Elizabeth has already entered so frequently, and so picturesquely1, into the story that little further introduction is necessary. She was the younger of the two surviving daughters of Peter the Great and Catherine, and she inherited the independent temper of her father. Her pretty, merry figure was one of the most piquant3 of the court, and she had hardly attained4 a precocious5 puberty when it became necessary to watch her movements. She had, during the last three reigns6, regarded both the court and its rulers with disdain8. For the belated prudery of the Empress Anne she had no respect; it was the awful threat of confining her hot blood in a convent which had for a time curbed9 her public behaviour. For the baby-Emperor and his foolish parents she felt contempt, and she was prepared at any time to see the wheel of fortune turn toward her.
It was, as I said, the enterprising Marquis de la Chétardie who opened for her a plausible10 path to the throne. I would not stress her virtue11 in refusing to promise to yield Russian territory to Sweden. She knew, and the Marquis ought to have known, that such a concession12 would have cost her the throne. But she continued to negotiate with him, and her French physician, Lestocq, assisted in the plot. Count Ostermann, the wise old German councillor who survived all revolutions at court, suspected her, and she had to use strategy. Chétardie took a villa13 up the Neva, and Elizabeth was fond of boating. She contrived14 to meet him casually15 and discuss the plot. She had, further, a few confidants at court, who were ready to speculate on the chances of a revolution, and she had, especially, the affection of the guards. Like her mother she was amiable16 with the soldiers. She held their children at the font and inquired genially17 about their families. Ostermann, we saw, detected the conspiracy18, and Anne was directed to charge her with treasonable relations with France and Sweden, the enemies of Russia. The interview ended in sisterly tears and embraces, and the conspirators19 got speedily to work.
Ostermann, seeing the weakness of Anne, ordered the guard to be ready to leave for the frontier within twenty-four hours. It was probable, he mendaciously20 said, that Sweden was about to re-open the war. He had recently quarrelled with Elizabeth, and had no mind to see her Empress. This was on December 5th, the day after her interview with Anne. That night at ten the conspirators met to decide upon immediate21 action. Lestocq, the doctor, went out into the snow to see that all lights were out at Ostermann’s mansion22 and the palace. They were as feeble a group of conspirators as ever engineered a revolution in Russia, and Elizabeth wavered between dread23 of a convent and eagerness for the throne. The most active and eloquent24 of them was the French physician. Then there were Vorontsoff, her chamberlain; Schwartz, her music-master; the brothers Shuvaloff, gentlemen of her household; and Alexis Razumovsky, her lover at the time, of whom we will see more. They raised Elizabeth’s courage to the required pitch, and Lestocq stealthily introduced twenty grenadiers of the guard who professed25 that they were—for a consideration—ready to die for her. Elizabeth donned a cuirass under her cloak and slung26 a crucifix at her breast, and then, after a long and fervent27 prayer, committed her fortunes to Providence28 and the modest skill of her friends. Her lover was left to guard the house.
At two in the morning the party passed swiftly through the frozen streets to the Preobrajensky barracks. A small crowd of about two hundred soldiers gathered round Elizabeth and listened to her appeal to support her, the daughter of Peter, and exterminate29 the foreigners. They would cut them to pieces, they assured her; and she had to explain that she would have no bloodshed. Other soldiers joined them, and presently a troop of four hundred marched with her and her supporters to the palace. It was the tamest revolution Russia had yet seen. Ostermann, Golovkin, and the other leading ministers were pinned into their mansions30; the few loyal guards at the palace were thrust aside; and, as I said, Anne and Julia awoke to find Elizabeth in their bedroom at the head of a crowd of grenadiers.
Anne was not of the stuff of heroines. She meekly31 begged Elizabeth to spare her family and not take away her dear Julia, and she and her imperial baby were put upon the sledge32 and driven to Elizabeth’s house. The blaze of fires in the courtyards and noise of soldiers soon roused the city, and courtiers and soldiers rushed out to study the situation. It is said of Lacy, the Irish commander, that, when a friend asked him which party he stood for, he promptly33 replied: “For the party that is in power.” Few were so candid34 in speech, but all behaved alike. They rushed to take the new oath of allegiance, and the Empress Elizabeth inaugurated her reign7.
