Poor Phil looked as pale and weary, if not more so, than I did. He was on the sick-list also, and had his head tied up by a bloody4 bandage, necessitated5 by a pretty trenchant7 sword-cut, dealt, as we afterwards discovered on comparing notes, by Volhonski just before his recapture.
"I was first knocked over by Cathcart's riderless horse--"
"Poor old Cathcart--a Waterloo man!" said Gwynne, parenthetically. "Well, Phil?"
"It was wounded and mad with terror," continued Caradoc; "then the splinter of a shell struck me on the left leg. Still I limped to the front, keeping the men together and close to the colours, till that fellow you call Volhonski cut me across the head; even my bearskin failed to protect me from his sabre. Then, but not till then, when blood blinded me, I threw up the sponge and went to the rear."
"What news of our friends in the 19th?" I asked.
"O, the old story, many killed and wounded."
"Little Tom Clavell?"
"Untouched. Had the staff of the Queen's colours smashed in his hands by a grape shot. Tom is now a bigger man than ever," said Charley Gwynne. "By the way, he was talking of Miss Dora Lloyd last night in my bunk9 between the gabions, wondering what she and the girls in England think of all this sort of thing."
"Thank God, they know nothing about it!" said Caradoc, lighting10 a fresh cigar with a twisted cartridge11 paper; "the hearts of some of them would break, could they see but yonder valley."
"Poor Hugh Price!" observed Charley, with a sigh and a grimace12, for he had a bayonet prod13 in the right arm; "he was fairly murdered in cold blood by one of those Kazan fellows--brained clean by the heel of a musket14, ere our bandsmen could carry him off to the hospital tents; but I am thankful the assassin did not escape."
"How?"
"He too was finished the next moment by Evan Rhuddlan."
Other instances of assassination15, especially by a Russian major, were mentioned, and execrations both loud and deep were muttered by us all at these atrocities16, which ultimately caused Lord Raglan to send a firm remonstrance17 on the subject to Sebastopol.
"Is it true, Charley, that the Duke of Cambridge has gone on board ship, sick and exhausted18?" asked I.
"I believe so."
"And that Marshal Canrobert was wounded yesterday?"
"Yes, and had his horse shot under him, too."
"The poor Coldstreamers were fearfully cut up in the redoubt!"
"I saw eight of their officers interred19 in one grave this morning, and three of the Grenadier Guards in another."
"Poor fellows!" sighed Caradoc; "so full of life but a few hours ago."
For a time the conversation, being of this nature, languished20; it was the reverse of lively, so we smoked in silence. We were all in rather low spirits. This was simply caused by reaction after the fierce excitement of yesterday, and to regret for the friends who had fallen--the brave and true-hearted fellows we had lost for ever. Victorious21 though we were, we experienced but little exultation22; and from my tent door, we saw the burial parties, British and French, hard at work in their shirt sleeves, interring23 the slain24 in great trenches25, where they were flung over each other in rows, with all their gory26 clothing and accoutrements, just as they were found; and there they lay in ghastly ranks, their pallid27 faces turned to heaven, the hope of many a heart and household that were far away from that horrible valley; their joys, their sorrows, their histories, and their passing agonies all ended now, with no tears on their cheek save those with which the hand of God bedews the dead face of the poor soldier.
A ring or a watch, or it might be a lock of hair, taken, or perhaps hastily shorn by a friendly hand from the head of a dead officer as he was borne away to these pits--the head that some one loved so well, hanging earthward heavily and untended--shorn for a widowed wife or anxious mother, then at home in peaceful England, or some secluded28 Scottish glen; and there his obsequies were closed by the bearded and surpliced chaplain, who stood book in hand by the edge of the ghastly trench6, burying the dead wholesale29 by the thousand; and amid the boom of the everlasting30 and unrelenting cannonade, now going on at the left attack, might be heard the solemn sentences attuned31 to brighter hopes elsewhere than on earth, where "Death seemed scoffed32 at and derided33 by the reckless bully34 Life."
"Here is an old swell35, with no end of decorations," said a couple of our privates, as they trailed past the body of a Russian officer, one half of whose head had been shot away, and they threw him into a trench where the gray-coats lay in hundreds. The "old swell" proved to be the brave Pulkovnich Ochterlony of Guynde; he who had led his regiment36 so bravely at Bayazid on the mountain slopes of the Aghri Tagh in Armenia, when, in the preceding August, the Russians had defeated the Turks, and laid two thousand scarlet37 fezzes in the dust. The episode of meeting with Guilfoyle, his conduct after the action, and the character he had borne as a civilian38, formed a topic of some interest for my friends, who were vehement39 in urging me to denounce this distinguished40 "cornet" of the wagon-corps to the commander-in-chief. And this I resolved to do so soon as I was sufficiently41 recovered to write, or to visit Lord Raglan in person.
