But the pious6 Feodor had married, and his wife Irene had a masterful and ambitious brother, Boris Godunoff. The Godunoffs are said to have descended7 from a Tatar chief, who had embraced Christianity and settled in Moscow. Irene was devoted9 to her brother, and she used her influence over the feeble-minded Tsar to promote him. Before long the palace was split into two factions11, and the familiar struggle for power and wealth set in. Nikita Romanoff was a man of ability, but he had a more astute12 rival. Boris Godunoff secured two measures which greatly increased his support in Moscow and the country.
The first measure won for him the gratitude13 of the clergy14. The Russian Church was still in effect the Greek Church. Its supreme15 head was the Patriarch of Constantinople, who sustained his tattered16 dignity among the Mohammedans. Boris induced this man to create a Patriarch of Moscow, and he thus won the increasing favour of the clergy. His other measure was one of great and terrible significance for the poor “Christians.” The expansion of Russia had created large new estates, and the great land-owners continually attracted peasants away from the smaller estates. But the small land-owners, who formed the yeomanry or cavalry17 of the Empire, were not a body to be despised, either in the interest of the country or of an aspiring18 politician. It is said that in 1592 Boris played for their support by issuing an imperial decree which forbade the peasants to go from one estate to another. Some Russian historians deny this. If the document is genuine, they say, it meant only that Boris legally fixed19 a practice which had gradually arisen, on account of the mischief20 of these peasant-migrations. However that may be, there is no doubt that Boris Godunoff legally established serfdom in Russia at a time when it was being abandoned elsewhere. The peasants grumbled21 and suffered, but they now had upon their backs an autocracy22 that treated their wishes with entire contempt.
As the reign23 of Feodor (1584-1598) wore on, and no son appeared, Boris pushed his ambition to greater lengths. The heir to the throne would now be the young Prince Dmitri, the son of Ivan the Terrible’s seventh wife. Early in the reign of Feodor the nobles had compelled Dmitri’s ambitious mother to take her infant son and her relatives to a remote provincial24 estate, and from that exile the mother and her kin25 nervously26 studied the failing health of Tsar Feodor and the condition of his wife. The subjection of women in Russia does not seem to have extinguished their ambition, and there was at the court itself the usual party, out of power, which espoused27 the hope of a possible dynasty. The court seethed28 once more with sordid29 passion.
In 1591 the Dmitri faction10 at court was shattered by the announcement that the young prince was dead. Boris ordered an inquiry30, and as a result he announced that, owing to the carelessness of his mother in supervising him, Dmitri had committed suicide. With becoming zeal31 the virtual Regent forced the mother to enter a nunnery and consigned32 her relatives to various prisons. Moscow at large, reflecting that the tragedy removed an important obstacle from Boris’s path to the throne, preferred to believe that his servants had murdered the prince. That is the general opinion of historians, but there are some who maintain that the child was not murdered at all, and that the adventurer who will presently enter the story was really Dmitri.
For the present, at all events, the way was cleared, and the death of Feodor in 1598 left the throne vacant. The nobles and people offered their allegiance to the Tsarina, but Irene, suddenly discovering a remarkable33 distrust of her powers and dislike of the world, fled to a nunnery. Boris had, with equal modesty34, retired35 to the same nunnery, but his supporters worked for him, and presently the convent was sought by an impressive procession of the clergy (headed by the obsequious36 patriarchs), the boyars, and the people of Moscow, offering the crown to Boris. He declined an invitation which seemed to him to come from too small a section, and the general council of the Empire was then convoked37, and it repeated the offer. After a further mockery of resistance he accepted and became Tsar Boris.
I have said that Boris Godunoff was as able a man to fill the autocracy as could have been found at that time, and he endeavoured to complete the plans of Ivan the Terrible. He kept in check Sweden and Poland, consolidated39 the gains in Asia, and maintained close and profitable relations with Queen Elizabeth. He encouraged Russian students to go to western countries for the completion of their education. But we are concerned with the rise of the Romanoffs and may summarise40 other matters.