Elizabeth insisted that there should be no bloodshed, but what happened may give the true measure of such advance as this indicated. Little Ivan and his parents must, she said, receive a pension and go back to Germany. Anne and Anthony, glad to escape so lightly, started for the frontier, but a courier reached them before they had left Russia, and they were imprisoned35 at Riga. After a time they were transferred, still prisoners, to Oranienbaum. Whether Elizabeth was struggling with her own glimmer36 of a conscience or with less humane37 counsellors it would be difficult to say. She consulted everybody. Was her life really in danger, or might she follow her impulse of humanity and let the weak-minded couple depart? Humanity was a new and rare thing in Russia.
In 1744, when Anne expected a third baby, the deposed38 couple were, at the instigation of Frederick of Prussia, confined in the fortress39 of Schlüsselburg, and four months later they were put upon sledges40 and driven north. They were to be imprisoned in a monastery41 on an island near Archangel. When, however, they reached Kholnagory, on the coast, the state of the ice would not allow the guards to take them to the island and they were left in the village. There, on the bleak42 shore of the Arctic, father and mother and five children—Anne added two to the family before she sickened and died three years later—lived and slept together in a common Russian hut. The children grew up feebler in mind and body even than their parents, but Russia would have it that the pale-faced Ivan was still the nucleus43 of a conspiracy. He was in 1756, in his thirteenth year, removed to a remote dungeon44, to await his murder under the reign of Catherine. Prince Anthony was weak-minded enough to survive the horrors for thirty years, and his children were at length released by Catherine and sent to live on a small pension in Denmark.
The “clemency” of Elizabeth—of which the decrees of the time speak—was equally exhibited toward the surviving servants of her father and her predecessor45. Away with the Germans, was the cry; and a few distinguished46 Russians were included in the batch47 of prisoners who now looked forward to the customary reprisals48. Old Ostermann, gouty and stoical, had fought Elizabeth, and he knew that his forty years of sound service would count for nothing. He was to be broken on the wheel. Münnich was to lose his hands and his head; Golovkin his head; and so on. A vast crowd gathered in the square on January 29th to see the “traitors” butchered. At the last moment an order of the Empress spared Ostermann the wheel and changed the sentence to decapitation. The old man moved toward the block, and a new order changed the punishment to exile. He quietly asked for his coat, and was packed off to the bleak northern region to which he had once helped to send Menshikoff. The crowd murmured when fresh orders from the Empress cheated them of the sight of blood. Münnich was sent to the spot—the very house—in Siberia to which he had sent Biren, who was summoned back to life. They met on the way, in Siberia, and bowed; and the great soldier settled down to rearing chickens and growing vegetables. The others were scattered49 over the bleak north. There had been no torture of witnesses—though much suborning of witnesses—and no bloodshed. Russia was improving.
While the goats were scattered, the sheep were gathered on the right hand. Vorontsoff became a leading minister, and his humble50 colleagues strutted51 also in gold lace and silks. Lestocq, first physician of the new court, was so richly rewarded with gold and favour that he imagined himself the prime spirit of the new regime, and will presently come to grief. The Marquis de la Chétardie became a saviour52 of Russia (which he would like to ruin in the interest of France, and indeed expected to be at least gravely weakened under the rule of Elizabeth), and soldiers kissed his hand. The guards, heavily rewarded, put on insufferable airs, and wandered insolently53 about the palace as if they were part owners of it. The state of the court was chaotic55, and foreign envoys56 sent word home that Russia would sink back into barbarism.
The strange fortune of Alexis Razumovsky deserves a paragraph, since it cannot have a chapter. He was a tall, handsome Cossack, with fine black eyes and eyebrows58 and a rich black beard; a man in his thirty-fourth year when wealth and power were thus thrust upon him. Twenty years earlier he had been a guardian59 of his father’s sheep and a chorister in the church of the little Cossack village where his mother kept an inn. An imperial courier, passing through, had heard him sing, and had sent him to St. Petersburg to be trained and then got him a place in the choir60 of the imperial palace at Moscow. He was then twenty-two, and Elizabeth saw and appropriated him for her household. The Marquis de la Chétardie says that one of her maids first appropriated the handsome Cossack and Elizabeth got the news from her. To tell all the legends of the Russian court would need many volumes, and would offend the taste of our polite age, but no one seriously questions that Razumovsky took the place of Elizabeth’s latest lover whom Anne had sent to Siberia.
