’Tis known that the name of Esmond and the estate of Castlewood, com. Hants, came into possession of the present family through Dorothea, daughter and heiress of Edward, Earl and Marquis Esmond, and Lord of Castlewood, which lady married, 23 Eliz., Henry Poyns, gent.; the said Henry being then a page in the household of her father. Francis, son and heir of the above Henry and Dorothea, who took the maternal1 name which the family hath borne subsequently, was made Knight2 and Baronet by King James the First; and being of a military disposition4, remained long in Germany with the Elector-Palatine, in whose service Sir Francis incurred6 both expense and danger, lending large sums of money to that unfortunate Prince; and receiving many wounds in the battles against the Imperialists, in which Sir Francis engaged.
On his return home Sir Francis was rewarded for his services and many sacrifices, by his late Majesty8 James the First, who graciously conferred upon this tried servant the post of Warden9 of the Butteries and Groom10 of the King’s Posset, which high and confidential11 office he filled in that king’s and his unhappy successor’s reign12.
His age, and many wounds and infirmities, obliged Sir Francis to perform much of his duty by deputy: and his son, Sir George Esmond, knight and banneret, first as his father’s lieutenant13, and afterwards as inheritor of his father’s title and dignity, performed this office during almost the whole of the reign of King Charles the First, and his two sons who succeeded him.
Sir George Esmond married, rather beneath the rank that a person of his name and honor might aspire15 to, the daughter of Thos. Topham, of the city of London, alderman and goldsmith, who, taking the Parliamentary side in the troubles then commencing, disappointed Sir George of the property which he expected at the demise16 of his father-inlaw, who devised his money to his second daughter, Barbara, a spinster.
Sir George Esmond, on his part, was conspicuous17 for his attachment18 and loyalty19 to the Royal cause and person: and the King being at Oxford20 in 1642, Sir George, with the consent of his father, then very aged7 and infirm, and residing at his house of Castlewood, melted the whole of the family plate for his Majesty’s service.
For this, and other sacrifices and merits, his Majesty, by patent under the Privy21 Seal, dated Oxford, Jan., 1643, was pleased to advance Sir Francis Esmond to the dignity of Viscount Castlewood, of Shandon, in Ireland: and the Viscount’s estate being much impoverished22 by loans to the King, which in those troublesome times his Majesty could not repay, a grant of land in the plantations23 of Virginia was given to the Lord Viscount.; part of which land is in possession of descendants of his family to the present day.
The first Viscount Castlewood died full of years, and within a few months after he had been advanced to his honors. He was succeeded by his eldest24 son, the before-named George; and left issue besides, Thomas, a colonel in the King’s army, who afterwards joined the Usurper’s Government; and Francis, in holy orders, who was slain25 whilst defending the House of Castlewood against the Parliament, anno 1647.
George Lord Castlewood (the second Viscount), of King Charles the First’s time, had no male issue save his one son, Eustace Esmond, who was killed, with half of the Castlewood men beside him, at Worcester fight. The lands about Castlewood were sold and apportioned26 to the Commonwealth27 men; Castlewood being concerned in almost all of the plots against the Protector, after the death of the King, and up to King Charles the Second’s restoration. My lord followed that king’s Court about in its exile, having ruined himself in its service. He had but one daughter, who was of no great comfort to her father; for misfortune had not taught those exiles sobriety of life; and it is said that the Duke of York and his brother the King both quarrelled about Isabel Esmond. She was maid of honor to the Queen Henrietta Maria; she early joined the Roman Church; her father, a weak man, following her not long after at Breda.
On the death of Eustace Esmond at Worcester, Thomas Esmond, nephew to my Lord Castlewood, and then a stripling, became heir to the title. His father had taken the Parliament side in the quarrels, and so had been estranged28 from the chief of his house; and my Lord Castlewood was at first so much enraged29 to think that his title (albeit little more than an empty one now) should pass to a rascally30 Roundhead, that he would have married again, and indeed proposed to do so to a vintner’s daughter at Bruges, to whom his lordship owed a score for lodging31 when the King was there, but for fear of the laughter of the Court, and the anger of his daughter, of whom he stood in awe32; for she was in temper as imperious and violent as my lord, who was much enfeebled by wounds and drinking, was weak.
