President Formose, the Ministers, and the members of the Chamber2 and of the Senate were present at the ceremony.
The Generalissimo of the Penguin army was present in uniform. He was cheered.
Preceded by the black flag of misery3 and the red flag of revolt, deputations of workmen walked in the procession, their aspect one of grim protection.
President, Ministers, Deputies, officials, heads of the magistracy and of the army, each, in their own names and in the name of the sovereign people, renewed the ancient oath to live in freedom or to die. It was an alternative upon which they were resolutely4 determined5. But they preferred to live in freedom. There were games, speeches, and songs.
After the departure of the representatives of the State the crowd of citizens separated slowly and peaceably, shouting out, “Hurrah for the Republic!” “Hurrah for liberty!” “Down with the shaven pates6!”
The newspapers mentioned only one regrettable incident that happened on that wonderful day.
Prince des Boscenos was quietly smoking a cigar in the Queen’s Meadow when the State procession passed by. The prince approached the Minister’s carriage and said in a loud voice: “Death to the Republicans!” He was immediately apprehended7 by the police, to whom he offered a most desperate resistance. He knocked them down in crowds, but he was conquered by numbers, and, bruised8, scratched, swollen9, and unrecognisable even to the eyes of his wife, he was dragged through the joyous10 streets into an obscure prison.
The magistrates11 carried on the case against Chatillon in a peculiar12 style. Letters were found at the Admiralty which revealed the complicity of the Reverend Father Agaric in the plot. Immediately public opinion was inflamed13 against the monks14, and Parliament voted, one after the other, a dozen laws which restrained, diminished, limited, prescribed, suppressed, determined, and curtailed16, their rights, immunities17, exemptions18, privileges, and benefits, and created many invalidating disqualifications against them.
The Reverend Father Agaric steadfastly19 endured the rigour of the laws which struck himself personally, as well as the terrible fall of the Emiral of which he was the chief cause. Far from yielding to evil fortune, he regarded it as but a bird of passage. He was planning new political designs more audacious than the first.
When his projects were sufficiently20 ripe he went one day to the Wood of Conils. A thrush sang in a tree and a little hedge-hog crossed the stony21 path in front of him with awkward steps. Agaric walked with great strides, muttering fragments of sentences to himself.
When he reached the door of the laboratory in which, for so many years, the pious22 manufacturer had distilled23 the golden liqueur of St. Orberosia, he found the place deserted24 and the door shut. Having walked around the building he saw in the back. yard the venerable Cornemuse, who, with his habit pinned up, was climbing a ladder that leant against the wall.
“Is that you, my dear friend?” said he to him. “What are you doing there?”
“You can see for yourself,” answered the monk15 of Conils in a feeble voice, turning a sorrowful look upon Agaric. “I am going into my house.”
The red pupils of his eyes no longer imitated the triumph and brilliance25 of the ruby26, they flashed mournful and troubled glances. His countenance27 had lost its happy fulness. His shining head was no longer pleasant to the sight; perspiration28 and inflamed blotches29 had altered its inestimable perfection.
“I don’t understand,” said Agaric.
“It is easy enough to understand. You see the consequences of your plot. Although a multitude of laws are directed against me I have managed to elude30 the greater number of them. Some, however, have struck me. These vindictive31 men have closed my laboratories and my shops, and confiscated32 my bottles, my stills, and my retorts. They have put seals on my doors and now I am compelled to go in through the window. I am barely able to extract in secret from time to time the juice of a few plants and that with an apparatus33 which the humblest labourer would despise.”
“You suffer from the persecution,” said Agaric. “It strikes us all.”
The monk of Conils passed his hand over his afflicted34 brow:
“I told you so, Brother Agaric; I told you that your enterprise would turn against ourselves.”
“Our defeat is only momentary,” replied Agaric eagerly. “It is due to purely35 accidental causes; it results from mere36 contingencies37. Chatillon was a fool; he has drowned himself in his own ineptitude38. Listen to me, Brother Cornemuse. We have not a moment to lose. We must free the Penguin people, we must deliver them from their tyrants39, save them from themselves, restore the Dragon’s crest40, re-establish the ancient State, the good State, for the honour of religion and the exaltation of the Catholic faith. Chatillon was a bad instrument; he broke in our hands. Let us take a better instrument to replace him. I have the man who will destroy this impious democracy. He is a civil official; his name is Gomoru. The Penguins41 worship him. He has already betrayed his party for a plate of rice. There’s the man we want!”
At the beginning of this speech the monk of Conils had climbed into his window and pulled up the ladder.
“I foresee,” answered he, with his nose through the sash, “that you will not stop until you have us all expelled from this pleasant, agreeable, and sweet land of Penguinia. Good night; God keep you!”
Agaric, standing42 before the wall, entreated43 his dearest brother to listen to him for a moment:
“Understand your own interest better, Cornemuse! Penguinia is ours. What do we need to conquer it? Just one effort more . . . one more little sacrifice of money and . . . ”
But without listening further, the monk of Conils drew in his head and closed his window.
点击收听单词发音
1 penguin | |
n.企鹅 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
2 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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 resolutely | |
adj.坚决地,果断地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
5 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
6 pates | |
n.头顶,(尤指)秃顶,光顶( pate的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
7 apprehended | |
逮捕,拘押( apprehend的过去式和过去分词 ); 理解 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
8 bruised | |
[医]青肿的,瘀紫的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
9 swollen | |
adj.肿大的,水涨的;v.使变大,肿胀 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
10 joyous | |
adj.充满快乐的;令人高兴的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
11 magistrates | |
地方法官,治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
12 peculiar | |
adj.古怪的,异常的;特殊的,特有的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
13 inflamed | |
adj.发炎的,红肿的v.(使)变红,发怒,过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
14 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
15 monk | |
n.和尚,僧侣,修道士 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
16 curtailed | |
v.截断,缩短( curtail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
17 immunities | |
免除,豁免( immunity的名词复数 ); 免疫力 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
18 exemptions | |
n.(义务等的)免除( exemption的名词复数 );免(税);(收入中的)免税额 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
19 steadfastly | |
adv.踏实地,不变地;岿然;坚定不渝 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
20 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
21 stony | |
adj.石头的,多石头的,冷酷的,无情的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
22 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
23 distilled | |
adj.由蒸馏得来的v.蒸馏( distil的过去式和过去分词 );从…提取精华 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
24 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
25 brilliance | |
n.光辉,辉煌,壮丽,(卓越的)才华,才智 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
26 ruby | |
n.红宝石,红宝石色 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
27 countenance | |
n.脸色,面容;面部表情;vt.支持,赞同 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
28 perspiration | |
n.汗水;出汗 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
29 blotches | |
n.(皮肤上的)红斑,疹块( blotch的名词复数 );大滴 [大片](墨水或颜色的)污渍 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
30 elude | |
v.躲避,困惑 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
31 vindictive | |
adj.有报仇心的,怀恨的,惩罚的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
32 confiscated | |
没收,充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
33 apparatus | |
n.装置,器械;器具,设备 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
34 afflicted | |
使受痛苦,折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
35 purely | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
36 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
37 contingencies | |
n.偶然发生的事故,意外事故( contingency的名词复数 );以备万一 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
38 ineptitude | |
n.不适当;愚笨,愚昧的言行 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
39 tyrants | |
专制统治者( tyrant的名词复数 ); 暴君似的人; (古希腊的)僭主; 严酷的事物 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
40 crest | |
n.顶点;饰章;羽冠;vt.达到顶点;vi.形成浪尖 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
41 penguins | |
n.企鹅( penguin的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
42 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
参考例句: |
|
|
43 entreated | |
恳求,乞求( entreat的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句: |
|
|
欢迎访问英文小说网 |