At Elizabeth’s accession he was made a Count and a Field Marshal. He was never spoiled by prosperity—“you may make me a Field Marshal,” he said genially, “but you’ll never make me a soldier”—and never interfered61 in politics. He took his great wealth pleasantly and generously, and drank royally. His brothers and relatives were—not by him, but by the Empress—similarly enriched, and even his old Cossack mother was brought from her inn, richly dressed, and presented at court. There was a story that the bewildered woman took her own reflection in the glass for the Empress and nervously62 curtsied to it; which would not flatter Elizabeth, as she was still one of the most handsome women of Russia.
Whether Elizabeth ever married Razumovsky cannot be exactly determined63. It is generally accepted that she privately64, at the instigation of her confessor, married him in the fall of 1742. Elizabeth openly doted on him and would always have him with her. He kept his even temper when, in her later years, she returned to her early license65, and he was present at her death; after which, it is said, he was seen to burn a casket of papers which may have included a wedding-certificate.
A still greater favourite, in a different way, was Elizabeth’s nephew, Karl Peter Ulrich, son of the Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and Anne of Mecklenburg, the elder daughter of Catherine and Peter. His mother had died of consumption a few months after his birth at Kiel, in 1728, and her sickly taint66 was on the boy. He was mean in body, intellect and character, and, as his father had died when he was eleven, his education had been rough. Elizabeth sent for him, gave him excellent tutors, and completely spoiled what bit of manliness67 he had. He was made a Grand Duke and heir to the throne—being the last male with any Romanoff blood—and, as he disliked the Empress’s feminine circle, he surrounded himself with Germans, affected68 a contempt for Russia, and laughed at his aunt’s amours.
Paul the First
But Elizabeth was very far from being a fool. She adopted Peter in order to keep the crown in her father’s family, making, out of dynastic feeling, a mistake which wise men like Marcus Aurelius had made. For the government of the country she chose her men well, as a rule, and she tried to put a stop to the disgraceful rivalry69 which had so often rent the court. At first her chief ministers were her Grand Chamberlain, Prince Tcherkasky, a corrupt70 old noble of the traditional school, and his son-in-law Trubetskoi. But she saw the greater merit of Michael Bestuzheff, the Grand Marshal of her household, a grave and learned man, and his able younger brother, Alexis, who was to become her chief minister.
Elizabeth herself was lazy. She let documents wait weeks for her signature and at ordinary times paid little attention to affairs. Her more resolute71 admirers say that she was so conscientious72 that she took weeks to consider a matter. She was, in point of fact, a thorough patriot73, eager to maintain the work of her father; but most of her time was spent in the preservation74 of her health and beauty and the satisfaction of her insatiable thirst for pleasure. Her toilet took several hours every day, and it did not generally begin before midday, as she was apt to sit up with her intimate friends until the early hours of the morning. It is said that she drank heavily in her later years, but that is disputed. Her chief passion was for dress and entertainment. In a palace-fire she lost four thousand costly75 dresses, yet there were fifteen thousand in her wardrobe when she died. She had a large and opulent figure—a little too opulent as time went on—a face with few rivals in Russia, charming blue eyes and dark-golden hair.
One of her characteristics was a love of dressing76 as a soldier or sailor. She had good warrant for this in the example of her parents; and, to say the truth, she thought that no lady of her court could match her in male dress. So fancy-balls became very frequent, and Elizabeth, who was still fond of dancing and hunting until she grew too heavy, made a handsome Dutch sailor or colonel of the guard. She would change her garments three times in a ball; a dozen times in a day. Like Anne, she set her face against the old Russian debauches, and was for a French elegance77, or a poor imitation of it. Luxury of every kind she encouraged, until the court shone with diamonds and gold brocade; and for her operas singers were brought from the ends of Europe. Reading was bad for the health, she said, and she avoided it.
She was, and always had been, very pious78. There she differed emphatically from her father, and the orthodox clergy79 fell furiously upon dissenters80 and seceders. She observed the fasts rigorously, she knelt in prayer until she fainted, and she had a great veneration81 for the relics82 of the saints and holy places. To the end she made pilgrimages afoot to famous shrines83 like the Troitsa monastery. In her youth she had made the journey in a day, and had had a lover to meet her there. Now she would walk out a few miles from Moscow—the court spent one year in four at Moscow—then ride back to the city, and begin her pilgrimage on the morrow at the point where she had left it the day before. It often took weeks to make a pilgrimage. She insisted so closely on decency84 that one day, as she prayed in church, it occurred to her that the angels painted on the walls were really cupids, and she had them repainted. Her own elderly gallantries we will see later.
With all this she, as I said, paid substantial attention to the interests of Russia. Sweden had collapsed86 in the late struggle, but Chétardie and Lestocq were instructed to induce her to be generous and give it some of the territory taken from it. It is generally difficult to disentangle the action of a sovereign from that of her advisers87, and Elizabeth may have more credit for firmness than she deserves. She, at all events, refused, and the war went on until Sweden was crushed. Russia kept a large part of Finland. At last intercepted89 letters made it plain to the Empress that the gallant85 French marquis who bowed and flattered her was really trying to injure Russia in the interest of his country, and he had to go. She was, however, still infatuated with France and her French doctor, though Count Bestuzheff, who became her chief adviser88, persistently90 warned her against France. Lestocq, who took bribes91 from all Powers and fancied himself a master of intrigue93, now, with the aid of the French minister, made a desperate attempt to win her.
Elizabeth’s chief rival in good looks was Natalia Lapukhin, a noble lady of equal freedom in manners and morals who had viciously tormented94 Elizabeth when she was the Cinderella of the court. To her surprise she had been, at the coronation, made a Lady in Waiting. But she remained insolent54, and at a ball she appeared in a pink robe and with pink roses in her hair; and pink was understood to be an imperial monopoly at Elizabeth’s court. Elizabeth’s temper was much shorter than her prayers. Many a maid got the heavy imperial slipper95 across her mouth for talking when the Empress dozed96 on her couch, and her language at times resembled that of the guards. She had a buffoon97 cruelly tortured for playing a trick which frightened and upset her. She now fell furiously upon the audacious Lady in Waiting. She sent for scissors, made her kneel while she cut off the roses (and hair along with them), and cuffed98 her twice across the face. “Serves her right,” she said, when they told her that the countess had fainted. To her bosom99 friend, the Countess Bestuzheva, wife of the elder Bestuzheff, Natalia often told what she thought of the Empress, and in both families the talk over tea was mildly seditious. Lestocq got his agents to ply100 Natalia’s son, young Colonel Lapukhin, with drink and learn it.
And on July 21st, 1743, the physician rushed to the palace with a report of a conspiracy. Elizabeth lived in daily dread of a conspiracy, knowing how easy such things were in Russia. She cowered101 behind a hedge of soldiers and let Lestocq arrest whom he would. She had humanely102 abolished torture and the death-sentence; but this was a different matter. Natalia and her husband and a score of others were imprisoned, and the old torture-chambers rang again with the shrieks103 of delicate women whose limbs were stretched until they cracked. It is said, but is difficult to believe, that Elizabeth was secretly at hand to hear their confessions104. There was, in fact, no conspiracy to confess, but Lestocq was one of the three commissioners105 appointed to examine the prisoners, and Elizabeth was stung by the table-talk that was wrung106 from them. One of the women was pregnant, and the Empress was asked to spare her the torture. “She did not spare me,” said the daughter of Peter the Great.
They were all condemned107 to death. For ten days Elizabeth lingered over the sentence, but in the end, she observed her own decree. She commuted108 the sentence to exile, flogging, and mutilation. Natalia Lapukhin, a beautiful woman in the prime of life, was partly stripped before an immense crowd, and brutally110 knouted. She sank, covered with blood, to the floor of the scaffold, and the executioner roughly finished his work, and, with a brutal109 laugh, offered to sell her tongue to the highest bidder111. Countess Bestuzheva slipped a bribe92 into the man’s hands. The lash112 fell less heavily on her white back, and less of her tongue was cut out. The mutilated wretches113 went the worn way to Siberia and the north. Count Michael Bestuzheff, who was innocent, was despatched on a foreign embassy. Alexis, at whom the French had chiefly aimed, was untouched. He was astute114 as well as able.
At the end of the year Elizabeth transferred the court to Moscow and prepared it for a new sensation. She had chosen a bride, or a girl to be trained as bride, for her wastrel115 of a nephew. After her weakness for France, which was then a deadly rival of Russia, came a weakness for Frederick the Great, who was far more cynical116 and crafty117 in his professions of friendship and determination to sacrifice Russia’s interests to his own. He flattered Elizabeth, and laughed at her. Hearing that there was question of a future Empress, he strongly recommended the daughter of the Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst, one of his own generals. A courier sped to the little court where Sophia Augusta Frederika lived quietly with her mother, and that lady, a remarkably118 ambitious person for her station in life, hurried to St. Petersburg, and on to Moscow. Both Peter and Elizabeth were indecently impatient to see the bride-elect, and they professed themselves entirely119 satisfied with the quick-eyed, precocious maiden120 of fourteen who would one day be Catherine the Great.
Sophia and her mother were lodged121 in the Kreml, and the work of preparation began. The young princess soon realised her destiny and determined not to spoil it. But she had three near misses within a year. She worked so hard at the Russian that she would get up during the night and pace the room, repeating her lessons, in bare feet; and she caught pneumonia122 and nearly died a few weeks after her arrival. Incidentally she won the Empress’s favour completely. In the hour of danger they asked if she would see her Lutheran pastor123. No, she said, the Russian priest; and the rumour124 of her piety125, which—she afterwards said—was really policy, spread through the court. She was received into the Russian Church in July, and solemnly betrothed126 to Peter. Then Peter had the smallpox127 and nearly died; and in fine her mother nearly spoiled her prospect128. She had come with secret instructions from Frederick of Prussia, and, like a good German, she stealthily pushed his interest. The inquiry129 into the supposed Bestuzheff plot exposed her, and she retired130 to her obscure province. But Elizabeth liked her daughter, and Catherine—her name was changed on entering the Orthodox Church—remained, and married Peter in the following year.
The years that followed were filled with European struggle, which does not much concern us here. The capture of the letters of Chétardie exposed the machinations of both France and Prussia. Elizabeth found herself described as living in a state of “voluptuous lethargy,” and her passion for France and Frederick suddenly chilled. Alexis Bestuzheff became her chief counsellor, and inclined her toward England and Austria. The court was honeycombed by intrigue, and even the favourite, Lestocq, was at length (1748) detected in his treachery. He was put to the torture and banished131.
Elizabeth was not long drawn132 out of her “voluptuous lethargy.” In fact, the attainment133 of middle age seemed to bring back the looseness of her youth, and her lovers were the jest of the courts of Europe. One of her pages, Ivan Shuvaloff, was promoted and placed in apartments near those of the Empress. Ivan took his good fortune modestly, but the customary tribe of relatives appeared and blossomed into wealthy and influential134 courtiers. Count Bestuzheff and others were alarmed, and they put in the way of the Empress a very handsome young amateur actor named Beketoff. Elizabeth genially added the youth to the intimate circle which caroused135 in her room at night, but Peter Shuvaloff, uncle of the earlier favourite, did not like the prospect. The more credible136 version of his action is that he met young Beketoff one day, and, impressing upon him how much the Empress liked to see her favourites fresh and healthy, gave him a box of ointment137 for his face. There was in the stuff something which caused an eruption138 of the skin, and his condition was represented to the Empress in such a light that he fled.
It should be added that she still guarded the propriety139 of her subjects. The elder Count Bestuzheff held that his wife’s crime had dissolved his marriage, and he wished to take a second wife. Elizabeth sternly refused to consent, holding that marriage was indissoluble. When the desperate Count did at length marry she refused to receive his “paramour” at court.
In many other respects she tried to continue the process of cleaning the face of Russia. At first she had undone140 her father’s control of the monks141, and let them gather enormous wealth. As the needs of war pressed on her, she revoked142 this and checked them. She endeavoured also to check the irregularities and dispel143 the ignorance of the secular144 clergy. Wandering priests would gather in the streets of Moscow and importune145 passers-by to give them the price of a mass. Some are said to have held a crust in their hands, and threatened to eat (which would make them unable to say mass that day), unless a man offered his purse. Elizabeth set the bishops146 to remove these and other irregularities. She promoted letters, since it was the proper thing for an enlightened monarch147 to do, and her ministers attempted to improve trade and agriculture. Agricultural banks were opened; industries were protected; mines were sunk; Siberia and the southern steppes were partly colonised. It was forbidden for men and women to mix in the public baths. These were, on the whole, slight improvements of a terribly backward country. Ignorance, violence, drunkenness, dishonesty in trade, official corruption148, brigandage149, listlessness, and idleness were still general.
The later years of the reign were filled with the inevitable150 Prussian war. After years of diplomatic struggle Elizabeth, in 1756, concluded an alliance with England. To her great disgust, and Bestuzheff’s grave danger, England then formed an alliance with Frederick, and the French redoubled their efforts to oust151 Bestuzheff and receive the friendship of Russia. By this time the Princess Catherine openly disdained152 her husband and went her own way. For years the Empress, eager to see an heir to the throne she would leave to Peter, tried to bring them together, but each hated the other, and Catherine found consolation153 elsewhere. In 1754, however, Catherine had a son who was presumed to be a Romanoff. Elizabeth fell ill, and Bestuzheff, believing that she would die, approached Catherine, through her latest lover, Poniatowski, and suggested that he could make her Empress if she would support his anti-French and anti-Prussian policy.
Elizabeth recovered, however, and declared that the good of the world demanded the destruction of Frederick of Prussia, who had said caustic154 things about her. The Seven Years’ War opened, and Russia joined France and Austria against Prussia. The Russian army under General Apraksin won a great victory, and then, instead of pressing it, retired. Now this coincided with a second serious illness of the Empress, and the French envoy57 raised a cry of treachery. Vorontsoff, who waited impatiently for the official shoes of Count Bestuzheff, and hated Catherine, joined the French in demanding an inquiry. Bestuzheff’s papers were searched, and it was found that he had been in communication with Catherine. A plot was easily constructed out of this material. Bestuzheff was to raise Catherine’s baby to the throne and make her Regent; and Apraksin’s troops were withdrawn155 toward the capital for the event of the death of Elizabeth.
Catherine in later years looked back with a shudder156 upon that critical time. Bestuzheff contrived to send her word that he had burned her letters, and there was no danger, but she saw a very serious danger. She wrote to Elizabeth, and for weeks she received no answer. At last she was summoned to the Empress’s room. Her enemy, Alexis Shuvaloff, was with the Empress; her husband, another enemy, waited in the room; and on the table she saw letters that she had written to Apraksin. They were innocent letters, but what right had she to communicate with commanders in the field, as if she were already Empress? With tears and prayers she mollified the angry Empress, and her enemies were beaten. Apraksin died of apoplexy, and Bestuzheff was compelled to retire to his estates.
For the brief remainder of the reign of the Empress Elizabeth Catherine went warily157. Elizabeth, who was little beyond her fiftieth birthday, would not control her appetites, and her health slowly departed. She became a chronic158 invalid159 and would lie for hours on a couch admiring the little babe, Paul, who would carry on the line of the Romanoffs. Some misgiving160 in regard to the future seemed to trouble her. Peter, though a Romanoff, was emphatically a brutal German. He lived in an entirely German atmosphere; an atmosphere of smoke and beer-fumes and Teutonic disdain of everything Russian. Catherine, on the other hand, had developed into a thorough Russian. Her strong sense and feeling of policy told her to eradicate161 all Germanism from her composition and wholly transnationalise herself. Peter had an immense admiration162 of Prussia and Frederick, while Catherine was a Russian patriot.
And Elizabeth hated Prussia. Throughout her last years she kept alive the League against Frederick and spurred her generals in the struggle. Frederick sought peace, and she refused it. France and Austria became faint under their efforts and sacrifices, and she lashed163 them to the task. All through the year 1761 her strength ebbed164, and she saw Frederick sinking from defeat to defeat. Would death spare her to see Prussia crushed? Would that unhappy nephew take over her power before her work was completed, and spare his idol165? Her own ministers drooped166, and her resources wore thin, but she cried for decisive and utter victory. In December a fit of coughing brought on hemorrhage, and she entered the last stage. She died on January 11th, 1762, in the fifty-third year of her age, not the least picturesque2 figure of the Romanoff gallery of monarchs167.