Lord Castlewood would have had a match between his daughter Isabel and her cousin, the son of that Francis Esmond who was killed at Castlewood siege. And the lady, it was said, took a fancy to the young man, who was her junior by several years (which circumstance she did not consider to be a fault in him); but having paid his court, and being admitted to the intimacy33 of the house, he suddenly flung up his suit, when it seemed to be pretty prosperous, without giving a pretext34 for his behavior. His friends rallied him at what they laughingly chose to call his infidelity; Jack35 Churchill, Frank Esmond’s lieutenant in the Royal Regiment36 of Foot-guards, getting the company which Esmond vacated, when he left the Court and went to Tangier in a rage at discovering that his promotion37 depended on the complaisance38 of his elderly affianced bride. He and Churchill, who had been condiscipuli at St. Paul’s School, had words about this matter; and Frank Esmond said to him with an oath, “Jack, your sister may be so-and-so, but by Jove my wife shan’t!” and swords were drawn39, and blood drawn too, until friends separated them on this quarrel. Few men were so jealous about the point of honor in those days; and gentlemen of good birth and lineage thought a royal blot40 was an ornament41 to their family coat. Frank Esmond retired42 in the sulks, first to Tangier, whence he returned after two years’ service, settling on a small property he had of his mother, near to Winchester, and became a country gentleman, and kept a pack of beagles, and never came to Court again in King Charles’s time. But his uncle Castlewood was never reconciled to him; nor, for some time afterwards, his cousin whom he had refused.
By places, pensions, bounties43 from France, and gifts from the King, whilst his daughter was in favor, Lord Castlewood, who had spent in the Royal service his youth and fortune, did not retrieve44 the latter quite, and never cared to visit Castlewood, or repair it, since the death of his son, but managed to keep a good house, and figure at Court, and to save a considerable sum of ready money.
And now, his heir and nephew, Thomas Esmond, began to bid for his uncle’s favor. Thomas had served with the Emperor, and with the Dutch, when King Charles was compelled to lend troops to the States; and against them, when his Majesty made an alliance with the French King. In these campaigns Thomas Esmond was more remarked for duelling, brawling45, vice5, and play, than for any conspicuous gallantry in the field, and came back to England, like many another English gentleman who has travelled, with a character by no means improved by his foreign experience. He had dissipated his small paternal46 inheritance of a younger brother’s portion, and, as truth must be told, was no better than a hanger-on of ordinaries, and a brawler47 about Alsatia and the Friars, when he bethought him of a means of mending his fortune.
His cousin was now of more than middle age, and had nobody’s word but her own for the beauty which she said she once possessed48. She was lean, and yellow, and long in the tooth; all the red and white in all the toy-shops in London could not make a beauty of her — Mr. Killigrew called her the Sybil, the death’s-head put up at the King’s feast as a memento49 mori, &c.— in fine, a woman who might be easy of conquest, but whom only a very bold man would think of conquering. This bold man was Thomas Esmond. He had a fancy to my Lord Castlewood’s savings50, the amount of which rumor51 had very much exaggerated. Madame Isabel was said to have Royal jewels of great value; whereas poor Tom Esmond’s last coat but one was in pawn52.
My lord had at this time a fine house in Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields, nigh to the Duke’s Theatre and the Portugal ambassador’s chapel53. Tom Esmond, who had frequented the one as long as he had money to spend among the actresses, now came to the church as assiduously. He looked so lean and shabby, that he passed without difficulty for a repentant54 sinner; and so, becoming converted, you may be sure took his uncle’s priest for a director.
This charitable father reconciled him with the old lord, his uncle, who a short time before would not speak to him, as Tom passed under my lord’s coach window, his lordship going in state to his place at Court, while his nephew slunk by with his battered55 hat and feather, and the point of his rapier sticking out of the scabbard — to his twopenny ordinary in Bell Yard.
Thomas Esmond, after this reconciliation57 with his uncle, very soon began to grow sleek58, and to show signs of the benefits of good living and clean linen59. He fasted rigorously twice a week, to be sure; but he made amends60 on the other days: and, to show how great his appetite was, Mr. Wycherley said, he ended by swallowing that fly-blown rank old morsel61 his cousin. There were endless jokes and lampoons62 about this marriage at Court: but Tom rode thither63 in his uncle’s coach now, called him father, and having won could afford to laugh. This marriage took place very shortly before King Charles died: whom the Viscount of Castlewood speedily followed.
