But, ah! how swiftly, threateningly they grew: the smaller, two-masted fore-and-afts, each seemingly unarmed but for one monster gun pivoted5 amidships, and the towering, wide-armed three-masters, the low and the tall consorting6 like dog and hunter. Now, as they came on, a nice eye could make out, down on their hulls7, light patches of new repair where our sunken fleet had so lately shot and rammed8 them, and, hanging over the middle of each ship's side in a broad, dark square to protect her vitals, a mass of anchor chains. Their boarding-netting, too, one saw, drawn10 high round all their sides, and now more guns--and more!--and more! the huger frowning over the bulwarks11, the lesser12 in unbroken rows, scowling13 each from its own port-hole, while every masthead revealed itself a little fort bristling14 with arms and men. Yes, and there, high in the clouds of rigging, no longer a vague pink flutter now, but brightly red-white-and-blue and smilingly angry--what a strange home-coming for it! ah, what a strange home-coming after a scant15 year-and-a-half of banishment16!--the flag of the union, rippling17 from every peak.
"Ain' dey neveh gwine shoot?" asked a negro lad.
"Not till they're out of line with us," said Anna so confidently as to draw a skeptical18 grunt19 from his mother, and for better heart let a tune20 float silently in and out on her breath:
"I loves to be a beau to de ladies.
I loves to shake a toe wid de ladies--"
She felt her maid's touch. Charlie was aiming his great gun, and on either side of her Isaac and Ben were repeating their injunctions. She spoke21 out:
"If they all shoot true we're safe enough now."
"An' ef de ships don't," put in Isaac, "dey'll mighty22 soon--"
The prophecy was lost. All the shore guns blazed and crashed. The white smoke belched23 and spread. Broken window-panes jingled24. Wails25 and moans from the slave women were silenced by imperious outcries from Isaac and Ben. There followed a mid-air scream and roar as of fifty railway trains passing each other on fifty bridges, and the next instant a storm of the enemy's shells burst over and in the batteries. But the house stood fast and half a dozen misquotations of David and Paul were spouted27 from the braver ones of Anna's flock. In a moment a veil of smoke hid ships and shore, yet fearfully true persisted the enemy's aim. To home-guards, rightly hopeless of their case and never before in action, every hostile shot was like a volcano's eruption28, and their own fire rapidly fell off. But on the veranda29, amid a weeping, prattling30, squealing31 and gesturing of women and children, Anna could not distinguish the bursting of the foe's shells from the answering thunder of Confederate guns, and when in a bare ten minutes unarmed soldiers began to come out of the smoke and to hurry through the grove32, while riders of harnessed horses and mules--harnessed to nothing--lashed up the levee road at full run, and Isaac and Ben proudly cried that one was Mahs' Chahlie and that the animals were theirs of Callender House, she still asked over the balustrade how the fight had gone.
For reply despairing hands pointed33 her back toward the river, and there, as she and her groaning34 servants gazed, the great black masts and yards, with headway resumed and every ensign floating, loomed35 silently forth36 and began to pass the veranda. Down in the intervening garden, brightly self-contained among the pale stragglers there, appeared the one-armed reporter, with a younger brother in the weather-worn gray and red of Kincaid's Battery. They waved a pocket-soiled letter and asked how to get in and up to her; but before she could do more than toss them a key there came, not from the ships but from close overhead under a blackening sky, one last, hideous37 roar and ear-splitting howl. The beautiful treasure-laden home heaved, quivered, lurched and settled again, the women shrieked38 and crouched39 or fell prone40 with covered heads, and a huge shell, sent by some pain-crazed fugitive41 from a gun across the river, and which had entered at the roof, exploded in the basement with a harrowing peal42 and filled every corner of the dwelling43 with blinding smoke and stifling44 dust.
Constance and Miranda met Anna groping and staggering out of the chaos45. Unharmed, herself, and no one badly hurt? Ah, hear the sudden wail26 of that battery boy as he finds his one-armed brother! Anna kneels with him over the writhing46 form while women fly for the surgeon, and men, at her cry, hasten to improvise47 a litter. No idle song haunts her now, yet a clamoring whisper times itself with every pulsation48 of her bosom49: "The letter? the letter?"
Pity kept it from her lips, even from her weeping eyes; yet somehow the fallen boy heard, but when he tried to answer she hushed him. "Oh, never mind that," she said, wiping away the sweat of his agony, "it isn't important at all."
"Dropped it," he gasped50, and had dropped it where the shell had buried it forever.
Each for the other's sake the lads rejected the hospital, with its risk of capture. The younger had the stricken one hurried off toward the railway and a refugee mother in the hills, Constance tenderly protesting until the surgeon murmured the truth:
"It'll be all one to him by to-morrow."
