From the north and from the west the royal "arms" had drawn8 as a glittering net towards the sea of pines. A myriad9 splendid warriors10 streaked12 the wilds, like rich rods flowering at some magic trumpet13 cry. The King's host swept the hills, their banners blazing towards the solemn woods. Gambrevault was theirs, and Avalon of the Mere14. Morolt's northerners had marched upon Geraint, to find it a dead city, empty of life and of human sound. Only Gilderoy stood out for Fulviac. The King had failed to leaguer it as yet, for reasons cherished in his cunning brain.
Some twoscore thousand men had marched with Fulviac into the forest's sanctuary15. Over the hills the royal horse had pressed them hard, cutting down stragglers, hanging on their rear. Fulviac's host was a horde16 of "foot"; he had not a thousand riders to hurl17 against the chivalry18 of the King. On the bold, bleak19 uplands of the north and west the royal horsemen would have whelmed him like a sea. Necessity turned strategist at that hour. Fulviac and his rebels poured with their stagnant20 columns into the wilds.
The thickets21 teemed22 with steel; the myriad pike points glittered like silver moths23 through the dense24 green gloom. Once more the great cliff echoed to the clangour of war and the sword. Fulviac had drawn thither25 and camped his men upon the heights, and under the shadow of its mighty26 walls. Watch-fires smoked on the hills. Every alley27 had its sentinel, a net of steel thrown forth28 to await the coming of the King. Fulviac had gathered his cubs29 into this lair30, trusting to trammel the nobles in the labyrinths31 of the forest. It was a forlorn hope, the cunning purpose of despair. The spoilers of Belle32 Forêt were wise in their generation; little mercy would they win from the Iron Hand of Richard of Lauretia.
Like a pale pearl set in ebony, Yeoland the Saint had been established again in her bower33 of stone. The room was even as she had left it that misty34 summer dawn. Prayer-desk, lute35, and crucifix were there, mute relics36 of a passionate37 past. How much had befallen her in those packed weeks of peril38; how great a guerdon of woe had been lavished39 on her heart! Love was as the last streak11 of gold in a fading west; only the stars recalled the unwavering lamps of heaven.
The cliff-room and its relics tortured her very soul. She would glance at the Sebastian of the casement40, and remember with a shuddering41 rush of woe the man in whose arms she had slumbered42 as a wife. Death had deified him in her heart. She remembered his grey eyes, his splendid youth, his passion, his pure chivalry. He gazed down on her like a dream hero from a gloom of dusky gold. The bitter ecstasy43 of the past spoke44 to her only of the infinite beneficence of death. The grave yearned45 for her, and she had no hope to live.
Those drear days she saw little of Fulviac. The man seemed to shirk her pale, sad face and brooding eyes. Her grief stung him more fiercely than all the flames nurtured46 in the glowing pit of war. Moreover, he was cumbered with the imminent47 peril of his cause, and the facing of a stormy fortune. His one hope lay in some great battle in the woods, where the King's mailed chivalry would be cumbered by the trees. He made many a feint to tempt48 the nobles to this wild tussle49. The cliff stood as adamant50, a vast bulwark51 to uphold the rebels. Yet Nature threatened him with other arguments. His stores were meagre, his mouths many. Victory and starvation dangled52 upon the opposing beams of Fate.
If Fulviac feared procrastination53, Richard of Lauretia favoured the same. Wise sluggard54 that he was, he curbed55 the vengeance56 of his clamorous57 soldiery, content to temporise with the inevitable58 trend of fortune. His light horse scoured59 the country, garnering60 food and forage61 from the fat lands north of Geraint. Time fought for him, and the starving wolves were trapped. Sufficient was it that he held his crescent of steel upon the hills, leaving unguarded the barren wilds that rolled on Gilderoy towards the east.
A week passed, dull and lustreless62. The forest waved dark and solemn under the autumn sky; no torrents63 of steel gushed65 from its sable gates; no glittering squadrons plunged into its shadows. The King's men lay warm about their watch-fires on the hills, fattening66 on good food, tingling67 for the trumpet cry that should herald68 the advance. Richard of the Iron Hand smiled and passed the hours at chess in his great pavilion pitched on the slopes towards Geraint. Simon of Imbrecour held the southern marches; Morolt and his northerners guarded the west.
It was grey weather, sullen69 and storm-laden, eerie70 of voice. The Black Wild tossed like a sombre sea over hill and valley, its spires71 rocking under the scurrying72 sky, its myriad galleries shrill73 with the cry of the wind. There was no rest there, no breathless silence under the frail74 moon. The trees moaned like a vast choir75 wailing76 the downfall of a god. The wild seemed full of death, and of the dead, as though the souls of those slaughtered77 in the war screamed about Fulviac's lair. The sentinels, grey figures in a sombre atmosphere, watched white-faced in the thickets. The clarions of the storm might mask the onrush of the royal chivalry.
Yeoland the Saint lay full length upon a carved settle before a dying fire. She was listening to the wind as it roared over the cliff, amid the shrill clamour of the trees. It was such an eve as when Flavian had rattled79 at the postern to offer her love, and a throne at Avalon. She had spoken of war, and war had sundered80 them, given death to desire, and a tomb to hope. The glow of the fire played upon the girl's face and shone in her brooding eyes. Night was falling, and the gloom increased.
She heard footsteps in the gallery, the clangour of a scabbard against the rock. The door swung back, and Fulviac stood in the entry, clad in full harness save for his casque. There were deep furrows81 upon his forehead. His lids looked heavy from lack of sleep, and his eyes were bloodshot. The tinge82 of grey in his tawny83 hair had increased to a web of silver.
He came in without a word, set his hands on the back of the settle, and stared at the fire. Yeoland had started up; she sat huddled84 in the angle, looking in his face with a mute surmise85. Fulviac's face was sorrowful, yet strong as steel; the lips were firm, the eyes sullen and sad. He was as a man who stared ruin betwixt the brows, nor quailed86 from the scrutiny87 though death stood ready on the threshold.
She sprang up as the leather pouch89 rattled on the settle, and stood facing Fulviac with her back to the fire.
"Whither do we ride?"
"I send you under escort to Gilderoy."
"And you?"
"My lot lies here," he said to her; "I meet my doom92 alone. What need to drag you deeper into the dark?"
She understood him on the instant, and the black thoughts moving in his mind. Disasters thickened about the cliff; perils93 were clamorous as the wind-rocked trees. Fulviac feared the worst; she knew that from his face.
"You send me to Gilderoy?" she said.
"I have so determined94 it."
"And why?"
"Need you doubt my discretion95?"
The flames flashed and gleamed upon his breastplate, and deepened the shadows upon his face. His eyes were sorrowful, yet full of a strenuous96 fire.
"The sky darkens," he said to her, "and the King's hosts watch the forest. I had thought to draw them into the wilds, but the fox of Lauretia has smelt97 a snare98. Our stores lessen99; we are in the last trench100."
She moved away into a dark corner of the room, raised the carved lid of a chest, and began to draw clothes therefrom, fingering them listlessly, as though her thoughts wavered. Fulviac leant with folded arms upon the settle, seemed even oblivious101 of her presence under the burden of his fate.
He turned his head and looked at her.
"Must I go then to Gilderoy?"
"The road is open," he answered, with no obvious kindling103 of his sympathy; "there will be bloody104 work here anon; you will be safer behind stone walls."
"And the King?" she asked him.
He straightened suddenly, like a man tossing some great burden from off his soul.
"Ha, girl! are you blind as to what shall follow? Richard of the Iron Hand waits for us with fivescore thousand men. We shall fight--by God, yes!--and make a bloody end; there will be much slaughter78 and work for the sword. The King will crush us as a falling rock crushes a scorpion105. There will be no mercy. Death waits. Put on that cloak of thine."
She stood motionless a moment, listening to the moaning of the wind. The man's grim spirit troubled her. She remembered that he had bulwarked her in her homeless days, had dealt her much pity out of his rugged106 heart. He was alone now, and shadowed by death. Thus it befell that she cast the cloak aside upon the bed, and stood forward with quivering lips before the fire.
"Fulviac."
"Little sister."
"Ah! God pardon me; I have been a weak and graceless friend. You have been good to me, beyond my gratitude107. The past has gone for ever; what is left to me now? Shall I not meet death at your side?"
