The Combat Finished, the Ordeal1 Begins
I did not know where to go.
On the afternoon of the 7th I determined2 to go back once more to 19, Rue3 Richelieu. Under the gateway4 some one seized my arm. It was Madame D. She was waiting for me.
“Do not go in,” she said to me.
“Am I discovered?”
“Yes.”
“And taken.”
“No.”
She added,—
“Come.”
We crossed the courtyard, and we went out by a backdoor into the Rue Fontaine Molière; we reached the square of the Palais Royal. The fiacres were standing5 there as usual. We got into the first we came to.
“Where are we to go?” asked the driver.
She looked at me.
I answered,—
“I do not know.”
“I know,” she said.
Women always know where Providence6 lies.
An hour later I was in safety.
From the 4th, every day which passed by consolidated7 the coup8 d’état. Our defeat was complete, and we felt ourselves abandoned. Paris was like a forest in which Louis Bonaparte was making a battue of the Representatives; the wild beast was hunting down the sportsmen. We heard the indistinct baying of Maupas behind us. We were compelled to disperse9. The pursuit was energetic. We entered into the second phase of duty — the catastrophe10 accepted and submitted to. The vanquished11 became the proscribed12. Each one of us had his own concluding adventures. Mine was what it should have been — exile; death having missed me. I am not going to relate it here, this book is not my biography, and I ought not to divert to myself any of the attention which it may excite. Besides, what concerns me personally is told in a narrative13 which is one of the testaments14 of exile.33
Notwithstanding the relentless15 pursuit which was directed against us, I did not think it my duty to leave Paris as long as a glimmer16 of hope remained, and as long as an awakening17 of the people seemed possible. Malarmet sent me word in my refuge that a movement would take place at Belleville on Tuesday the 9th. I waited until the 12th. Nothing stirred. The people were indeed dead. Happily such deaths as these, like the deaths of the gods, are only for a time.
I had a last interview with Jules Favre and Michel de Bourges at Madame Didier’s in the Rue de la Ville-Lévêque. It was at night. Bastide came there. This brave man said to me,—
“You are about to leave Paris; for myself, I remain here. Take me as your lieutenant18. Direct me from the depths of your exile. Make use of me as an arm which you have in France.”
“I will make use of you as of a heart,” I said to him.
On the 14th, amidst the adventures which my son Charles relates in his book, I succeeded in reaching Brussels.
The vanquished are like cinders19, Destiny blows upon them and disperses20 them. There was a gloomy vanishing of all the combatants for Right and for Law. A tragical21 disappearance22.
1 ordeal | |
n.苦难经历,(尤指对品格、耐力的)严峻考验 | |
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2 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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3 rue | |
n.懊悔,芸香,后悔;v.后悔,悲伤,懊悔 | |
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4 gateway | |
n.大门口,出入口,途径,方法 | |
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5 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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6 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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7 consolidated | |
a.联合的 | |
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8 coup | |
n.政变;突然而成功的行动 | |
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9 disperse | |
vi.使分散;使消失;vt.分散;驱散 | |
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10 catastrophe | |
n.大灾难,大祸 | |
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11 vanquished | |
v.征服( vanquish的过去式和过去分词 );战胜;克服;抑制 | |
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12 proscribed | |
v.正式宣布(某事物)有危险或被禁止( proscribe的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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13 narrative | |
n.叙述,故事;adj.叙事的,故事体的 | |
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14 testaments | |
n.遗嘱( testament的名词复数 );实际的证明 | |
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15 relentless | |
adj.残酷的,不留情的,无怜悯心的 | |
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16 glimmer | |
v.发出闪烁的微光;n.微光,微弱的闪光 | |
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17 awakening | |
n.觉醒,醒悟 adj.觉醒中的;唤醒的 | |
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18 lieutenant | |
n.陆军中尉,海军上尉;代理官员,副职官员 | |
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19 cinders | |
n.煤渣( cinder的名词复数 );炭渣;煤渣路;煤渣跑道 | |
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20 disperses | |
v.(使)分散( disperse的第三人称单数 );疏散;驱散;散布 | |
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21 tragical | |
adj. 悲剧的, 悲剧性的 | |
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22 disappearance | |
n.消失,消散,失踪 | |
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