THE first fortnight of February passed and a black cold prolonged the hard winter without pity for the poor. Once more the authorities had scoured1 the roads; the prefect of Lille, an attorney, a general, and the police were not sufficient, the military had come to occupy Montsou; a whole regiment2 of men were camped between Beaugnies and Marchiennes. Armed pickets3 guarded the pits, and there were soldiers before every engine. The manager’s villa4, the Company’s Yards, even the houses of certain residents, were bristling5 with bayonets. Nothing was heard along the streets but the slow movement of patrols. On the pit-bank of the Voreux a sentinel was always placed in the frozen wind that blew up there, like a look-out man above the flat plain; and every two hours, as though in an enemy’s country, were heard the sentry’s cries:
“Qui vive? —Advance and give the password!”
Nowhere had work been resumed. On the contrary, the strike had spread; Crévecoeur, Mirou, Madeleine, like the Voreux, were producing nothing; at Feutry-Cantel and the Victoire there were fewer men every morning; even at Saint-Thomas, which had been hitherto exempt6, men were wanting. There was now a silent persistence7 in the face of this exhibition of force which exasperated8 the miners’ pride. The settlements looked deserted9 in the midst of the beetroot fields. Not a workman stirred, only at rare intervals10 was one to be met by chance, isolated11, with sidelong look, lowering his head before the red trousers. And in this deep melancholy12 calm, in this passive opposition13 to the guns, there was a deceptive14 gentleness, a forced and patient obedience15 of wild beasts in a cage, with their eyes on the tamer, ready to spring on his neck if he turned his back. The Company, who were being ruined by this death of work, talked of hiring miners from the Borinage, on the Belgian frontier, but did not dare; so that the battle continued as before between the colliers, who were shut up at home, and the dead pits guarded by soldiery.
On the morrow of that terrible day this calm had come about at once, hiding such a panic that the greatest silence possible was kept concerning the damage and the atrocities16. The inquiry17 which had been opened showed that Maigrat had died from his fall, and the frightful18 mutilation of the corpse19 remained uncertain, already surrounded by a legend. On its side, the Company did not acknowledge the disasters it had suffered, any more than the Grégoires cared to compromise their daughter in the scandal of a trial in which she would have to give evidence. However, some arrests took place, mere20 supernumeraries as usual, silly and frightened, knowing nothing. By mistake, Pierron was taken off with handcuffs on his wrists as far as Marchiennes, to the great amusement of his mates. Rasseneur, also, was nearly arrested by two gendarmes21. The management was content with preparing lists of names and giving back certificates in large numbers. Maheu had received his, Levaque also, as well as thirty-four of their mates in the settlement of the Deux-Cent-Quarante alone. And all the severity was directed against étienne, who had disappeared on the evening of the fray22, and who was being sought, although no trace of him could be found. Chaval, in his hatred23, had denounced him, refusing to name the others at Catherine’s appeal, for she wished to save her parents. The days passed, every one felt that nothing was yet concluded; and with oppressed hearts every one was awaiting the end.
At Montsou, during this period, the inhabitants awoke with a start every night, their ears buzzing with an imaginary alarmbell and their nostrils24 haunted by the smell of powder. But what completed their discomfiture25 was a sermon by the new curé, Abbé Ranvier, that lean priest with eyes like red-hot coals who had succeeded Abbé Joire. He was indeed unlike the smiling discreet26 man, so fat and gentle, whose only anxiety was to live at peace with everybody. Abbé Ranvier went so far as to defend these abominable27 brigands28 who had dishonoured29 the district. He found excuses for the atrocities of the strikers; he violently attacked the middle class, throwing on them the whole of the responsibility. It was the middle class which, by dispossessing the Church of its ancient liberties in order to misuse30 them itself, had turned this world into a cursed place of injustice31 and suffering; it was the middle class which prolonged misunderstandings, which was pushing on towards a terrible catastrophe33 by its atheism34, by its refusal to return to the old beliefs, to the fraternity of the early Christians35. And he dared to threaten the rich. He warned them that if they obstinately36 persisted in refusing to listen to the voice of God, God would surely put Himself on the side of the poor. He would take back their fortunes from those who faithlessly enjoyed them, and would distribute them to the humble37 of the earth for the triumph of His glory. The devout38 trembled at this; the lawyer declared that it was Socialism of the worst kind; all saw the cur at the head of a band, brandishing39 a cross, and with vigorous blows demolishing40 the bourgeois41 society of ‘89.