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picturesquely
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picturesque
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| adj.美丽如画的，（语言）生动的，绘声绘色的 | |
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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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attained
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| （通常经过努力）实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 )； 达到； 获得； 达到（某年龄、水平、状况） | |
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precocious
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| adj.早熟的；较早显出的 | |
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reigns
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| n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 )；君主统治时期；任期；当政期 | |
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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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disdain
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| n.鄙视，轻视；v.轻视，鄙视，不屑 | |
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curbed
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plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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contrived
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| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
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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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amiable
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| adj.和蔼可亲的，友善的，亲切的 | |
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genially
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| adv.亲切地，和蔼地；快活地 | |
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conspiracy
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| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
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conspirators
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| n.共谋者，阴谋家( conspirator的名词复数 ) | |
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mendaciously
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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22
mansion
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| n.大厦，大楼；宅第 | |
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23
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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24
eloquent
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| adj.雄辩的，口才流利的；明白显示出的 | |
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25
professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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26
slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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27
fervent
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| adj.热的，热烈的，热情的 | |
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28
providence
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| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
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29
exterminate
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| v.扑灭，消灭，根绝 | |
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30
mansions
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| n.宅第，公馆，大厦( mansion的名词复数 ) | |
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31
meekly
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| adv.温顺地，逆来顺受地 | |
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32
sledge
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| n.雪橇，大锤；v.用雪橇搬运，坐雪橇往 | |
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33
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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34
candid
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| adj.公正的，正直的；坦率的 | |
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35
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
glimmer
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| v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光 | |
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37
humane
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| adj.人道的，富有同情心的 | |
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38
deposed
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| v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 )；（在法庭上）宣誓作证 | |
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39
fortress
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| n.堡垒，防御工事 | |
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40
sledges
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|
| n.雪橇，雪车( sledge的名词复数 )v.乘雪橇( sledge的第三人称单数 )；用雪橇运载 | |
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41
monastery
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|
| n.修道院，僧院，寺院 | |
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42
bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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43
nucleus
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| n.核，核心，原子核 | |
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44
dungeon
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|
| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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45
predecessor
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|
| n.前辈，前任 | |
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46
distinguished
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| adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的 | |
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47
batch
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| n.一批(组，群)；一批生产量 | |
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48
reprisals
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| n.报复（行为）( reprisal的名词复数 ) | |
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49
scattered
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|
| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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50
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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51
strutted
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| 趾高气扬地走，高视阔步( strut的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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52
saviour
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| n.拯救者，救星 | |
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53
insolently
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|
| adv.自豪地，自傲地 | |
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54
insolent
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|
| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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55
chaotic
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|
| adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的 | |
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56
envoys
|
|
| 使节( envoy的名词复数 )； 公使； 谈判代表； 使节身份 | |
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57
envoy
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| n.使节，使者，代表，公使 | |
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58
eyebrows
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|
| 眉毛( eyebrow的名词复数 ) | |
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59
guardian
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|
| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
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60
choir
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|
| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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61
interfered
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|
| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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62
nervously
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|
| adv.神情激动地，不安地 | |
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63
determined
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|
| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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64
privately
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|
| adv.以私人的身份，悄悄地，私下地 | |
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65
license
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| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
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66
taint
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| n.污点；感染；腐坏；v.使感染；污染 | |
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67
manliness
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| 刚毅 | |
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68
affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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69
rivalry
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| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
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70
corrupt
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|
| v.贿赂，收买；adj.腐败的，贪污的 | |
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71
resolute
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|
| adj.坚决的，果敢的 | |
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72
conscientious
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|
| adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的 | |
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73
patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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74
preservation
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| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
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75
costly
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|
| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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76
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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77
elegance
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|
| n.优雅；优美，雅致；精致，巧妙 | |
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78
pious
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|
| adj.虔诚的；道貌岸然的 | |
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79
clergy
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| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
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80
dissenters
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| n.持异议者，持不同意见者( dissenter的名词复数 ) | |
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81
veneration
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| n.尊敬，崇拜 | |
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82
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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83
shrines
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| 圣地，圣坛，神圣场所( shrine的名词复数 ) | |
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84
decency
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|
| n.体面，得体，合宜，正派，庄重 | |
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85
gallant
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|
| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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86
collapsed
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|
| adj.倒塌的 | |
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87
advisers
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|
| 顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授 | |
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88
adviser