Three years after the accession of Boris a dreadful famine spread over the land. It lasted three years, and so great was the destitution41 that in later years horrible stories were whispered of parents devouring42 their own children. Streams of the suffering country-folk poured into Moscow, and, as its own provisions were soon exhausted43, the streets of the capital were filled with pale and emaciated44 ghosts. It is said that hundreds of thousands died in Moscow alone, and throughout the land the superstitious45 people spoke46 of the sin of Boris Godunoff in murdering the heir to the throne. The nobles themselves stirred, and Boris put into operation the usual machinery47. The Romanoff family seemed to be an especial source of danger, and the chief representative of that family, Feodor Romanoff, was thrust into a monastery48 and buried under the monkish50 title of Philaret. His wife was compelled to enter a nunnery and assume the name of Marfa.
The scattered51 feeling of discontent at length gathered round the person of a singular adventurer. In the summer of 1604 the news spread through Russia that Dmitri, the third son of Ivan the Terrible, was not dead, but was approaching Moscow with a Polish army to oust52 the usurper53 and put an end to their miseries54. Gregory Otrepieff, who is generally believed to have been “the false Dmitri,” had been a roving monk49 who had turned brigand55 with a band of Cossacks. From the southern steppes he had gone to Poland, and there, it was announced, he had, believing himself to be at the point of death, revealed to a Jesuit confessor the secret of his birth and shown the priest a jewelled cross which proved his identity. The Jesuits were still in their melodramatic phase of secret conspiracy56 for the Church, and may well have invented, or embroidered57, the story. They pressed Dmitri upon the Catholic king and nobles of Poland, and in October he crossed the frontier of Russia with an irregular force. Would the Jesuits add to their many triumphs the submission58 of Russia to the Vatican after so many centuries of resistance?
Otrepieff’s force was defeated, but there was a good deal of treachery, and presently a large body of the Cossacks came to join the army of their former companion. At this juncture59, in 1605, Boris died, and priests, soldiers, and people declared that they were convinced of the genuineness of the adventurer. The late Tsar’s wife and son were murdered with the usual barbarity. The people of Moscow lustily received the monk-brigand, when he came for his coronation, and even the widow of Ivan IV publicly fell upon his neck and identified him. Her relatives were, of course, promoted to wealth and honour, and even the Romanoffs returned from the monastic shades to the sunlight of prosperity. Monk Philaret was made a Metropolitan60, or Archbishop.
But the rise to power was not so speedy as the fall from it, and both give us some measure of the ignorance and barbarism of the times. Otrepieff was a clever and accomplished61 man, but he either lacked, or disdained62 to use in so credulous63 a world, the art of tact64. He brought a Polish wife whose suite65 laughed at the uncouth66 ways of the Russians. He himself too openly railed at the backwardness of the country, surrounded himself with foreigners, and acted with scandalous independence. He was plainly, as his adventures would indicate, a sceptic, and he snapped his fingers at the Pope and the Jesuits the moment they had secured the throne for him; but he was no more respectful to the clergy and religious forms of Russia. He disdained monks67 and ikons, asked no blessing68 on his table, and refused to follow any of the court-traditions. And within a month of his entrance into the Kreml the adventurer lay dead upon the stones of its courtyard. People, amazed at their own credulity, now exclaimed that he was a sorcerer, and the spell had to be broken by blowing the ashes of his burned corpse69 from the mouth of a cannon70.
The succession to the throne had now been interrupted, and a ruler had to be chosen. Vassili Chuiski, a military noble of distinguished71 family, a bald myopic72 man of little energy, secured the suffrages73 of Moscow and mounted the throne. But while the sluggishness74 of communication enabled Moscow thus to choose a sovereign for the entire country, it left the provinces in such a state of confusion and unsettlement that any rebel could find support there. Another Dmitri arose, and was accepted. People recollected75 that the real Dmitri had, like a true Russian, worn a beard, while Otrepieff had had none. The new claimant had a beard. A regiment76 of nobles in one province, an army of disaffected77 peasants and brigands78 in another, raised the standard of the new adventurer and united their forces within sight of Moscow. There the nobles quarrelled with and deserted79 their baser comrades, and the new claimant ended on a gallows80.