But to take action in the matter soon proved impossible, as he was taken prisoner the next day by some Cossacks who were scouting42 near the Baidar Valley, and who instantly carried him off. Some there were in the camp who gave this capture the very different name of wilful43 desertion, from two reasons; first, he had been gambling44 to a wonderful extent, and with all his usual success, so that he had completely rooked many of his brother officers, nearly all of whom were deserving men from the ranks; and second, that on the day after he was taken, the Russians opened a dreadful fire of shot and shell on one of our magazines, the exact locale of which could only have been indicated to them by some traitor45 safe within their own lines; and none knew better than I the savage46 treachery of which he was capable.
It was now asserted that we should not assault Sebastopol until the arrival of fresh reinforcements, which were expected by the way of Constantinople in a few weeks. There were said to be fifteen thousand French, and our own 97th, or Earl of Ulster's, and 99th Lanarkshire coming from Greece, with the 28th from Malta; but that we were likely to winter before the besieged47 city was now becoming pretty evident to the Allies, and none of us liked the prospect48, the French perhaps least of all, with the freezing memories of their old Russian war and the retreat from flaming Moscow still spoken of in their ranks; and the cruel and taunting49 boast of the Emperor Nicholas concerning Russia's two most conquering generals--January and February.
So when the wood for the erection of huts began to arrive at Balaclava, and the winter siege became a prospect that was inevitable50, I thought of having a wigwam built for myself and two other officers; and confess that as the season advanced, some such habitation would have been more acceptable than my bell-tent, which, like much more of our warlike gear, had probably lain in some of John Bull's shabby peace-at-any-price repositories since Waterloo, and was all decaying. Hence the door was always closed with difficulty, especially on cold nights, the straps51 being rotten and the buckles52 rusty53. Add to this, that our camp-bedding and clothes were alike dropping to pieces--the result of constant wet and damp. Already no two soldiers in our ranks were clad alike; they looked like well-armed vagrants54, and wore comically-patched clothing, with caps of all kinds, gleaned55 off the late field or near the burial trenches. Some of the Rifles, in lieu of dark green, were fain to wear smocks made by themselves from old blankets, and leggings made of the same material or old sacking, and many linesmen, who were less fortunate, had to content them with the rags of their uniforms. Happy indeed were the Highlanders, who had no trousers that wore out. Alas56 for those to whom a flower in the button-hole, kid gloves, glazed57 boots, and Rimmel's essences, were as the necessaries of life! But ere the wished-for materials for my hut arrived, circumstances I could little have foreseen found me quarters in a very different place. Every other day I was again on duty in the trenches, and without the aid of my field-glass could distinctly see the dark groups of the enemy's outposts, extending from the right up the valley of Inkermann, towards Balaclava.
The rain rendered our nights and days in the trenches simply horrible; as we had to shiver there for four-and-twenty hours, literally58 in mud that rose nearly to our knees, and was sometimes frozen--especially towards the darkest and earliest hours of the morning, when the cold would cause even strong and brave fellows almost to sob59 with weakness and debility, while we huddled60 together like sheep for animal warmth, listening the while, perhaps, for a sound that might indicate a Russian mine beneath us. Those who had tobacco smoked, of course, and shared it freely with less fortunate comrades, who had none; and under circumstances such as ours, great indeed was the solace61 of a pipe, though some found their tobacco too wet to smoke; then the Russians and the rain were cursed alike. The latter also often reduced the biscuits in our havresacks to a wet and dirty pulp62; but hunger made us thankful to have it, even in that condition.
"By Jove," one would say, "how the rain comes down! Awful, isn't it?"
"Won't spoil our uniforms, Bill, anyhow."
"No, lads, they are past spoiling," said I, and often had to add, "keep your firelocks under your greatcoats, men, and look to your ammunition63."
And such care was imperatively64 necessary, for on dark nights especially we never knew the moment when an attempt to scour65 the trenches might bring on another Inkermann. So we would sit cowering66 between the gabions, while ever and anon the fiery67 bombs, often shot at random68, came in quick succession through the dark sky of night, making bright and glittering arcs as they sped on their message of destruction, sometimes falling short and bursting in mid-air, or on the earth and throwing up a column of dust and stones, and sometimes fairly into the trenches, scattering69 death and mutilation among us. Erelong, as the season drew on, we had the snow to add to our miseries70, and for many an hour under the lee of a gabion I have sat, half awake and half torpid71, watching the white flakes72 falling, like glittering particles, athwart the slanting73 moonlight on the pale and upturned faces and glistening74 eyes of the dead, on their black and gaping75 wounds, and tattered76 uniform; for many perished nightly in the trenches, on some occasions over a hundred; and at times and places their bodies were so frozen to the earth, that to remove or tear them up was impossible, so they had to be left where they lay, or be covered up pro8 tem, with a little loose soil, broken by a sapper's pickaxe. And with the endurance of all this bodily misery77, I had the additional grief that no letters ever came from Estelle for me. My dream-castle was beginning to crumble78 down. I began to feel vaguely79 that something had been taken out of my life, that life itself was less worth having now, and that the beauty of the past was fading completely away. I had but one conviction or wish--that I had never met, had never known, or had never learned to love her.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
mustered
|
|
| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
detailed
|
|
| adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
inter
|
|
| v.埋葬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
bloody
|
|
| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
necessitated
|
|
| 使…成为必要，需要( necessitate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
trench
|
|
| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
trenchant
|
|
| adj.尖刻的，清晰的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
pro
|
|
| n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
bunk
|
|
| n.(车、船等倚壁而设的)铺位；废话 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
lighting
|
|
| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
cartridge
|
|
| n.弹壳，弹药筒；(装磁带等的)盒子 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
grimace
|
|
| v.做鬼脸，面部歪扭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
prod
|
|
| vt.戳，刺；刺激，激励 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
musket
|
|
| n.滑膛枪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
assassination
|
|
| n.暗杀；暗杀事件 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
atrocities
|
|
| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
remonstrance
|
|
| n抗议，抱怨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
exhausted
|
|
| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
interred
|
|
| v.埋，葬( inter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
languished
|
|
| 长期受苦( languish的过去式和过去分词 )； 受折磨； 变得（越来越）衰弱； 因渴望而变得憔悴或闷闷不乐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
victorious
|
|
| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
exultation
|
|
| n.狂喜，得意 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
interring
|
|
| v.埋，葬( inter的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
24
slain
|
|
| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
trenches
|
|
| 深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
gory
|
|
| adj.流血的；残酷的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
pallid
|
|
| adj.苍白的，呆板的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
secluded
|
|
| adj.与世隔绝的；隐退的；偏僻的v.使隔开，使隐退( seclude的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
wholesale
|
|
| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
everlasting
|
|
| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
attuned
|
|
| v.使协调( attune的过去式和过去分词 )；调音 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
scoffed
|
|
| 嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
derided
|
|
| v.取笑，嘲笑( deride的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
bully
|
|
| n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
swell
|
|
| vi.膨胀，肿胀；增长，增强 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
regiment
|
|
| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
scarlet
|
|
| n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
civilian
|
|
| adj.平民的，民用的，民众的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
vehement
|
|
| adj.感情强烈的；热烈的；(人)有强烈感情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
distinguished
|
|
| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
sufficiently
|
|
| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
scouting
|
|
| 守候活动，童子军的活动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
wilful
|
|
| adj.任性的，故意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
gambling
|
|
| n.赌博；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
traitor
|
|
| n.叛徒，卖国贼 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
savage
|
|
| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
besieged
|
|
| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
prospect
|
|
| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
taunting
|
|
| 嘲讽( taunt的现在分词 )； 嘲弄； 辱骂； 奚落 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
inevitable
|
|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
straps
|
|
| n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
buckles
|
|
| 搭扣，扣环( buckle的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
rusty
|
|
| adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
vagrants
|
|
| 流浪者( vagrant的名词复数 )； 无业游民； 乞丐； 无赖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
gleaned
|
|
| v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的过去式和过去分词 )；（收割后）拾穗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
alas
|
|
| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
glazed
|
|
| adj.光滑的，像玻璃的；上过釉的；呆滞无神的v.装玻璃( glaze的过去式)；上釉于，上光；（目光）变得呆滞无神 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
literally
|
|
| adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
sob
|
|
| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
huddled
|
|
| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
solace
|
|
| n.安慰；v.使快乐；vt.安慰(物)，缓和 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
pulp
|
|
| n.果肉，纸浆；v.化成纸浆，除去...果肉，制成纸浆 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
ammunition
|
|
| n.军火，弹药 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
imperatively
|
|
| adv.命令式地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
scour
|
|
| v.搜索；擦，洗，腹泻，冲刷 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
cowering
|
|
| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
fiery
|
|
| adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
random
|
|
| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
scattering
|
|
| n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
miseries
|
|
| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
torpid
|
|
| adj.麻痹的，麻木的，迟钝的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
flakes
|
|
| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
slanting
|
|
| 倾斜的，歪斜的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
glistening
|
|
| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
gaping
|
|
| adj.口的；张口的；敞口的；多洞穴的v.目瞪口呆地凝视( gape的现在分词 )；张开，张大 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
tattered
|
|
| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
misery
|
|
| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
crumble
|
|
| vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
vaguely
|
|
| adv.含糊地，暖昧地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |