Petty merchants thronged14 the place. All manner of rich goods were bought by the flushed soldiers, the high and the low. And there dwelled here a host of those who sold entertainment,—mummers and jugglers and singers, dwarfs16 and giants. Dice17 rattled18, now there were castanets and dancing, and now church bells seemed to rock the place. Wine flowed.
Out of the plain a league and more away sprang the two hills of Granada, and pricked19 against the sky, her walls and thousand towers and noble gates. Between them and Santa Fe stretched open and ruined ground, and here for many a day had shocked together the Spaniard and the Moor20. But now there was no longer battle. Granada had asked and been granted seventy days in which to envisage21 and accept her fate. These were nearing the end. Lost and beaten, haggard with woe22 and hunger and pestilence23, the city stood over against us, above the naked plain, all her outer gardens stripped away, bare light striking the red Alhambra and the Citadel24. When the wind swept over her and on to Santa Fe it seemed to bring a sound of wailing25 and the faint and terrible odor of a long besieged26 place.
I came at eve into Santa Fe, found at last an inn of the poorer sort, ate scant27 supper and went to bed. Dawn came with a great ringing of church bells.
Out of the inn, in the throbbing28 street, I began my search for Don Enrique de Cerda. One told me one thing and one another, but at last I got true direction. At noon I found him in a goodly room where he made recovery from wounds. Now he walked and now he sat, his arm in a sling29 and a bandage like a turban around his head. A page took him the word I gave. "Juan Lepe. From the hermitage in the oak wood." It sufficed. When I entered he gazed, then coming to me, put his unbound hand over mine. "Why," he asked, "'Juan Lepe'?"
I glanced toward the page and he dismissed him, whereupon I explained the circumstances.
We sat by the window, and again rose for us the hermitage in the oak wood at foot of a mountain, and the small tower that slew30 in ugly fashion. Again we were young men, together in strange dangers, learning there each other's mettle31. He had not at all forgotten.
He offered to go to Seville, as soon as Granada should fall, and find and fight Don Pedro. I shook my head. I could have done that had I seen it as the way.
He agreed that Don Pedro was now the minor32 peril33. It is evil to chain thought! In our day we think boldly of a number of things. But touch King or touch Church—the cord is around your neck!
I said that I supposed I had been rash.
He nodded. "Yes. You were rash that day in the oak wood. Less rash, and my bones would be lying there, under tree." He rose and walked the room, then came to me and put his unhurt arm about my shoulders. "Don Jayme, we swore that day comrade love and service—and that day is now; twilight34 has never come to it, the leaves of the oak wood have never fallen! The Holy Office shall not have thee!"
"Don Enrique—"
We sat down and drank each a little wine, and fell to ways and means.
I rested Juan Lepe in the household of Don Enrique de Cerda, one figure among many, involved in the swarm35 of fighting and serving men. There was a squire36 who had served him long. To this man, Diego Lopez, I was committed, with enough told to enlist37 his intelligence. He managed for me in the intricate life of the place with a skill to make god Mercury applaud. Don Enrique and I were rarely together, rarely were seen by men to speak one to the other. But in the inner world we were together.
Days passed. We found nothing yet to do while all listening and doing at Santa Fe were bound up in the crumbling38 of Granada into Spanish hands. It seemed best to wait, watching chances.
Meantime the show glittered, and man's strong stomach cried "Life! More life!" It glittered at Santa Fe before Granada, and it was a dying ember in Granada before Santa Fe. The one glittered and triumphed because the other glittered and triumphed not. And who above held the balances even and neither sorrowed nor was feverishly39 elated but went his own way could only be seen from the Vega like a dream or a line from a poet.
For the most part the nobles and cavaliers in Santa Fe spent as though hard gold were spiritual gold to be gathered endlessly. One might say, "They go into a garden and shake tree each morning, which tree puts forth40 again in the night." None seemed to see as on a map laid down Spain and the broken peasant and the digger of the gold. None seemed to feel that toil41 which or soon or late they must recognize for their own toil. Toil in Spain, toil in other and far lands whence came their rich things, toil in Europe, Arabia and India! Apparel at Santa Fe was a thing to marvel42 at. The steed no less than his rider went gorgeous. The King and Queen, it was said, did not like this peacocking, but might not help it.
They themselves were pouring gold into the lap of the Church. It was a capacious lap.
Wars were general enough, God knew! But not every year could one find a camp where the friar was as common as the archer43 or the pikeman, and the prelate as the plumed44 chieftain.
Santa Fe was court no less than camp, court almost as though it were Cordova. This Queen and King at least did not live at ease in palaces while others fought their wars. North, south, east and west, through the ten years, they had been the moving springs. It was an able King and Queen, a politic45 King and a sincere and godly Queen, even a loving Queen. If only—if only—
I had been a week and more in Santa Fe when King Boabdil surrendered Granada. He left forever the Alhambra. Granada gates opened; he rode out with a few of his emirs and servants to meet King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. The day shone bright. Spain towered, a figure dressed in gold and red.
Santa Fe poured out to view the spectacle, and with the rest went Diego Lopez and Juan Lepe. So great festival, so vivid the color, so echoing the sound, so stately and various the movement! Looking at the great strength massing there on the plain I said aloud, as I thought, to Diego Lopez, "Now they might do some worthy46 great thing!"
The squire not answering, I became aware that a swirl47 in the throng15 had pushed him from me. Still there came an answer in a deep and peculiarly thrilling voice. "That is a true saying and a good augury48!"