But the name “Dmitri” was now a phrase under which any kind of rebellion might find shelter. A number of men who claimed that they were sons or grandsons of Ivan the Terrible appeared, and the known morals of that monarch81 did not make the number implausible. A “third false Dmitri,” a very poor type of adventurer, was fabricated, and before long the rebels again set up within sight of Moscow the court of “the real monarch.” The new impostor went so far as to claim that he was not merely the Prince, but the first “false Dmitri” also, having escaped assassination82, and he sent tender messages to his “wife” Maryna (who had married Otrepieff) and her father. In later years they maintained that the impostor had, after killing83 their servants, torn them from their home and brought them to Moscow, but such trickery was common. Maryna’s father, still thirsting for a crown for his daughter and a share of its magnificence for himself, brought his daughter to Moscow and bade her open her arms to her recovered “husband.” “I would die first,” she said, after seeing the worthless adventurer; but the father persisted, and soon the “genuine” Tsar and Tsarina held court outside Moscow, while Chuiski and his friends nervously kept the city.
The Patriarch Philaret, Father of Mikhail Romanoff, the First Tsar of the New Dynasty. Seventeenth Century
The situation was complicated by the insidious84 behaviour of the king of Poland. King Sigismund continued with a hypocritical pretence85 of justice to support the claimant, while he negotiated a surer way of getting the crown. He claimed the Russian throne for his own son Ladislas, and sent an army against Moscow. The terrified boyars now compelled the useless Chuiski to resign and formed a council, including one of the Romanoffs, Ivan Nikititch, to direct the affairs of the distracted country. This small group of boyars accepted Ladislas. But it became clear that Sigismund and his Jesuits put forward Ladislas only as a pretext86 to seize the throne, and a terrible agitation87 seized the people. Their historic faith was in danger. The shadow of the Pope fell upon their very walls. The small Polish army had to be conducted into the city during the night. The people awoke to find Popery in their midst, and soldiers and the nobles who supported Poland, including the Romanoffs, had to shelter in the Kreml.
The impostor was at length driven away from Moscow, and in December the news came that he had been slain88 by the Tatars. But this removal of one element of strife89 now only embittered90 the people further against the Poles. King Sigismund was taking Russian towns in the east: the Swedes were busy in the north. Russia had returned to as grave and costly91 a confusion as it had ever witnessed, and the long-suffering peasants looked up with dull eyes from their plough to hear the latest news of their masters, or fled before the unrestrained bands of brigands. In Moscow itself a row between the people and the Polish soldiers led to days of murder and burning of houses, and the skirmish was turned into regular warfare92 by the arrival of an army of Cossacks. The Poles and a number of Moscow nobles, including the wife and son of Archbishop Philaret, who had gone to plead with the Polish king and been held prisoner by him, were closely besieged93 in the Kreml.
It was a butcher of Nijni-Novgorod who raised at length a national standard and rallied the best elements of the country. His forceful and sincere personality bound together his townsmen in a league of effort and sacrifice, and in the late summer of 1612 a large and solemn army, headed by the priests and monks and sacred pictures, came within sight of the golden domes94 of the metropolis95. The townsfolk eagerly joined them, and the few hundred Poles who remained in the Kreml were summoned to surrender. Worn with famine, though they had begun to eat the flesh of their slain comrades, and had made soup of the old parchments in the Archives, the brave troops at first stubbornly refused to yield without an order from their king. They surrendered on October 26th, and a company of living ghosts emerged from the sacred enclosure. Amongst them was Ivan Nikititch, of the Romanoff family, and Philaret’s wife Marfa; and with Marfa, his large eyes wondering at the scenes of horror, was her son Michael who was destined96 to be the first Romanoff ruler.
