Yeoland and the man in red came forth6 into a little glade7, hollowed by the waters of a rush-edged pool. A stream, a scolloped sheet of foam8, stumbled headlong into the mere9, vanishing beyond like a frail10 white ghost into the woods. A fire danced in the open, and under the trees stood a pavilion of red cloth.
The man dismounted and held the girl's stirrup. A quick glance round the glade had shown her bales of merchandise, littering the green carpet of the place, horses tethered in the wood, men moving like gnomes11 about the fire. Even as she dismounted, streaks13 of steel shone out in the surrounding shadows. Armed men streamed in, and piled their pikes and bills about the pines.
At the western end of the glade, a gigantic fir, a forest patriarch, stood out above the more slender figures of his fellows. The grotesque14 roots, writhing15 like talons16, tressled a bench of boughs and skins. Before the tree burnt a fire, the draught17 sweeping18 upwards19 to fan the fringe of the green fir's gown. The man in the black harness took Yeoland to the seat under the tree. The boughs arched them like a canopy, and the wood fire gave a lusty heat in the gloaming.
A boy had run forward to unhelm the knight20 in the red cloak. Casque and sword lay on the bench of boughs and skins. The girl's glance framed for the first time the man's face. She surveyed him at her leisure under drooping21 lids, with a species of reticent22 interest that escaped boldness. It was one of those incidents to her that stand up above the plain of life, and build individual history.
She saw a bronzed man with a tangle24 of tawny-red hair, a great beak25 of a nose, and a hooked chin. His eyes were like amber26, darting27 light into the depth of life, alert, deep, and masterful. There was a rugged28 and indomitable vigour29 in the face. The mouth was of iron, yet not unkind; the jaw30 ponderous31; the throat bovine32. The mask of youth had palpably forsaken33 him; Life, that great chiseller34 of faces, had set her tool upon his features, moulding them into a strenuous35 and powerful dignity that suited his soul.
He appeared to fathom36 the spirit of the girl's scrutiny37, nor did he take umbrage38 at the open and critical revision of her glances. He inferred calmly enough, that she considered him by no means blemishless in feature or in atmosphere. Probably he had long passed that age when the sanguine39 bachelor never doubts of plucking absolute favour from the eyes of a woman. The girl was not wholly enamoured of him. He was rational enough to read that in her glances.
"As to what, messire?"
"My character."
"You prefer the truth?"
"Am I not a philosopher?"
"Hear the truth then, messire, I would not have you for a master."
The man laughed, a quiet, soundless laugh through half-closed lips. There was something magnetic about his grizzled and ironical41 strength, cased in its shell of blackened steel. He had the air of one who had learnt to toy with his fellows, as with so many strutting42 puppets. The world was largely a stage to him, grotesque at some seasons, strenuous at others.
"Ha, a miracle indeed," he said, "a woman who can tell the truth."
"Your name, messire?"
The man spread his hands.
"Pardon the omission44. I am known as Fulviac of the Forest. My heritage I judge to be the sword, and the shadows of these same wilds."
Yeoland considered him awhile in silence. The firelight flickered45 on his harness, glittering on the ribbed and jointed47 shoulder plates, striking a golden streak12 from the edge of each huge pauldron. Mimic48 flames burnt red upon his black cuirass, as in a darkened mirror. The night framed his figure in an aureole of gloom, as he sat with his massive head motionless upon its rock-like throat.
"Five years ago," she said suddenly, "you rode as a noble in the King's train. Now you declare yourself a thief. These things do not harmonise unless you confess to a dual23 self."
"Madame," he answered her, "I confess to nothing. If you would be wise, eschew49 the past, and consider the present at your service. I am named Fulviac, and I am an outlaw50. Let that grant you satisfaction."
Yeoland glanced over the glade, walled in with the gloom of the woods, the stream foaming51 in the dusk, the armed men gathered about the further fire.
"And these?" she asked.
"Are mine."
"Outcasts also?"
"Say no hard things of them; they are folk whom the world has treated scurvily52; therefore they are at feud53 with the world. The times are out of joint46, tyrannous and heavy to bear. The nobles like millstones grind the poor into pulp54, tread out the life from them, that the wine of pleasure may flow into gilded55 chalices56. The world is trampled57 under foot. Pride and greed go hand in hand against us."
