There was a hush1 over the Court. Yet a hush broken and disturbed by many sounds. By the sobs2 of more than one woman, by the shuffling3 of many feet, by muttered ejaculations from those who strove to force their way nearer to where the judges sat beneath the Intendant, and once by a ribald laugh from a painted woman who leered at all around her and flung nods and smiles toward Montrevel--the woman Léonie Sabbat. By pushings, too, administered by brawny4 men who were possibly mountaineers to the Miquelets and even the Cravates, since if they were the former they feared not the latter; they had met before. Once an oath was heard muttered and the ominous5 sound of a blow, then a girl's shriek6 of horror. Yet at last some semblance7 of order was obtained, the proceedings8 were about to commence.
"Bring in the prisoner," exclaimed the presiding judge, Amédée Beauplan, a harsh and severe man who had sentenced countless9 Protestants to the various forms of death dealt out to those of that religion; and his words were re-echoed by the greffiers.
A moment later Martin Ashurst stood before all assembled there. And as he did so many women were heard to weep afresh. Perhaps his handsome manhood recalled to them some of their own men who had once stood where he was standing10 now. Alone among her sex Léonie Sabbat, who was eating Lunel grapes from a basket, laughed.
"Tiens!" she muttered, addressing herself to an elderly decorous-looking woman who was close by her, but who shrank away from the courtesan as though she were some noxious11 reptile12, "regardez moi ?a. A fool! One who might have had wealth, vast wealth. Now see him! Doomed13 to death, as he will be in an hour. I know his story. Tout14 même, il est beau!" and she spat15 the grape seeds out upon the floor at her feet.
Baville's eyes, roaming round the Court, yet apparently16 observing nothing, he seeming indeed supremely17 oblivious18 of all that was taking place, lighted casually19 upon two persons hemmed20 in by many others. A man well enough clad in a simple suit of russet brown, who looked somewhat like a notary's clerk, his wig21 en pleine échaudé covering the greater part of his cheeks, so that from out of it little could be seen but his eyes, nose, and mouth. An idle fellow, the Intendant deemed him, a scrivener who had probably brought his old mother to see the spectacle. For he held in his hand that of an aged22 woman whose eyes alone were visible beneath the rough Marseilles shawl with which her head was enveloped23, and with, about her brow, some spare locks that were iron-gray.
The pair were not, however, always visible to Baville even from his raised seat; sometimes the movements of others by whom they were surrounded--of a fat and gloating monk24, or of a weak and shivering Protestant, or of a crowd of gossips from out the streets--obscured them from him momentarily. Yet, as the trial went on, they came across his view now and again, the youth holding always the old woman's hand. And seeing that woman's hollow eyes fixed25 on him always, Baville shuddered26. He knew her now, from a far-off yet well-remembered past; her face rose as a phantom27 rises.
That Martin, standing there, calm, almost indifferent, his hands folded on the rail in front of him, should be the principal object of attention in that crowded place was natural. For he was, as all knew, awaiting a sentence that must indubitably be awarded ere long. All knew also that the trial was but a preliminary farce28 leading up to the great déno?ment.
That trial, such as it was, drew near to its close. Witness had been heard; Montglas, who had seen Martin snatch Urbaine Ducaire from her coach and ride off with her; also the one man who had escaped from the massacre29 at the Chateau30 St. Servas; also the three men who had been present on the beach near Cette and had seen the English spy hand and glove with the Camisards--all had testified, Montglas alone with regret and emotion.
"You swear this is the truth?" Beauplan said to him, looking up from the papers on his desk before him. "There is no doubt?"
"It is the truth," the young dragoon had answered. "Yet I would that other lips had had to speak. He spared my life but yesterday when it was in his hands."
"He has led to the death of many others. Also he is an English spy. Mes frères," he went on, turning to each of the other judges and whispering low, so that none but the silent Intendant sitting above could hear, "what is our verdict? We need not long deliberate, I imagine."
Both those others fixed also their eyes upon him acquiescingly, yet neither spoke31. Words were not wanted.
Then Beauplan, turning his head over his shoulder toward the man who represented the King's majesty32, and seeing that he sat there calm and impassable, statue-like, inscrutable, rose from his seat and made three solemn bows to Baville.
"We await permission to pronounce sentence," he said.
"Pronounce--it," and Baville drew a long breath between the two words. Yet the handsome face changed not. Or only grew more ivory-like--so ivory-like that those standing in that hall, both enemies and adherents33, cast back their thoughts to their dead whom they had seen lying in their shrouds34 ere the coffin35 lid closed over and hid them forever.
"What does he see that blasts him?" whispered Montrevel in Fléchier's ear, and the bishop36, turning his own white face to the inflamed37 one of the great bravo, muttered, "God, he knows, he only."
