I suspect him of actually taking pride in the fact that he had been mistaken, complacently7 attributing his error to the circumstance that he had been, himself, of too sane8 and logical a mind to gauge9 the depths of human insanity10 now revealed.
He watched the growth of hunger, the increasing poverty and distress11 of Paris during that spring, and assigned it to its proper cause, together with the patience with which the people bore it. The world of France was in a state of hushed, of paralyzed expectancy12, waiting for the States General to assemble and for centuries of tyranny to end. And because of this expectancy, industry had come to a standstill, the stream of trade had dwindled13 to a trickle14. Men would not buy or sell until they clearly saw the means by which the genius of the Swiss banker, M. Necker, was to deliver them from this morass15. And because of this paralysis16 of affairs the men of the people were thrown out of work and left to starve with their wives and children.
Looking on, Andre–Louis smiled grimly. So far he was right. The sufferers were ever the proletariat. The men who sought to make this revolution, the electors — here in Paris as elsewhere — were men of substance, notable bourgeois17, wealthy traders. And whilst these, despising the canaille, and envying the privileged, talked largely of equality — by which they meant an ascending18 equality that should confuse themselves with the gentry19 — the proletariat perished of want in its kennels20.
At last with the month of May the deputies arrived, Andre–Louis’ friend Le Chapelier prominent amongst them, and the States General were inaugurated at Versailles. It was then that affairs began to become interesting, then that Andre–Louis began seriously to doubt the soundness of the views he had held hitherto.
When the royal proclamation had gone forth21 decreeing that the deputies of the Third Estate should number twice as many as those of the other two orders together, Andre–Louis had believed that the preponderance of votes thus assured to the Third Estate rendered inevitable22 the reforms to which they had pledged themselves.
But he had reckoned without the power of the privileged orders over the proud Austrian queen, and her power over the obese23, phlegmatic24, irresolute25 monarch26. That the privileged orders should deliver battle in defence of their privileges, Andre–Louis could understand. Man being what he is, and labouring under his curse of acquisitiveness, will never willingly surrender possessions, whether they be justly or unjustly held. But what surprised Andre–Louis was the unutterable crassness27 of the methods by which the Privileged ranged themselves for battle. They opposed brute28 force to reason and philosophy, and battalions29 of foreign mercenaries to ideas. As if ideas were to be impaled30 on bayonets!
The war between the Privileged and the Court on one side, and the Assembly and the People on the other had begun.
The Third Estate contained itself, and waited; waited with the patience of nature; waited a month whilst, with the paralysis of business now complete, the skeleton hand of famine took a firmer grip of Paris; waited a month whilst Privilege gradually assembled an army in Versailles to intimidate31 it — an army of fifteen regiments32, nine of which were Swiss and German — and mounted a park of artillery33 before the building in which the deputies sat. But the deputies refused to be intimidated34; they refused to see the guns and foreign uniforms; they refused to see anything but the purpose for which they had been brought together by royal proclamation.
Thus until the 10th of June, when that great thinker and metaphysician, the Abbe Sieyes, gave the signal: “It is time,” said he, “to cut the cable.”
And the opportunity came soon, at the very beginning of July. M. du Chatelet, a harsh, haughty35 disciplinarian, proposed to transfer the eleven French Guards placed under arrest from the military gaol36 of the Abbaye to the filthy37 prison of Bicetre reserved for thieves and felons38 of the lowest order. Word of that intention going forth, the people at last met violence with violence. A mob four thousand strong broke into the Abbaye, and delivered thence not only the eleven guardsmen, but all the other prisoners, with the exception of one whom they discovered to be a thief, and whom they put back again.
That was open revolt at last, and with revolt Privilege knew how to deal. It would strangle this mutinous39 Paris in the iron grip of the foreign regiments. Measures were quickly concerted. Old Marechal de Broglie, a veteran of the Seven Years’ War, imbued40 with a soldier’s contempt for civilians41, conceiving that the sight of a uniform would be enough to restore peace and order, took control with Besenval as his second-in-command. The foreign regiments were stationed in the environs of Paris, regiments whose very names were an irritation42 to the Parisians, regiments of Reisbach, of Diesbach, of Nassau, Esterhazy, and Roehmer. Reenforcements of Swiss were sent to the Bastille between whose crenels already since the 30th of June were to be seen the menacing mouths of loaded cannon43.
