In the month of July of the year 1348, between the feasts of St. Benedict and of St. Swithin, a strange thing came upon England, for out of the east there drifted a monstrous1 cloud, purple and piled, heavy with evil, climbing slowly up the hushed heaven. In the shadow of that strange cloud the leaves drooped2 in the trees, the birds ceased their calling, and the cattle and the sheep gathered cowering3 under the hedges. A gloom fell upon all the land, and men stood with their eyes upon the strange cloud and a heaviness upon their hearts. They crept into the churches where the trembling people were blessed and shriven by the trembling priests. Outside no bird flew, and there came no rustling4 from the woods, nor any of the homely5 sounds of Nature. All was still, and nothing moved, save only the great cloud which rolled up and onward6, with fold on fold from the black horizon. To the west was the light summer sky, to the east this brooding cloud-bank, creeping ever slowly across, until the last thin blue gleam faded away and the whole vast sweep of the heavens was one great leaden arch.
Then the rain began to fall. All day it rained, and all the night and all the week and all the month, until folk had forgotten the blue heavens and the gleam of the sunshine. It was not heavy, but it was steady and cold and unceasing, so that the people were weary of its hissing7 and its splashing, with the slow drip from the eaves. Always the same thick evil cloud flowed from east to west with the rain beneath it. None could see for more than a bow-shot from their dwellings8 for the drifting veil of the rain-storms. Every morning the folk looked upward for a break, but their eyes rested always upon the same endless cloud, until at last they ceased to look up, and their hearts despaired of ever seeing the change. It was raining at Lammas-tide and raining at the Feast of the Assumption and still raining at Michaelmas. The crops and the hay, sodden9 and black, had rotted in the fields, for they were not worth the garnering10. The sheep had died, and the calves11 also, so there was little to kill when Martinmas came and it was time to salt the meat for the winter. They feared a famine, but it was worse than famine which was in store for them.
For the rain had ceased at last, and a sickly autumn sun shone upon a land which was soaked and sodden with water. Wet and rotten leaves reeked13 and festered under the foul14 haze15 which rose from the woods. The fields were spotted16 with monstrous fungi17 of a size and color never matched before—scarlet18 and mauve and liver and black. It was as though the sick earth had burst into foul pustules; mildew19 and lichen20 mottled the walls, and with that filthy21 crop Death sprang also from the water-soaked earth. Men died, and women and children, the baron22 of the castle, the franklin on the farm, the monk23 in the abbey and the villein in his wattle-and-daub cottage. All breathed the same polluted reek12 and all died the same death of corruption24. Of those who were stricken none recovered, and the illness was ever the same—gross boils, raving25, and the black blotches26 which gave its name to the disease. All through the winter the dead rotted by the wayside for want of some one to bury them. In many a village no single man was left alive. Then at last the spring came with sunshine and health and lightness and laughter—the greenest, sweetest, tenderest spring that England had ever known—but only half of England could know it. The other half had passed away with the great purple cloud.
Yet it was there in that stream of death, in that reek of corruption, that the brighter and freer England was born. There in that dark hour the first streak27 of the new dawn was seen. For in no way save by a great upheaval28 and change could the nation break away from that iron feudal30 system which held her limbs. But now it was a new country which came out from that year of death. The barons31 were dead in swaths. No high turret32 nor cunning moat could keep out that black commoner who struck them down.
Oppressive laws slackened for want of those who could enforce them, and once slackened could never be enforced again. The laborer33 would be a slave no longer. The bondsman snapped his shackles34. There was much to do and few left to do it. Therefore the few should be freemen, name their own price, and work where and for whom they would. It was the black death which cleared the way for that great rising thirty years later which left the English peasant the freest of his class in Europe.
But there were few so far-sighted that they could see that here, as ever, good was coming out of evil. At the moment misery35 and ruin were brought into every family. The dead cattle, the ungarnered crops, the untilled lands—every spring of wealth had dried up at the same moment. Those who were rich became poor; but those who were poor already, and especially those who were poor with the burden of gentility upon their shoulders, found themselves in a perilous36 state. All through England the smaller gentry37 were ruined, for they had no trade save war, and they drew their living from the work of others. On many a manor38-house there came evil times, and on none more than on the Manor of Tilford, where for many generations the noble family of the Lorings had held their home.
There was a time when the Lorings had held the country from the North Downs to the Lakes of Frensham, and when their grim castle-keep rising above the green meadows which border the River Wey had been the strongest fortalice betwixt Guildford Castle in the east and Winchester in the west. But there came that Barons' War, in which the King used his Saxon subjects as a whip with which to scourge39 his Norman barons, and Castle Loring, like so many other great strongholds, was swept from the face of the land. From that time the Lorings, with estates sadly curtailed40, lived in what had been the dower-house, with enough for splendor41.