In the crowd beyond the railed-off place where the principals sat the effect was the same. Among all who now fixed their eyes on Baville, the greater number asked: "What does he see?" and glanced over their shoulders as though expecting themselves to see something terrible.
"Can the dead rise?" exclaimed one swarthy Cévenole who, in any other circumstances than the present, would have been arrested for an attroupé ere he had been an hour in N?mes; have been borne to the earth by the Cravates and loaded with chains ere hurried to a dungeon38, so certain did it appear that he was a Camisard. "Can the burned ashes of our loved ones come together again, the limbs that have rotted on the gibbets be restored to life? Has one of those come back to paralyze him?" And he laughed bitterly.
"Il est lache," whispered Léonie Sabbat through her small white teeth. "Mon Dieu! il a peur. Fichtre pour Baville!" and she pressed her plump jewelled hand on the shoulder of her unwilling39 neighbour as she craned her neck over the balcony to observe the man she jibed40 at.
Yet he was no coward. Only his heart sickened within him. With fear, but not the fear of either phantom risen from the dead or of fierce Camisard ready to send him to join the dead. Sickened at the sight of that aged woman who never took her eyes off him, who seemed about to address all assembled there. For he remembered her. Recognised her face now beyond all doubt. Remembered one night--how long ago it seemed!--when all the land lay under the snow, and when, at the foot of the mountains the tourbillon whirled down from the heights above great flurries of other snow which froze as it fell, and struck and cut the faces of those riding through the wintry storm as knives or whipcord strike and cut. Recalled how he himself riding through the tourmente, followed by a dozen of his guard, had to strike breast and body to prevent this freezing snow from ensheathing him in its swift, hardening masses. Yet of what account such memory as that compared to another which followed swiftly in its train!
The memory of a humble41 peasant's cot, a man stricken with years reading his Bible by the fireside, a child playing at his feet, rolling about the floor laughing and crowing as it teased a good-natured hound that endeavoured, unavailingly, to sleep before the crackling logs. Then a word from the man, another from him--O God! how fearfully, horribly misunderstood! Next, the room full of smoke and the smell of powder, the man gasping42 out his life, gasping, too, one last muttered sentence, whispering that he, Baville, was forever smitten43 by God's frown. And on the rude staircase that led from behind the deep chimney to the room above a comely44 woman standing, the little child clasped in her arms, her face distorted with terror, her voice shrieking45 that he was a murderer, an assassin.
A comely woman then, now an old one and before him, there, in the body of the Court.
What if she and Urbaine should meet? What if they had met?
The doomed man, the man upon whom Amédée Beauplan was about to pronounce sentence, had said that Cavalier had discovered those who knew her father, Urbain Ducaire. Was she one of those whom the Camisard chief had discovered, and had she told all?
"Is he mad?" some in the Court asked again, while others answered, "More like stricken with remorse46 or fear." Yet surely not the latter, since now he repeated his last words referring to the sentence.
"Pronounce--it."
Yet with his eyes never off that woman's face.
A moment later and it was done; the sentence delivered, even as it had been delivered again and again in N?mes and Avignon, Montpellier and Alais within the last few months by red-robed legal functionaries47, and, in countless bourgs and villages, by rough soldiers acting48 as judges. A sentence of death by the flames before the Beau Dieu of the cathedral, to take place at the time ordered by the King's representative, Baville. The ashes afterward49 to be scattered50 to the winds.
Yet, as Amédée Beauplan's voice ceased, others were heard in the Court, rising above all the noise made by the movement of the spectators passing out into the street, by the orders shouted from officers to men to clear that Court, and by the loud murmurings either of approbation51 or disapproval52 which were heard.
"It will never take place," one clear, high-toned voice was heard above all others to cry, "never. Ere it does, N?mes shall be consumed to ashes."
And Martin, turning as the warders prepared to take him back to his cell, saw from whose lips that cry had come. From Cavalier, the man dressed in russet-brown and with his features hidden by the long black wig.
Perhaps, too, Baville suspected who might be the utterer of that ominous threat, for now he rose from his seat once more, again he stood erect53 and commanding; except for his pallor, which still remained, he was himself as ever.
"Stop!" he cried, his voice ringing like a clarion54 above all the other sounds, the shuffling of feet, the murmurings and mutterings, and the clank of sabres; "stop and hear my words!" And seeing that all eyes were turned toward him, he continued, his tones as firm and unshaken as though the events of the past hour had had no actual existence:
"In this hall to-day are present--I know it well--many who are rebels to the King's, to my authority. Men whose lives are forfeit55 even as the lives of countless others have been forfeited56. Enough! To-day they are safe. This Court is open, but for to-day only. Let those rebels therefore take heed57. For so sure as there is a God above us, so sure as I, Baville, Intendant of Languedoc and representative of his Majesty, stand here, those rebels who are found in this city at nightfall shall follow the same road their brethren have trod before them. You have called me the Tiger of Languedoc, and, by the splendour of Heaven, a tiger you shall still find me. Till rebellion is crushed forever from out this province, so long as I live, never will I spare one who takes up arms against the anointed King of France. Now," and he sank back on to his chair, "begone all of you out of N?mes. To-night I cause a house-to-house visitation to be made--ay! a search from room to room. Those found here die. Begone, therefore, while there is yet time."
Then, without waiting to hear what answer might be made to his threats by any in the crowd, he rose and, passing to the heavily curtained door which led from out the Court, left them. Yet ere he did so, and even while the attendants held back that curtain for him to pass through, he paused once and, facing all there, gazed on them calmly.
A moment later he was gone; gone without hearing the curses and objurgations muttered by many lips, the loud "Brava" which Montrevel gave utterance58 to, or the little rippling59 laugh that issued from Léonie Sabbat's lips as again she struck her unwilling neighbour on the shoulder with her white hand and exclaimed, "Avec tout, il est superbe."
Had she seen him, however, the instant after the heavily figured arras had fallen behind him, she might have deemed he was less strong and masterful than she had a moment before grudgingly60 allowed him to be. For even as he passed down the passage which led to the door at which his heavily-gilt state-coach awaited him, an exact facsimile of that in which Le Roi Soleil himself travelled from Versailles to Marly or from St. Germain to Fontainebleau, he walked unsteadily and his white brow was moist and damp.
"If she should have met Urbaine," he muttered as he passed along the passage, "or if she should meet her, and tell all!"
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收听单词发音
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1
hush
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| int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静 | |
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sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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shuffling
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| adj. 慢慢移动的, 滑移的 动词shuffle的现在分词形式 | |
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4
brawny
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| adj.强壮的 | |
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ominous
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| adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的 | |
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6
shriek
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| v./n.尖叫，叫喊 | |
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7
semblance
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| n.外貌，外表 | |
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proceedings
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| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
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9
countless
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| adj.无数的，多得不计其数的 | |
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10
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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noxious
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| adj.有害的，有毒的；使道德败坏的，讨厌的 | |
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12
reptile
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| n.爬行动物；两栖动物 | |
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13
doomed
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| 命定的 | |
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14
tout
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| v.推销，招徕；兜售；吹捧，劝诱 | |
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15
spat
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| n.口角，掌击；v.发出呼噜呼噜声 | |
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16
apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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17
supremely
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| adv.无上地，崇高地 | |
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18
oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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19
casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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hemmed
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| 缝…的褶边( hem的过去式和过去分词 )； 包围 | |
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wig
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| n.假发 | |
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22
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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enveloped
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| v.包围，笼罩，包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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24
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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26
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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27
phantom
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| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
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28
farce
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| n.闹剧，笑剧，滑稽戏；胡闹 | |
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29
massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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30
chateau
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| n.城堡，别墅 | |
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31
spoke
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| 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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32
majesty
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| n.雄伟，壮丽，庄严，威严；最高权威，王权 | |
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33
adherents
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| n.支持者，拥护者( adherent的名词复数 )；党羽；徒子徒孙 | |
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34
shrouds
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| n.裹尸布( shroud的名词复数 )；寿衣；遮蔽物；覆盖物v.隐瞒( shroud的第三人称单数 )；保密 | |
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coffin
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| n.棺材，灵柩 | |
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bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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37
inflamed
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| 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 ) | |
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38
dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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39
unwilling
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| adj.不情愿的 | |
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40
jibed
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| v.与…一致( jibe的过去式和过去分词 )；（与…）相符；相匹配 | |
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41
humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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42
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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43
smitten
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| 猛打，重击，打击( smite的过去分词 ) | |
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44
comely
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| adj.漂亮的，合宜的 | |
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45
shrieking
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| v.尖叫( shriek的现在分词 ) | |
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46
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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47
functionaries
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| n.公职人员，官员( functionary的名词复数 ) | |
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48
acting
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| n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的 | |
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49
afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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50
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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51
approbation
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| n.称赞；认可 | |
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52
disapproval
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| n.反对，不赞成 | |
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53
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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54
clarion
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| n.尖音小号声；尖音小号 | |
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55
forfeit
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| vt.丧失；n.罚金，罚款，没收物 | |
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56
forfeited
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| （因违反协议、犯规、受罚等）丧失，失去( forfeit的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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57
heed
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| v.注意，留意；n.注意，留心 | |
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58
utterance
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| n.用言语表达，话语，言语 | |
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59
rippling
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| 起涟漪的，潺潺流水般声音的 | |
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60
grudgingly
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