M. Hennebeau, when informed, contented42 himself with saying, as he shrugged43 his shoulders:
“If he troubles us too much the bishop44 will free us from him.”
And while the breath of panic was thus blowing from one end of the plain to the other, étienne was dwelling45 beneath the earth, in Jeanlin’s burrow46 at the bottom of Réquillart. It was there that he was in hiding; no one believed him so near; the quiet audacity47 of that refuge, in the very mine, in that abandoned passage of the old pit, had baffled search. Above, the sloes and hawthorns48 growing among the fallen scaffolding of the belfry filled up the mouth of the hole. No one ventured down; it was necessary to know the trick — how to hang on to the roots of the mountain ash and to let go fearlessly, to catch hold of the rungs that were still solid. Other obstacles also protected him, the suffocating49 heat of the passage, a hundred and twenty metres of dangerous descent, then the painful gliding50 on all fours for a quarter of a league between the narrowed walls of the gallery before discovering the brigand’s cave full of plunder51. He lived there in the midst of abundance, finding gin there, the rest of the dried cod52, and provisions of all sorts. The large hay bed was excellent, and not a current of air could be felt in this equal temperature, as warm as a bath. Light, however, threatened to fail. Jeanlin, who had made himself purveyor53, with the prudence54 and discretion55 of a savage56 and delighted to make fun of the police, had even brought him pomatum, but could not succeed in putting his hands on a packet of candles.
After the fifth day étienne never lighted up except to eat. He could not swallow in the dark. This complete and interminable night, always of the same blackness, was his chief torment57. It was in vain that he was able to sleep in safety, that he was warm and provided with bread, the night had never weighed so heavily on his brain. It seemed to him even to crush his thoughts. Now he was living on thefts. In spite of his communistic theories, old scruples58 of education arose, and he contented himself with gnawing59 his share of dry bread. But what was to be done? One must live, and his task was not yet accomplished60. Another shame overcame him: remorse61 for that savage drunkenness from the gin, drunk in the great cold on an empty stomach, which had thrown him, armed with a knife, on Chaval. This stirred in him the whole of that unknown terror, the hereditary62 ill, the long ancestry63 of drunkenness, no longer tolerating a drop of alcohol without falling into homicidal mania64. Would he then end as a murderer? When he found himself in shelter, in this profound calm of the earth, seized by satiety65 of violence, he had slept for two days the sleep of a brute66, gorged67 and overcome; and the depression continued, he lived in a bruised68 state with bitter mouth and aching head, as after some tremendous spree. A week passed by; the Maheus, who had been warned, were not able to send a candle; he had to give up the enjoyment69 of light, even when eating.
Now étienne remained for hours stretched out on his hay. Vague ideas were working within him for the first time: a feeling of superiority, which placed him apart from his mates, an exaltation of his person as he grew more instructed. Never had he reflected so much; he asked himself the why of his disgust on the morrow of that furious course among the pits; and he did not dare to reply to himself, his recollections were repulsive70 to him, the ignoble71 desires, the coarse instincts, the odour of all that wretchedness shaken out to the wind. In spite of the torment of the darkness, he would come to hate the hour for returning to the settlement. How nauseous were all these wretches72 in a heap, living at the common bucket! There was not one with whom he could seriously talk politics; it was a bestial73 existence, always the same air tainted74 by onion, in which one choked! He wished to enlarge their horizon, to raise them to the comfort and good manners of the middle class, by making them masters; but how long it would take! and he no longer felt the courage to await victory, in this prison of hunger. By slow degrees his vanity of leadership, his constant preoccupation of thinking in their place, left him free, breathing into him the soul of one of those bourgeois whom he execrated75.
Jeanlin one evening brought a candle-end, stolen from a carter’s lantern, and this was a great relief for étienne. When the darkness began to stupefy him, weighing on his skull76 almost to madness, he would light up for a moment; then, as soon as he had chased away the nightmare, he extinguished the candle, miserly of this brightness which was as necessary to his life as bread. The silence buzzed in his ears, he only heard the flight of a band of rats, the cracking of the old timber, the tiny sound of a spider weaving her web. And with eyes open, in this warm nothingness, he returned to his fixed77 idea — the thought of what his mates were doing above. Desertion on his part would have seemed to him the worst cowardice78. If he thus hid himself, it was to remain free, to give counsel or to act. His long meditations79 had fixed his ambition. While awaiting something better he would like to be Pluchart, leaving manual work in order to work only at politics, but alone, in a clean room, under the pretext80 that brain labour absorbs the entire life and needs quiet.
