The noise of horns played through the misty4 aisles--horns many-tongued, faint, clamorous5, like the trumpeting6 of forest elves. There was the dull, rhythmic7 onrush of many thousand feet, the hurrying, multitudinous tramp of men marching. Armour8 gleamed through the glooms; casque and bassinet, salade and cap of steel flowed on and on as phosphorescent ripples9 on a subterranean10 stream. Pike, glaive, gisarme shone like stubble over the forest slopes. The sullen11 tramp of men, the clashing clamour of arms, the blaring of a solitary12 clarion13, such were songs of the great pine forest on that July morning.
Yeoland, rebel lady and saint, on a great white horse, rode at Fulviac's side in full armour, save for her helmet. Her horse was cased in steel--chamfron, crinet, gorget, poitrel, croupiere gleaming like burnished14 silver. She made a fine and martial15 figure enough, a glittering dawn star for a heroic cause. About her rode her guard, the pick of Fulviac's men, some fifty spears in all, masses of steel, each bearing a scarlet16 cross blazoned17 upon his white jupon. Nord of the Hammer bore the red banner worked by the girl's own hands. They were hardy18 men and big of bone, sworn to keep and guard her to the death.
Fulviac and Yeoland rode side by side like brothers in arms. All about them were rolling spears and rocking helmets moving among the myriad20 trees. The sound of arms surged round them like the ominous21 onrush of a sea. War followed like a thunder-cloud on their heels.
Fulviac was in great spirits, somewhat solemn and philosophic22, but full of the exultation23 of a man who feels his ship surging on the foaming24 backs of giant billows. His eyes were proud enough when they scanned the girl at his side. His heart thundered an echo to the grim tramp of his men on the march.
"To-day," he said, making grandiose25 flourishes with his sword, "the future unrobes to us. We plunge26 like Ulysses into the unknown. This is life with a vengeance27!"
She had a smile on her lips and a far-away look in her eyes.
"If you love me," she said, "be merciful."
"Ah, you are always a woman."
"There are many women such as I am; there are many hearts that may be wounded; there are many children."
He looked at her meditatively28, as though her words were both bitter and sweet in his mouth.
"You must play the philosopher, little woman; remember that we work for great ends. I will have mercy when mercy is expedient29. But we must strike, and strike terror, we must crush, we must kill."
"Yet be merciful."
"War is no pastime; men grip with gauntlets of iron, not with velvet30 gloves. Fanaticism31, hate, revenge, patriotism32, lust34 of plunder35, and the rest, what powers are these to let loose upon a land! We have the oppression of centuries red in our bosoms36. War is no mere37 subtle game of chess; the wolf comes from the wilderness38; the vulture swings in the sky. Fire, death, blood, rapine, and despair, such are the elements of war."
"I know, I know."
"To purge39 a field, we burn the crop. To convert, we set swords leaping. To cleanse40, we let in the sea. To move the fabrics41 of custom and the past, a man must play the Hercules. God crushes great nations to insure the inevitable42 evolution of His will. To move the world, one must play the god."
It was noon when the vanguard cleared the trees, and spread rank on rank over the edge of a moor43. A zealous44 sun shone overhead, and the world was full of light and colour, the heather already a blaze of purple, the bracken still virgin45, the dense46 dark pines richly green against the white and azure47 of the sky.
Fulviac, Yeoland, and her guards rode out to a hillock and took station under the banner of the Cross. The forest belched48 steel; rank on rank swept out with pikes glittering; shields shone, and colours juggled49 mosaics50 haphazard51. Horse and foot rolled out into the sun, and gathered in masses about the scarlet banner and the girl in her silvery harness on the great white horse. The forest shadows were behind them, they had cast off its cloak; the world lay bare to their faces; they were hurling52 their challenge in the face of Fate. Every man in the mass might well have felt the future glowing upon his brain, might well conceive himself a hero and a patriot33. It was a deep, sonorous53 shout that rolled up, when a thousand points of steel smote54 upwards55 to the heavens. Yeoland, amid her guards, had dim visions of the power vested in her slender sword. Where her banner flew, there brave men would toss their pikes with a cheer for the charge home. Where her sword pointed56, a thousand blades would leap to do her bidding. Even as she pondered these things, the trumpets57 sounded and the men of the forest marched on.