She looked at him under her long lashes58, with the zest59 of cavil60 slumbering61 in her eyes. Autocracy62 was a hereditary63 right with her, even though feudalism had slain64 her sire.
"I would have the mob held in check," she said to him.
"And how? By cutting off a man's ears when he spits a stag. By splitting his nose for some small sin. By branding beggars who thieve because their children starve. Oh, equable and honest justice! God prevent me from being poor."
She looked at him with her great solemn eyes.
"And you?" she asked.
He spread his arms with a half-flippant dignity.
"And play the Christ weeping over Jerusalem?"
"Madame, your wit is excellent."
A spit had been turning over the large fire, a haunch of venison being basted66 thereon by a big man in the cassock of a friar. Certain of Fulviac's fellows came forward bearing wine in silver-rimmed horns, white bread and meat upon platters of wood. They stood and served the pair with a silent and soldierly briskness67 that bespoke68 discipline. The girl's hunger was as healthy as her sleek69, plump neck, despite the day's hazard and her homeless peril70.
Dusk had fallen fast; the last pennon of day shone an eerie71 streak of saffron in the west. The forest stood wrapped in the stupendous stillness of the night. An impenetrable curtain of ebony closed the glade with its rush-edged pool.
Fulviac's servers had retreated to the fire, where a ring of rough faces shone in the wayward light. The sound of their harsh voices came up to the pair in concord72 with the perpetual murmur73 of the stream. Yeoland had shaken the bread-crumbs from her green gown. She was comforted in the flesh, and ready for further foining with the man who posed as her captor.
"Do you pretend to the same?"
"Possibly."
"You love the poor, conceive their wrongs to be your own?"
Fulviac smiled in his eyes like a man pleased with his own thoughts.
"Have I not said as much?"
"Well?"
"And fame?"
He commended her and unbosomed in one breath.
"Pity," he said, "is often a species of splendid pride. We toil77, we fight, we labour. Why? Because below all life and effort, there burns an immortal78 egotism, an eternal vanity. 'Liberty, liberty,' we cry, 'liberty and justice man for man.' Yet how the soul glows at the sound of its own voice! The human self hugs fame, and mutters, 'Lo, what a god am I in the eyes of the world!'"
点击收听单词发音
1 boughs | |
大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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2 canopy | |
n.天篷,遮篷 | |
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3 agate | |
n.玛瑙 | |
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4 smiting | |
v.猛打,重击,打击( smite的现在分词 ) | |
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5 majestic | |
adj.雄伟的,壮丽的,庄严的,威严的,崇高的 | |
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6 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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7 glade | |
n.林间空地,一片表面有草的沼泽低地 | |
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8 foam | |
v./n.泡沫,起泡沫 | |
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9 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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10 frail | |
adj.身体虚弱的;易损坏的 | |
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11 gnomes | |
n.矮子( gnome的名词复数 );侏儒;(尤指金融市场上搞投机的)银行家;守护神 | |
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12 streak | |
n.条理,斑纹,倾向,少许,痕迹;v.加条纹,变成条纹,奔驰,快速移动 | |
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13 streaks | |
n.(与周围有所不同的)条纹( streak的名词复数 );(通常指不好的)特征(倾向);(不断经历成功或失败的)一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 );使布满条纹 | |
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14 grotesque | |
adj.怪诞的,丑陋的;n.怪诞的图案,怪人(物) | |
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15 writhing | |
(因极度痛苦而)扭动或翻滚( writhe的现在分词 ) | |
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16 talons | |
n.(尤指猛禽的)爪( talon的名词复数 );(如爪般的)手指;爪状物;锁簧尖状突出部 | |
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17 draught | |
n.拉,牵引,拖;一网(饮,吸,阵);顿服药量,通风;v.起草,设计 | |
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18 sweeping | |
adj.范围广大的,一扫无遗的 | |
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19 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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20 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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21 drooping | |
adj. 下垂的,无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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22 reticent | |
adj.沉默寡言的;言不如意的 | |
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23 dual | |
adj.双的;二重的,二元的 | |
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24 tangle | |
n.纠缠;缠结;混乱;v.(使)缠绕;变乱 | |
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25 beak | |
n.鸟嘴,茶壶嘴,钩形鼻 | |
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26 amber | |
n.琥珀;琥珀色;adj.琥珀制的 | |