At the beginning of the second week, the child having told him that the police supposed he had gone over to Belgium, étienne ventured out of his hole at nightfall. He wished to ascertain81 the situation, and to decide if it was still well to persist. He himself considered the game doubtful. Before the strike he felt uncertain of the result, and had simply yielded to facts; and now, after having been intoxicated82 with rebellion, he came back to this first doubt, despairing of making the Company yield. But he would not yet confess this to himself; he was tortured when he thought of the miseries83 of defeat, and the heavy responsibility of suffering which would weigh upon him. The end of the strike: was it not the end of his part, the overthrow84 of his ambition, his life falling back into the brutishness of the mine and the horrors of the settlement? And honestly, without any base calculation or falsehood, he endeavoured to find his faith again, to prove to himself that resistance was still possible, that Capital was about to destroy itself in face of the heroic suicide of Labour.
Throughout the entire country, in fact, there was nothing but a long echo of ruin. At night, when he wandered through the black country, like a wolf who has come out of his forest, he seemed to hear the crash of bankruptcies85 from one end of the plain to the other. He now passed by the roadside nothing but closed dead workshops, becoming rotten beneath the dull sky. The sugar works had especially suffered: the Hoton sugar works, the Fauvelle works, after having reduced the number of their hands, had come to grief one after the other. At the Dutilleul flour works the last mill had stopped on the second Saturday of the month, and the Bleuze rope works, for mine cables, had been quite ruined by the strike. On the Marchiennes side the situation was growing worse every day. All the fires were out the Gagebois glass works, men were continually being sent away from the Sonneville workshops, only one of the three blast furnaces of the Forges was alight, and not one battery of coke ovens was burning on the horizon. The strike of the Montsou colliers, born of the industrial crisis which had been growing worse for two years, had increased it and precipitated86 the downfall. To the other causes of suffering — the stoppage of orders from America, and the engorgement of invested capital in excessive production — was now added the unforeseen lack of coal for the few furnaces which were still kept up; and that was the supreme87 agony, this engine bread which the pits no longer furnished. Frightened by the general anxiety, the Company, by diminishing its output and starving its miners, inevitably88 found itself at the end of December without a fragment of coal at the surface of its pits. Everything held together, the plague blew from afar, one fall led to another; the industries tumbled each other over as they fell, in so rapid a series of catastrophes89 that the shocks echoed in the midst of the neighbouring cities, Lille, Douai, Valenciennes, where absconding90 bankers were bringing ruin on whole families.
At the turn of a road étienne often stopped in the frozen night to hear the rubbish raining down. He breathed deeply in the darkness, the joy of annihilation seized him, the hope that day would dawn on the extermination91 of the old world, with not a single fortune left standing32, the scythe92 of equality levelling everything to the ground. But in this massacre93 it was the Company’s pits that especially interested him. He would continue his walk, blinded by the darkness, visiting them one after the other, glad to discover some new disaster. Landslips of increasing gravity continued to occur on account of the prolonged abandonment of the passages. Above the north gallery of Mirou the ground sank in to such an extent, that the Joiselle road, for the distance of a hundred metres, had been swallowed up as though by the shock of an earthquake; and the Company, disturbed at the rumours94 raised by these accidents, paid the owners for their vanished fields without bargaining. Crévecoeur and Madeleine, which lay in very shifting rock, were becoming stopped up more and more. It was said that two captains had been buried at the Victoire; there was an inundation95 at Feutry-Cantel, it had been necessary to wall up a gallery for the length of a kilometre at Saint-Thomas, where the ill-kept timbering was breaking down everywhere. Thus every hour enormous sums were spent, making great breaches96 in the shareholders’ dividends97; a rapid destruction of the pits was going on, which must end at last by eating up the famous Montsou deniers which had been centupled in a century.
In the face of these repeated blows, hope was again born in étienne; he came to believe that a third month of resistance would crush the monster — the weary, sated beast, crouching98 down there like an idol99 in his unknown tabernacle. He knew that after the Montsou troubles there had been great excitement in the Paris journals, quite a violent controversy100 between the official newspapers and the opposition newspapers, terrible narratives101, which were especially directed against the International, of which the empire was becoming afraid after having first encouraged it; and the directors not daring to turn a deaf ear any longer, two of them had condescended103 to come and hold an inquiry, but with an air of regret, not appearing to care about the upshot; so disinterested104, that in three days they went away again, declaring that everything was going on as well as possible. He was told, however, from other quarters that during their stay these gentlemen sat permanently105, displaying feverish106 activity, and absorbed in transactions of which no one about them uttered a word. And he charged them with affecting confidence they did not feel, and came to look upon their departure as a nervous flight, feeling now certain of triumph since these terrible men were letting everything go.
But on the following night étienne despaired again. The Company’s back was too robust107 to be so easily broken; they might lose millions, but later on they would get them back again by gnawing at their men’s bread. On that night, having pushed as far as Jean-Bart, he guessed the truth when an overseer told him that there was talk of yielding Vandame to Montsou. At Deneulin’s house, it was said, the wretchedness was pitiful, the wretchedness of the rich; the father ill in his powerlessness, aged102 by his anxiety over money, the daughters struggling in the midst of tradesmen, trying to save their shifts. There was less suffering in the famished108 settlements than in this middle-class house where they shut themselves up to drink water. Work had not been resumed at Jean-Bart, and it had been necessary to replace the pump at Gaston-Marie; while, in spite of all haste, an inundation had already begun which made great expenses necessary. Deneulin had at last risked his request for a loan of one hundred thousand francs from the Grégoires. and the refusal, though he had expected it, completed his ejection: if they refused, it was for his sake, in order to save him from an impossible struggle; and they advised him to sell. He, as usual, violently refused. It enraged109 him to have to pay the expenses of the strike; he hoped at first to die of it, with the blood at his head, strangled by apoplexy. Then what was to be done? He had listened to the directors’ offers. They wrangled110 with him, they depreciated111 this superb prey112, this repaired pit, equipped anew, where the lack of capital alone paralysed the output. He would be lucky if he got enough out of it to satisfy his creditors113. For two days he had struggled against the directors at Montsou, furious at the quiet way with which they took advantage of his embarrassment114 and shouting his refusals at them in his loud voice. And there the affairs remained, and they had returned to Paris to await patiently his last groans115. étienne smelled out this compensation for the disasters, and was again seized by discouragement before the invincible116 power of the great capitalists, so strong in battle that they fattened117 in defeat by eating the corpses118 of the small capitalists who fell at their side.
The next day, fortunately, Jeanlin brought him a piece of good news. At the Voreux the tubbing of the shaft119 was threatening to break, and the water was filtering in from all the joints120; in great haste a gang of carpenters had been set on to repair it.
Up to now étienne had avoided the Voreux, warned by the everlasting121 black silhouette122 of the sentinel stationed on the pit-bank above the plain. He could not be avoided, he dominated in the air, like the flag of the regiment. Towards three o’clock in the morning the sky became overcast123, and he went to the pit, where some mates explained to him the bad condition of the tubbing; they even thought that it would have to be done entirely124 over again, which would stop the output of coal for three months. For a long time he prowled round, listening to the carpenters’ mallets hammering in the shaft. That wound which had to be dressed rejoiced his heart.
As he went back in the early daylight, he saw the sentinel still on the pit-bank. This time he would certainly be seen. As he walked he thought about those soldiers who were taken from the people, to be armed against the people. How easy the triumph of the revolution would be if the army were suddenly to declare for it! It would be enough if the workman and the peasant in the barracks were to remember their origin. That was the supreme peril125, the great terror, which made the teeth of the middle class chatter126 when they thought of a possible defection of the troops. In two hours they would be swept away and exterminated127 with all the delights and abominations of their iniquitous128 life. It was already said that whole regiments129 were tainted with Socialism. Was it true? When justice came, would it be thanks to the cartridges130 distributed by the middle class? And snatching at another hope, the young man dreamed that the regiment, with its posts, now guarding the pits, would come over to the side of the strikers, shoot down the Company to a man, and at last give the mine to the miners.
He then noticed that he was ascending131 the pit-bank, his head filled with these reflections. Why should he not talk with this soldier? He would get to know what his ideas were. With an air of indifference132, he continued to come nearer, as though he were gleaning133 old wood among the rubbish. The sentinel remained motionless.
“Eh, mate! damned weather,” said étienne, at last. “I think we shall have snow.”
He was a small soldier, very fair, with a pale, gentle face covered with red freckles134. He wore his military greatcoat with the awkwardness of a recruit,
“Yes, perhaps we shall, I think,” he murmured.
And with his blue eyes he gazed at the livid sky, the smoky dawn, with soot135 weighing like lead afar over the plain.
“What idiots they are to put you here to freeze!” étienne went on. “One would think the Cossacks were coming! And then there’s always wind here.”
The little soldier shivered without complaining. There was certainly a little cabin of dry stones there, where old Bonnemort used to take shelter when it blew a hurricane, but the order being not to leave the summit of the pit-bank, the soldier did not stir from it, his hands so stiffened136 by cold that he could no longer feel his weapon. He belonged to the guard of sixty men who were protecting the Voreux, and as this cruel sentry-duty frequently came round, he had before nearly stayed there for good with his dead feet. His work demanded it; a passive obedience finished the benumbing process, and he replied to these questions with the stammered137 words of a sleepy child.
étienne in vain endeavoured during a quarter of an hour to make him talk about politics. He replied “yes” or “no” without seeming to understand. Some of his comrades said that the captain was a republican; as to him, he had no idea — it was all the same to him. If he was ordered to fire, he would fire, so as not to be punished. The workman listened, seized with the popular hatred against the army — against these brothers whose hearts were changed by sticking a pair of red pantaloons on to their buttocks.
“What’s your name?”
“Jules.”
“And where do you come from?”
“From Plogof, over there.”
He stretched out his arm at random138. It was in Brittany, he knew no more. His small pale face grew animated139. He began to laugh, and felt warmer.
“I have a mother and a sister. They are waiting for me, sure enough. Ah! it won’t be for tomorrow. When I left, they came with me as far as Pont-l’Abbé. We had to take the horse to Lepalmec: it nearly broke its legs at the bottom of the Audierne Hill. Cousin Charles was waiting for us with sausages, but the women were crying too much, and it stuck in our throats. Good Lord! what a long way off our home is!”
His eyes grew moist, though he was still laughing. The desert moorland of Plogof, that wild storm-beaten point of the Raz, appeared to him beneath a dazzling sun in the rosy140 season of heather.
“Do you think,” he asked, “if I’m not punished, that they’ll give me a month’s leave in two years?”
Then étienne talked about Provence, which he had left when he was quite small. The daylight was growing, and flakes141 of snow began to fly in the earthy sky. And at last he felt anxious on noticing Jeanlin, who was prowling about in the midst of the bushes, stupefied to see him up there. The child was beckoning142 to him. What was the good of this dream of fraternizing with the soldiers? It would take years and years, and his useless attempt cast him down as though he had expected to succeed. But suddenly he understood Jeanlin’s gesture. The sentinel was about to be relieved, and he went away, running off to bury himself at Réquillart, his heart crushed once more by the certainty of defeat; while the little scamp who ran beside him was accusing that dirty beast of a trooper of having called out the guard to fire at them.
On the summit of the pit-bank Jules stood motionless, with eyes vacantly gazing at the falling snow. The sergeant143 was approaching with his men, and the regulation cries were exchanged.
“Qui vive? —Advance and give the password!”
And they heard the heavy steps begin again, ringing as though on a conquered country. In spite of the growing daylight, nothing stirred in the settlements; the colliers remained in silent rage beneath the military boot.