And then came their lawsuit42 with Waverley Abbey, and the Cistercians laid claim to their richest land, with peccary, turbary and feudal rights over the remainder. It lingered on for years, this great lawsuit, and when it was finished the men of the Church and the men of the Law had divided all that was richest of the estate between them. There was still left the old manor-house from which with each generation there came a soldier to uphold the credit of the name and to show the five scarlet roses on the silver shield where it had always been shown—in the van. There were twelve bronzes in the little chapel43 where Matthew the priest said mass every morning, all of men of the house of Loring. Two lay with their legs crossed, as being from the Crusades. Six others rested their feet upon lions, as having died in war. Four only lay with the effigy44 of their hounds to show that they had passed in peace.
Of this famous but impoverished45 family, doubly impoverished by law and by pestilence46, two members were living in the year of grace 1349—Lady Ermyntrude Loring and her grandson Nigel. Lady Ermyntrude's husband had fallen before the Scottish spearsmen at Stirling, and her son Eustace, Nigel's father, had found a glorious death nine years before this chronicle opens upon the poop of a Norman galley47 at the sea-fight of Sluys. The lonely old woman, fierce and brooding like the falcon48 mewed in her chamber49, was soft only toward the lad whom she had brought up. All the tenderness and love of her nature, so hidden from others that they could not imagine their existence, were lavished50 upon him. She could not bear him away from her, and he, with that respect for authority which the age demanded, would not go without her blessing51 and consent.
So it came about that Nigel, with his lion heart and with the blood of a hundred soldiers thrilling in his veins52, still at the age of two and twenty, wasted the weary days reclaiming53 his hawks54 with leash55 and lure56 or training the alans and spaniels who shared with the family the big earthen-floored hall of the manor-house.
Day by day the aged57 Lady Ermyntrude had seen him wax in strength and in manhood, small of stature58, it is true, but with muscles of steel—and a soul of fire. From all parts, from the warden59 of Guildford Castle, from the tilt-yard of Farnham, tales of his prowess were brought back to her, of his daring as a rider, of his debonair60 courage, of his skill with all weapons; but still she, who had both husband and son torn from her by a bloody61 death, could not bear that this, the last of the Lorings, the final bud of so famous an old tree, should share the same fate. With a weary heart, but with a smiling face, he bore with his uneventful days, while she would ever put off the evil time until the harvest was better, until the monks62 of Waverley should give up what they had taken, until his uncle should die and leave money for his outfit63, or any other excuse with which she could hold him to her side.
And indeed, there was need for a man at Tilford, for the strife64 betwixt the Abbey and the manor-house had never been appeased65, and still on one pretext66 or another the monks would clip off yet one more slice of their neighbor's land. Over the winding67 river, across the green meadows, rose the short square tower and the high gray walls of the grim Abbey, with its bell tolling68 by day and night, a voice of menace and of dread69 to the little household.
It is in the heart of the great Cistercian monastery70 that this chronicle of old days must take its start, as we trace the feud29 betwixt the monks and the house of Loring, with those events to which it gave birth, ending with the coming of Chandos, the strange spear-running of Tilford Bridge and the deeds with which Nigel won fame in the wars. Elsewhere, in the chronicle of the White Company, it has been set forth71 what manner of man was Nigel Loring. Those who love him may read herein those things which went to his making. Let us go back together and gaze upon this green stage of England, the scenery, hill, plain and river even as now, the actors in much our very selves, in much also so changed in thought and act that they might be dwellers72 in another world to ours.
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1 monstrous | |
adj.巨大的;恐怖的;可耻的,丢脸的 | |
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2 drooped | |
弯曲或下垂,发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3 cowering | |
v.畏缩,抖缩( cower的现在分词 ) | |
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4 rustling | |
n. 瑟瑟声,沙沙声 adj. 发沙沙声的 | |
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5 homely | |
adj.家常的,简朴的;不漂亮的 | |
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6 onward | |
adj.向前的,前进的;adv.向前,前进,在先 | |
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7 hissing | |
n. 发嘶嘶声, 蔑视 动词hiss的现在分词形式 | |
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8 dwellings | |
n.住处,处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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9 sodden | |
adj.浑身湿透的;v.使浸透;使呆头呆脑 | |
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10 garnering | |
v.收集并(通常)贮藏(某物),取得,获得( garner的现在分词 ) | |
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11 calves | |
n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子,腓;腿肚子( calf的名词复数 );牛犊;腓;小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 );(冰川)崩解;生(小牛等),产(犊);使(冰川)崩解 | |
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12 reek | |
v.发出臭气;n.恶臭 | |
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13 reeked | |
v.发出浓烈的臭气( reek的过去式和过去分词 );散发臭气;发出难闻的气味 (of sth);明显带有(令人不快或生疑的跡象) | |
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14 foul | |
adj.污秽的;邪恶的;v.弄脏;妨害;犯规;n.犯规 | |
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15 haze | |
n.霾,烟雾;懵懂,迷糊;vi.(over)变模糊 | |
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16 spotted | |
adj.有斑点的,斑纹的,弄污了的 | |
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17 fungi | |
n.真菌,霉菌 | |
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18 scarlet | |
n.深红色,绯红色,红衣;adj.绯红色的 | |
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19 mildew | |
n.发霉;v.(使)发霉 | |
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20 lichen | |
n.地衣, 青苔 | |
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21 filthy | |
adj.卑劣的;恶劣的,肮脏的 | |
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22 baron | |
n.男爵;(商业界等)巨头,大王 | |
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23 monk | |
n.和尚,僧侣,修道士 | |
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24 corruption | |
n.腐败,堕落,贪污 | |
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25 raving | |
adj.说胡话的;疯狂的,怒吼的;非常漂亮的;令人醉心[痴心]的v.胡言乱语(rave的现在分词)n.胡话;疯话adv.胡言乱语地;疯狂地 | |
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26 blotches | |
n.(皮肤上的)红斑,疹块( blotch的名词复数 );大滴 [大片](墨水或颜色的)污渍 | |
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27 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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28 upheaval | |
n.胀起,(地壳)的隆起;剧变,动乱 | |
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29 feud | |
n.长期不和;世仇;v.长期争斗;世代结仇 | |
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30 feudal | |
adj.封建的,封地的,领地的 | |
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31 barons | |
男爵( baron的名词复数 ); 巨头; 大王; 大亨 | |
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32 turret | |
n.塔楼,角塔 | |
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33 laborer | |
n.劳动者,劳工 | |
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34 shackles | |
手铐( shackle的名词复数 ); 脚镣; 束缚; 羁绊 | |
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35 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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36 perilous | |
adj.危险的,冒险的 | |
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37 gentry | |
n.绅士阶级,上层阶级 | |
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38 manor | |
n.庄园,领地 | |
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39 scourge | |
n.灾难,祸害;v.蹂躏 | |
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40 curtailed | |
v.截断,缩短( curtail的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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41 splendor | |
n.光彩;壮丽,华丽;显赫,辉煌 | |
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42 lawsuit | |
n.诉讼,控诉 | |
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43 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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44 effigy | |
n.肖像 | |
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45 impoverished | |
adj.穷困的,无力的,用尽了的v.使(某人)贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 );使(某物)贫瘠或恶化 | |
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46 pestilence | |
n.瘟疫 | |
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47 galley | |
n.(飞机或船上的)厨房单层甲板大帆船;军舰舰长用的大划艇; | |
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48 falcon | |
n.隼,猎鹰 | |
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49 chamber | |
n.房间,寝室;会议厅;议院;会所 | |
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50 lavished | |
v.过分给予,滥施( lavish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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51 blessing | |
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿 | |
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52 veins | |
n.纹理;矿脉( vein的名词复数 );静脉;叶脉;纹理 | |
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53 reclaiming | |
v.开拓( reclaim的现在分词 );要求收回;从废料中回收(有用的材料);挽救 | |
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54 hawks | |
鹰( hawk的名词复数 ); 鹰派人物,主战派人物 | |
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55 leash | |
n.牵狗的皮带,束缚;v.用皮带系住 | |
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56 lure | |
n.吸引人的东西,诱惑物;vt.引诱,吸引 | |
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57 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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58 stature | |
n.(高度)水平,(高度)境界,身高,身材 | |
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59 warden | |
n.监察员,监狱长,看守人,监护人 | |
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60 debonair | |
adj.殷勤的,快乐的 | |
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61 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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62 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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63 outfit | |
n.(为特殊用途的)全套装备,全套服装 | |
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64 strife | |
n.争吵,冲突,倾轧,竞争 | |
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65 appeased | |
安抚,抚慰( appease的过去式和过去分词 ); 绥靖(满足另一国的要求以避免战争) | |
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66 pretext | |
n.借口,托词 | |
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67 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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68 tolling | |
[财]来料加工 | |
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69 dread | |
vt.担忧,忧虑;惧怕,不敢;n.担忧,畏惧 | |
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70 monastery | |
n.修道院,僧院,寺院 | |
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71 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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72 dwellers | |
n.居民,居住者( dweller的名词复数 ) | |
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