The issue of this marriage was one son, whom the parents watched with an intense eagerness and care; but who, in spite of nurses and physicians, had only a brief existence. His tainted64 blood did not run very long in his poor feeble little body. Symptoms of evil broke out early on him; and, part from flattery, part superstition65, nothing would satisfy my lord and lady, especially the latter, but having the poor little cripple touched by his Majesty at his church. They were ready to cry out miracle at first (the doctors and quack-salvers being constantly in attendance on the child, and experimenting on his poor little body with every conceivable nostrum) but though there seemed, from some reason, a notable amelioration in the infant’s health after his Majesty touched him, in a few weeks afterward14 the poor thing died — causing the lampooners of the Court to say, that the King, in expelling evil out of the infant of Tom Esmond and Isabella his wife, expelled the life out of it, which was nothing but corruption66.
The mother’s natural pang67 at losing this poor little child must have been increased when she thought of her rival Frank Esmond’s wife, who was a favorite of the whole Court, where my poor Lady Castlewood was neglected, and who had one child, a daughter, flourishing and beautiful, and was about to become a mother once more.
The Court, as I have heard, only laughed the more because the poor lady, who had pretty well passed the age when ladies are accustomed to have children, nevertheless determined68 not to give hope up, and even when she came to live at Castlewood, was constantly sending over to Hexton for the doctor, and announcing to her friends the arrival of an heir. This absurdity69 of hers was one amongst many others which the wags used to play upon. Indeed, to the last days of her life, my Lady Viscountess had the comfort of fancying herself beautiful, and persisted in blooming up to the very midst of winter, painting roses on her cheeks long after their natural season, and attiring70 herself like summer though her head was covered with snow.
Gentlemen who were about the Court of King Charles, and King James, have told the present writer a number of stories about this queer old lady, with which it’s not necessary that posterity71 should be entertained. She is said to have had great powers of invective72 and, if she fought with all her rivals in King James’s favor, ’tis certain she must have had a vast number of quarrels on her hands. She was a woman of an intrepid73 spirit, and, it appears, pursued and rather fatigued74 his Majesty with her rights and her wrongs. Some say that the cause of her leaving Court was jealousy75 of Frank Esmond’s wife: others, that she was forced to retreat after a great battle which took place at Whitehall, between her ladyship and Lady Dorchester, Tom Killigrew’s daughter, whom the King delighted to honor, and in which that ill-favored Esther got the better of our elderly Vashti. But her ladyship, for her part, always averred76 that it was her husband’s quarrel, and not her own, which occasioned the banishment77 of the two into the country; and the cruel ingratitude78 of the Sovereign in giving away, out of the family, that place of Warden of the Butteries and Groom of the King’s Posset, which the two last Lords Castlewood had held so honorably, and which was now conferred upon a fellow of yesterday, and a hanger-on of that odious79 Dorchester creature, my Lord Bergamot;1 “I never,” said my lady, “could have come to see his Majesty’s posset carried by any other hand than an Esmond. I should have dashed the salver out of Lord Bergamot’s hand, had I met him.” And those who knew her ladyship are aware that she was a person quite capable of performing this feat56, had she not wisely kept out of the way.
1 Lionel Tipton, created Baron3 Bergamot, ann. 1686, Gentleman Usher80 of the Back Stairs, and afterwards appointed Warden of the Butteries and Groom of the King’s Posset (on the decease of George, second Viscount Castlewood), accompanied his Majesty to St. Germain’s, where he died without issue. No Groom of the Posset was appointed by the Prince of Orange, nor hath there been such an officer in any succeeding reign.
