THE first time I 'smelt1 powder' was at Amoy. The 'Blonde'
carried out Lord Palmerston's letter to the ChineseGovernment. Never was there a more iniquitous2 war thanEngland then provoked with China to force upon her the opiumtrade with India in spite of the harm which the Chineseauthorities believed that opium3 did to their people.
Even Macaulay advocated this shameful4 imposition. China hadto submit, and pay into the bargain four and a half millionssterling to prove themselves in the wrong. Part of this wentas prize money. My share of it - the DOUCEUR for a middy'sparticipation in the crime - was exactly 100L.
To return to Amoy. When off the mouth of the Canton river wehad taken on board an interpreter named Thom. What ourinstructions were I know not; I can only tell what happened.
Our entry into Amoy harbour caused an immediate6 commotion7 onland. As soon as we dropped anchor, about half a mile fromthe shore, a number of troops, with eight or ten field-pieces, took up their position on the beach, evidentlyresolved to prevent our landing. We hoisted8 a flag of truce9,at the same time cleared the decks for action, and dropped akedge astern so as to moor10 the ship broadside to the fortsand invested shore. The officer of my watch, the late SirFrederick Nicholson, together with the interpreter, wereordered to land and communicate with the chief mandarin11. Tocarry out this as inoffensively as possible, Nicholson tookthe jolly-boat, manned by four lads only. As it was mywatch, I had charge of the boat. A napkin or towel servedfor a flag of truce. But long before we reached the shore,several mandarins came down to the water's edge waving theirswords and shouting angrily to warn us off. Mr. Thom, whounderstood what they said, was frightened out of his wits,assuring us we should all be sawed in half if we attempted toland. Sir Frederick was not the man to disobey orders evenon such a penalty; he, however, took the precaution - a verywise one as it happened - to reverse the boat, and back herin stern foremost.
No sooner did the keel grate on the shingle13 than a score ofsoldiers rushed down to seize us. Before they could do so wehad shoved off. The shore was very steep. In a moment wewere in deep water, and our lads pulling for dear life. Thencame a storm of bullets from matchlocks and jingals and thebigger guns, fortunately just too high to hit us. One bulletonly struck the back-board, but did no harm. What, however,seemed a greater danger was the fire from the ship. Ere wewere halfway14 back broadside after broadside was fired overour heads into the poor devils massed along the beach. Thiswas kept up until not a living Chinaman was to be seen.
I may mention here a curious instance of cowardice15. One ofour men, a ship's painter, soon after the firing began andwas returned by the fort's guns, which in truth were quiteharmless, jumped overboard and drowned himself. I have seenmen's courage tried under fire, and in many other ways since;yet I have never known but one case similar to this, when afriend of my own, a rich and prosperous man, shot himself toavoid death! So that there are men like 'MonsieurGrenouille, qui se cachait dans l'eau pour eviter la pluie.'
Often have I seen timid and nervous men, who were thought tobe cowards, get so excited in action that their timidity hasturned to rashness. In truth 'on est souvent ferme parfaiblesse, et audacieux par5 timidite.'
Partly for this reason, and partly because I look upon it asa remnant of our predatory antecedents and of animalpugnacity, I have no extravagant16 admiration17 for merecombativeness or physical courage. Honoured and rewarded asone of the noblest of manly19 attributes, it is one of thecommonest of qualities, - one which there is not a mammal, abird, a fish, or an insect even, that does not share with us.
Such is the esteem20 in which it is held, such the ignominywhich punishes the want of it, that the most cautious and themost timid by nature will rather face the uncertain risks ofa fight than the certain infamy21 of imputed22 cowardice.
Is it likely that courage should be rare under suchcircumstances, especially amongst professional fighters, whoin England at least have chosen their trade? That there arepoltroons, and plenty of them, amongst our soldiers andsailors, I do not dispute. But with the fear of shame on onehand, the hope of reward on the other, the merest dastardwill fight like a wild beast, when his blood is up. Theextraordinary merit of his conduct is not so obvious to thepeaceful thinker. I speak not of such heroism23 as that of theJapanese, - their deeds will henceforth be bracketed withthose of Leonidas and his three hundred, who died for a likecause. With the Japanese, as it was with the Spartans24, everyman is a patriot25; nor is the proportionate force of theirbarbaric invaders26 altogether dissimilar.
Is then the Victoria Cross an error? To say so would be anoutrage in this age of militarism. And what would all theQueens of Beauty think, from Sir Wilfred Ivanhoe's days toours, if mighty27 warriors28 ceased to poke29 each other in theribs, and send one another's souls untimely to the 'viewlessshades,' for the sake of their 'doux yeux?' Ah! who knowshow many a mutilation, how many a life, has been the price ofthat requital30? Ye gentle creatures who swoon at the sight ofblood, is it not the hero who lets most of it that finds mostfavour in your eyes? Possibly it may be to the heroes ofmoral courage that some distant age will award its choicestdecorations. As it is, the courage that seeks the rewards ofFame seems to me about on a par with the virtue31 that investsin Heaven.
Though an anachronism as regards this stage of my career, Icannot resist a little episode which pleasantly illustratesmoral courage, or chivalry32 at least, combined with physicalbravery.
In December, 1899, I was a passenger on board a NorddeutscherLloyd on my way to Ceylon. The steamer was crowded withGermans; there were comparatively few English. Things hadbeen going very badly with us in the Transvaal, and thetelegrams both at Port Said and at Suez supplemented theprevious ill-news. At the latter place we heard of thecatastrophe at Magersfontein, of poor Wauchope's death, andof the disaster to the Highland33 Light Infantry34. The momentit became known the Germans threw their caps into the air,and yelled as if it were they who had defeated us.
Amongst the steerage passengers was a Major - in the Englisharmy - returning from leave to rejoin his regiment35 atColombo. If one might judge by his choice of a second-classfare, and by his much worn apparel, he was what one wouldcall a professional soldier. He was a tall, powerfully-built, handsome man, with a weather-beaten determined37 face,and keen eye. I was so taken with his looks that I oftenwent to the fore12 part of the ship on the chance of getting aword with him. But he was either shy or proud, certainlyreserved; and always addressed me as 'Sir,' which was notencouraging.
That same evening, after dinner in the steerage cabin, aGerman got up and, beginning with some offensive allusions38 tothe British army, proposed the health of General Cronje andthe heroic Boers. This was received with deafening39 'Hochs.'
To cap the enthusiasm up jumped another German, and proposed'ungluck - bad luck to all Englanders and to their Queen.'
This also was cordially toasted. When the ceremony was endedand silence restored, my reserved friend calmly rose, tappedthe table with the handle of his knife (another steeragepassenger - an Australian - told me what happened), took hiswatch from his pocket, and slowly said: 'It is just sixminutes to eight. If the person who proposed the last toasthas not made a satisfactory apology to me before the hand ofmy watch points to the hour, I will thrash him till he does.
I am an officer in the English army, and always keep myword.' A small band of Australians was in the cabin. Oneand all of them applauded this laconic40 speech. It wasprobably due in part to these that the offender41 did not waittill the six minutes had expired.
Next day I congratulated my reserved friend. He was reticentas usual. All I could get out of him was, 'I never allow alady to be insulted in my presence, sir.' It was his Queen,not his cloth, that had roused the virility42 in this quietman.
Let us turn to another aspect of the deeds of war. Aboutdaylight on the morning following our bombardment, it beingmy morning watch, I was ordered to take the surgeon andassistant surgeon ashore43. There were many corpses44, but noliving or wounded to be seen. One object only dwellsvisually in my memory.
At least a quarter of a mile from the dead soldiers, a strayshell had killed a grey-bearded old man and a young woman.
They were side by side. The woman was still in her teens andpretty. She lay upon her back. Blood was oozing45 from herside. A swarm46 of flies were buzzing in and out of her openmouth. Her little deformed47 feet, cased in the high-heeledand embroidered48 tiny shoes, extended far beyond herpetticoats. It was these feet that interested the men ofscience. They are now, I believe, in a jar of spirits atHaslar hospital. At least, my friend the assistant surgeontold me, as we returned to the ship, that that was theirultimate destination. The mutilated body, as I turned fromit with sickening horror, left a picture on my youthful mindnot easily to be effaced49.
After this we joined the rest of the squadron: the'Melville' (a three-decker, Sir W. Parker's flagship), the'Blenheim,' the 'Druid,' the 'Calliope,' and several 18-gunbrigs. We took Hong Kong, Chusan, Ningpo, Canton, andreturned to take Amoy. One or two incidents only in theseveral engagements seem worth recording50.
We have all of us supped full with horrors this last year orso, and I have no thought of adding to the surfeit51. Butsometimes common accidents appear exceptional, if they befallourselves, or those with whom we are intimate. If thesufferer has any special identity, we speculate on hispeculiar way of bearing his misfortune; and are thus led onto place ourselves in his position, and imagine ourselves thesufferers.
Major Daniel, the senior marine52 officer of the 'Blonde,' wasa reserved and taciturn man. He was quiet and gentlemanlike,always very neat in his dress; rather severe, still kind tohis men. His aloofness53 was in no wise due to lack of ideas,nor, I should say, to pride - unless, perhaps, it were thepride which some men feel in suppressing all emotion byhabitual restraint of manner. Whether his SANGFROID54 wasconstitutional, or that nobler kind of courage which feelsand masters timidity and the sense of danger, none couldtell. Certain it is he was as calm and self-possessed55 inaction as in repose56. He was so courteous57 one fancied hewould almost have apologised to his foe58 before heremorselessly ran him through.
On our second visit to Amoy, a year or more after the first,we met with a warmer reception. The place was much morestrongly fortified59, and the ship was several-times hulled60.
We were at very close quarters, as it is necessary to passunder high ground as the harbour is entered. Those who hadthe option, excepting our gallant61 old captain, naturally keptunder shelter of the bulwarks62 and hammock nettings. Not soMajor Daniel. He stood in the open gangway watching theeffect of the shells, as though he were looking at a game ofbilliards. While thus occupied a round shot struck him fullin the face, and simply left him headless.
Another accident, partly due to an ignorance of dynamics,happened at the taking of Canton. The whole of the navalbrigade was commanded by Sir Thomas Bouchier. Our men werelying under the ridge63 of a hill protected from the guns onthe city walls. Fully36 exposed to the fire, which was prettyhot, 'old Tommy' as we called him, paced to and fro withcontemptuous indifference64, stopping occasionally to spy theenemy with his long ship's telescope. A number ofbluejackets, in reserve, were stationed about half a milefurther off at the bottom of the protecting hill. They werecompletely screened from the fire by some buildings of thesuburbs abutting65 upon the slope. Those in front werewatching the cannon-balls which had struck the crest66 and wererolling as it were by mere18 force of gravitation down thehillside. Some jokes were made about football, when suddenlya smart and popular young officer - Fox, first lieutenant67 ofone of the brigs - jumped out at one of these spent balls,which looked as though it might have been picked up by thehands, and gave it a kick. It took his foot off just abovethe ankle. There was no surgeon at hand, and he was bleedingto death before one could be found. Sir Thomas had come downthe hill, and seeing the wounded officer on the ground with agroup around him, said in passing, 'Well, Fox, this is a badjob, but it will make up the pair of epaulets, which issomething.'
'Yes sir,' said the dying man feebly, 'but without a pair oflegs.' Half an hour later he was dead.
I have spoken lightly of courage, as if, by implication, Imyself possessed it. Let me make a confession68. From my soulI pity the man who is or has been such a miserable69 coward asI was in my infancy70, and up to this youthful period of mylife. No fear of bullets or bayonets could ever equal mine.
It was the fear of ghosts. As a child, I think that at timeswhen shut up for punishment, in a dark cellar for instance, Imust have nearly gone out of my mind with this appallingterror.
Once when we were lying just below Whampo, the captain tooknearly every officer and nearly the whole ship's crew on apunitive expedition up the Canton river. They were awayabout a week. I was left behind, dangerously ill with feverand ague. In his absence, Sir Thomas had had me put into hiscabin, where I lay quite alone day and night, seeing hardlyanyone save the surgeon and the captain's steward71, who washimself a shadow, pretty nigh. Never shall I forget mymental sufferings at night. In vain may one attempt todescribe what one then goes through; only the victims knowwhat that is. My ghost - the ghost of the Whampo Reach - theghost of those sultry and miasmal72 nights, had no shape, novaporous form; it was nothing but a presence, a vagueamorphous dread73. It may have floated with the swollen74 andputrid corpses which hourly came bobbing down the stream, butit never appeared; for there was nothing to appear. Still itmight appear. I expected every instant through the night tosee it in some inconceivable form. I expected it to touchme. It neither stalked upon the deck, nor hovered75 in thedark, nor moved, nor rested anywhere. And yet it was thereabout me, - where, I knew not. On every side I wasthreatened. I feared it most behind the head of my cot,because I could not see it if it were so.
This, it will be said, is the description of a nightmare.
Exactly so. My agony of fright was a nightmare; but anightmare when every sense was strained with wakefulness,when all the powers of imagination were concentrated toparalyse my shattered reason.
The experience here spoken of is so common in some form orother that we may well pause to consider it. What is themeaning of this fear of ghosts? - how do we come by it? Itmay be thought that its cradle is our own, that we arepurposely frightened in early childhood to keep us calm andquiet. But I do not believe that nurses' stories wouldexcite dread of the unknown if the unknown were not alreadyknown. The susceptibility to this particular terror is therebefore the terror is created. A little reflection willconvince us that we must look far deeper for the solution ofa mystery inseparable from another, which is of the lastimportance to all of us.
收听单词发音 |
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smelt
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| v.熔解，熔炼；n.银白鱼，胡瓜鱼 | |
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iniquitous
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| adj.不公正的；邪恶的；高得出奇的 | |
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opium
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| n.鸦片；adj.鸦片的 | |
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shameful
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| adj.可耻的，不道德的 | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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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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commotion
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| n.骚动，动乱 | |
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hoisted
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| 把…吊起，升起( hoist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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truce
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| n.休战，(争执，烦恼等的)缓和；v.以停战结束 | |
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moor
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| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
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Mandarin
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| n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的 | |
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fore
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| adv.在前面；adj.先前的；在前部的；n.前部 | |
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shingle
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| n.木瓦板；小招牌(尤指医生或律师挂的营业招牌)；v.用木瓦板盖（屋顶）；把（女子头发）剪短 | |
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halfway
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| adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途 | |
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cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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extravagant
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| adj.奢侈的；过分的；(言行等)放肆的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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esteem
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| n.尊敬，尊重；vt.尊重，敬重；把…看作 | |
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infamy
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| n.声名狼藉，出丑，恶行 | |
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imputed
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| v.把（错误等）归咎于( impute的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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heroism
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| n.大无畏精神，英勇 | |
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spartans
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| n.斯巴达（spartan的复数形式） | |
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patriot
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| n.爱国者，爱国主义者 | |
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invaders
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| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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warriors
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| 武士，勇士，战士( warrior的名词复数 ) | |
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poke
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| n.刺，戳，袋；vt.拨开，刺，戳；vi.戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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requital
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| n.酬劳；报复 | |
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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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chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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highland
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| n.(pl.)高地，山地 | |
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infantry
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| n.[总称]步兵(部队) | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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allusions
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| 暗指，间接提到( allusion的名词复数 ) | |
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deafening
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| adj. 振耳欲聋的, 极喧闹的 动词deafen的现在分词形式 | |
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laconic
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| adj.简洁的；精练的 | |
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offender
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| n.冒犯者，违反者，犯罪者 | |
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virility
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| n.雄劲，丈夫气 | |
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ashore
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| adv.在(向)岸上，上岸 | |
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corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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oozing
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| v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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deformed
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| adj.畸形的；变形的；丑的，破相了的 | |
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embroidered
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| adj．绣花的 | |
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effaced
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| v.擦掉( efface的过去式和过去分词 )；抹去；超越；使黯然失色 | |
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recording
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| n.录音，记录 | |
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surfeit
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| v.使饮食过度；n.(食物)过量，过度 | |
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marine
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| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
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aloofness
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| 超然态度 | |
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sangfroid
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| n.沉着冷静 | |
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possessed
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| adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的 | |
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repose
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| v.(使)休息；n.安息 | |
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courteous
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| adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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fortified
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| adj. 加强的 | |
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hulled
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| 有壳的，有船身的 | |
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gallant
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| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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bulwarks
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| n.堡垒( bulwark的名词复数 )；保障；支柱；舷墙 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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abutting
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| adj.邻接的v.（与…）邻接( abut的现在分词 )；（与…）毗连；接触；倚靠 | |
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crest
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| n.顶点；饰章；羽冠；vt.达到顶点；vi.形成浪尖 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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confession
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| n.自白，供认，承认 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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70
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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71
steward
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| n.乘务员，服务员；看管人；膳食管理员 | |
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72
miasmal
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| adj.毒气的，沼气的 | |
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73
dread
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| vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧 | |
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74
swollen
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| adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀 | |
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hovered
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| 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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