HITHERTO blinded by fear, incautious and stupid before the bands of Friar Douillard and the partisans1 of Prince Crucho, the Republicans at last opened their eyes and grasped the real meaning of the Pyrot affair. The deputies who had for two years turned pale at the shouts of the patriotic2 crowds became, not indeed more courageous3, but altered their cowardice4 and blamed Robin5 Mielleux for disorders6 which their own compliance7 had encouraged, and the instigators of which they had several times slavishly congratulated. They reproached him for having imperilled the Republic by a weakness which was really theirs and a timidity which they themselves had imposed upon him. Some of them began to doubt whether it was not to their interest to believe in Pyrot’s innocence8 rather than in his guilt9, and thence-forward they felt a bitter anguish10 at the thought that the unhappy man might have been wrongly convicted and that in his aerial cage he might be expiating11 another man’s crimes. “I cannot sleep on account of it!” was what several members of Minister Guillaumette’s majority used to say. But these were ambitious to replace their chief.
These generous legislators overthrew12 the cabinet, and the President of the Republic put in Robin Mielleux’s place, a patriarchal Republican with a flowing beard, La Trinite by name, who, like most of the Penguins13, understood nothing about the affair, but thought that too many monks14 were mixed up in it.
General Greatauk, before leaving the Ministry15 of War, gave his final advice to Panther, the Chief of the Staff.
“I go and you remain,” said he, as he shook hands with him. “The Pyrot affair is my daughter; I confide16 her to you, she is worthy17 of your love and your care; she is beautiful. Do not forget that her beauty loves the shade, is pleased with mystery, and likes to remain veiled. Treat her modesty18 with gentleness. Too many indiscreet looks have already profaned19 her charms. . . . Panther, you desired proofs and you obtained them. You have many, perhaps too many, in your possession. I see that there will be many tiresome20 interventions21 and much dangerous curiosity. If I were in your place I would tear up all those documents. Believe me, the best of proofs is none at all. That is the only one which nobody discusses.”
Alas22! General Panther did not realise the wisdom of this advice. The future was only too thoroughly23 to justify24 Greatauk’s perspicacity25. La Trinite demanded the documents belonging to the Pyrot affair. Peniche, his Minister of War, refused them in the superior interests of the national defence, telling him that the documents under General Panther’s care formed the hugest mass of archives in the world. La Trinite studied the case as well as he could, and, without penetrating26 to the bottom of the matter, suspected it of irregularity. Conformably to his rights and prerogatives27 he then ordered a fresh trial to be held. Immediately, Peniche, his Minister of War, accused him of insulting the army and betraying the country, and flung his portfolio28 at his head. He was replaced by a second, who did the same. To him succeeded a third, who imitated these examples, and those after him to the number of seventy acted like their predecessors29, until the venerable La Trinite groaned30 beneath the weight of bellicose31 portfolios32. The seventy-first Minister of War, van Julep, retained office. Not that he was in disagreement with so many and such noble colleagues, but he had been commissioned by them generously to betray his Prime Minister, to cover him with shame and opprobrium33, and to convert the new trial to the glory of Greatauk, the satisfaction of the Anti–Pyrotists, the profit of the monks, and the restoration of Prince Crucho.
General van Julep, though endowed with high military virtues34, was not intelligent enough to employ the subtle conduct and exquisite35 methods of Greatauk. He thought, like General Panther, that tangible36 proofs against Pyrot were necessary, that they could never have too many of them, that they could never have even enough. He expressed these sentiments to his Chief of Staff, who was only too inclined to agree with them.
“Panther,” said he, “we are at the moment when we need abundant and superabundant proofs.”
“You have said enough, General,” answered Panther, “I will complete my piles of documents.”
Six months later the proofs against Pyrot filled two stories of the Ministry of War. The ceiling fell in beneath the weight of the bundles, and the avalanche37 of falling documents crushed two head clerks, fourteen second clerks, and sixty copying clerks, who were at work upon the ground floor arranging a change in the fashion of the cavalry38 gaiters. The walls of the huge edifice39 had to be propped40. Passers by saw with amazement41 enormous beams and monstrous42 stanchions which reared themselves obliquely43 against the noble front of the building now tottering44 and disjointed, and blocked up the streets, stopped the carriages, and presented to the motor-omnibuses an obstacle against which they dashed with their loads of passengers.
The judges who had condemned45 Pyrot were not, properly speaking, judges but soldiers. The judges who had condemned Colomban were real judges, but of inferior rank, wearing seedy black clothes like church vergers, unlucky wretches46 of judges, miserable47 judgelings. Above them were the superior judges who wore ermine robes over their black gowns. These, renowned48 for their knowledge and doctrine49, formed a court whose terrible name expressed power. It was called the Court of Appeal (Cassation) so as to make it clear that it was the hammer suspended over the judgments50 and decrees of all other jurisdictions51.
One of these superior red judges of the Supreme52 Court, called Chaussepied, led a modest and tranquil53 life in a suburb of Alca. His soul was pure, his heart honest, his spirit just. When he had finished studying his documents he used to play the violin and cultivate hyacinths. Every Sunday he dined with his neighbours the Mesdemoiselles Helbivore. His old age was cheerful and robust54 and his friends often praised the amenity55 of his character.
For some months, however, he had been irritable56 and touchy57, and when he opened a newspaper his broad and ruddy face would become covered with dolorous58 wrinkles and darkened with an angry purple. Pyrot was the cause of it. Justice Chaussepied could not understand how an officer could have committed so black a crime as to hand over eighty thousand trusses of military hay to a neighbouring and hostile Power. And he could still less conceive how a scoundrel should have found official defenders59 in Penguinia. The thought that there existed in his country a Pyrot, a Colonel Hastaing, a Colomban, a Kerdanic, a Phoenix60, spoilt his hyacinths, his violin, his heaven, and his earth, all nature, and even his dinner with the Mesdemoiselles Helbivore!
In the mean time the Pyrot case, having been presented to the Supreme Court by the Keeper of the Seals, it fell to Chaussepied to examine it and discover its defects, in case any existed. Although as upright and honest as a man can be, and trained by long habit to exercise his magistracy without fear or favour, he expected to find in the documents to be submitted to him proofs of certain guilt and of obvious criminality. After lengthened61 difficulties and repeated refusals on the part of General van Julep, Justice Chaussepied was allowed to examine the documents. Numbered and initialed they ran to the number of fourteen millions six hundred and twenty-six thousand three hundred and twelve. As he studied them the judge was at first surprised, then astonished, then stupefied, amazed, and, if I dare say so, flabbergasted. He found among the documents prospectuses62 of new fancy shops, newspapers, fashion-plates, paper bags, old business letters, exercise books, brown paper, green paper for rubbing parquet63 floors, playing cards, diagrams, six thousand copies of the “Key to Dreams,” but not a single document in which any mention was made of Pyrot.
点击收听单词发音
1 partisans | |
游击队员( partisan的名词复数 ); 党人; 党羽; 帮伙 | |
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2 patriotic | |
adj.爱国的,有爱国心的 | |
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3 courageous | |
adj.勇敢的,有胆量的 | |
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4 cowardice | |
n.胆小,怯懦 | |
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5 robin | |
n.知更鸟,红襟鸟 | |
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6 disorders | |
n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 );凌乱;骚乱;(身心、机能)失调 | |
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7 compliance | |
n.顺从;服从;附和;屈从 | |
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8 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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9 guilt | |
n.犯罪;内疚;过失,罪责 | |
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10 anguish | |
n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦,烦恼 | |
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11 expiating | |
v.为(所犯罪过)接受惩罚,赎(罪)( expiate的现在分词 ) | |
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12 overthrew | |
overthrow的过去式 | |
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13 penguins | |
n.企鹅( penguin的名词复数 ) | |
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14 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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15 ministry | |
n.(政府的)部;牧师 | |
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16 confide | |
v.向某人吐露秘密 | |
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17 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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18 modesty | |
n.谦逊,虚心,端庄,稳重,羞怯,朴素 | |
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19 profaned | |
v.不敬( profane的过去式和过去分词 );亵渎,玷污 | |
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20 tiresome | |
adj.令人疲劳的,令人厌倦的 | |
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21 interventions | |
n.介入,干涉,干预( intervention的名词复数 ) | |
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22 alas | |
int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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23 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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24 justify | |
vt.证明…正当(或有理),为…辩护 | |
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25 perspicacity | |
n. 敏锐, 聪明, 洞察力 | |
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26 penetrating | |
adj.(声音)响亮的,尖锐的adj.(气味)刺激的adj.(思想)敏锐的,有洞察力的 | |
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27 prerogatives | |
n.权利( prerogative的名词复数 );特权;大主教法庭;总督委任组成的法庭 | |
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28 portfolio | |
n.公事包;文件夹;大臣及部长职位 | |
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29 predecessors | |
n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 );前辈;(被取代的)原有事物;前身 | |
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30 groaned | |
v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 );发牢骚;抱怨;受苦 | |
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31 bellicose | |
adj.好战的;好争吵的 | |
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32 portfolios | |
n.投资组合( portfolio的名词复数 );(保险)业务量;(公司或机构提供的)系列产品;纸夹 | |
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33 opprobrium | |
n.耻辱,责难 | |
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34 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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35 exquisite | |
adj.精美的;敏锐的;剧烈的,感觉强烈的 | |
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36 tangible | |
adj.有形的,可触摸的,确凿的,实际的 | |
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37 avalanche | |
n.雪崩,大量涌来 | |
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38 cavalry | |
n.骑兵;轻装甲部队 | |
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39 edifice | |
n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿,教室) | |
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40 propped | |
支撑,支持,维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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42 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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43 obliquely | |
adv.斜; 倾斜; 间接; 不光明正大 | |
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44 tottering | |
adj.蹒跚的,动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 );踉跄;蹒跚;摇摇欲坠 | |
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45 condemned | |
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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46 wretches | |
n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 );可怜的人;恶棍;坏蛋 | |
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47 miserable | |
adj.悲惨的,痛苦的;可怜的,糟糕的 | |
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48 renowned | |
adj.著名的,有名望的,声誉鹊起的 | |
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49 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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50 judgments | |
判断( judgment的名词复数 ); 鉴定; 评价; 审判 | |
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51 jurisdictions | |
司法权( jurisdiction的名词复数 ); 裁判权; 管辖区域; 管辖范围 | |
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52 supreme | |
adj.极度的,最重要的;至高的,最高的 | |
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53 tranquil | |
adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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54 robust | |
adj.强壮的,强健的,粗野的,需要体力的,浓的 | |
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55 amenity | |
n.pl.生活福利设施,文娱康乐场所;(不可数)愉快,适意 | |
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56 irritable | |
adj.急躁的;过敏的;易怒的 | |
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57 touchy | |
adj.易怒的;棘手的 | |
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58 dolorous | |
adj.悲伤的;忧愁的 | |
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59 defenders | |
n.防御者( defender的名词复数 );守卫者;保护者;辩护者 | |
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60 phoenix | |
n.凤凰,长生(不死)鸟;引申为重生 | |
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61 lengthened | |
(时间或空间)延长,伸长( lengthen的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62 prospectuses | |
n.章程,简章,简介( prospectus的名词复数 ) | |
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63 parquet | |
n.镶木地板 | |
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