Opposite a large tank, where a tall column rises from the water in memory of the victims of the Mutiny, and where a party of the votaries9 of Siva are performing their pious10 ablutions, a building stands in the Hindoo-Jesuit style of architecture. It is heavy, with white carvings11 above its pink paint, and with columns supporting turrets12 crowned with large lion-faces, the masks only, in the Indian manner, daylight showing through the jaws13 and eyes, and the profiles absurd, shapeless, and unmeaning. This is the college of La Martinière.
In the chapel14 of the building through which I passed to go down to the tomb of La Martinière, two students, seated American fashion, with their feet on the back of the bench in front of them, were reading the Times of India and smoking cigarettes.
In the circular marble crypt there is a large cracked bell, inscribed15 "Lieutenant-Colonel Martin, 1788," also a bust16 of the corporal, and, in an adjoining cell, the tomb of Colonel Martin, who,[Pg 187] having left his native town of Lyons for Pondicherry, after having painfully worked his way up to the grade of corporal in the French king's army, departed from thence and travelled to Oudh. There as a favourite of the Moslem17 king's and generalissimo of his troops, he amassed18 a large fortune, and spent it in building the palaces and colleges which perpetuate19 his name in several towns in India. He was an eccentric adventurer, whom some now remember here, and whose name pronounced in the Indian fashion, with a broad accent on the a, suggests an almost ironical20 meaning in conjunction with the idea of a college.
By the side of the road, in the town, the walls are still standing21, all that remains22 of a great hall in the palace of Secundra Bagh, in which, after the suppression of the Mutiny in 1857, two thousand sepoys who refused to surrender were put to death.
And at this day the high road passes Secundra Bagh in ruins, and on the ground where Nana Sahib's soldiers fell, huge flowers are strewn of "flame of the forest" fading into hues23 of blood.
In the middle of a garden, full of clumps24 of flowering shrubs25 standing on green lawns, is the Nadjiff Ackraff, a vast rotunda26 crowned with gilt27[Pg 188] cupolas and spires28, and all round the building is an arcade29 built in a square and studded with iron pins on which thousands of wax lights are stuck on the evenings of high festivals.
Inside the mausoleum numberless lustres hang from the roof, and fine large standing lamps with crystal pendants burn round two tombs covered with antique hangings and wreathed with jasmine; beneath these lie the two last kings of Oudh. Small models of two famous mosques, one in gold and one in silver, are placed on the tombs, round which a whole regiment30 of obsequious31 moollahs and beggars mount guard. On the walls childish paintings, representing scenes of the Anglo-Indian conflict, alternate with mirrors in gilt frames, and silk standards exquisitely32 faded, embroidered33 with dim gold and silver, and surmounted34 by tridents.
Here, once more, is the spectre of the mutiny that broke out in the Residency, of which the ruins may be seen in the middle of a park intersected by watercourses, the English flag still proudly waving over them.
The gateway35 looks as if it had been carved by the dints of bullets in the stone, and close by, a breach36 in the huge enclosing wall scored all over by shot gave ingress to the murderous host. Inside,[Pg 189] on the walls that are left standing, and they are many, the bullets seem to have scrawled37 strange characters. In the bath-house with its graceful38 columns and arabesque39 ornaments40, in Dr. Fayrer's house, of which the proportions remind us of Trianon, where Sir Henry Lawrence died among the ruins of the mosque—everywhere, we see tablets of black marble commemorating41 the numerous victims of the rebellion. In one barrack two hundred and forty-five women and children were murdered; in another forty-five officers were buried in the ruins. And close by the scene of carnage, in a smiling cemetery42, their graves hidden in flowers, under the shadow of the English flag that flies from the summit of the ruined tower which formerly43 commanded the country round, sleep the nine hundred and twenty-seven victims of Nana Sahib's treachery.
点击收听单词发音
1 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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2 mosques | |
清真寺; 伊斯兰教寺院,清真寺; 清真寺,伊斯兰教寺院( mosque的名词复数 ) | |
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3 thickets | |
n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 );丛状物 | |
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4 varied | |
adj.多样的,多变化的 | |
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5 knolls | |
n.小圆丘,小土墩( knoll的名词复数 ) | |
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6 swarm | |
n.(昆虫)等一大群;vi.成群飞舞;蜂拥而入 | |
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7 pariahs | |
n.被社会遗弃者( pariah的名词复数 );贱民 | |
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8 indifference | |
n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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9 votaries | |
n.信徒( votary的名词复数 );追随者;(天主教)修士;修女 | |
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10 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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11 carvings | |
n.雕刻( carving的名词复数 );雕刻术;雕刻品;雕刻物 | |
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12 turrets | |
(六角)转台( turret的名词复数 ); (战舰和坦克等上的)转动炮塔; (摄影机等上的)镜头转台; (旧时攻城用的)塔车 | |
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13 jaws | |
n.口部;嘴 | |
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14 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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15 inscribed | |
v.写,刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 );内接 | |
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16 bust | |
vt.打破;vi.爆裂;n.半身像;胸部 | |
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17 Moslem | |
n.回教徒,穆罕默德信徒;adj.回教徒的,回教的 | |
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18 amassed | |
v.积累,积聚( amass的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19 perpetuate | |
v.使永存,使永记不忘 | |
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20 ironical | |
adj.讽刺的,冷嘲的 | |
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21 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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22 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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23 hues | |
色彩( hue的名词复数 ); 色调; 信仰; 观点 | |
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24 clumps | |
n.(树、灌木、植物等的)丛、簇( clump的名词复数 );(土、泥等)团;块;笨重的脚步声v.(树、灌木、植物等的)丛、簇( clump的第三人称单数 );(土、泥等)团;块;笨重的脚步声 | |
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25 shrubs | |
灌木( shrub的名词复数 ) | |
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26 rotunda | |
n.圆形建筑物;圆厅 | |
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27 gilt | |
adj.镀金的;n.金边证券 | |
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28 spires | |
n.(教堂的) 塔尖,尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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29 arcade | |
n.拱廊;(一侧或两侧有商店的)通道 | |
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30 regiment | |
n.团,多数,管理;v.组织,编成团,统制 | |
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31 obsequious | |
adj.谄媚的,奉承的,顺从的 | |
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32 exquisitely | |
adv.精致地;强烈地;剧烈地;异常地 | |
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33 embroidered | |
adj.绣花的 | |
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34 surmounted | |
战胜( surmount的过去式和过去分词 ); 克服(困难); 居于…之上; 在…顶上 | |
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35 gateway | |
n.大门口,出入口,途径,方法 | |
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36 breach | |
n.违反,不履行;破裂;vt.冲破,攻破 | |
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37 scrawled | |
乱涂,潦草地写( scrawl的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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39 arabesque | |
n.阿拉伯式花饰;adj.阿拉伯式图案的 | |
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40 ornaments | |
n.装饰( ornament的名词复数 );点缀;装饰品;首饰v.装饰,点缀,美化( ornament的第三人称单数 ) | |
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41 commemorating | |
v.纪念,庆祝( commemorate的现在分词 ) | |
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42 cemetery | |
n.坟墓,墓地,坟场 | |
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43 formerly | |
adv.从前,以前 | |
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