A provisional government was formed, and a summons to a great popular assembly was sent over the country. A number of loosely chosen representatives—except of the peasants, who no longer counted—came to Moscow, and the task of choosing a monarch was confronted. The nobles were generally in favour of Ladislas of Poland, but the bitter anti-Roman and anti-Polish feeling restrained these. They must have a Russian monarch, and men naturally asked if they had not still amongst them some man of royal blood. From Philaret, whose embassy had won him some prestige, but whose clerical condition debarred him from the throne, attention was soon drawn97 to his son.
The mother, Marfa, had left Moscow after issuing from the Kreml, and had gone to a country estate at Kastroma. There were, however, other Romanoffs in the assembly, and Philaret himself (who, however, is said to have urged the election of a boyar) maintained contact with it from his exile. Most zealous98 for the boy—for Michael was only seventeen years old—was a crafty99 old fox who had married a niece of Philaret, and might reasonably expect some reward. To the nobles he pointed100 out that the youth and feebleness of Michael would leave them a larger power. To the clergy he observed that to have the father of the Tsar a Metropolitan of their Church held out a large prospect101 of power for them. In short, the nobles were induced to realise that blood was the thing that mattered, while the clergy and monks were guided by supernatural visions in which the boy appeared as “God’s chosen one.” Michael was elected on February 21st. Three weeks later a solemn procession approached the monastery at Kastroma in which Marfa guarded her precious son. She wept at the prospect of Michael assuming so dangerous a dignity—tears are second only to blood in the chronicles of Moscow—and for several days maintained a most virtuous102 resistance. And on May 2nd Marfa and Michael entered the Kreml once more, the chosen rulers of Russia.
There can be little doubt that the hesitation103 of the nobles, who really had no prominent candidate before their eyes, was chiefly overborne in favour of the Romanoffs by a consideration of the youth of Michael. Marfa was not one of the strong women who abound104 in the Russian chronicles. We shall soon see her return to the convent from which the national agitation had drawn her. Philaret was a prisoner in the hands of the Poles, and none could surmise105 when he would return. We see in the election little of the national spirit which had cleared Moscow, yet the country groaned106 for the creative genius of a statesman and the virility107 of a strong soldier. The ravages108 of war had terribly enfeebled it; its industrial life was in decay; its hereditary109 enemies threatened it on every front.
Michael was a feeble youth whose eyes still looked dully upon the strange scenes he had witnessed. He passed at once into the hands of his mother and her relatives, the Saltykoffs, and the court hummed once more with petty intrigue110 for money and offices. Marfa appropriated the hereditary treasure of the Tsarina and, knowing something of the history of Russia, formed about her a body of spies and supporters. The older nobles resisted the upstarts, and fierce quarrels for precedence and appointments occurred even in the presence of the Tsar. At times the knout was laid upon too offensive shoulders, but several years passed in these selfish recriminations.
There were, however, urgent affairs to be settled, and by raising the taxation111 to one fourth of the individual’s income sufficient money was gathered, and escaped the fingers of the nobles, to raise an army. So great had been the disorder112 of the previous twenty years that Moscow itself had lost a third of its population, and the impoverished113 merchants writhed114 under the tax. But the Cossacks were threatening. The romantic Maryna, who will be remembered as the wife of the first and companion of the second false Dmitri, had given birth to a son, and she transferred her versatile115 affection to the Cossack leader, Zarutski, and relied upon him to secure the crown for her little Ivan. Zarutski swept triumphantly116 from town to town, while other brigands emptied villages, and the Swedes and Poles pursued their accustomed inroads. The new army scattered the Cossacks, impaled117 their leader, and hanged the little Ivan—an infant of three years—in order effectually to settle the brood of pretenders. Maryna ended her curious career in prison, and southern Russia was restored to comparative calm.