Fulviac's plans had been matured but a week. His opening of the campaign was briefly58 as follows. He was bearing north-west towards Geraint, and Geraint was to rise that night, massacre59 the King's garrison60, and come out to him. Avalon lay in Fulviac's path. He was to smite61 a blow at it on his march, surprise the place if possible, and then hold on for Geraint. The same night, Gilderoy would rise; the castellan, who was with the townsfolk, would open the gates of the castle and deliver up all arms and the siege train that was kept there. From Geraint, Fulviac trusted to ride on with a single troop to take command at Gilderoy, leaving Nord, Prosper62, and the girl Yeoland in command at Geraint. With his numbers raised to some twenty thousand men, he would have his force divided into two bodies--ten thousand at Gilderoy, ten thousand at Geraint. These two bodies would sweep up by forced marches, converge63 on Gambrevault, crush the Lord Flavian's small armament, shut him up in his castle. Assault or leaguer would do the rest. Meanwhile the peasantry would rise and flock in to the standard of the people.
Free of the forest, Fulviac sent on a troop of horse towards Geraint to warn the townsfolk of his advance. With the main mass of the foot, he held northwards over hill and dale, and towards evening touched the hem19 of the oak woods that wrapped the manor64 of Avalon. The place was but feebly garrisoned65, as the Lord Flavian had withdrawn66 most of his men to Gambrevault, dreaming little of the thunder-storm that was shadowing the land.
Fulviac had his plan matured. Fifty men-at-arms in red and green, the Gambrevault colours, were to advance with a forged pennon upon the place, as though sent as a reinforcement from Gambrevault. The main body would follow at a distance and lie ambushed67 in the woods. If the ruse68 answered, and it was an old trick enough, the barbican and gate could be held till Fulviac came up and made matters sure. Thus Avalon would fall, proto-martyr on the side of feudalism.
Nor were Fulviac's prognostications at fault. There were not sixty men in Avalon, and Fulviac's fifty gained footing in the place and held their ground till the rest came up. The affair was over, save for some desultory69 slaughter70 on the turrets71, when Fulviac galloped72 forward over the meadows with Yeoland and her guard. The man kept the girl on the further side of the moat, and did not suffer her to stumble too suddenly on the realities of war. He feared wisely her woman's nature, and did not desire to overshock her senses. The butchery was over when they neared the walls. They heard certain promiscuous73 yelpings, and saw half a dozen men-at-arms, who had made a last stand on a tower, tumbled headlong over the battlements into the moat below. Fulviac did not suffer the girl to cross the bridge. What passed within was hidden by the impenetrable massiveness of the sullen walls.
Thus Avalon, fair castle of the woods and waters, sent out her wistful prophecy to the land. In her towers and galleries men lay dead, bleak74 and stiff, contorted into fantastic attitudes, with pike or sword sucking their vitals. Blood crept down the stairs; dead men cumbered the beds and jammed the doors. There had been much screaming among the women; even Fulviac's orders could not cool the passions of the mob; it was well indeed that he kept Yeoland innocent in the meadows.
Fanaticism, ignorance, lust were loose in Avalon like evil beasts. All its fairness was defamed in one short hour. Hangings were torn down, furniture wrecked75 and shattered, chests and cupboards spoiled of all their store. In the chapel76, where refugees had fled to the altar, there had been slaughter, merciless and brutal77. Bertrand, the old knight78 and seneschal, lay dead on the altar steps, with a broken sword and fifty rents in his carcase. Men were breaking the images, defacing the frescoes79, strewing80 all the place with blood and riot. Nord of the Hammer stood over the cellar door with his great mace81 over his shoulder, and kept the men from the wine. Elsewhere the mob rooted like a herd82 of swine in the rich chambers83, and worked to the uttermost its swinish will.
