There was never anything so gallant1, so spruce, so brilliant, and so well disposed as the two armies. Trumpets2, fifes, hautboys, drums, and cannon3 made music such as Hell itself had never heard. The cannons4 first of all laid flat about six thousand men on each side; the muskets5 swept away from this best of worlds nine or ten thousand ruffians who infested6 its surface. The bayonet was also a _sufficient reason_ for the death of several thousands. The whole might amount to thirty thousand souls. Candide, who trembled like a philosopher, hid himself as well as he could during this heroic butchery.
At length, while the two kings were causing Te Deum to be sung each in his own camp, Candide resolved to go and reason elsewhere on effects and causes. He passed over heaps of dead and dying, and first reached a neighbouring village; it was in cinders7, it was an Abare village which the Bulgarians had burnt according to the laws of war. Here, old men covered with wounds, beheld8 their wives, hugging their children to their bloody9 breasts, massacred before their faces; there, their daughters, disembowelled and breathing their last after having satisfied the natural wants of Bulgarian heroes; while others, half burnt in the flames, begged to be despatched. The earth was strewed10 with brains, arms, and legs.
Candide fled quickly to another village; it belonged to the Bulgarians; and the Abarian heroes had treated it in the same way. Candide, walking always over palpitating limbs or across ruins, arrived at last beyond the seat of war, with a few provisions in his knapsack, and Miss Cunegonde always in his heart. His provisions failed him when he arrived in Holland; but having heard that everybody was rich in that country, and that they were Christians11, he did not doubt but he should meet with the same treatment from them as he had met with in the Baron's castle, before Miss Cunegonde's bright eyes were the cause of his expulsion thence.
He asked alms of several grave-looking people, who all answered him, that if he continued to follow this trade they would confine him to the house of correction, where he should be taught to get a living.
The next he addressed was a man who had been haranguing12 a large assembly for a whole hour on the subject of charity. But the orator13, looking askew14, said:
"What are you doing here? Are you for the good cause?"
"There can be no effect without a cause," modestly answered Candide; "the whole is necessarily concatenated15 and arranged for the best. It was necessary for me to have been banished16 from the presence of Miss Cunegonde, to have afterwards run the gauntlet, and now it is necessary I should beg my bread until I learn to earn it; all this cannot be otherwise."
"My friend," said the orator to him, "do you believe the Pope to be Anti-Christ?"
"I have not heard it," answered Candide; "but whether he be, or whether he be not, I want bread."
"Thou dost not deserve to eat," said the other. "Begone, rogue17; begone, wretch18; do not come near me again."
The orator's wife, putting her head out of the window, and spying a man that doubted whether the Pope was Anti-Christ, poured over him a full.... Oh, heavens! to what excess does religious zeal19 carry the ladies.
A man who had never been christened, a good Anabaptist, named James, beheld the cruel and ignominious20 treatment shown to one of his brethren, an unfeathered biped with a rational soul, he took him home, cleaned him, gave him bread and beer, presented him with two florins, and even wished to teach him the manufacture of Persian stuffs which they make in Holland. Candide, almost prostrating21 himself before him, cried:
"Master Pangloss has well said that all is for the best in this world, for I am infinitely22 more touched by your extreme generosity23 than with the inhumanity of that gentleman in the black coat and his lady."
The next day, as he took a walk, he met a beggar all covered with scabs, his eyes diseased, the end of his nose eaten away, his mouth distorted, his teeth black, choking in his throat, tormented24 with a violent cough, and spitting out a tooth at each effort.
1 gallant | |
adj.英勇的,豪侠的;(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
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2 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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3 cannon | |
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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4 cannons | |
n.加农炮,大炮,火炮( cannon的名词复数 ) | |
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5 muskets | |
n.火枪,(尤指)滑膛枪( musket的名词复数 ) | |
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6 infested | |
adj.为患的,大批滋生的(常与with搭配)v.害虫、野兽大批出没于( infest的过去式和过去分词 );遍布于 | |
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7 cinders | |
n.煤渣( cinder的名词复数 );炭渣;煤渣路;煤渣跑道 | |
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8 beheld | |
v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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9 bloody | |
adj.非常的的;流血的;残忍的;adv.很;vt.血染 | |
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10 strewed | |
v.撒在…上( strew的过去式和过去分词 );散落于;点缀;撒满 | |
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11 Christians | |
n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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12 haranguing | |
v.高谈阔论( harangue的现在分词 ) | |
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13 orator | |
n.演说者,演讲者,雄辩家 | |
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14 askew | |
adv.斜地;adj.歪斜的 | |
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15 concatenated | |
v.把 (一系列事件、事情等)联系起来( concatenate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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16 banished | |
v.放逐,驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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17 rogue | |
n.流氓;v.游手好闲 | |
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18 wretch | |
n.可怜的人,不幸的人;卑鄙的人 | |
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19 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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20 ignominious | |
adj.可鄙的,不光彩的,耻辱的 | |
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21 prostrating | |
v.使俯伏,使拜倒( prostrate的现在分词 );(指疾病、天气等)使某人无能为力 | |
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22 infinitely | |
adv.无限地,无穷地 | |
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23 generosity | |
n.大度,慷慨,慷慨的行为 | |
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24 tormented | |
饱受折磨的 | |
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