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27 darting | |
v.投掷,投射( dart的现在分词 );向前冲,飞奔 | |
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28 rugged | |
adj.高低不平的,粗糙的,粗壮的,强健的 | |
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29 vigour | |
(=vigor)n.智力,体力,精力 | |
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30 jaw | |
n.颚,颌,说教,流言蜚语;v.喋喋不休,教训 | |
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31 ponderous | |
adj.沉重的,笨重的,(文章)冗长的 | |
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32 bovine | |
adj.牛的;n.牛 | |
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33 Forsaken | |
adj. 被遗忘的, 被抛弃的 动词forsake的过去分词 | |
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34 chiseller | |
n.凿工,凿匠, (美)(非正式)骗子 | |
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35 strenuous | |
adj.奋发的,使劲的;紧张的;热烈的,狂热的 | |
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36 fathom | |
v.领悟,彻底了解 | |
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37 scrutiny | |
n.详细检查,仔细观察 | |
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38 umbrage | |
n.不快;树荫 | |
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39 sanguine | |
adj.充满希望的,乐观的,血红色的 | |
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40 glimmer | |
v.发出闪烁的微光;n.微光,微弱的闪光 | |
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41 ironical | |
adj.讽刺的,冷嘲的 | |
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42 strutting | |
加固,支撑物 | |
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43 gibe | |
n.讥笑;嘲弄 | |
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44 omission | |
n.省略,删节;遗漏或省略的事物,冗长 | |
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45 flickered | |
(通常指灯光)闪烁,摇曳( flicker的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46 joint | |
adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合 | |
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47 jointed | |
有接缝的 | |
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48 mimic | |
v.模仿,戏弄;n.模仿他人言行的人 | |
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49 eschew | |
v.避开,戒绝 | |
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50 outlaw | |
n.歹徒,亡命之徒;vt.宣布…为不合法 | |
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51 foaming | |
adj.布满泡沫的;发泡 | |
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52 scurvily | |
下流地,粗鄙地,无礼地 | |
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53 feud | |
n.长期不和;世仇;v.长期争斗;世代结仇 | |
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54 pulp | |
n.果肉,纸浆;v.化成纸浆,除去...果肉,制成纸浆 | |
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55 gilded | |
a.镀金的,富有的 | |
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56 chalices | |
n.高脚酒杯( chalice的名词复数 );圣餐杯;金杯毒酒;看似诱人实则令人讨厌的事物 | |
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57 trampled | |
踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯 | |
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58 lashes | |
n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 );鞭子;突然猛烈的一击;急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 );煽动;紧系;怒斥 | |
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59 zest | |
n.乐趣;滋味,风味;兴趣 | |
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60 cavil | |
v.挑毛病,吹毛求疵 | |
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61 slumbering | |
微睡,睡眠(slumber的现在分词形式) | |
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62 autocracy | |
n.独裁政治,独裁政府 | |
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63 hereditary | |
adj.遗传的,遗传性的,可继承的,世袭的 | |
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64 slain | |
杀死,宰杀,杀戮( slay的过去分词 ); (slay的过去分词) | |
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65 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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66 basted | |
v.打( baste的过去式和过去分词 );粗缝;痛斥;(烤肉等时)往上抹[浇]油 | |
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67 briskness | |
n.敏捷,活泼 | |
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68 bespoke | |
adj.(产品)订做的;专做订货的v.预定( bespeak的过去式 );订(货);证明;预先请求 | |
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69 sleek | |
adj.光滑的,井然有序的;v.使光滑,梳拢 | |
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70 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
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71 eerie | |
adj.怪诞的;奇异的;可怕的;胆怯的 | |
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72 concord | |
n.和谐;协调 | |
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73 murmur | |
n.低语,低声的怨言;v.低语,低声而言 | |
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74 sincerity | |
n.真诚,诚意;真实 | |
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75 endorse | |
vt.(支票、汇票等)背书,背署;批注;同意 | |
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76 revere | |
vt.尊崇,崇敬,敬畏 | |
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77 toil | |
vi.辛劳工作,艰难地行动;n.苦工,难事 | |
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78 immortal | |
adj.不朽的;永生的,不死的;神的 | |
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