收听单词发音 |
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scoured
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| 走遍（某地）搜寻（人或物）( scour的过去式和过去分词 )； （用力）刷； 擦净； 擦亮 | |
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regiment
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| n.团，多数，管理；v.组织，编成团，统制 | |
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pickets
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| 罢工纠察员( picket的名词复数 ) | |
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villa
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| n.别墅，城郊小屋 | |
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bristling
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| a.竖立的 | |
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exempt
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| adj.免除的；v.使免除；n.免税者，被免除义务者 | |
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persistence
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| n.坚持，持续，存留 | |
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exasperated
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| adj.恼怒的 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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intervals
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| n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息 | |
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isolated
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| adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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melancholy
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| n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的 | |
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opposition
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| n.反对，敌对 | |
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deceptive
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| adj.骗人的，造成假象的，靠不住的 | |
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obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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atrocities
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| n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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frightful
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| adj.可怕的；讨厌的 | |
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corpse
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| n.尸体，死尸 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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gendarmes
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| n.宪兵，警官( gendarme的名词复数 ) | |
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fray
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| v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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nostrils
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| 鼻孔( nostril的名词复数 ) | |
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discomfiture
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| n.崩溃；大败；挫败；困惑 | |
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discreet
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| adj.(言行)谨慎的；慎重的；有判断力的 | |
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abominable
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| adj.可厌的，令人憎恶的 | |
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brigands
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| n.土匪，强盗( brigand的名词复数 ) | |
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dishonoured
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| a.不光彩的，不名誉的 | |
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misuse
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| n.误用，滥用；vt.误用，滥用 | |
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injustice
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| n.非正义，不公正，不公平，侵犯（别人的）权利 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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catastrophe
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| n.大灾难，大祸 | |
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atheism
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| n.无神论，不信神 | |
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Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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obstinately
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| ad.固执地，顽固地 | |
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humble
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| adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低 | |
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devout
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| adj.虔诚的，虔敬的，衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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brandishing
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| v.挥舞( brandish的现在分词 )；炫耀 | |
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40
demolishing
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| v.摧毁( demolish的现在分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光 | |
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41
bourgeois
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| adj./n.追求物质享受的(人)；中产阶级分子 | |
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42
contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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43
shrugged
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| vt.耸肩（shrug的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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44
bishop
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| n.主教，（国际象棋）象 | |
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45
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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46
burrow
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| vt.挖掘(洞穴)；钻进；vi.挖洞；翻寻；n.地洞 | |
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47
audacity
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| n.大胆，卤莽，无礼 | |
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48
hawthorns
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| n.山楂树( hawthorn的名词复数 ) | |
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49
suffocating
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| a.使人窒息的 | |
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50
gliding
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| v. 滑翔 adj. 滑动的 | |
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51
plunder
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| vt.劫掠财物，掠夺；n.劫掠物，赃物；劫掠 | |
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52
cod
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| n.鳕鱼；v.愚弄；哄骗 | |
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53
purveyor
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| n.承办商，伙食承办商 | |
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54
prudence
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| n.谨慎，精明，节俭 | |
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55
discretion
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| n.谨慎；随意处理 | |
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56
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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57
torment
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| n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠 | |
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58
scruples
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| n.良心上的不安( scruple的名词复数 )；顾虑，顾忌v.感到于心不安，有顾忌( scruple的第三人称单数 ) | |
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59
gnawing
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| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
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60
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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61
remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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62
hereditary
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| adj.遗传的，遗传性的，可继承的，世袭的 | |
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63
ancestry
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| n.祖先，家世 | |
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64
mania
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| n.疯狂；躁狂症，狂热，癖好 | |
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65
satiety
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| n.饱和；(市场的)充分供应 | |
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66
brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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67
gorged
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| v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕 | |
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68
bruised
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| [医]青肿的，瘀紫的 | |
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69
enjoyment
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| n.乐趣；享有；享用 | |
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70
repulsive
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| adj.排斥的，使人反感的 | |
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71
ignoble
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| adj.不光彩的，卑鄙的；可耻的 | |
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72
wretches
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| n.不幸的人( wretch的名词复数 )；可怜的人；恶棍；坏蛋 | |
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73
bestial
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| adj.残忍的；野蛮的 | |
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74
tainted
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| adj.腐坏的；污染的；沾污的；感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 )；使污染；败坏；被污染，腐坏，败坏 | |
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75
execrated
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| v.憎恶( execrate的过去式和过去分词 )；厌恶；诅咒；咒骂 | |
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76