On the 10th of July the electors once more addressed the King to request the withdrawal44 of the troops. They were answered next day that the troops served the purpose of defending the liberties of the Assembly! And on the next day to that, which was a Sunday, the philanthropist Dr. Guillotin — whose philanthropic engine of painless death was before very long to find a deal of work — came from the Assembly, of which he was a member, to assure the electors of Paris that all was well, appearances notwithstanding, since Necker was more firmly in the saddle than ever. He did not know that at the very moment in which he was speaking so confidently, the oft-dismissed and oft-recalled M. Necker had just been dismissed yet again by the hostile cabal45 about the Queen. Privilege wanted conclusive46 measures, and conclusive measures it would have — conclusive to itself.
And at the same time yet another philanthropist, also a doctor, one Jean–Paul Mara, of Italian extraction — better known as Marat, the gallicized form of name he adopted — a man of letters, too, who had spent some years in England, and there published several works on sociology, was writing:
“Have a care! Consider what would be the fatal effect of a seditious movement. If you should have the misfortune to give way to that, you will be treated as people in revolt, and blood will flow.”
Andre–Louis was in the gardens of the Palais Royal, that place of shops and puppet-shows, of circus and cafes, of gaming houses and brothels, that universal rendezvous47, on that Sunday morning when the news of Necker’s dismissal spread, carrying with it dismay and fury. Into Necker’s dismissal the people read the triumph of the party hostile to themselves. It sounded the knell48 of all hope of redress49 of their wrongs.
He beheld50 a slight young man with a pock-marked face, redeemed51 from utter ugliness by a pair of magnificent eyes, leap to a table outside the Café de Foy, a drawn52 sword in his hand, crying, “To arms!” And then upon the silence of astonishment53 that cry imposed, this young man poured a flood of inflammatory eloquence54, delivered in a voice marred55 at moments by a stutter. He told the people that the Germans on the Champ de Mars would enter Paris that night to butcher the inhabitants. “Let us mount a cockade!” he cried, and tore a leaf from a tree to serve his purpose — the green cockade of hope.
Enthusiasm swept the crowd, a motley crowd made up of men and women of every class, from vagabond to nobleman, from harlot to lady of fashion. Trees were despoiled56 of their leaves, and the green cockade was flaunted57 from almost every head.
“You are caught between two fires,” the incendiary’s stuttering voice raved58 on. “Between the Germans on the Champ de Mars and the Swiss in the Bastille. To arms, then! To arms!”
Excitement boiled up and over. From a neighbouring waxworks59 show came the bust60 of Necker, and presently a bust of that comedian61 the Duke of Orleans, who had a party and who was as ready as any other of the budding opportunists of those days to take advantage of the moment for his own aggrandizement62. The bust of Necker was draped with crepe.
Andre–Louis looked on, and grew afraid. Marat’s pamphlet had impressed him. It had expressed what himself he had expressed more than half a year ago to the mob at Rennes. This crowd, he felt must be restrained. That hot-headed, irresponsible stutterer would have the town in a blaze by night unless something were done. The young man, a causeless advocate of the Palais named Camille Desmoulins, later to become famous, leapt down from his table still waving his sword, still shouting, “To arms! Follow me!” Andre–Louis advanced to occupy the improvised63 rostrum, which the stutterer had just vacated, to make an effort at counteracting64 that inflammatory performance. He thrust through the crowd, and came suddenly face to face with a tall man beautifully dressed, whose handsome countenance66 was sternly set, whose great sombre eyes mouldered67 as if with suppressed anger.
Thus face to face, each looking into the eyes of the other, they stood for a long moment, the jostling crowd streaming past them, unheeded. Then Andre–Louis laughed.
“That fellow, too, has a very dangerous gift of eloquence, M. le Marquis,” he said. “In fact there are a number of such in France to-day. They grow from the soil, which you and yours have irrigated68 with the blood of the martyrs69 of liberty. Soon it may be your blood instead. The soil is parched70, and thirsty for it.”
“Gallows-bird!” he was answered. “The police will do your affair for you. I shall tell the Lieutenant–General that you are to be found in Paris.”
“My God, man!” cried Andre–Louis, “will you never get sense? Will you talk like that of Lieutenant–Generals when Paris itself is likely to tumble about your ears or take fire under your feet? Raise your voice, M. le Marquis. Denounce me here, to these. You will make a hero of me in such an hour as this. Or shall I denounce you? I think I will. I think it is high time you received your wages. Hi! You others, listen to me! Let me present you to . . . ”
A rush of men hurtled against him, swept him along with them, do what he would, separating him from M. de La Tour d’Azyr, so oddly met. He sought to breast that human torrent71; the Marquis, caught in an eddy72 of it, remained where he had been, and Andre–Louis’ last glimpse of him was of a man smiling with tight lips, an ugly smile.