I learn much by voices and before I turned I knew that this was an enthusiast49's voice, but not an enthusiast without knowledge. Whoever spoke50 was strong enough, real enough. I liked the voice and felt a certain inner movement of friendship. Some shift among the great actors, some parting of banners, kept us suspended and staring for a moment, then the view closed against us who could only behold51 by snatches. Freed, I turned to see who had spoken and found a tall, strongly made, white-haired man. The silver hair was too soon; he could hardly have been ten years my elder. He had a long, fair face that might once have been tanned and hardened by great exposure. His skin had that look, but now the bronze was faded, and you could see that he had been born very fair in tint52. Across the high nose and cheek bones went a powdering of freckles53. His eyes were bluish-gray and I saw at once that he habitually54 looked at things afar off.
He was rather poorly dressed and pushed about as I was. When the surge again gave him footing, he spoke beside me. "'Now that this is over, they might do some great, worthy thing!' Very true, friend, they might! I take your words for good omen13." The throng shot out an arm and we were parted. The same action brought back to me Diego Lopez. Speaking to him later of the tall man, he said that he had noticed him, and that it was the Italian who would go to India by way of Ocean-Sea.
King Boabdil gave up his city to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. Over Granada, high against the bright sky, rose and floated the banners. Cannon55, the big lombards, roared. Mars' music crashed out, then the trumpets56 ceased their crying and instead spread a mighty57 chanting. Te Deum Laudamus!
At last the massed brightness out in the plain quivered and parted. The pageantry broke, wide curving and returning with some freedom but with order too, into Santa Fe. I saw the Queen and the King with their children, and the Grand Cardinal58, and prelates and prelates, and the Marquis of Cadiz, and many a grandee7 and famous knight59. Don Enrique de Cerda and his troop came by.
Diego Lopez and I returned to the town. I saw again the man who would find India by a way unpassed, as far as one knew, since the world began! He was entering a house with a friar beside him. Something came into my mind of the convent of La Rabida.
点击收听单词发音
1 majesty | |
n.雄伟,壮丽,庄严,威严;最高权威,王权 | |
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2 valor | |
n.勇气,英勇 | |
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3 emulation | |
n.竞争;仿效 | |
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4 livelihood | |
n.生计,谋生之道 | |
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5 herded | |
群集,纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 ); 放牧; (使)向…移动 | |
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6 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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7 grandee | |
n.贵族;大公 | |
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8 grandees | |
n.贵族,大公,显贵者( grandee的名词复数 ) | |
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9 endued | |
v.授予,赋予(特性、才能等)( endue的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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10 hacked | |
生气 | |
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11 hewed | |
v.(用斧、刀等)砍、劈( hew的过去式和过去分词 );砍成;劈出;开辟 | |
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12 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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13 omen | |
n.征兆,预兆;vt.预示 | |
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14 thronged | |
v.成群,挤满( throng的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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15 throng | |
n.人群,群众;v.拥挤,群集 | |
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16 dwarfs | |
n.侏儒,矮子(dwarf的复数形式)vt.(使)显得矮小(dwarf的第三人称单数形式) | |
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17 dice | |
n.骰子;vt.把(食物)切成小方块,冒险 | |
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18 rattled | |
慌乱的,恼火的 | |
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19 pricked | |
刺,扎,戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 ); 刺伤; 刺痛; 使剧痛 | |
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20 moor | |
n.荒野,沼泽;vt.(使)停泊;vi.停泊 | |
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21 envisage | |
v.想象,设想,展望,正视 | |
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22 woe | |
n.悲哀,苦痛,不幸,困难;int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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23 pestilence | |
n.瘟疫 | |
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24 citadel | |
n.城堡;堡垒;避难所 | |
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25 wailing | |
v.哭叫,哀号( wail的现在分词 );沱 | |
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26 besieged | |
包围,围困,围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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27 scant | |
adj.不充分的,不足的;v.减缩,限制,忽略 | |
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28 throbbing | |
a. 跳动的,悸动的 | |
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29 sling | |
vt.扔;悬挂;n.挂带;吊索,吊兜;弹弓 | |
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30 slew | |
v.(使)旋转;n.大量,许多 | |
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31 mettle | |
n.勇气,精神 | |
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32 minor | |
adj.较小(少)的,较次要的;n.辅修学科;vi.辅修 | |
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33 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
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34 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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35 swarm | |
n.(昆虫)等一大群;vi.成群飞舞;蜂拥而入 | |
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36 squire | |
n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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37 enlist | |
vt.谋取(支持等),赢得;征募;vi.入伍 | |
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38 crumbling | |
adj.摇摇欲坠的 | |
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39 feverishly | |
adv. 兴奋地 | |
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40 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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41 toil | |
vi.辛劳工作,艰难地行动;n.苦工,难事 | |
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42 marvel | |
vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异;n.令人惊异的事 | |
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43 archer | |
n.射手,弓箭手 | |
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44 plumed | |
饰有羽毛的 | |
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45 politic | |
adj.有智虑的;精明的;v.从政 | |
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46 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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47 swirl | |
v.(使)打漩,(使)涡卷;n.漩涡,螺旋形 | |
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48 augury | |
n.预言,征兆,占卦 | |
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49 enthusiast | |
n.热心人,热衷者 | |
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50 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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51 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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52 tint | |
n.淡色,浅色;染发剂;vt.着以淡淡的颜色 | |
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53 freckles | |
n.雀斑,斑点( freckle的名词复数 ) | |
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54 habitually | |
ad.习惯地,通常地 | |
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55 cannon | |
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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56 trumpets | |
喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 ); 小号; 喇叭形物; (尤指)绽开的水仙花 | |
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57 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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58 cardinal | |
n.(天主教的)红衣主教;adj.首要的,基本的 | |
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59 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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