An hour earlier its toll1 had been answered from near and far, up and down the long, low-roofed, curving and recurving city--"seven, eight, nine"--"eight, nine"--the law's warning to all slaves to be indoors or go to jail. Not Flora2 nor Anna nor Victorine nor Doctor Sevier nor Dick Smith's lone3 mother nor any one else among all those thousands of masters, mistresses and man-and maid-servants, or these thousands of home-guards at home under their mosquito-bars, with uniforms on bedside chairs and with muskets4 and cartridge-belts close by--not one of all these was aware, I say, that however else this awful war might pay its cost, it was the knell6 of slavery they heard, and which they, themselves, in effect, were sounding.
Lacking wilder excitement Madame sat by a lamp knitting a nubia. Victorine had flown home at sundown. Charlie lay sleeping as a soldier lad can. His sister had not yet returned from Callender House, but had been fully7 accounted for some time before by messenger. Now the knitter heard horses and wheels. Why should they come at a walk? It was like stealth. They halted under the balcony. She slipped out and peered down. Yes, there was Flora. Constance was with her. Also two trim fellows whom she rightly guessed to be Camp Callender lads, and a piece of luggage--was it not?--which, as they lifted it down, revealed a size and weight hard even for those siege-gunners to handle with care. Unseen, silently, they came in and up with it, led by Flora. (Camp Callender was now only a small hither end of the "Chalmette Batteries," which on both sides of the river mounted a whole score of big black guns. No wonder the Callenders were leaving.)
Presently here were the merry burden-bearers behind their radiant guide, whispered ah's and oh's and wary9 laughter abounding10.
"'Such a getting up-stairs I never did see!'"
A thousand thanks to the boys as they set down their load; their thanks back for seats declined; no time even to stand; a moment, only, for new vows11 of secrecy12. "Oui!--Ah, non!--Assurément!" (They were Creoles.) "Yes, mum 't is the word! And such a so-quiet getting down-stair'!"--to Mrs. Mandeville again--and trundling away!
When the church clock gently mentioned the half-hour the newly gleeful grandam and hiddenly tortured girl had been long enough together and alone for the elder to have nothing more to ask as to this chest of plate which the Callenders had fondly accepted Flora's offer to keep for them while they should be away. Not for weeks and weeks had the old lady felt such ease of mind on the money--and bread--question. Now the two set about to get the booty well hid before Charlie should awake. This required the box to be emptied, set in place and reladen, during which process Flora spoke13 only when stung.
"Ah!" thinly piped she of the mosquito voice, "what a fine day tha's been, to-day!" but won no reply. Soon she cheerily whined14 again:
"All day nothing but good luck, and at the end--this!" (the treasure chest).
But Flora kept silence.
"So, now," said the aged15 one, "they will not make such a differenze, those old jewel'."
"I will get them yet," murmured the girl.
"You think? Me, I think no, you will never."
No response.
The tease pricked17 once more: "Ah! all that day I am thinking of that Irbee. I am glad for Irbee. He is 'the man that waits,' that Irbee!"
The silent one winced18; fiercely a piece of the shining ware5 was lifted high, but it sank again. The painted elder cringed. There may have been genuine peril19, but the one hot sport in her fag end of a life was to play with this beautiful fire. She held the girl's eye with a look of frightened admiration20, murmuring, "You are a merveilleuse!"
"Possible?"
"Yes, to feel that way and same time to be ab'e to smile like that!"
"Ah? how is that I'm feeling?"
"You are filling that all this, and all those jewel' of Anna, and the life of me, and of that boy in yond', you would give them all, juz' to be ab'e to bil-ieve that foolishness of Anna--that he's yet al-live, that Kin--"
The piece of plate half rose again, but--in part because the fair threatener could not help enjoying the subtlety21 of the case--the smile persisted as she rejoined, "Ah! when juz' for the fun, all I can get the chance, I'm making her to bil-ieve that way!"
"Yes," laughed the old woman, "but why? Only biccause that way you, you cannot bil-ieve."
The lithe22 maiden23 arose to resume their task, the heavy silver still in her hand. The next moment the kneeling grandam crouched24 and the glittering metal swept around just high enough to miss her head. A tinkle25 of mirth came from its wielder26 as she moved on with it, sighing, "Ah! ho! what a pity--that so seldom the aged commit suicide."
"Yes," came the soft retort, "but for yo' young grandmama tha'z not yet the time, she is still a so indispensib'."
"Very true, ma chère," sang Flora, "and in heaven you would be so uzeless."
