On a bright May morning, the sunlight, at five o’clock, was pouring into a room which face the east at the ancestral home of the Aquilas. In this room Felix, the eldest1 of the three sons of the Baron2, was sleeping. The beams passed over his head, and lit up a square space on the opposite whitewashed3 wall, where, in the midst of the brilliant light, hung an ivory cross. There were only two panes4 of glass in the window, each no more than two or three inches square, the rest of the window being closed by strong oaken shutters5, thick enough to withstand the stroke of an arrow.
In the daytime one of these at least would have been thrown open to admit air and light. They did not quite meet, and a streak6 of sunshine, in addition to that which came through the tiny panes, entered at the chink. Only one window in the house contained more than two such panes (it was in the Baroness’s sitting-room), and most of them had none at all. The glass left by the ancients in their dwellings8 had long since been used up or broken, and the fragments that remained were too precious to be put in ordinary rooms. When larger pieces were discovered, they were taken for the palaces of the princes, and even these were but sparingly supplied, so that the saying “he has glass in his window” was equivalent to “he belongs to the upper ranks”.
On the recess9 of the window was an inkstand, which had been recently in use, for a quill10 lay beside it, and a sheet of parchment partly covered with writing. The ink was thick and very dark, made of powdered charcoal11, leaving a slightly raised writing, which could be perceived by the finger on rubbing it lightly over. Beneath the window on the bare floor was an open chest, in which were several similar parchments and books, and from which the sheet on the recess had evidently been taken. This chest, though small, was extremely heavy and strong, being dug out with the chisel12 and gouge13 from a solid block of oak. Except a few parallel grooves14, there was no attempt at ornamentation upon it. The lid, which had no hinges, but lifted completely off, was tilted15 against the wall. It was, too, of oak some inches thick, and fitted upon the chest by a kind of dovetailing at the edges.
Instead of a lock, the chest was fastened by a lengthy16 thong17 of oxhide, which now lay in a coil on the floor. Bound round and round, twisted and intertangled, and finally tied with a special and secret knot (the ends being concealed18), the thong of leather secured the contents of the chest from prying19 eyes or thievish hands. With axe20 or knife, of course, the knot might easily have been severed21, but no one could obtain access to the room except the retainers of the house, and which of them, even if unfaithful, would dare to employ such means in view of the certain punishment that must follow? It would occupy hours to undo22 the knot, and then it could not be tied again in exactly the same fashion, so that the real use of the thong was to assure the owner that his treasures had not been interfered23 with in his absence. Such locks as were made were of the clumsiest construction. They were not so difficult to pick as the thong to untie24, and their expense, or rather the difficulty of getting a workman who could manufacture them, confined their use to the heads of great houses. The Baron’s chest was locked, and his alone, in the dwelling7.
Besides the parchments which were nearest the top, as most in use, there were three books, much worn and decayed, which had been preserved, more by accident than by care, from the libraries of the ancients. One was an abridged25 history of Rome, the other a similar account of English history, the third a primer of science or knowledge; all three, indeed, being books which, among the ancients, were used for teaching children, and which, by the men of those days, would have been cast aside with contempt.
Exposed for years in decaying houses, rain and mildew26 had spotted27 and stained their pages; the covers had rotted away these hundred years, and were now supplied by a broad sheet of limp leather with wide margins28 far overlapping29 the edges; many of the pages were quite gone, and others torn by careless handling. The abridgment30 of Roman history had been scorched31 by a forest fire, and the charred32 edges of the leaves had dropped away in semicircular holes. Yet, by pondering over these, Felix had, as it were, reconstructed much of the knowledge which was the common (and therefore unvalued) possession of all when they were printed.
The parchments contained his annotations33, and the result of his thought; they were also full of extracts from decaying volumes lying totally neglected in the houses of other nobles. Most of these were of extreme antiquity34, for when the ancients departed, the modern books which they had composed being left in the decaying houses at the mercy of the weather, rotted, or were destroyed by the frequent grass fires. But those that had been preserved by the ancients in museums escaped for a while, and some of these yet remained in lumber-rooms and corners, whence they were occasionally dragged forth35 by the servants for greater convenience in lighting36 the fires. The young nobles, entirely37 devoted38 to the chase, to love intrigues40, and war, overwhelmed Felix Aquila with ridicule41 when they found him poring over these relics42, and being of a proud and susceptible44 spirit, they so far succeeded that he abandoned the open pursuit of such studies, and stole his knowledge by fitful glances when there was no one near. As among the ancients learning was esteemed45 above all things, so now, by a species of contrast, it was of all things the most despised.