skull
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| n.头骨；颅骨 | |
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77
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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78
cowardice
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| n.胆小，怯懦 | |
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79
meditations
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| 默想( meditation的名词复数 )； 默念； 沉思； 冥想 | |
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80
pretext
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| n.借口，托词 | |
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81
ascertain
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| vt.发现，确定，查明，弄清 | |
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82
intoxicated
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| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
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83
miseries
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| n.痛苦( misery的名词复数 )；痛苦的事；穷困；常发牢骚的人 | |
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84
overthrow
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| v.推翻，打倒，颠覆；n.推翻，瓦解，颠覆 | |
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85
bankruptcies
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| n.破产( bankruptcy的名词复数 )；倒闭；彻底失败；（名誉等的）完全丧失 | |
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86
precipitated
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| v.（突如其来地）使发生( precipitate的过去式和过去分词 )；促成；猛然摔下；使沉淀 | |
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87
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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88
inevitably
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| adv.不可避免地；必然发生地 | |
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89
catastrophes
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| n.灾祸( catastrophe的名词复数 )；灾难；不幸事件；困难 | |
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90
absconding
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| v.（尤指逃避逮捕）潜逃，逃跑( abscond的现在分词 ) | |
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91
extermination
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| n.消灭，根绝 | |
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92
scythe
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| n. 长柄的大镰刀，战车镰； v. 以大镰刀割 | |
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93
massacre
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| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
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94
rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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95
inundation
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| n.the act or fact of overflowing | |
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96
breaches
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| 破坏( breach的名词复数 )； 破裂； 缺口； 违背 | |
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97
dividends
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| 红利( dividend的名词复数 )； 股息； 被除数； （足球彩票的）彩金 | |
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98
crouching
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的现在分词 ) | |
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99
idol
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| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
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100
controversy
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| n.争论，辩论，争吵 | |
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101
narratives
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| 记叙文( narrative的名词复数 )； 故事； 叙述； 叙述部分 | |
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102
aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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103
condescended
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| 屈尊，俯就( condescend的过去式和过去分词 )； 故意表示和蔼可亲 | |
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104
disinterested
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| adj.不关心的，不感兴趣的 | |
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105
permanently
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| adv.永恒地，永久地，固定不变地 | |
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106
feverish
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| adj.发烧的，狂热的，兴奋的 | |
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107
robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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108
famished
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| adj.饥饿的 | |
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109
enraged
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| 使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 )； 歜； 激愤 | |
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110
wrangled
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| v.争吵，争论，口角( wrangle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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111
depreciated
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| v.贬值，跌价，减价( depreciate的过去式和过去分词 )；贬低，蔑视，轻视 | |
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112
prey
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| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
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113
creditors
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| n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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114
embarrassment
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| n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫 | |
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115
groans
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| n.呻吟，叹息( groan的名词复数 )；呻吟般的声音v.呻吟( groan的第三人称单数 )；发牢骚；抱怨；受苦 | |
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116
invincible
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| adj.不可征服的，难以制服的 | |
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117
fattened
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| v.喂肥( fatten的过去式和过去分词 )；养肥（牲畜）；使（钱）增多；使（公司）升值 | |
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118
corpses
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| n.死尸，尸体( corpse的名词复数 ) | |
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119
shaft
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| n.(工具的)柄，杆状物 | |
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120
joints
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| 接头( joint的名词复数 )； 关节； 公共场所（尤指价格低廉的饮食和娱乐场所） （非正式）； 一块烤肉 （英式英语） | |
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121
everlasting
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| adj.永恒的，持久的，无止境的 | |
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122
silhouette
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| n.黑色半身侧面影，影子，轮廓；v.描绘成侧面影，照出影子来，仅仅显出轮廓 | |
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123
overcast
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| adj.阴天的，阴暗的，愁闷的；v.遮盖，（使）变暗，包边缝；n.覆盖，阴天 | |
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124
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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125
peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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126
chatter
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| vi.／n.喋喋不休；短促尖叫；(牙齿)打战 | |
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127
exterminated
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| v.消灭，根绝( exterminate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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128
iniquitous
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| adj.不公正的；邪恶的；高得出奇的 | |
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129
regiments
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| （军队的）团( regiment的名词复数 )； 大量的人或物 | |
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130
cartridges
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| 子弹( cartridge的名词复数 )； （打印机的）墨盒； 录音带盒； （唱机的）唱头 | |
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131
ascending
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| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
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132
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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133
gleaning
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| n.拾落穗，拾遗，落穗v.一点点地收集（资料、事实）( glean的现在分词 )；（收割后）拾穗 | |
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134
freckles
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| n.雀斑，斑点( freckle的名词复数 ) | |
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135
soot
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| n.煤烟，烟尘；vt.熏以煤烟 | |
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136
stiffened
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| 加强的 | |
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137
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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138
random
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| adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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139
animated
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| adj.生气勃勃的，活跃的，愉快的 | |
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140
rosy
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| adj.美好的，乐观的，玫瑰色的 | |
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141
flakes
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| 小薄片( flake的名词复数 )； （尤指）碎片； 雪花； 古怪的人 | |
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142
beckoning
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| adj.引诱人的，令人心动的v.（用头或手的动作）示意，召唤( beckon的现在分词 ) | |
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143
sergeant
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| n.警官，中士 | |
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