When the day was past, Fulviac and his men, as hounds that have tasted blood, marched on exultantly84 towards Geraint. Night and great silence settled down over Avalon. The woods watched like a host of plaintive85 mourners over the scene. The moon rose and shone on the glimmering86 mere and swooning lilies, and streamed in through shattered casements87 on men sleeping in their blood, on ruin, and the ghastly shape of death.
该作者其它作品
《The Red Saint》
1 sobbed | |
哭泣,啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 ); 哭诉,呜咽地说 | |
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2 boughs | |
大树枝( bough的名词复数 ) | |
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3 canopy | |
n.天篷,遮篷 | |
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4 misty | |
adj.雾蒙蒙的,有雾的 | |
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5 clamorous | |
adj.吵闹的,喧哗的 | |
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6 trumpeting | |
大声说出或宣告(trumpet的现在分词形式) | |
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7 rhythmic | |
adj.有节奏的,有韵律的 | |
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8 armour | |
(=armor)n.盔甲;装甲部队 | |
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9 ripples | |
逐渐扩散的感觉( ripple的名词复数 ) | |
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10 subterranean | |
adj.地下的,地表下的 | |
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11 sullen | |
adj.愠怒的,闷闷不乐的,(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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12 solitary | |
adj.孤独的,独立的,荒凉的;n.隐士 | |
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13 clarion | |
n.尖音小号声;尖音小号 | |
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14 burnished | |
adj.抛光的,光亮的v.擦亮(金属等),磨光( burnish的过去式和过去分词 );被擦亮,磨光 | |
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15 martial | |
adj.战争的,军事的,尚武的,威武的 | |
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16 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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17 blazoned | |
v.广布( blazon的过去式和过去分词 );宣布;夸示;装饰 | |
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18 hardy | |
adj.勇敢的,果断的,吃苦的;耐寒的 | |
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19 hem | |
n.贴边,镶边;vt.缝贴边;(in)包围,限制 | |
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20 myriad | |
adj.无数的;n.无数,极大数量 | |
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21 ominous | |
adj.不祥的,不吉的,预兆的,预示的 | |
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22 philosophic | |
adj.哲学的,贤明的 | |
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23 exultation | |
n.狂喜,得意 | |
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24 foaming | |
adj.布满泡沫的;发泡 | |
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25 grandiose | |
adj.宏伟的,宏大的,堂皇的,铺张的 | |
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26 plunge | |
v.跳入,(使)投入,(使)陷入;猛冲 | |
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27 vengeance | |
n.报复,报仇,复仇 | |
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28 meditatively | |
adv.冥想地 | |
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29 expedient | |
adj.有用的,有利的;n.紧急的办法,权宜之计 | |
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30 velvet | |
n.丝绒,天鹅绒;adj.丝绒制的,柔软的 | |
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31 fanaticism | |
n.狂热,盲信 | |
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32 patriotism | |
n.爱国精神,爱国心,爱国主义 | |
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33 patriot | |
n.爱国者,爱国主义者 | |
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34 lust | |
n.性(淫)欲;渴(欲)望;vi.对…有强烈的欲望 | |
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35 plunder | |
vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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36 bosoms | |
胸部( bosom的名词复数 ); 胸怀; 女衣胸部(或胸襟); 和爱护自己的人在一起的情形 | |
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37 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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38 wilderness | |
n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等,荒漠 | |
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39 purge | |
n.整肃,清除,泻药,净化;vt.净化,清除,摆脱;vi.清除,通便,腹泻,变得清洁 | |
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40 cleanse | |
vt.使清洁,使纯洁,清洗 | |
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41 fabrics | |
织物( fabric的名词复数 ); 布; 构造; (建筑物的)结构(如墙、地面、屋顶):质地 | |
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42 inevitable | |