Under the books, in one corner of the chest, was a leather bag containing four golden sovereigns, such as were used by the ancients, and eighteen pieces of modern silver money, the debased shillings of the day, not much more than half of which was silver and the rest alloy46. The gold coins had been found while digging holes for the posts of a new stockade47, and by the law should have been delivered to the prince’s treasury48. All the gold discovered, whether in the form of coin or jewellery, was the property of the Prince, who was supposed to pay for its value in currency.
As the actual value of the currency was only half of its nominal49 value (and sometimes less), the transaction was greatly in favour of the treasury. Such was the scarcity50 of gold that the law was strictly51 enforced, and had there been the least suspicion of the fact, the house would have been ransacked52 from the cellars to the roof. Imprisonment53 and fine would have been the inevitable54 fate of Felix, and the family would very probably have suffered for the fault of one of its members. But independent and determined55 to the last degree, Felix ran any risk rather than surrender that which he had found, and which he deemed his own. This unbending independence and pride of spirit, together with scarce concealed contempt for others, had resulted in almost isolating56 him from the youth of his own age, and had caused him to be regarded with dislike by the elders. He was rarely, if ever, asked to join the chase, and still more rarely invited to the festivities and amusements provided in adjacent houses, or to the grander entertainments of the higher nobles. Too quick to take offence where none was really intended, he fancied that many bore him ill-will who had scarcely given him a passing thought. He could not forgive the coarse jokes uttered upon his personal appearance by men of heavier build, who despised so slender a stripling.
He would rather be alone than join their company, and would not compete with them in any of their sports, so that, when his absence from the arena58 was noticed, it was attributed to weakness or cowardice59. These imputations stung him deeply, driving him to brood within himself. He was never seen in the courtyards or ante-rooms at the palace, nor following in the train of the Prince, as was the custom with the youthful nobles. The servility of the court angered and disgusted him; the eagerness of strong men to carry a cushion or fetch a dog annoyed him.
There were those who observed this absence from the crowd in the ante-rooms. In the midst of so much intrigue39 and continual striving for power, designing men, on the one hand, were ever on the alert for what they imagined would prove willing instruments; and on the other, the Prince’s councillors kept a watchful60 eye on the dispositions61 of every one of the least consequence; so that, although but twenty-five, Felix was already down in two lists, the one, at the palace, of persons whose views, if not treasonable, were doubtful, and the other, in the hands of a possible pretender, as a discontented and therefore useful man. Felix was entirely ignorant that he had attracted so much observation. He supposed himself simply despised and ignored; he cherished no treason, had not the slightest sympathy with any pretender, held totally aloof62 from intrigue, and his reveries, if they were ambitious, concerned only himself.
But the most precious of the treasures in the chest were eight or ten small sheets of parchment, each daintily rolled and fastened with a ribbon, letters from Aurora63 Thyma, who had also given him the ivory cross on the wall. It was of ancient workmanship, a relic43 of the old world. A compass, a few small tools (valuable because preserved for so many years, and not now to be obtained for any consideration), and a magnifying glass, a relic also of the ancients, completed the contents of the chest.
Upon a low table by the bedstead were a flint and steel and tinder, and an earthenware64 oil lamp, not intended to be carried about. There, too, lay his knife, with a buckhorn hilt, worn by everyone in the belt, and his forester’s axe, a small tool, but extremely useful in the woods, without which, indeed, progress was often impossible. These were in the belt, which, as he undressed, he had cast upon the table, together with his purse, in which were about a dozen copper65 coins, not very regular in shape, and stamped on one side only. The table was formed of two short hewn planks66, scarcely smoothed, raised on similar planks (on edge) at each end, in fact, a larger form.
From a peg67 driven into the wall hung a disc of brass68 by a thin leathern lace; this disc, polished to the last degree, answered as a mirror. The only other piece of furniture, if so it could be called, was a block of wood at the side of the table, used as a chair. In the corner, between the table and the window, stood a long yew69 bow, and a quiver full of arrows ready for immediate70 use, besides which three or four sheaves lay on the floor. A crossbow hung on a wooden peg; the bow was of wood, and, therefore, not very powerful; bolts and square-headed quarrels were scattered71 carelessly on the floor under it.
