"I ask your pardon once more," said Candide to the Baron1, "your pardon, reverend father, for having run you through the body."
"Say no more about it," answered the Baron. "I was a little too hasty, I own, but since you wish to know by what fatality2 I came to be a galley3-slave I will inform you. After I had been cured by the surgeon of the college of the wound you gave me, I was attacked and carried off by a party of Spanish troops, who confined me in prison at Buenos Ayres at the very time my sister was setting out thence. I asked leave to return to Rome to the General of my Order. I was appointed chaplain to the French Ambassador at Constantinople. I had not been eight days in this employment when one evening I met with a young Ichoglan, who was a very handsome fellow. The weather was warm. The young man wanted to bathe, and I took this opportunity of bathing also. I did not know that it was a capital crime for a Christian4 to be found naked with a young Mussulman. A cadi ordered me a hundred blows on the soles of the feet, and condemned5 me to the galleys6. I do not think there ever was a greater act of injustice7. But I should be glad to know how my sister came to be scullion to a Transylvanian prince who has taken shelter among the Turks."
"But you, my dear Pangloss," said Candide, "how can it be that I behold8 you again?"
"It is true," said Pangloss, "that you saw me hanged. I should have been burnt, but you may remember it rained exceedingly hard when they were going to roast me; the storm was so violent that they despaired of lighting9 the fire, so I was hanged because they could do no better. A surgeon purchased my body, carried me home, and dissected10 me. He began with making a crucial incision12 on me from the navel to the clavicula. One could not have been worse hanged than I was. The executioner of the Holy Inquisition was a sub-deacon, and knew how to burn people marvellously well, but he was not accustomed to hanging. The cord was wet and did not slip properly, and besides it was badly tied; in short, I still drew my breath, when the crucial incision made me give such a frightful13 scream that my surgeon fell flat upon his back, and imagining that he had been dissecting14 the devil he ran away, dying with fear, and fell down the staircase in his flight. His wife, hearing the noise, flew from the next room. She saw me stretched out upon the table with my crucial incision. She was seized with yet greater fear than her husband, fled, and tumbled over him. When they came to themselves a little, I heard the wife say to her husband: 'My dear, how could you take it into your head to dissect11 a heretic? Do you not know that these people always have the devil in their bodies? I will go and fetch a priest this minute to exorcise him.' At this proposal I shuddered15, and mustering16 up what little courage I had still remaining I cried out aloud, 'Have mercy on me!' At length the Portuguese17 barber plucked up his spirits. He sewed up my wounds; his wife even nursed me. I was upon my legs at the end of fifteen days. The barber found me a place as lackey18 to a knight19 of Malta who was going to Venice, but finding that my master had no money to pay me my wages I entered the service of a Venetian merchant, and went with him to Constantinople. One day I took it into my head to step into a mosque20, where I saw an old Iman and a very pretty young devotee who was saying her paternosters. Her bosom21 was uncovered, and between her breasts she had a beautiful bouquet22 of tulips, roses, anemones23, ranunculus, hyacinths, and auriculas. She dropped her bouquet; I picked it up, and presented it to her with a profound reverence24. I was so long in delivering it that the Iman began to get angry, and seeing that I was a Christian he called out for help. They carried me before the cadi, who ordered me a hundred lashes25 on the soles of the feet and sent me to the galleys. I was chained to the very same galley and the same bench as the young Baron. On board this galley there were four young men from Marseilles, five Neapolitan priests, and two monks27 from Corfu, who told us similar adventures happened daily. The Baron maintained that he had suffered greater injustice than I, and I insisted that it was far more innocent to take up a bouquet and place it again on a woman's bosom than to be found stark28 naked with an Ichoglan. We were continually disputing, and received twenty lashes with a bull's pizzle when the concatenation of universal events brought you to our galley, and you were good enough to ransom29 us."
"Well, my dear Pangloss," said Candide to him, "when you had been hanged, dissected, whipped, and were tugging30 at the oar26, did you always think that everything happens for the best?"
"I am still of my first opinion," answered Pangloss, "for I am a philosopher and I cannot retract31, especially as Leibnitz could never be wrong; and besides, the pre-established harmony is the finest thing in the world, and so is his _plenum_ and _materia subtilis_."
1 baron | |
n.男爵;(商业界等)巨头,大王 | |
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2 fatality | |
n.不幸,灾祸,天命 | |
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3 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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4 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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5 condemned | |
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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6 galleys | |
n.平底大船,战舰( galley的名词复数 );(船上或航空器上的)厨房 | |
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7 injustice | |
n.非正义,不公正,不公平,侵犯(别人的)权利 | |
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8 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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9 lighting | |
n.照明,光线的明暗,舞台灯光 | |
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10 dissected | |
adj.切开的,分割的,(叶子)多裂的v.解剖(动物等)( dissect的过去式和过去分词 );仔细分析或研究 | |
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11 dissect | |
v.分割;解剖 | |
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12 incision | |
n.切口,切开 | |
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13 frightful | |
adj.可怕的;讨厌的 | |
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14 dissecting | |
v.解剖(动物等)( dissect的现在分词 );仔细分析或研究 | |
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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 | |
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16 mustering | |
v.集合,召集,集结(尤指部队)( muster的现在分词 );(自他人处)搜集某事物;聚集;激发 | |
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17 Portuguese | |
n.葡萄牙人;葡萄牙语 | |
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18 lackey | |
n.侍从;跟班 | |
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19 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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20 mosque | |
n.清真寺 | |
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21 bosom | |
n.胸,胸部;胸怀;内心;adj.亲密的 | |
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22 bouquet | |
n.花束,酒香 | |
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23 anemones | |
n.银莲花( anemone的名词复数 );海葵 | |
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24 reverence | |
n.敬畏,尊敬,尊严;Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称;v.尊敬,敬畏,崇敬 | |
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25 lashes | |
n.鞭挞( lash的名词复数 );鞭子;突然猛烈的一击;急速挥动v.鞭打( lash的第三人称单数 );煽动;紧系;怒斥 | |
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26 oar | |
n.桨,橹,划手;v.划行 | |
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27 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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28 stark | |
adj.荒凉的;严酷的;完全的;adv.完全地 | |
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29 ransom | |
n.赎金,赎身;v.赎回,解救 | |
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30 tugging | |
n.牵引感v.用力拉,使劲拉,猛扯( tug的现在分词 ) | |
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31 retract | |
vt.缩回,撤回收回,取消 | |
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