Meanwhile the gardens were emptying in the wake of that stuttering firebrand who had mounted the green cockade. The human torrent poured out into the Rue73 de Richelieu, and Andre–Louis perforce must suffer himself to be borne along by it, at least as far as the Rue du Hasard. There he sidled out of it, and having no wish to be crushed to death or to take further part in the madness that was afoot, he slipped down the street, and so got home to the deserted74 academy. For there were no pupils to-day, and even M. des Amis, like Andre–Louis, had gone out to seek for news of what was happening at Versailles.
This was no normal state of things at the Academy of Bertrand des Amis. Whatever else in Paris might have been at a standstill lately, the fencing academy had flourished as never hitherto. Usually both the master and his assistant were busy from morning until dusk, and already Andre–Louis was being paid now by the lessons that he gave, the master allowing him one half of the fee in each case for himself, an arrangement which the assistant found profitable. On Sundays the academy made half-holiday; but on this Sunday such had been the state of suspense75 and ferment76 in the city that no one having appeared by eleven o’clock both des Amis and Andre–Louis had gone out. Little they thought as they lightly took leave of each other — they were very good friends by now — that they were never to meet again in this world.
Bloodshed there was that day in Paris. On the Place Vendome a detachment of dragoons awaited the crowd out of which Andre–Louis had slipped. The horsemen swept down upon the mob, dispersed77 it, smashed the waxen effigy79 of M. Necker, and killed one man on the spot — an unfortunate French Guard who stood his ground. That was a beginning. As a consequence Besenval brought up his Swiss from the Champ de Mars and marshalled them in battle order on the Champs Elysees with four pieces of artillery. His dragoons he stationed in the Place Louis XV. That evening an enormous crowd, streaming along the Champs Elysees and the Tuileries Gardens, considered with eyes of alarm that warlike preparation. Some insults were cast upon those foreign mercenaries and some stones were flung. Besenval, losing his head, or acting65 under orders, sent for his dragoons and ordered them to disperse78 the crowd, But that crowd was too dense80 to be dispersed in this fashion; so dense that it was impossible for the horsemen to move without crushing some one. There were several crushed, and as a consequence when the dragoons, led by the Prince de Lambesc, advanced into the Tuileries Gardens, the outraged81 crowd met them with a fusillade of stones and bottles. Lambesc gave the order to fire. There was a stampede. Pouring forth from the Tuileries through the city went those indignant people with their story of German cavalry82 trampling83 upon women and children, and uttering now in grimmest earnest the call to arms, raised at noon by Desmoulins in the Palais Royal.
The victims were taken up and borne thence, and amongst them was Bertrand des Amis, himself — like all who lived by the sword — an ardent84 upholder of the noblesse, trampled85 to death under hooves of foreign horsemen launched by the noblesse and led by a nobleman.