Out in the hazy27, dark, heavily becalmed night the clock tolled28 eleven. Eleven--one--three--and all the hours, halves and quarters between and beyond, it tolled; and Flora, near, and Anna, far, sometimes each by her own open window, heard and counted. A thin old moon was dimly rising down the river when each began to think she caught another and very different sound that seemed to arrive faint from a long journey out of the southeast, if really from anywhere, and to pulse in dim persistency29 as soft as breathing, but as constant. Likely enough it was only the rumble30 of a remote storm and might have seemed to come out of the north or west had their windows looked that way, for still the tempestuous31 rains were frequent and everywhere, and it was easy and common for man to mistake God's thunderings for his own.
Yet, whether those two wakeful maidens32 truly heard or merely fancied, in fact just then some seventy miles straight away under that gaunt old moon, there was rising to heaven the most terrific uproar33 this delta34 land had ever heard since man first moved upon its shores and waters. Six to the minute bellowed35 and soared Porter's awful bombs and arched and howled and fell and scattered36 death and conflagration37. While they roared, three hundred and forty great guns beside, on river and land, flashed and crashed, the breezeless night by turns went groping-black and clear-as-day red with smoke and flame of vomiting38 funnels39, of burning boats and fire-rafts, of belching40 cannon41, of screaming grape and canister and of exploding magazines. And through the middle of it all, in single file--their topmasts, yards, and cordage showing above the murk as pale and dumb as skeletons at every flare42 of the havoc43, a white light twinkling at each masthead, a red light at the peak and the stars and stripes there with it--Farragut and his wooden ships came by the forts.
"Boys, our cake's all dough44!" said a commander in one of the forts.
When day returned and Anna and Flora slept, the murmur16 they had heard may after all have been only God's thunder and really not from the southeast; but just down there under the landscape's flat rim8 both forts, though with colors still gallantly45 flying, were smoking ruins, all Dixie's brave gunboats and rams46 lay along the river's two shores, sunken or burned, and the whole victorious47 Northern fleet, save one boat rammed48 and gone to the bottom, was on its cautious, unpiloted way, snail-slow but fate-sure, up the tawny49 four-mile current and round the gentle green bends of the Mississippi with New Orleans for its goal and prey50.
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1
toll
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| n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟) | |
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2
flora
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| n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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3
lone
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| adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的 | |
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muskets
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| n.火枪，（尤指）滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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5
ware
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| n.(常用复数)商品，货物 | |
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6
knell
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| n.丧钟声；v.敲丧钟 | |
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7
fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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8
rim
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| n.(圆物的)边，轮缘；边界 | |
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9
wary
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| adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的 | |
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10
abounding
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| adj.丰富的，大量的v.大量存在，充满，富于( abound的现在分词 ) | |
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11
vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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12
secrecy
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| n.秘密，保密，隐蔽 | |
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13
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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14
whined
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| v.哀号( whine的过去式和过去分词 )；哀诉，诉怨 | |
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15
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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17
pricked
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| 刺，扎，戳( prick的过去式和过去分词 )； 刺伤； 刺痛； 使剧痛 | |
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18
winced
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| 赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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19
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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21
subtlety
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| n.微妙，敏锐，精巧；微妙之处，细微的区别 | |
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22
lithe
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| adj.(指人、身体)柔软的，易弯的 | |
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23
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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24
crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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25
tinkle
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| vi.叮当作响；n.叮当声 | |
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26
wielder
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| 行使者 | |
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hazy
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| adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的 | |
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28
tolled
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| 鸣钟（toll的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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29
persistency
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| n. 坚持(余辉, 时间常数) | |
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30
rumble
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| n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说 | |
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31
tempestuous
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| adj.狂暴的 | |
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32
maidens
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| 处女( maiden的名词复数 )； 少女； 未婚女子； （板球运动）未得分的一轮投球 | |
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33
uproar
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| n.骚动，喧嚣，鼎沸 | |
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34
delta
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| n.（流的）角洲 | |
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35
bellowed
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| v.发出吼叫声，咆哮（尤指因痛苦）( bellow的过去式和过去分词 )；（愤怒地）说出（某事），大叫 | |
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36
scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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37
conflagration
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| n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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38
vomiting
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| 吐 | |
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39
funnels
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| 漏斗( funnel的名词复数 )； （轮船，火车等的）烟囱 | |
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40
belching
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| n. 喷出，打嗝 动词belch的现在分词形式 | |
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41
cannon
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| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
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42
flare
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| v.闪耀，闪烁；n.潮红；突发 | |
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43
havoc
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| n.大破坏，浩劫，大混乱，大杂乱 | |
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44
dough
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| n.生面团；钱，现款 | |
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45
gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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46
rams
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| n.公羊( ram的名词复数 )；(R-)白羊（星）座；夯；攻城槌v.夯实（土等）( ram的第三人称单数 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输 | |
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47
victorious
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| adj.胜利的，得胜的 | |
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48
rammed
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| v.夯实（土等）( ram的过去式和过去分词 )；猛撞；猛压；反复灌输 | |
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49
tawny
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| adj.茶色的，黄褐色的；n.黄褐色 | |
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50
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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