He stood back from her, looking in her eyes, breathing hard, combating his own heart. He loved the girl in his fierce, staunch way; she was the one light left him in the gathering108 gloom. Now death offered him her soul. He tottered109, stretched out his hands to her, snatched them back with a great burst of pride.
"No, this cannot be."
"Ah!"
"I have dared the storm; alone will I fall beneath its vengeance. You shall go this night to Gilderoy."
She thrust out her hands to him, but he turned away his face.
"Ah! little sister, this war was conceived for God, but the devil leavened110 it. I have gambled with fire, and the ashes return upon my head. I give you life; 'tis little I may give. Come now, obey me, these are my last words."
She turned from him very quietly in the shadow, hiding her face with her arm. Picking up her cloak, she drew it slowly about her shoulders, Fulviac watching her, a pillar of steel.
"They wait for you in the forest," he said; "go down the stair. Colgran rides with you to Gilderoy. He is to be trusted."
She drooped111 her head, staggered to the door, darted112 back again with a low cry and a gush64 of tears.
"Fulviac."
"Little woman."
"God keep you! Kiss me, this once."
"Go, my child."
And she went forth slowly from him, weeping, into the night.
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收听单词发音
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1
plunged
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| v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降 | |
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wilderness
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| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
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engulfed
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| v.吞没，包住( engulf的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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sable
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| n.黑貂；adj.黑色的 | |
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woe
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| n.悲哀，苦痛，不幸，困难；int.用来表达悲伤或惊慌 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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myriad
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| adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量 | |
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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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streak
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| 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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12
streaked
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| adj.有条斑纹的，不安的v.快速移动( streak的过去式和过去分词 )；使布满条纹 | |
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13
trumpet
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| n.喇叭，喇叭声；v.吹喇叭，吹嘘 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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sanctuary
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| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
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horde
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| n.群众，一大群 | |
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hurl
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| vt.猛投，力掷，声叫骂 | |
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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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bleak
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| adj.(天气)阴冷的；凄凉的；暗淡的 | |
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stagnant
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| adj.不流动的，停滞的，不景气的 | |
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21
thickets
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| n.灌木丛( thicket的名词复数 )；丛状物 | |
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22
teemed
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| v.充满( teem的过去式和过去分词 )；到处都是；（指水、雨等）暴降；倾注 | |
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moths
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| n.蛾( moth的名词复数 ) | |
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24
dense
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| a.密集的，稠密的，浓密的；密度大的 | |
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thither
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| adv.向那里；adj.在那边的，对岸的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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alley
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| n.小巷，胡同；小径，小路 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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cubs
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| n.幼小的兽，不懂规矩的年轻人( cub的名词复数 ) | |
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30
lair
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| n.野兽的巢穴；躲藏处 | |
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labyrinths
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| 迷宫( labyrinth的名词复数 )； （文字，建筑）错综复杂的 | |
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belle
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| n.靓女 | |
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bower
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| n.凉亭，树荫下凉快之处；闺房；v.荫蔽 | |
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misty
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| adj.雾蒙蒙的，有雾的 | |
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lute
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| n.琵琶，鲁特琴 | |
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relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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37
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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38
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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39
lavished
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| v.过分给予，滥施( lavish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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40
casement
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| n.竖铰链窗；窗扉 | |
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41
shuddering
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| v.战栗( shudder的现在分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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42
slumbered
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| 微睡，睡眠（slumber的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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43
ecstasy
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| n.狂喜，心醉神怡，入迷 | |
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44
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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45
yearned
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| 渴望，切盼，向往( yearn的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46
nurtured
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| 养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长 | |
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47
imminent
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| adj.即将发生的，临近的，逼近的 | |
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48
tempt
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| vt.引诱，勾引，吸引，引起…的兴趣 | |
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49
tussle
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| n.&v.扭打，搏斗，争辩 | |
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50
adamant
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| adj.坚硬的，固执的 | |
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51
bulwark
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| n.堡垒，保障，防御 | |
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52
dangled
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| 悬吊着( dangle的过去式和过去分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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53
procrastination
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| n.拖延，耽搁 | |
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54
sluggard
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| n.懒人；adj.懒惰的 | |
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55
curbed
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| v.限制，克制，抑制( curb的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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56
vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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57
clamorous
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| adj.吵闹的，喧哗的 | |
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58
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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59
scoured
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| 走遍（某地）搜寻（人或物）( scour的过去式和过去分词 )； （用力）刷； 擦净； 擦亮 | |
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60
garnering
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| v.收集并（通常）贮藏（某物），取得，获得( garner的现在分词 ) | |
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61
forage
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| n.(牛马的)饲料，粮草；v.搜寻，翻寻 | |
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62
lustreless
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| adj.无光泽的，无光彩的，平淡乏味的 | |
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63
torrents
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| n.倾注；奔流( torrent的名词复数 )；急流；爆发；连续不断 | |
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64
gush
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| v.喷，涌；滔滔不绝(说话)；n.喷，涌流；迸发 | |
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65
gushed
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| v.喷，涌( gush的过去式和过去分词 )；滔滔不绝地说话 | |
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66
fattening
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| adj.（食物）要使人发胖的v.喂肥( fatten的现在分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值 | |
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67
tingling
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| v.有刺痛感( tingle的现在分词 ) | |
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68
herald
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| vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎 | |
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69
sullen
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| adj.愠怒的，闷闷不乐的，(天气等)阴沉的 | |
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70
eerie
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| adj.怪诞的；奇异的；可怕的；胆怯的 | |
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71
spires
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| n.（教堂的） 塔尖，尖顶( spire的名词复数 ) | |
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72
scurrying
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| v.急匆匆地走( scurry的现在分词 ) | |
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73
shrill
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| adj.尖声的；刺耳的；v尖叫 | |
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74
frail
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| adj.身体虚弱的；易损坏的 | |
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75
choir
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| n.唱诗班，唱诗班的席位，合唱团，舞蹈团；v.合唱 | |
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76
wailing
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| v.哭叫，哀号( wail的现在分词 )；沱 | |
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77
slaughtered
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| v.屠杀，杀戮，屠宰( slaughter的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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78
slaughter
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| n.屠杀，屠宰；vt.屠杀，宰杀 | |
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79
rattled
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| 慌乱的，恼火的 | |
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80
sundered
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| v.隔开，分开( sunder的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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81
furrows
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| n.犁沟( furrow的名词复数 )；（脸上的）皱纹v.犁田，开沟( furrow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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82
tinge
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| vt.(较淡)着色于，染色；使带有…气息；n.淡淡色彩，些微的气息 | |
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tawny
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| adj.茶色的，黄褐色的；n.黄褐色 | |
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huddled
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| 挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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surmise
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| v./n.猜想，推测 | |
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quailed
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| 害怕，发抖，畏缩( quail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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scrutiny
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| n.详细检查，仔细观察 | |
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buckle
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| n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲 | |
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pouch
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| n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件 | |
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tightened
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| 收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧 | |
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hearth
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| n.壁炉炉床，壁炉地面 | |
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doom
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| n.厄运，劫数；v.注定，命定 | |
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perils
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| 极大危险( peril的名词复数 )； 危险的事（或环境） | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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strenuous
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| adj.奋发的，使劲的；紧张的；热烈的，狂热的 | |
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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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98
snare
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| n.陷阱，诱惑，圈套；（去除息肉或者肿瘤的）勒除器；响弦，小军鼓；vt.以陷阱捕获，诱惑 | |
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lessen
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| vt.减少，减轻；缩小 | |
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trench
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| n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕 | |
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101
oblivious
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| adj.易忘的，遗忘的，忘却的，健忘的 | |
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102
drooping
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| adj. 下垂的，无力的 动词droop的现在分词 | |
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103
kindling
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| n. 点火, 可燃物 动词kindle的现在分词形式 | |
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104
bloody
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| adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染 | |
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105
scorpion
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| n.蝎子，心黑的人，蝎子鞭 | |
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rugged
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| adj.高低不平的，粗糙的，粗壮的，强健的 | |
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gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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108
gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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109
tottered
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| v.走得或动得不稳( totter的过去式和过去分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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110
leavened
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| adj.加酵母的v.使（面团）发酵( leaven的过去式和过去分词 )；在…中掺入改变的因素 | |
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111
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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darted
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| v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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113
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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