CHAPTER XVIII.

 CONTRARY to custom, the duel¹ was very little talked about; even the papers were silent on the subject.

 

A few intimate friends followed the body to Père la Chaise. Chateau² Renaud refused to quit Paris, although pressed to do so.

 

At one time I thought of following Louis’ letter to Corsica with one from myself, but although my intentions were good, the misleading statements I should have to make were so repugnant to me that I did not do so. Besides, I was quite convinced that Louis himself had fully³ weighed before he had decided⁴ upon his course of action.

 

So at the risk of being thought indifferent, or even ungrateful, I kept silence, and I was sure that the Baron⁵ Giordano had done as much.

 

Five days after the duel, at about eleven o’clock in the evening, I was seated by my table in a rather melancholy⁶ frame of mind, when my servant entered and shutting the door quickly behind him said, in an agitated⁷ whisper, that M. de Franchi desired to speak with me.

 

I looked at him steadily⁸; he was quite pale.

 

“Whom did you say, Victor?” I asked.

 

“Oh, monsieur, in truth I hardly know myself.”

 

“What M. de Franchi wishes to speak to me?”

 

“Monsieur’s friend. The gentleman who was here two or three times.”

 

“You are mad, my good man. Do you not know that I had the misfortune to lose my friend five days ago?”

 

“Yes, sir; and that is the reason I am so upset. He rang, I was in the ante-chamber, and opened the[Pg 115] door, but recoiled⁹ at his appearance. However, he entered, and asked if you were at home. I replied that you were, and then he said, ‘Go and announce M. de Franchi, who wishes to speak with your master,’ and so I came.”

 

“You are stupid, Victor, the ante-chamber is not properly lighted. You were asleep, no doubt, and did not hear correctly. Go, and ask the gentleman his name.”

 

“It would be useless, sir. I swear to you I am not deceived. I heard him, and saw him, distinctly.”

 

“Then go and show him in.”

 

Victor turned tremblingly to the door, opened it, and then standing¹⁰ still in the room, said—

 

“Will monsieur be kind enough to come in?”

 

I immediately heard the footsteps of my visitor crossing the ante-chamber, and sure enough, at the door there appeared M. de Franchi.

 

I confess that I was terrified, and took a step backwards¹¹ as he approached.

 

“I trust you will excuse my appearance so late,” said my visitor; “I only arrived ten minutes ago, and you will understand that I could not wait till tomorrow without seeing you.”

 

“Oh, my dear Lucien,” I exclaimed, advancing quickly, and embracing him. “Then it is really you.” And, in spite of myself, tears really came into my eyes.

 

“Yes,” he said, “it is I.”

 

I made a calculation of the time that had elapsed, and could scarcely imagine that he had received the letter—it could hardly have reached Ajaccio yet.

 

“Good Heavens! then you do not know what has happened?” I exclaimed.

 

“I know all,” was his reply.

 

“Victor,” I said, turning towards my servant, who was still rather embarrassed, “leave us, and return in a quarter of an hour with some supper. You will have something to eat, and will sleep here of course.”

 

“With great pleasure,” he replied. “I have eaten nothing since we left Auxerre. Then, as to lodgings¹², as nobody knew me in the Rue¹³ de Helder, or rather,” he added, with a sad smile, “as everybody recognized me there, they declined to let me in, so I left the whole house in a state of alarm.”

 

“In fact, my dear Lucien, your resemblance to Louis is so very striking that even I myself was just now taken aback.”

 

“How,” exclaimed Victor, who had not yet ventured to leave us. “Is monsieur the brother——”

 

“Yes,” I replied, “go and get supper.”

 

Victor went out, and we found ourselves alone.

 

I took Lucien by the hand, and leading him to an easy chair seated myself near him.

 

“I suppose (I began) you were on your way to Paris when the fatal news met you?”

 

“No, I was at Sullacaro!”

 

“Impossible! Why your brother’s letter could not have reached you.”

 

“You forget the ballad¹⁴ of Burger, my dear Alexander—the dead travel fast!”

 

I shuddered¹⁵! “I do not understand,” I said.

 

“Have you forgotten what I told you about the apparitions¹⁶ familiar to our family?”

 

“Do you mean to say that you have seen your dead brother?”—“Yes.”—“When?”

 

“On the night of the 16th inst.”

 

“And he told you everything?”—“All!”

 

“That he was dead?”

 

“He told me that he had been killed. The dead never lie!”

 

“And he said in what way?”

 

“In a duel.”

 

“By whom?”

 

“By M. de Chateau Renaud.”

 

“Oh no, Lucien, that cannot be,” I exclaimed, “you have obtained your information in some other way.”

 

“Do you think I am likely to joke at such a time?”

 

“I beg your pardon. But truly what you tell me is so strange, and everything that relates to you and your brother so out of ordinary nature, that——”

 

“That you hesitate to believe it. Well, I can understand the feeling. But wait. My brother was hit here,” he continued, as he opened his shirt and showed me the blue mark of the bullet on his flesh, “he was wounded above the sixth rib¹⁷ on the right side—do you believe that?”

 

“As a matter of fact,” I replied, “that is the very spot where he was hit.”

 

“And the bullet went out here,” continued Lucien, putting his finger just above his left hip¹⁸.

 

“It is miraculous,” I exclaimed.

 

“And now,” he went on, “do you wish me to tell you the time he died?”

 

“Tell me!”

 

“At ten minutes past nine.”

 

“That will do, Lucien;” I said, “but I lose myself in questions. Give me a connected narrative¹⁹ of the events. I should prefer it.”
该作者的其它作品
《The Count of Monte Cristo基督山伯爵》
《黑郁金香 The Black Tulip》

 

1 duel   

n./v.决斗；(双方的)斗争

参考例句：

• The two teams are locked in a duel for first place.两个队为争夺第一名打得难解难分。
• Duroy was forced to challenge his disparager to duel.杜洛瓦不得不向诋毁他的人提出决斗。

2 chateau   

n.城堡，别墅

参考例句：

• The house was modelled on a French chateau.这房子是模仿一座法国大别墅建造的。
• The chateau was left to itself to flame and burn.那府第便径自腾起大火燃烧下去。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

4 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

5 baron   

n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王

参考例句：

• Henry Ford was an automobile baron.亨利·福特是一位汽车业巨头。
• The baron lived in a strong castle.男爵住在一座坚固的城堡中。

6 melancholy   

n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的

参考例句：

• All at once he fell into a state of profound melancholy.他立即陷入无尽的忧思之中。
• He felt melancholy after he failed the exam.这次考试没通过，他感到很郁闷。

7 agitated   

adj.被鼓动的，不安的

参考例句：

• His answers were all mixed up,so agitated was he.他是那样心神不定，回答全乱了。
• She was agitated because her train was an hour late.她乘坐的火车晚点一个小时，她十分焦虑。

8 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

9 recoiled   

v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回

参考例句：

• She recoiled from his touch. 她躲开他的触摸。
• Howard recoiled a little at the sharpness in my voice. 听到我的尖声，霍华德往后缩了一下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

11 backwards   

adv.往回地，向原处，倒，相反，前后倒置地

参考例句：

• He turned on the light and began to pace backwards and forwards.他打开电灯并开始走来走去。
• All the girls fell over backwards to get the party ready.姑娘们迫不及待地为聚会做准备。

12 lodgings   

n. 出租的房舍, 寄宿舍

参考例句：

• When he reached his lodgings the sun had set. 他到达公寓房间时，太阳已下山了。
• I'm on the hunt for lodgings. 我正在寻找住所。

13 rue   

n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔

参考例句：

• You'll rue having failed in the examination.你会悔恨考试失败。
• You're going to rue this the longest day that you live.你要终身悔恨不尽呢。

14 ballad   

n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲

参考例句：

• This poem has the distinctive flavour of a ballad.这首诗有民歌风味。
• This is a romantic ballad that is pure corn.这是一首极为伤感的浪漫小曲。

15 shuddered   

v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动

参考例句：

• He slammed on the brakes and the car shuddered to a halt. 他猛踩刹车，车颤抖着停住了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I shuddered at the sight of the dead body. 我一看见那尸体就战栗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 apparitions   

n.特异景象( apparition的名词复数 )；幽灵；鬼；（特异景象等的）出现

参考例句：

• And this year occurs the 90th anniversary of these apparitions. 今年是她显现的九十周年纪念。 来自互联网
• True love is like ghostly apparitions: everybody talks about them but few have ever seen one. 真爱就如同幽灵显现：所有人都谈论它们，但很少有人见到过一个。 来自互联网

17 rib   

n.肋骨，肋状物

参考例句：

• He broke a rib when he fell off his horse.他从马上摔下来折断了一根肋骨。
• He has broken a rib and the doctor has strapped it up.他断了一根肋骨，医生已包扎好了。

18 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

19 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。