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| n.劝告者，顾问 | |
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89
intercepted
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|
| 拦截( intercept的过去式和过去分词 )； 截住； 截击； 拦阻 | |
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90
persistently
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|
| ad.坚持地；固执地 | |
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91
bribes
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|
| n.贿赂( bribe的名词复数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂v.贿赂( bribe的第三人称单数 )；向（某人）行贿，贿赂 | |
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92
bribe
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|
| n.贿赂；v.向…行贿，买通 | |
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93
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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94
tormented
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| 饱受折磨的 | |
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95
slipper
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|
| n.拖鞋 | |
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96
dozed
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|
| v.打盹儿，打瞌睡( doze的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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97
buffoon
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| n.演出时的丑角 | |
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98
cuffed
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|
| v.掌打，拳打( cuff的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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99
bosom
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|
| n.胸，胸部；胸怀；内心；adj.亲密的 | |
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100
ply
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| v.(搬运工等)等候顾客，弯曲 | |
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101
cowered
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|
| v.畏缩，抖缩( cower的过去式 ) | |
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102
humanely
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| adv.仁慈地；人道地；富人情地；慈悲地 | |
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103
shrieks
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|
| n.尖叫声( shriek的名词复数 )v.尖叫( shriek的第三人称单数 ) | |
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104
confessions
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|
| n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔 | |
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105
commissioners
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|
| n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 )；长官；委员；政府部门的长官 | |
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106
wrung
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|
| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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107
condemned
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|
| adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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108
commuted
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| 通勤( commute的过去式和过去分词 )； 减（刑）； 代偿 | |
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109
brutal
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|
| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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110
brutally
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| adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地 | |
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111
bidder
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| n.(拍卖时的)出价人，报价人，投标人 | |
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112
lash
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| v.系牢；鞭打；猛烈抨击；n.鞭打；眼睫毛 | |
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113
wretches
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|
| n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋 | |
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114
astute
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| adj.机敏的，精明的 | |
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115
wastrel
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| n.浪费者；废物 | |
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116
cynical
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|
| adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的 | |
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117
crafty
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|
| adj.狡猾的，诡诈的 | |
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118
remarkably
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| ad.不同寻常地，相当地 | |
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119
entirely
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|
| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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120
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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121
lodged
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| v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属 | |
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122
pneumonia
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| n.肺炎 | |
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123
pastor
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| n.牧师，牧人 | |
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124
rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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125
piety
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| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
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126
betrothed
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|
| n. 已订婚者 动词betroth的过去式和过去分词 | |
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127
smallpox
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| n.天花 | |
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128
prospect
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| n.前景，前途；景色，视野 | |
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129
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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130
retired
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|
| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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131
banished
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| v.放逐，驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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132
drawn
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|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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133
attainment
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|
| n.达到，到达；［常pl.］成就，造诣 | |
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134
influential
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|
| adj.有影响的，有权势的 | |
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135
caroused
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| v.痛饮，闹饮欢宴( carouse的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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136
credible
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|
| adj.可信任的，可靠的 | |
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137
ointment
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| n.药膏，油膏，软膏 | |
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138
eruption
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|
| n.火山爆发；（战争等）爆发；（疾病等）发作 | |
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139
propriety
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|
| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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140
undone
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| a.未做完的，未完成的 | |
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141
monks
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|
| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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142
revoked
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|
| adj.[法]取消的v.撤销，取消，废除( revoke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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143
dispel
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|
| vt.驱走，驱散，消除 | |
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144
secular
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|
| n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的 | |
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145
importune
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|
| v.强求；不断请求 | |
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146
bishops
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|
| （基督教某些教派管辖大教区的）主教( bishop的名词复数 )； （国际象棋的）象 | |
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147
monarch
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|
| n.帝王，君主，最高统治者 | |
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148
corruption
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|
| n.腐败，堕落，贪污 | |
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149
brigandage
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|
| n.抢劫；盗窃；土匪；强盗 | |
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150
inevitable
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|
| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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151
oust
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| vt.剥夺，取代，驱逐 | |
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152
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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153
consolation
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| n.安慰，慰问 | |
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154
caustic
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| adj.刻薄的，腐蚀性的 | |
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155
withdrawn
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| vt.收回；使退出；vi.撤退，退出 | |
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156
shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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157
warily
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| adv.留心地 | |
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158
chronic
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| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
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159
invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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160
misgiving
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕 | |
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161
eradicate
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| v.根除，消灭，杜绝 | |
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162
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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163
lashed
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| adj.具睫毛的v.鞭打( lash的过去式和过去分词 )；煽动；紧系；怒斥 | |
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164
ebbed
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| （指潮水）退( ebb的过去式和过去分词 )； 落； 减少； 衰落 | |
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165
idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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166
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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167
monarchs
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| 君主，帝王( monarch的名词复数 ) | |
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