Six or seven slender darts72 used for casting with the hand, as javelins73, stood in another corner by the door, and two stouter74 boar spears. By the wall a heap of nets lay in apparent confusion, some used for partridges, some of coarse twine75 for bush-hens, another, lying a little apart, for fishes. Near these the component76 parts of two turkey-traps were strewn about, together with a small round shield or targe, such as are used by swordsmen, snares77 of wire, and, in an open box, several chisels78, gouges79, and other tools.
A blowtube was fastened to three pegs80, so that it might not warp81, a hunter’s horn hung from another, and on the floor were a number of arrows in various stages of manufacture, some tied to the straightening rod, some with the feathers already attached, and some hardly shaped from the elder or aspen log. A heap of skins filled the third corner, and beside them were numerous stag’s horns, and two of the white cow, but none yet of the much dreaded82 and much desired white bull. A few peacock’s feathers were there also, rare and difficult to get, and intended for Aurora. Round one footpost of the bed was a long coil of thin hide, a lasso, and on another was suspended an iron cap, or visorless helmet.
There was no sword or lance. Indeed, of all these weapons and implements83, none seemed in use, to judge by the dust that had gathered upon them, and the rusted84 edges, except the bow and crossbow and one of the boar spears. The bed itself was very low, framed of wood, thick and solid; the clothes were of the coarsest linen85 and wool; there were furs for warmth in winter, but these were not required in May. There was no carpet, nor any substitute for it; the walls were whitewashed, ceiling there was none, the worm-eaten rafters were visible, and the roof tree. But on the table was a large earthenware bowl, full of meadow orchids86, blue-bells, and a bunch of may in flower.
His hat, wide in the brim, lay on the floor; his doublet was on the wooden block or seat, with the long tight-fitting trousers, which showed every muscle of the limb, and by them high shoes of tanned but unblacked leather. His short cloak hung on a wooden peg against the door, which was fastened with a broad bolt of oak. The parchment in the recess of the window at which he had been working just before retiring was covered with rough sketches87, evidently sections of a design for a ship or galley88 propelled by oars57.
The square spot of light upon the wall slowly moved as the sun rose higher, till the ivory cross was left in shadow, but still the slumberer89 slept on, heedless, too, of the twittering of the swallows under the eaves, and the call of the cuckoo not far distant.
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1
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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baron
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| n.男爵；(商业界等)巨头，大王 | |
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whitewashed
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| 粉饰，美化，掩饰( whitewash的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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panes
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| 窗玻璃( pane的名词复数 ) | |
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shutters
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| 百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门 | |
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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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dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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dwellings
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| n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 ) | |
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recess
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| n.短期休息，壁凹（墙上装架子，柜子等凹处） | |
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quill
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| n.羽毛管；v.给（织物或衣服）作皱褶 | |
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charcoal
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| n.炭，木炭，生物炭 | |
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chisel
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| n.凿子；v.用凿子刻，雕，凿 | |
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gouge
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| v.凿；挖出；n.半圆凿；凿孔；欺诈 | |
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grooves
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| n.沟( groove的名词复数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏v.沟( groove的第三人称单数 )；槽；老一套；（某种）音乐节奏 | |
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tilted
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| v. 倾斜的 | |
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lengthy
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| adj.漫长的，冗长的 | |
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thong
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| n.皮带；皮鞭；v.装皮带 | |
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concealed
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| a.隐藏的，隐蔽的 | |
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prying
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| adj.爱打听的v.打听，刺探（他人的私事）( pry的现在分词 )；撬开 | |
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axe
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| n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减 | |
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severed
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| v.切断，断绝( sever的过去式和过去分词 )；断，裂 | |
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undo
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| vt.解开，松开；取消，撤销 | |
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interfered
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| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
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untie
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| vt.解开，松开；解放 | |
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abridged
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| 削减的，删节的 | |
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mildew
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| n.发霉；v.（使）发霉 | |
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spotted
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| adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的 | |
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margins
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| 边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数 | |
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overlapping
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| adj./n.交迭（的） | |
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abridgment
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| n.删节，节本 | |
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scorched
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| 烧焦，烤焦( scorch的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（植物）枯萎，把…晒枯； 高速行驶； 枯焦 | |
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charred
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| v.把…烧成炭( char的过去式)；烧焦 | |
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annotations
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| n.注释( annotation的名词复数 )；附注 | |
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antiquity
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| n.古老；高龄；古物，古迹 | |
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forth
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| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
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lighting
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| n.照明，光线的明暗，舞台灯光 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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intrigue
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| vt.激起兴趣，迷住；vi.耍阴谋；n.阴谋，密谋 | |
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intrigues
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| n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心 | |
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ridicule
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| v.讥讽，挖苦；n.嘲弄 | |
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42
relics
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| [pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸 | |
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relic
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| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
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44
susceptible
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| adj.过敏的，敏感的；易动感情的，易受感动的 | |
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45
esteemed
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| adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 )；敬重；认为；以为 | |
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46
alloy
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| n.合金，(金属的)成色 | |
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47
stockade
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| n.栅栏，围栏；v.用栅栏防护 | |
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treasury
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| n.宝库；国库，金库；文库 | |
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nominal
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| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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50
scarcity
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| n.缺乏，不足，萧条 | |
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51
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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52
ransacked
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| v.彻底搜查( ransack的过去式和过去分词 )；抢劫，掠夺 | |
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53
imprisonment
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| n.关押，监禁，坐牢 | |
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54
inevitable
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| adj.不可避免的，必然发生的 | |
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55
determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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56
isolating
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| adj.孤立的，绝缘的v.使隔离( isolate的现在分词 )；将…剔出（以便看清和单独处理）；使（某物质、细胞等）分离；使离析 | |
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57
oars
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| n.桨，橹( oar的名词复数 )；划手v.划（行）( oar的第三人称单数 ) | |
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arena
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| n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台 | |
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cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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watchful
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| adj.注意的，警惕的 | |
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dispositions
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| 安排( disposition的名词复数 )； 倾向； （财产、金钱的）处置； 气质 | |
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aloof
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| adj.远离的；冷淡的，漠不关心的 | |
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63
aurora
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| n.极光 | |
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64
earthenware
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| n.土器，陶器 | |
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copper
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| n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的 | |
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planks
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| （厚）木板( plank的名词复数 )； 政纲条目，政策要点 | |
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peg
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| n.木栓，木钉；vt.用木钉钉，用短桩固定 | |
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brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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yew
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| n.紫杉属树木 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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scattered
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| adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的 | |
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darts
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| n.掷飞镖游戏；飞镖( dart的名词复数 )；急驰，飞奔v.投掷，投射( dart的第三人称单数 )；向前冲，飞奔 | |
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javelins
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| n.标枪( javelin的名词复数 ) | |
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74
stouter
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| 粗壮的( stout的比较级 )； 结实的； 坚固的； 坚定的 | |
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twine
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| v.搓，织，编饰；（使）缠绕 | |
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component
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| n.组成部分，成分，元件；adj.组成的，合成的 | |
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77
snares
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| n.陷阱( snare的名词复数 )；圈套；诱人遭受失败（丢脸、损失等）的东西；诱惑物v.用罗网捕捉，诱陷，陷害( snare的第三人称单数 ) | |
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78
chisels
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| n.凿子，錾子( chisel的名词复数 )；口凿 | |
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79
gouges
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| n.凿( gouge的名词复数 )；乱要价；（在…中）抠出…；挖出…v.凿( gouge的第三人称单数 )；乱要价；（在…中）抠出…；挖出… | |
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80
pegs
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| n.衣夹( peg的名词复数 )；挂钉；系帐篷的桩；弦钮v.用夹子或钉子固定( peg的第三人称单数 )；使固定在某水平 | |
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81
warp
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| vt.弄歪，使翘曲，使不正常，歪曲，使有偏见 | |
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82
dreaded
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| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
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83
implements
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| n.工具( implement的名词复数 )；家具；手段；[法律]履行（契约等）v.实现( implement的第三人称单数 )；执行；贯彻；使生效 | |
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84
rusted
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| v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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85
linen
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| n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的 | |
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86
orchids
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| n.兰花( orchid的名词复数 ) | |
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87
sketches
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| n.草图( sketch的名词复数 )；素描；速写；梗概 | |
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88
galley
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| 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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89
slumberer
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| 睡眠者，微睡者 | |
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