The councillors of Marfa now turned toward the Swedes and Poles. A direct struggle with such adversaries118 was impossible, and Russian envoys119 made the round of Europe seeking either money and men to meet them or mediation120 to disarm121 them. At the western courts the Moscovites did not convey a favourable122 impression of their country. Their gross manners and dirty ways affronted123 even the English and Dutch of the early seventeenth century, nor were the silver articles of the table or the maids on the streets quite safe from their ready hands. But England and Holland had, besides the moderate advantage of hating Rome, a keen desire to trade with Russia and the East, and they endeavoured to secure peace. Poland scornfully refused to treat with “the son of a Pope” who had usurped124 the throne of their Ladislas. In 1617, however, Gastavus Adolphus, of Sweden, was bought off by a large indemnity125 and a few towns, and Russia was able to oppose a stronger defence to Poland. King Sigismund now offered a truce126, and at a conference it was arranged that he should renounce127 the claim to the Russian crown, but keep Smolensk and other cities.
The peace was followed by an exchange of prisoners, and in the summer of 1619 the Archbishop Philaret hastened to secure the power which awaited him. It happened that the patriarchal throne of Moscow was vacant, and Philaret occupied it. That he was a priest malgré lui, and enjoyed the more luxurious128 and comforting tastes of a profane layman129, did not much matter in that world. Far more religious prelates than Philaret drank heavily and habitually130. The patriarchate was the highest power he could nominally131 and legally hold, and he was not wanting either in energy or ambition. For a patriarch, however, to have a wife about the court was scarcely seemly, and he “persuaded” Marfa to return to her convent. He felt also that it was expedient132 to remove some of her friends, and in order to do this with a show of justice he reopened a very curious case that had been settled in his absence.
In the year 1616 Michael had decided133 to wed38 a young woman of obscure family named Maria Ivanovna Khlopoff. Her name was, in accordance with custom, changed to Anastasia; her espousals were celebrated134; the day of the sacred ceremony which would make her Tsarina was within her delighted view. Then the luckless Maria fell ill, which no bride of a Tsar must dare to do. The doctors examined her and pronounced her “unfit to serve the delight of the Tsar,” and the unhappy maiden135 and her relatives were suddenly dispatched to Siberia. Philaret, who knew with what anxiety the existing favourites at a Russian court regarded the coming of a crowd of relatives with a Tsar’s bride, and how frequently the chosen maid met with accidents before the wedding-day, looked into the affair when he returned. Her confessor admitted that she was innocent—it now transpired136 that a certain indiscretion in eating fruit was the full extent of her fault—and she was recalled from Siberia and permitted to settle, with a small pension, at Nijni-Novgorod.
It appears that Philaret had hope of securing a more distinguished Tsarina. During the next few years he approached the courts of Denmark and Sweden, but without success. The king of Denmark bluntly remarked that the air of Moscow was not good for the chosen brides of Tsars. So Philaret returned to the affair of Maria Khlopoff, and was now convinced that the jealous Saltykoffs (Marfa’s people) had fabricated the charge. He fell upon them with great severity, and drove several into exile. Marfa, however, succeeded in saving the remainder of the family, and also in preventing the return to court of Maria. To cut the story short, yet fitly introduce the next generation of palace-squabblers, we may say that in 1624 Michael married Princess Maria Dolgoruki; and, as she died soon afterwards, he married a woman of undistinguished family, Eudoxia Strecknieff. The new Tsarina provided a son, Alexis, and the precious dynasty of the Romanoffs was saved from a premature137 extinction138.
