But presently Gerard found stains of blood on Margaret's ankles.
“Martin! Martin! help! they have wounded her: the crossbow!”
“Scold me not, then!” and Margaret blushed.
“Did I ever scold you?”
“No, dear Gerard. Well, then, Martin said it was blood those cruel dogs followed; so I thought if I could but have a little blood on my shoon, the dogs would follow me instead, and let my Gerard wend free. So I scratched my arm with Martin's knife—forgive me! Whose else could I take? Yours, Gerard? Ah, no. You forgive me?” said she beseechingly8, and lovingly and fawningly9, all in one.
“Let me see this scratch first,” said Gerard, choking with emotion. “There, I thought so. A scratch? I call it a cut—a deep, terrible, cruel cut.”
“She might have done it with her bodkin,” said the soldier. “Milksop! that sickens at sight of a scratch and a little blood.”
“No, no. I could look on a sea of blood, but not on hers. Oh, Margaret! how could you be so cruel?”
Margaret smiled with love ineffable12. “Foolish Gerard,” murmured she, “to make so much of nothing.” And she flung the guilty arm round his neck. “As if I would not give all the blood in my heart for you, let alone a few drops from my arm.” And with this, under the sense of his recent danger, she wept on his neck for pity and love; and he wept with her.
“And I must part from her,” he sobbed14; “we two that love so dear—one must be in Holland, one in Italy. Ah me! ah me! ah me!”
At this Margaret wept afresh, but patiently and silently. Instinct is never off its guard, and with her unselfishness was an instinct. To utter her present thoughts would be to add to Gerard's misery15 at parting, so she wept in silence.
Suddenly they emerged upon a beaten path, and Martin stopped.
“This is the bridle-road I spoke16 of,” said he hanging his head; “and there away lies the hostelry.”
Margaret and Gerard cast a scared look at one another.
“Come a step with me, Martin,” whispered Gerard. When he had drawn17 him aside, he said to him in a broken voice, “Good Martin, watch over her for me! She is my wife; yet I leave her. See Martin! here is gold—it was for my journey; it is no use my asking her to take it—she would not; but you will for her, will you not? Oh, Heaven! and is this all I can do for her? Money? But poverty is a curse. You will not let her want for anything, dear Martin? The burgomaster's silver is enough for me.”
“Thou art a good lad, Gerard. Neither want nor harm shall come to her. I care more for her little finger than for all the world; and were she nought18 to me, even for thy sake would I be a father to her. Go with a stout19 heart, and God be with thee going and coming.” And the rough soldier wrung20 Gerard's hand, and turned his head away, with unwonted feeling.
After a moment's silence he was for going back to Margaret, but Gerard stopped him. “No, good Martin; prithee, stay here behind this thicket21, and turn your head away from us, while I-oh, Martin! Martin!”
By this means Gerard escaped a witness of his anguish22 at leaving her he loved, and Martin escaped a piteous sight. He did not see the poor young things kneel and renew before Heaven those holy vows23 cruel men had interrupted. He did not see them cling together like one, and then try to part, and fail, and return to one another, and cling again, like drowning, despairing creatures. But he heard Gerard sob13, and sob, and Margaret moan.
He started up, and there was Gerard running wildly, with both hands clasped above his head, in prayer, and Margaret tottering25 back towards him with palms extended piteously, as if for help, and ashy cheek and eyes fixed26 on vacancy27.
He caught her in his arms, and spoke words of comfort to her; but her mind could not take them in; only at the sound of his voice she moaned and held him tight, and trembled violently.
He got her on the mule28, and put his arm around her, and so, supporting her frame, which, from being strong like a boy, had now turned all relaxed and powerless, he took her slowly and sadly home.
She did not shed one tear, nor speak one word.
At the edge of the wood he took her off the mule, and bade her go across to her father's house. She did as she was bid.
Martin to Rotterdam. Sevenbergen was too hot for him.
Gerard, severed29 from her he loved, went like one in a dream. He hired a horse and a guide at the little hostelry, and rode swiftly towards the German frontier. But all was mechanical; his senses felt blunted; trees and houses and men moved by him like objects seen through a veil. His companions spoke to him twice, but he did not answer. Only once he cried out savagely30, “Shall we never be out of this hateful country?”
“Where?”
“On t'other side of the bourn. No need to ride down the hill, I trow.”
Gerard dismounted without a word, and took the burgomaster's purse from his girdle: while he opened it, “You will soon be out of this hateful country,” said his guide, half sulkily; “mayhap the one you are going to will like you no better; any way, though it be a church you have robbed, they cannot take you, once across that bourn.”
These words at another time would have earned the speaker an admonition or a cuff33. They fell on Gerard now like idle air. He paid the lad in silence, and descended34 the hill alone. The brook was silvery; it ran murmuring over little pebbles35, that glittered, varnished36 by the clear water; he sat down and looked stupidly at them. Then he drank of the brook; then he laved his hot feet and hands in it; it was very cold: it waked him. He rose, and taking a run, leaped across it into Germany. Even as he touched the strange land he turned suddenly and looked back. “Farewell, ungrateful country!” he cried. “But for her it would cost me nought to leave you for ever, and all my kith and kin10, and—the mother that bore me, and—my playmates, and my little native town. Farewell, fatherland—welcome the wide world! omne so-lum for-ti p p-at-r-a.” And with these brave words in his mouth he drooped37 suddenly with arms and legs all weak, and sat down and sobbed bitterly upon the foreign soil.
When the young exile had sat a while bowed down, he rose and dashed the tears from his eyes like a man; and not casting a single glance more behind him, to weaken his heart, stepped out into the wide world.
His love and heavy sorrow left no room in him for vulgar misgivings38. Compared with rending39 himself from Margaret, it seemed a small thing to go on foot to Italy in that rude age.
All nations meet in a convent. So, thanks to his good friends the monks40, and his own thirst of knowledge, he could speak most of the languages needed on that long road. He said to himself, “I will soon be at Rome; the sooner the better now.”
After walking a good league, he came to a place where four ways met. Being country roads, and serpentine41, they had puzzled many an inexperienced neighbour passing from village to village. Gerard took out a little dial Peter had given him, and set it in the autumn sun, and by this compass steered42 unhesitatingly for Rome inexperienced as a young swallow flying south; but unlike the swallow, wandering south alone.
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1
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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2
rustled
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| v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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3
glided
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| v.滑动( glide的过去式和过去分词 )；掠过；（鸟或飞机 ） 滑翔 | |
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4
tranquil
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| adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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5
brutal
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| adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的 | |
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6
reassure
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| v.使放心，使消除疑虑 | |
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agitation
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| n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动 | |
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beseechingly
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| adv. 恳求地 | |
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fawningly
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| adv.奉承地，讨好地 | |
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10
kin
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| n.家族，亲属，血缘关系；adj.亲属关系的，同类的 | |
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11
shuddered
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| v.战栗( shudder的过去式和过去分词 )；发抖；（机器、车辆等）突然震动；颤动 | |
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12
ineffable
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| adj.无法表达的，不可言喻的 | |
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13
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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14
sobbed
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| 哭泣，啜泣( sob的过去式和过去分词 )； 哭诉，呜咽地说 | |
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15
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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16
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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17
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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18
nought
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| n.／adj.无，零 | |
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20
wrung
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| 绞( wring的过去式和过去分词 )； 握紧（尤指别人的手）； 把（湿衣服）拧干； 绞掉（水） | |
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21
thicket
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| n.灌木丛，树林 | |
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22
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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23
vows
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| 誓言( vow的名词复数 )； 郑重宣布，许愿 | |
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24
hoarse
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| adj.嘶哑的，沙哑的 | |
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25
tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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26
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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27
vacancy
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| n.（旅馆的）空位，空房，（职务的）空缺 | |
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28
mule
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| n.骡子，杂种，执拗的人 | |
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29
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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30
savagely
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| adv. 野蛮地，残酷地 | |
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31
brook
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| n.小河，溪；v.忍受，容让 | |
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32
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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33
cuff
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| n.袖口；手铐；护腕；vt.用手铐铐；上袖口 | |
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34
descended
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| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
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35
pebbles
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| [复数]鹅卵石； 沙砾； 卵石，小圆石( pebble的名词复数 ) | |
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36
varnished
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| 浸渍过的，涂漆的 | |
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37
drooped
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| 弯曲或下垂，发蔫( droop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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38
misgivings
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| n.疑虑，担忧，害怕；疑虑，担心，恐惧( misgiving的名词复数 )；疑惧 | |
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39
rending
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| v.撕碎( rend的现在分词 )；分裂；（因愤怒、痛苦等而）揪扯（衣服或头发等）；（声音等）刺破 | |
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40
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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41
serpentine
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| adj.蜿蜒的，弯曲的 | |
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42
steered
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| v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导 | |
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