Holding the purse-strings in her own control, to which, indeed, she liked to bring most persons who came near her, Lady Castlewood could command her husband’s obedience81, and so broke up her establishment at London; she had removed from Lincoln’s-Inn-Fields to Chelsey, to a pretty new house she bought there; and brought her establishment, her maids, lap-dogs, and gentlewomen, her priest, and his lordship her husband, to Castlewood Hall, that she had never seen since she quitted it as a child with her father during the troubles of King Charles the First’s reign. The walls were still open in the old house as they had been left by the shot of the Commonwealthmen. A part of the mansion82 was restored and furbished up with the plate, hangings, and furniture brought from the house in London. My lady meant to have a triumphal entry into Castlewood village, and expected the people to cheer as she drove over the Green in her great coach, my lord beside her, her gentlewomen, lap-dogs, and cockatoos on the opposite seat, six horses to her carriage, and servants armed and mounted following it and preceding it. But ’twas in the height of the No-Popery cry; the folks in the village and the neighboring town were scared by the sight of her ladyship’s painted face and eyelids83, as she bobbed her head out of the coach window, meaning, no doubt, to be very gracious; and one old woman said, “Lady Isabel! lord-a-mercy, it’s Lady Jezebel!” a name by which the enemies of the right honorable Viscountess were afterwards in the habit of designating her. The country was then in a great No-Popery fervor84; her ladyship’s known conversion85, and her husband’s, the priest in her train, and the service performed at the chapel of Castlewood (though the chapel had been built for that worship before any other was heard of in the country, and though the service was performed in the most quiet manner), got her no favor at first in the county or village. By far the greater part of the estate of Castlewood had been confiscated86, and been parcelled out to Commonwealthmen. One or two of these old Cromwellian soldiers were still alive in the village, and looked grimly at first upon my Lady Viscountess, when she came to dwell there.
She appeared at the Hexton Assembly, bringing her lord after her, scaring the country folks with the splendor87 of her diamonds, which she always wore in public. They said she wore them in private, too, and slept with them round her neck; though the writer can pledge his word that this was a calumny88. “If she were to take them off,” my Lady Sark said, “Tom Esmond, her husband, would run away with them and pawn them.” ’Twas another calumny. My Lady Sark was also an exile from Court, and there had been war between the two ladies before.
The village people began to be reconciled presently to their lady, who was generous and kind, though fantastic and haughty89, in her ways; and whose praises Dr. Tusher, the Vicar, sounded loudly amongst his flock. As for my lord, he gave no great trouble, being considered scarce more than an appendage90 to my lady, who, as daughter of the old lords of Castlewood, and possessor of vast wealth, as the country folks said (though indeed nine-tenths of it existed but in rumor), was looked upon as the real queen of the Castle, and mistress of all it contained.
1 maternal | |
adj.母亲的,母亲般的,母系的,母方的 | |
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2 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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3 baron | |
n.男爵;(商业界等)巨头,大王 | |
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4 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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5 vice | |
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的 | |
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6 incurred | |
[医]招致的,遭受的; incur的过去式 | |
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7 aged | |
adj.年老的,陈年的 | |
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8 majesty | |
n.雄伟,壮丽,庄严,威严;最高权威,王权 | |
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9 warden | |
n.监察员,监狱长,看守人,监护人 | |
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10 groom | |
vt.给(马、狗等)梳毛,照料,使...整洁 | |
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11 confidential | |
adj.秘(机)密的,表示信任的,担任机密工作的 | |
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12 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
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13 lieutenant | |
n.陆军中尉,海军上尉;代理官员,副职官员 | |
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14 afterward | |
adv.后来;以后 | |
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15 aspire | |
vi.(to,after)渴望,追求,有志于 | |
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16 demise | |
n.死亡;v.让渡,遗赠,转让 | |
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17 conspicuous | |
adj.明眼的,惹人注目的;炫耀的,摆阔气的 | |
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18 attachment | |
n.附属物,附件;依恋;依附 | |
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19 loyalty | |
n.忠诚,忠心 | |
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20 Oxford | |
n.牛津(英国城市) | |
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21 privy | |
adj.私用的;隐密的 | |
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22 impoverished | |
adj.穷困的,无力的,用尽了的v.使(某人)贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 );使(某物)贫瘠或恶化 | |
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23 plantations | |
n.种植园,大农场( plantation的名词复数 ) | |
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24 eldest | |
adj.最年长的,最年老的 | |
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25 slain | |
杀死,宰杀,杀戮( slay的过去分词 ); (slay的过去分词) | |
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26 apportioned | |
vt.分摊,分配(apportion的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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27 commonwealth | |