To Andre–Louis, waiting that evening on the second floor of No. 13 Rue du Hasard for the return of his friend and master, four men of the people brought that broken body of one of the earliest victims of the Revolution that was now launched in earnest.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
precisely
|
|
| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
troupe
|
|
| n.剧团，戏班；杂技团；马戏团 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
concealment
|
|
| n.隐藏, 掩盖，隐瞒 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
exalted
|
|
| adj.(地位等)高的，崇高的；尊贵的，高尚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
passionate
|
|
| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
enthusiasts
|
|
| n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
complacently
|
|
| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
sane
|
|
| adj.心智健全的，神志清醒的，明智的，稳健的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
gauge
|
|
| v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
insanity
|
|
| n.疯狂，精神错乱；极端的愚蠢，荒唐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
distress
|
|
| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
expectancy
|
|
| n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
dwindled
|
|
| v.逐渐变少或变小( dwindle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
trickle
|
|
| vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
morass
|
|
| n.沼泽，困境 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
paralysis
|
|
| n.麻痹(症)；瘫痪(症) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
bourgeois
|
|
| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
ascending
|
|
| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
gentry
|
|
| n.绅士阶级，上层阶级 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
kennels
|
|
| n.主人外出时的小动物寄养处，养狗场；狗窝( kennel的名词复数 )；养狗场 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
obese
|
|
| adj.过度肥胖的，肥大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
phlegmatic
|
|
| adj.冷静的，冷淡的，冷漠的，无活力的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
irresolute
|
|
| adj.无决断的，优柔寡断的，踌躇不定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
monarch
|
|
| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
crassness
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
28
brute
|
|
| n.野兽，兽性 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
battalions
|
|
| n.（陆军的）一营（大约有一千兵士）( battalion的名词复数 )；协同作战的部队；军队；（组织在一起工作的）队伍 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
impaled
|
|
| 钉在尖桩上( impale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
intimidate
|
|
| vt.恐吓，威胁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
regiments
|
|
| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
artillery
|
|
| n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
intimidated
|
|
| v.恐吓；威胁adj.害怕的；受到威胁的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
haughty
|
|
| adj.傲慢的，高傲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
gaol
|
|
| n.(jail)监狱；(不加冠词)监禁；vt.使…坐牢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
filthy
|
|
| adj.卑劣的；恶劣的，肮脏的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
felons
|
|
| n.重罪犯( felon的名词复数 )；瘭疽；甲沟炎；指头脓炎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
mutinous
|
|
| adj.叛变的，反抗的；adv.反抗地，叛变地；n.反抗，叛变 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
imbued
|
|
| v.使（某人/某事）充满或激起（感情等）( imbue的过去式和过去分词 )；使充满；灌输；激发（强烈感情或品质等） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
civilians
|
|
| 平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
irritation
|
|
| n.激怒，恼怒，生气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
cannon
|
|
| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
withdrawal
|
|
| n.取回，提款；撤退，撤军；收回，撤销 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
cabal
|
|
| n.政治阴谋小集团 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
conclusive
|
|
| adj.最后的，结论的；确凿的，消除怀疑的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
rendezvous
|
|
| n.约会，约会地点，汇合点；vi.汇合，集合；vt.使汇合，使在汇合地点相遇 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
knell
|
|
| n.丧钟声；v.敲丧钟 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
redress
|
|
| n.赔偿，救济，矫正；v.纠正，匡正，革除 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
beheld
|
|
| 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 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
redeemed
|
|
| adj. 可赎回的，可救赎的 动词redeem的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
astonishment
|
|
| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
eloquence
|
|
| n.雄辩；口才，修辞 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
marred
|
|
| adj. 被损毁, 污损的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
despoiled
|
|
| v.掠夺，抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
flaunted
|
|
| v.炫耀，夸耀( flaunt的过去式和过去分词 )；有什么能耐就施展出来 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
raved
|
|
| v.胡言乱语( rave的过去式和过去分词 )；愤怒地说；咆哮；痴心地说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
waxworks
|
|
| n.公共供水系统；蜡制品，蜡像( waxwork的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
bust
|
|
| vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
comedian
|
|
| n.喜剧演员；滑稽演员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
aggrandizement
|
|
| n.增大，强化，扩大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
improvised
|
|
| a.即席而作的,即兴的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
counteracting
|
|
| 对抗，抵消( counteract的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
acting
|
|
| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
countenance
|
|
| n.脸色，面容；面部表情；vt.支持，赞同 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
mouldered
|
|
| v.腐朽( moulder的过去式和过去分词 )；腐烂，崩塌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
irrigated
|
|
| [医]冲洗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
martyrs
|
|
| n.martyr的复数形式；烈士( martyr的名词复数 )；殉道者；殉教者；乞怜者（向人诉苦以博取同情） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
parched
|
|
| adj.焦干的；极渴的；v.（使）焦干 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
torrent
|
|
| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
eddy
|
|
| n.漩涡，涡流 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
rue
|
|
| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
suspense
|
|
| n.（对可能发生的事）紧张感，担心，挂虑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
ferment
|
|
| vt.使发酵；n./vt.（使）激动，（使）动乱 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
dispersed
|
|
| adj. 被驱散的, 被分散的, 散布的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
disperse
|
|
| vi.使分散；使消失；vt.分散；驱散 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
effigy
|
|
| n.肖像 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
dense
|
|
| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
outraged
|
|
| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
cavalry
|
|
| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
trampling
|
|
| 踩( trample的现在分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
ardent
|
|
| adj.热情的，热烈的，强烈的，烈性的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
trampled
|
|
| 踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 )； 践踏； 无视； 侵犯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |