the ruins. Aramis, animated86, active and young as at twenty, sprang towards the triple mass, and with his hands, delicate as those of a woman, raised by a miracle of strength the corner-stone of this great granite grave. Then he caught a glimpse, through the darkness of that charnel-house, of the still brilliant eye of his friend, to whom the momentary87 lifting of the mass restored a momentary respiration. The two men came rushing up, grasped their iron levers, united their triple strength, not merely to raise it, but sustain it. All was useless. They gave way with cries of grief, and the rough voice of Porthos, seeing them exhaust themselves in a useless struggle, murmured in an almost cheerful tone those supreme88 words which came to his lips with the last respiration, “Too heavy!”
After which his eyes darkened and closed, his face grew ashy pale, the hands whitened, and the colossus sank quite down, breathing his last sigh. With him sank the rock, which, even in his dying agony he had still held up. The three men dropped the levers, which rolled upon the tumulary stone. Then, breathless, pale, his brow covered with sweat, Aramis listened, his breast oppressed, his heart ready to break.
Nothing more. The giant slept the eternal sleep, in the sepulcher which God had built about him to his measure.
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收听单词发音
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1
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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2
groan
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| vi./n.呻吟，抱怨；(发出)呻吟般的声音 | |
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3
groans
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| 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 | |
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4
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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granite
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| adj.花岗岩，花岗石 | |
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cavern
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| n.洞穴，大山洞 | |
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compartment
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| n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间 | |
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hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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9
outlet
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| n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄 | |
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10
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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11
conflagration
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| n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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12
dispersed
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| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
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13
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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14
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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15
countenance
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| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
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16
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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18
muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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21
respiration
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| n.呼吸作用；一次呼吸；植物光合作用 | |
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22
inflating
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| v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的现在分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
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23
mingled
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| 混合，混入( mingle的过去式和过去分词 )； 混进，与…交往[联系] | |
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24
streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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25
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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grotto
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| n.洞穴 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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gaping
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| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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29
luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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30
hissed
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| 发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对 | |
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vault
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| n.拱形圆顶，地窖，地下室 | |
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32
plow
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| n.犁，耕地，犁过的地；v.犁，费力地前进[英]plough | |
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indent
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| n.订单，委托采购，国外商品订货单，代购订单 | |
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hurled
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| v.猛投，用力掷( hurl的过去式和过去分词 )；大声叫骂 | |
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barricade
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| n.路障，栅栏，障碍；vt.设路障挡住 | |
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36
shrieking
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| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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37
precipitate
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| adj.突如其来的；vt.使突然发生；n.沉淀物 | |
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38
devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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39
planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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40
axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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41
debris
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| n.瓦砾堆，废墟，碎片 | |
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42
totter
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| v.蹒跚， 摇摇欲坠；n.蹒跚的步子 | |
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43
tottered
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| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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44
riddled
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| adj.布满的；充斥的；泛滥的v.解谜，出谜题(riddle的过去分词形式) | |
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45
myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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46
shrieks
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| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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47
engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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48
compartments
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| n.间隔( compartment的名词复数 )；（列车车厢的）隔间；（家具或设备等的）分隔间；隔层 | |
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49
sepulchral
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| adj.坟墓的，阴深的 | |
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50
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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51
winding
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| n.绕，缠，绕组，线圈 | |
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52
dismal
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| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
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53
subterranean
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| adj.地下的，地表下的 | |
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54
defense
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| n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩 | |
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55
chaos
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| n.混乱，无秩序 | |
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56
penetrated
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| adj. 击穿的，鞭辟入里的 动词penetrate的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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57
mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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58
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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59
gaped
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| v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的过去式和过去分词 )；张开，张大 | |
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60
clefts
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| n.裂缝( cleft的名词复数 )；裂口；cleave的过去式和过去分词；进退维谷 | |
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61
darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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62
jaws
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| n.口部；嘴 | |
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63
fiery
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| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
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64
chimera
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| n.神话怪物；梦幻 | |
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65
lava
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| n.熔岩，火山岩 | |
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66
majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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67
dome
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| n.圆屋顶，拱顶 | |
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68
uproot
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| v.连根拔起，拔除；根除，灭绝；赶出家园，被迫移开 | |
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69
prostrating
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| v.使俯伏，使拜倒( prostrate的现在分词 )；（指疾病、天气等）使某人无能为力 | |
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70
frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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71
phantoms
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| n.鬼怪，幽灵( phantom的名词复数 ) | |
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72
precipitated
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| v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的过去式和过去分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀 | |
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73
repulse
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| n.击退，拒绝；vt.逐退，击退，拒绝 | |
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74
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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lateral
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| adj.侧面的，旁边的 | |
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76
boulder
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| n.巨砾；卵石，圆石 | |
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77
ponderous
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| adj.沉重的，笨重的，(文章)冗长的 | |
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78
beheld
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| v.看，注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 )；瞧；看呀；（叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现）哎哟 | |
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79
stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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80
collapse
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| vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷 | |
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81
Augmented
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| adj.增音的 动词augment的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
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82
sepulcher
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| n.坟墓 | |
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jointed
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| 有接缝的 | |
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84
rattle
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| v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓 | |
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85
valiant
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| adj.勇敢的，英勇的；n.勇士，勇敢的人 | |
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animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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momentary
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| adj.片刻的，瞬息的；短暂的 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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