n.共和国,联邦,共同体 | |
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28 estranged | |
adj.疏远的,分离的 | |
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29 enraged | |
使暴怒( enrage的过去式和过去分词 ); 歜; 激愤 | |
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30 rascally | |
adj. 无赖的,恶棍的 adv. 无赖地,卑鄙地 | |
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31 lodging | |
n.寄宿,住所;(大学生的)校外宿舍 | |
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32 awe | |
n.敬畏,惊惧;vt.使敬畏,使惊惧 | |
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33 intimacy | |
n.熟悉,亲密,密切关系,亲昵的言行 | |
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34 pretext | |
n.借口,托词 | |
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35 jack | |
n.插座,千斤顶,男人;v.抬起,提醒,扛举;n.(Jake)杰克 | |
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36 regiment | |
n.团,多数,管理;v.组织,编成团,统制 | |
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37 promotion | |
n.提升,晋级;促销,宣传 | |
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38 complaisance | |
n.彬彬有礼,殷勤,柔顺 | |
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39 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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40 blot | |
vt.弄脏(用吸墨纸)吸干;n.污点,污渍 | |
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41 ornament | |
v.装饰,美化;n.装饰,装饰物 | |
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42 retired | |
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的 | |
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43 bounties | |
(由政府提供的)奖金( bounty的名词复数 ); 赏金; 慷慨; 大方 | |
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44 retrieve | |
vt.重新得到,收回;挽回,补救;检索 | |
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45 brawling | |
n.争吵,喧嚷 | |
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46 paternal | |
adj.父亲的,像父亲的,父系的,父方的 | |
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47 brawler | |
争吵者,打架者 | |
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48 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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49 memento | |
n.纪念品,令人回忆的东西 | |
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50 savings | |
n.存款,储蓄 | |
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51 rumor | |
n.谣言,谣传,传说 | |
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52 pawn | |
n.典当,抵押,小人物,走卒;v.典当,抵押 | |
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53 chapel | |
n.小教堂,殡仪馆 | |
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54 repentant | |
adj.对…感到悔恨的 | |
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55 battered | |
adj.磨损的;v.连续猛击;磨损 | |
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56 feat | |
n.功绩;武艺,技艺;adj.灵巧的,漂亮的,合适的 | |
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57 reconciliation | |
n.和解,和谐,一致 | |
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58 sleek | |
adj.光滑的,井然有序的;v.使光滑,梳拢 | |
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59 linen | |
n.亚麻布,亚麻线,亚麻制品;adj.亚麻布制的,亚麻的 | |
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60 amends | |
n. 赔偿 | |
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61 morsel | |
n.一口,一点点 | |
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62 lampoons | |
n.讽刺文章或言辞( lampoon的名词复数 )v.冷嘲热讽,奚落( lampoon的第三人称单数 ) | |
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63 thither | |
adv.向那里;adj.在那边的,对岸的 | |
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64 tainted | |
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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65 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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66 corruption | |
n.腐败,堕落,贪污 | |
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67 pang | |
n.剧痛,悲痛,苦闷 | |
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68 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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69 absurdity | |
n.荒谬,愚蠢;谬论 | |
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70 attiring | |
v.使穿上衣服,使穿上盛装( attire的现在分词 ) | |
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71 posterity | |
n.后裔,子孙,后代 | |
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72 invective | |
n.痛骂,恶意抨击 | |
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73 intrepid | |
adj.无畏的,刚毅的 | |
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74 fatigued | |
adj. 疲乏的 | |
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75 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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76 averred | |
v.断言( aver的过去式和过去分词 );证实;证明…属实;作为事实提出 | |
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77 banishment | |
n.放逐,驱逐 | |
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78 ingratitude | |
n.忘恩负义 | |
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79 odious | |
adj.可憎的,讨厌的 | |
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80 usher | |
n.带位员,招待员;vt.引导,护送;vi.做招待,担任引座员 | |
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81 obedience | |
n.服从,顺从 | |
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82 mansion | |
n.大厦,大楼;宅第 | |
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83 eyelids | |
n.眼睑( eyelid的名词复数 );眼睛也不眨一下;不露声色;面不改色 | |
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84 fervor | |
n.热诚;热心;炽热 | |
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85 conversion | |
n.转化,转换,转变 | |
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86 confiscated | |
没收,充公( confiscate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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87 splendor | |
n.光彩;壮丽,华丽;显赫,辉煌 | |
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88 calumny | |
n.诽谤,污蔑,中伤 | |
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89 haughty | |
adj.傲慢的,高傲的 | |
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90 appendage | |
n.附加物 | |
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