As the rearmost ship was passing the house Anna, her comeliness51 restored, half rose from her bed, where Miranda stood trying to keep her. From all the far side of the house remotely sounded the smart tramp and shuffle52 of servants clearing away wreckage53, and the din9 of their makeshift repairs. She was "all right again," she said as she sat, but the abstraction of her eyes and the harkening droop54 of her head showed that inwardly she still saw and heard the death-struck boy.
Suddenly she stood. "Dear, brave Connie!" she exclaimed, "we must go help her, 'Randa." And as they went she added, pausing at the head of a stair, "Ah, dear! if we, poor sinners all, could in our dull minds only multiply the awful numbers of war's victims by the woes55 that gather round any one of them, don't you think, 'Randa--?"
Yes, Miranda agreed, certainly if man--yes, and woman--had that gift wars would soon be no more.
On a high roof above their apartment stood our Valcour ladies. About them babbling56 feminine groups looked down upon the harbor landings black with male vagabonds and witlings smashing the precious food freight (so sacred yesterday), while women and girls scooped57 the spoils from mire58 and gutter59 into buckets, aprons60 or baskets, and ran home with it through Jackson Square and scurried61 back again with grain-sacks and pillow-slips, and while the cotton burned on and the ships, so broadly dark aloft, so pale in their war paint below and so alive with silent, motionless men, came through the smoking havoc62.
"No uze to hope," cooed the grandmother to Flora63, whose gaze clung to the tree-veiled top of Callender House. "It riffuse' to burn. 'Tis not a so inflammab' like that rope and tar64." The rope and tar meant their own burnt ship.
"Ah, well," was the light reply, "all shall be for the bes'! Those who watch the game close and play it with courage--"
"And cheat with prudenze--?"
"Yes! to them God is good. How well you know that! And Anna, too, she's learning it--or she shall--dear Anna! Same time me, I am well content."
"Oh, you are joyful65! But not because God is good, neither juz' biccause those Yankee' they arrive. Ah, that muz' bring some splandid news, that lett'r of Irbee, what you riscieve to-day and think I don't know it. 'T is maybe ab-out Kincaid's Batt'rie, eh?" At Flora's touch the speaker flinched66 back from the roof's edge, the maiden67 aiding the recoil68.
"Don't stand so near, like that," she said. "It temp' me to shove you over."
They looked once more to the fleet. Slowly it came on. Near its line's center the flag-ship hovered69 just opposite Canal Street. The rear was far down by the Mint. Up in the van the leading vessel70 was halting abreast71 St. Mary's Market, a few hundred yards behind which, under black clouds and on an east wind, the lone-star flag of seceded72 Louisiana floated in helpless defiance73 from the city hall. All at once heaven's own thunders pealed74. From a warning sprinkle the women near about fled down a roofed hatchway. One led Madame. But on such a scene Flora craved75 a better curtain-fall and she lingered alone.
It came. As if all its millions of big drops raced for one prize the deluge76 fell on city, harbor, and fleet and on the woe-smitten land from horizon to horizon, while in the same moment the line of battle dropped anchor in mid-stream. With a swirling77 mist wetting her fair head she waved in dainty welcome Irby's letter and then pressed it to her lips; not for his sake--hah!--but for his rueful word, that once more his loathed78 cousin, Anna's Hilary! was riding at the head of Kincaid's Battery.
点击收听单词发音
1 calamity | |
n.灾害,祸患,不幸事件 | |
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2 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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3 tawny | |
adj.茶色的,黄褐色的;n.黄褐色 | |
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4 laden | |
adj.装满了的;充满了的;负了重担的;苦恼的 | |
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5 pivoted | |
adj.转动的,回转的,装在枢轴上的v.(似)在枢轴上转动( pivot的过去式和过去分词 );把…放在枢轴上;以…为核心,围绕(主旨)展开 | |
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6 consorting | |
v.结伴( consort的现在分词 );交往;相称;调和 | |
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7 hulls | |
船体( hull的名词复数 ); 船身; 外壳; 豆荚 | |
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8 rammed | |
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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9 din | |
n.喧闹声,嘈杂声 | |
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10 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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11 bulwarks | |
n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 );保障;支柱;舷墙 | |
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12 lesser | |
adj.次要的,较小的;adv.较小地,较少地 | |
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13 scowling | |
怒视,生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 ) | |
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14 bristling | |
a.竖立的 | |
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15 scant | |
adj.不充分的,不足的;v.减缩,限制,忽略 | |
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16 banishment | |
n.放逐,驱逐 | |
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17 rippling | |
起涟漪的,潺潺流水般声音的 | |
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18 skeptical | |
adj.怀疑的,多疑的 | |
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19 grunt | |
v.嘟哝;作呼噜声;n.呼噜声,嘟哝 | |
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20 tune | |
n.调子;和谐,协调;v.调音,调节,调整 | |
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21 spoke | |
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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22 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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23 belched | |