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的 | |
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43 moor | |
n.荒野,沼泽;vt.(使)停泊;vi.停泊 | |
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44 zealous | |
adj.狂热的,热心的 | |
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45 virgin | |
n.处女,未婚女子;adj.未经使用的;未经开发的 | |
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46 dense | |
a.密集的,稠密的,浓密的;密度大的 | |
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47 azure | |
adj.天蓝色的,蔚蓝色的 | |
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48 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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49 juggled | |
v.歪曲( juggle的过去式和过去分词 );耍弄;有效地组织;尽力同时应付(两个或两个以上的重要工作或活动) | |
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50 mosaics | |
n.马赛克( mosaic的名词复数 );镶嵌;镶嵌工艺;镶嵌图案 | |
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51 haphazard | |
adj.无计划的,随意的,杂乱无章的 | |
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52 hurling | |
n.爱尔兰式曲棍球v.猛投,用力掷( hurl的现在分词 );大声叫骂 | |
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53 sonorous | |
adj.响亮的,回响的;adv.圆润低沉地;感人地;n.感人,堂皇 | |
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54 smote | |
v.猛打,重击,打击( smite的过去式 ) | |
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55 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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56 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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57 trumpets | |
喇叭( trumpet的名词复数 ); 小号; 喇叭形物; (尤指)绽开的水仙花 | |
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58 briefly | |
adv.简单地,简短地 | |
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59 massacre | |
n.残杀,大屠杀;v.残杀,集体屠杀 | |
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60 garrison | |
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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61 smite | |
v.重击;彻底击败;n.打;尝试;一点儿 | |
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62 prosper | |
v.成功,兴隆,昌盛;使成功,使昌隆,繁荣 | |
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63 converge | |
vi.会合;聚集,集中;(思想、观点等)趋近 | |
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64 manor | |
n.庄园,领地 | |
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65 garrisoned | |
卫戍部队守备( garrison的过去式和过去分词 ); 派部队驻防 | |
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66 withdrawn | |
vt.收回;使退出;vi.撤退,退出 | |
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67 ambushed | |
v.埋伏( ambush的过去式和过去分词 );埋伏着 | |
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68 ruse | |
n.诡计,计策;诡计 | |
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69 desultory | |
adj.散漫的,无方法的 | |
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70 slaughter | |
n.屠杀,屠宰;vt.屠杀,宰杀 | |
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71 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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72 galloped | |
(使马)飞奔,奔驰( gallop的过去式和过去分词 ); 快速做[说]某事 | |
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73 promiscuous | |
adj.杂乱的,随便的 | |
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74 bleak | |
adj.(天气)阴冷的;凄凉的;暗淡的 | |
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75 wrecked | |
adj.失事的,遇难的 | |
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76 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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77 brutal | |
adj.残忍的,野蛮的,不讲理的 | |
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78 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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79 frescoes | |
n.壁画( fresco的名词复数 );温壁画技法,湿壁画 | |
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80 strewing | |
v.撒在…上( strew的现在分词 );散落于;点缀;撒满 | |
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81 mace | |
n.狼牙棒,豆蔻干皮 | |
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82 herd | |
n.兽群,牧群;vt.使集中,把…赶在一起 | |
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83 chambers | |
n.房间( chamber的名词复数 );(议会的)议院;卧室;会议厅 | |
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84 exultantly | |
adv.狂欢地,欢欣鼓舞地 | |
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85 plaintive | |
adj.可怜的,伤心的 | |
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86 glimmering | |
n.微光,隐约的一瞥adj.薄弱地发光的v.发闪光,发微光( glimmer的现在分词 ) | |
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87 casements | |
n.窗扉( casement的名词复数 ) | |
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