Philaret had ability, and we need not quarrel with the way in which he took the power from the hands of his feeble and incompetent139 son. That he was a Wolsey or a Richelieu, as some historians conceive him, is far too flattering an exaggeration. The Cossacks, the Poles, and the Swedes were disarmed140 while he was still absent, and when the Poles renewed the war in 1632 Philaret’s army was badly beaten, and he could think of nothing better than to have its generals executed. He had friendly relations with France and England, because both wanted to enter, through Russia, into a profitable commerce with Persia; which was refused. The Turks, of course, barred the Mediterranean141 route to the east. The Sultan offered Philaret an alliance against the Poles, but he was at that time unprepared for a big war. On the whole it was a balance of interests rather than statesmanship which gave Russia some years of peace.
Internally Philaret did more active service. The question had already arisen whether Russia should be Europeanised. The colony of foreign merchants which now grew just outside the walls of Moscow exhibited a higher culture. The western armies were constantly superior to the Russian in equipment. The envoys to France, England, and Holland spoke of refinements142 which made the luxury of Moscow seem tawdry. On the other hand were the inevitable143 croakers who protested that Russian trade, Russian religion, or even the Russian State, would not survive an invasion of western ideas. Philaret boldly adopted the progressive view and summoned foreign teachers to Moscow. Astronomers144 brought their marvellous instruments to astonish or scare the populace; mathematicians145 and literary men opened schools in the metropolis. Against one western discovery, tobacco, the Russians remained obdurate146; while the man who was caught surreptitiously taking snuff, as the westerners did, had his nose cut off.
The religious controversy147 also contributed to the sharpening of the wits of the nation. The Jesuits still lingered heroically on the fringe of the Empire and sought to bring it under the rule of the Papacy. Even a new pretender was tried—a son of Maryna who had escaped murder, they said—but the man, a commonplace peasant, was not chosen with their usual skill, and little harm was done. In the Russian provinces which were subject to Poland, however, they worked with such effect that the Church was rent by a great schism148. Some of the Russian prelates were for union with Rome. The struggle had an echo in Russia, and some education for controversial purposes was inaugurated. We must, however, not exaggerate the effect on the Russian mind of this controversy. It is estimated by Russian historians that at that time not one person in a thousand, at the most, could read, and even in the city-circles in which the points at issue were debated the clash of ideas must have been of the crudest conceivable nature.
Philaret, who sincerely endeavoured to introduce some western culture into this dense149 jungle of ignorance and superstition150, died in 1633. Michael continued for twelve years to sustain feebly the plans of his father, and the period may be described as one of slow recovery. An amusing episode of Michael’s last year will give some idea of the condition even of the court.
In 1641 Prince Valdemar of Denmark came to Russia on behalf of his father. The court decided that it would like him to wed the Princess Irene, and, when Valdemar was deaf to hints and returned to Copenhagen, a deputation was sent to consult with his father. King Christian8 favoured the proposal, but Valdemar had seen Moscow and was not attracted. When one of the envoys fervently151 pledged his head as a guarantee that all would be well, the young prince asked: “What should I do with your head?” At the beginning of 1645, however, he submitted so far to the pressure as to go to Moscow, and a quaint152 struggle followed. For five months the prince fought against the marriage. In vain were the person and virtues153 of Irene impressed upon him. He was assured that she never got drunk, as other Russian ladies did, and her personal attractions, which seem to have been feeble, were eloquently154 exaggerated. Valdemar found the pretext that his evangelical faith was in grave danger if he joined the Russian court, and he proposed to return to Denmark. He was virtually a prisoner in the Kreml, and on one occasion he created a scandal by drawing the sword and threatening to cut his way out. In July Michael died, and his successor allowed the Danish prince to return home.
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piquant
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| adj.辛辣的，开胃的，令人兴奋的 | |
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meek
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| adj.温顺的，逆来顺受的 | |
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truculent
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| adj.野蛮的，粗野的 | |
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profane
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| adj.亵神的，亵渎的；vt.亵渎，玷污 | |
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dominions
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| 统治权( dominion的名词复数 )； 领土； 疆土； 版图 | |
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pious
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| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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faction
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| n.宗派，小集团；派别；派系斗争 | |
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factions
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| 组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
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astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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tattered
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| adj.破旧的，衣衫破的 | |
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cavalry
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| n.骑兵；轻装甲部队 | |
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aspiring
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| adj.有志气的；有抱负的；高耸的v.渴望；追求 | |
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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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mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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grumbled
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| 抱怨( grumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 发牢骚； 咕哝； 发哼声 | |
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autocracy
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| n.独裁政治，独裁政府 | |
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reign
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| n.统治时期，统治，支配，盛行；v.占优势 | |
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provincial
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| adj.省的，地方的；n．外省人，乡下人 | |
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kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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nervously
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| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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espoused
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| v.（决定）支持，拥护（目标、主张等）( espouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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seethed
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| （液体）沸腾( seethe的过去式和过去分词 )； 激动，大怒； 强压怒火； 生闷气(~with sth|~ at sth) | |
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sordid
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| adj.肮脏的，不干净的，卑鄙的，暗淡的 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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zeal
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| n.热心，热情，热忱 | |
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consigned
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| v.把…置于（令人不快的境地）( consign的过去式和过去分词 )；把…托付给；把…托人代售；丟弃 | |
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33
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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34
modesty
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| n.谦逊，虚心，端庄，稳重，羞怯，朴素 | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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36
obsequious
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| adj.谄媚的，奉承的，顺从的 | |
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37
convoked
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| v.召集，召开（会议）( convoke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
wed
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| v.娶，嫁，与…结婚 | |
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39
consolidated
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| a.联合的 | |
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40
summarise
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| vt.概括，总结 | |
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41
destitution
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| n.穷困，缺乏，贫穷 | |
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42
devouring
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| 吞没( devour的现在分词 )； 耗尽； 津津有味地看； 狼吞虎咽地吃光 | |
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43
exhausted
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| adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的 | |
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44
emaciated
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| adj.衰弱的，消瘦的 | |
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45
superstitious
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| adj.迷信的 | |
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46
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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47
machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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48
monastery
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| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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49
monk
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| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
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50
monkish
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| adj.僧侣的，修道士的，禁欲的 | |
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51
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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52
oust
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| vt.剥夺，取代，驱逐 | |
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53
usurper
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| n. 篡夺者, 僭取者 | |
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54
miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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55
brigand
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| n.土匪，强盗 | |
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56
conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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57
embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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58
submission
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| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
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59
juncture
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| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
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60
metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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61
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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62
disdained
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| 鄙视( disdain的过去式和过去分词 )； 不屑于做，不愿意做 | |
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63
credulous
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| adj.轻信的，易信的 | |
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64
tact
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| n.机敏，圆滑，得体 | |
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65
suite
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| n.一套(家具)；套房；随从人员 | |
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66
uncouth
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| adj.无教养的，粗鲁的 | |
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67
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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68
blessing
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| n.祈神赐福；祷告；祝福，祝愿 | |
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69
corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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70
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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71
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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72
myopic
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| adj.目光短浅的，缺乏远见的 | |
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73
suffrages
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| （政治性选举的）选举权，投票权( suffrage的名词复数 ) | |
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74
sluggishness
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| 不振，萧条，呆滞；惰性；滞性；惯性 | |
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75
recollected
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| adj.冷静的；镇定的；被回忆起的；沉思默想的v.记起，想起( recollect的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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76
regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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77
disaffected
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| adj.（政治上）不满的，叛离的 | |
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78
brigands
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| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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79
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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80
gallows
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| n.绞刑架，绞台 | |
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81
monarch
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| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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82
assassination
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| n.暗杀；暗杀事件 | |
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83
killing
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| n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财 | |
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84
insidious
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| adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧 | |
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85
pretence
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| n.假装，作假；借口，口实；虚伪；虚饰 | |
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86
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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87
agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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88
slain
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| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
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89
strife
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| n.争吵，冲突，倾轧，竞争 | |
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90
embittered
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| v.使怨恨，激怒( embitter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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91
costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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92
warfare
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| n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突 | |
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93
besieged
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| 包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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94
domes
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| n.圆屋顶( dome的名词复数 )；像圆屋顶一样的东西；圆顶体育场 | |
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95
metropolis
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| n.首府；大城市 | |
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96
destined
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| adj.命中注定的；(for)以…为目的地的 | |
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97
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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98
zealous
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| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
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99
crafty
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| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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100
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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101
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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102
virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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103
hesitation
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| n.犹豫，踌躇 | |
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104
abound
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| vi.大量存在；(in，with)充满，富于 | |
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105
surmise
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| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
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106
groaned
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| v.呻吟( groan的过去式和过去分词 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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107
virility
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| n.雄劲，丈夫气 | |
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108
ravages
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| 劫掠后的残迹，破坏的结果，毁坏后的残迹 | |
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109
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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110
intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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111
taxation
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| n.征税，税收，税金 | |
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112
disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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113
impoverished
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| adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化 | |
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114
writhed
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| （因极度痛苦而）扭动或翻滚( writhe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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115
versatile
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| adj.通用的，万用的；多才多艺的，多方面的 | |
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116
triumphantly
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| ad.得意洋洋地；得胜地；成功地 | |
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117
impaled
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| 钉在尖桩上( impale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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118
adversaries
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| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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119
envoys
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| 使节( envoy的名词复数 )； 公使； 谈判代表； 使节身份 | |
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120
mediation
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| n.调解 | |
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121
disarm
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| v.解除武装，回复平常的编制，缓和 | |
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122
favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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123
affronted
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| adj.被侮辱的，被冒犯的v.勇敢地面对( affront的过去式和过去分词 )；相遇 | |
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124
usurped
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| 篡夺，霸占( usurp的过去式和过去分词 )； 盗用； 篡夺，篡权 | |
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125
indemnity
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| n.赔偿，赔款，补偿金 | |
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126
truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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127
renounce
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| v.放弃；拒绝承认，宣布与…断绝关系 | |
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128
luxurious
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| adj.精美而昂贵的；豪华的 | |
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129
layman
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| n.俗人，门外汉，凡人 | |
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130
habitually
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| ad.习惯地，通常地 | |
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131
nominally
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| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
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132
expedient
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| adj.有用的，有利的；n.紧急的办法，权宜之计 | |
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133
decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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134
celebrated
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| adj.有名的，声誉卓著的 | |
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135
maiden
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| n.少女，处女；adj.未婚的，纯洁的，无经验的 | |
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136
transpired
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| （事实，秘密等）被人知道( transpire的过去式和过去分词 )； 泄露； 显露； 发生 | |
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137
premature
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| adj.比预期时间早的；不成熟的，仓促的 | |
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138
extinction
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| n.熄灭，消亡，消灭，灭绝，绝种 | |
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139
incompetent
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| adj.无能力的，不能胜任的 | |
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140
disarmed
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| v.裁军( disarm的过去式和过去分词 )；使息怒 | |
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141
Mediterranean
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| adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的 | |
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142
refinements
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| n.（生活）风雅；精炼( refinement的名词复数 )；改良品；细微的改良；优雅或高贵的动作 | |
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143
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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144
astronomers
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| n.天文学者，天文学家( astronomer的名词复数 ) | |
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145
mathematicians
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| 数学家( mathematician的名词复数 ) | |
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146
obdurate
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| adj.固执的，顽固的 | |
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147
controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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148
schism
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| n.分派，派系，分裂 | |
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149
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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150
superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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151
fervently
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| adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地 | |
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152
quaint
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| adj.古雅的，离奇有趣的，奇怪的 | |
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153
virtues
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| 美德( virtue的名词复数 )； 德行； 优点； 长处 | |
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154
eloquently
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| adv. 雄辩地(有口才地, 富于表情地) | |
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