v.打嗝( belch的过去式和过去分词 );喷出,吐出;打(嗝);嗳(气) | |
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24 jingled | |
喝醉的 | |
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25 wails | |
痛哭,哭声( wail的名词复数 ) | |
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26 wail | |
vt./vi.大声哀号,恸哭;呼啸,尖啸 | |
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27 spouted | |
adj.装有嘴的v.(指液体)喷出( spout的过去式和过去分词 );滔滔不绝地讲;喋喋不休地说;喷水 | |
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28 eruption | |
n.火山爆发;(战争等)爆发;(疾病等)发作 | |
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29 veranda | |
n.走廊;阳台 | |
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30 prattling | |
v.(小孩般)天真无邪地说话( prattle的现在分词 );发出连续而无意义的声音;闲扯;东拉西扯 | |
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31 squealing | |
v.长声尖叫,用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的现在分词 ) | |
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32 grove | |
n.林子,小树林,园林 | |
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33 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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34 groaning | |
adj. 呜咽的, 呻吟的 动词groan的现在分词形式 | |
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35 loomed | |
v.隐约出现,阴森地逼近( loom的过去式和过去分词 );隐约出现,阴森地逼近 | |
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36 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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37 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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38 shrieked | |
v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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39 crouched | |
v.屈膝,蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40 prone | |
adj.(to)易于…的,很可能…的;俯卧的 | |
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41 fugitive | |
adj.逃亡的,易逝的;n.逃犯,逃亡者 | |
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42 peal | |
n.钟声;v.鸣响 | |
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43 dwelling | |
n.住宅,住所,寓所 | |
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44 stifling | |
a.令人窒息的 | |
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45 chaos | |
n.混乱,无秩序 | |
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46 writhing | |
(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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47 improvise | |
v.即兴创作;临时准备,临时凑成 | |
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48 pulsation | |
n.脉搏,悸动,脉动;搏动性 | |
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49 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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50 gasped | |
v.喘气( gasp的过去式和过去分词 );喘息;倒抽气;很想要 | |
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51 comeliness | |
n. 清秀, 美丽, 合宜 | |
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52 shuffle | |
n.拖著脚走,洗纸牌;v.拖曳,慢吞吞地走 | |
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53 wreckage | |
n.(失事飞机等的)残骸,破坏,毁坏 | |
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54 droop | |
v.低垂,下垂;凋萎,萎靡 | |
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55 woes | |
困境( woe的名词复数 ); 悲伤; 我好苦哇; 某人就要倒霉 | |
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56 babbling | |
n.胡说,婴儿发出的咿哑声adj.胡说的v.喋喋不休( babble的现在分词 );作潺潺声(如流水);含糊不清地说话;泄漏秘密 | |
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57 scooped | |
v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 );(敏捷地)抱起;抢先获得;用铲[勺]等挖(洞等) | |
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58 mire | |
n.泥沼,泥泞;v.使...陷于泥泞,使...陷入困境 | |
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59 gutter | |
n.沟,街沟,水槽,檐槽,贫民窟 | |
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60 aprons | |
围裙( apron的名词复数 ); 停机坪,台口(舞台幕前的部份) | |
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61 scurried | |
v.急匆匆地走( scurry的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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62 havoc | |
n.大破坏,浩劫,大混乱,大杂乱 | |
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63 flora | |
n.(某一地区的)植物群 | |
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64 tar | |
n.柏油,焦油;vt.涂或浇柏油/焦油于 | |
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65 joyful | |
adj.欢乐的,令人欢欣的 | |
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66 flinched | |
v.(因危险和痛苦)退缩,畏惧( flinch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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67 maiden | |
n.少女,处女;adj.未婚的,纯洁的,无经验的 | |
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68 recoil | |
vi.退却,退缩,畏缩 | |
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69 hovered | |
鸟( hover的过去式和过去分词 ); 靠近(某事物); (人)徘徊; 犹豫 | |
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70 vessel | |
n.船舶;容器,器皿;管,导管,血管 | |
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71 abreast | |
adv.并排地;跟上(时代)的步伐,与…并进地 | |
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72 seceded | |
v.脱离,退出( secede的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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73 defiance | |
n.挑战,挑衅,蔑视,违抗 | |
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74 pealed | |
v.(使)(钟等)鸣响,(雷等)发出隆隆声( peal的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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75 craved | |
渴望,热望( crave的过去式 ); 恳求,请求 | |
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76 deluge | |
n./vt.洪水,暴雨,使泛滥 | |
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77 swirling | |
v.旋转,打旋( swirl的现在分词 ) | |
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78 loathed | |
v.憎恨,厌恶( loathe的过去式和过去分词 );极不喜欢 | |
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