Alas10! it was his unlucky day. His sincere desire and honest endeavour to perjure11 himself were baffled by a circumstance he had never foreseen nor indeed thought possible.
He had spoken the truth.
The officers, on reaching “The Silver Lion”, found the birds were flown.
They went down to the river, and from intelligence they received there, started up the bank in hot pursuit.
This temporary escape the friends owed to Denys's good sense and observation. After a peal13 of laughter, that it was a cordial to hear, and after venting14 his watchword three times, he turned short grave, and told Gerard Dusseldorf was no place for them. “That old fellow,” said he, “went off unnaturally15 silent for such a babbler: we are strangers here; the bailiff is his friend: in five minutes we shall lie in a dungeon16 for assaulting a Dusseldorf dignity, are you strong enough to hobble to the water's edge? it is hard by. Once there you have but to lie down in a boat instead of a bed; and what is the odds17?”
“The odds, Denys? untold18, and all in favour of the boat. I pine for Rome; for Rome is my road to Sevenbergen; and then we shall lie in the boat, but ON the Rhine, the famous Rhine; the cool, refreshing19 Rhine. I feel its breezes coming: the very sight will cure a little hop-'o-my-thumb fever like mine; away! away!”
Finding his excitable friend in this mood, Denys settled hastily with the landlord, and they hurried to the river. On inquiry20 they found to their dismay that the public boat was gone this half hour, and no other would start that day, being afternoon. By dint21, however, of asking a great many questions, and collecting a crowd, they obtained an offer of a private boat from an old man and his two sons.
“No need,” said the old man. “Bless your silly heart, he owns t'other boat.”
There was a powerful breeze right astern; the boatmen set a broad sail, and rowing also, went off at a spanking25 rate.
“Are ye better, lad, for the river breeze?”
“Much better. But indeed the doctor did me good.”
“The doctor? Why, you would none of his cures.”
“Amiable dove! how thy little character opens more and more every day, like a rosebud28. I read thee all wrong at first.”
“Nay29, Denys, mistake me not, neither. I trust I had borne with his idle threats, though in sooth his voice went through my poor ears; but he was an infidel, or next door to one, and such I have been taught to abhor30. Did he not as good as say, we owed our inward parts to men with long Greek names, and not to Him, whose name is but a syllable31, but whose hand is over all the earth? Pagan!”
“Now, Denys, you will still be jesting. Take not an ill man's part. Had it been a thunderbolt from Heaven, he had met but his due; yet he took but a sorry bolster33 from this weak arm.”
“What weak arm?” inquired Denys, with twinkling eyes. “I have lived among arms, and by Samson's hairy pow never saw I one more like a catapult. The bolster wrapped round his nose and the two ends kissed behind his head, and his forehead resounded34, and had he been Goliath, or Julius Caesar, instead of an old quacksalver, down he had gone. St. Denys guard me from such feeble opposites as thou! and above all from their weak arms—thou diabolical35 young hypocrite.”
The river took many turns, and this sometimes brought the wind on their side instead of right astern. Then they all moved to the weather side to prevent the boat heeling over too much all but a child of about five years old, the grandson of the boatman, and his darling; this urchin36 had slipped on board at the moment of starting, and being too light to affect the boat's trim, was above, or rather below, the laws of navigation.
They sailed merrily on, little conscious that they were pursued by a whole posse of constables37 armed with the bailiff's writ38, and that their pursuers were coming up with them; for if the wind was strong, so was the current.
And now Gerard suddenly remembered that this was a very good way to Rome, but not to Burgundy. “Oh, Denys,” said he, with an almost alarmed look, “this is not your road.”
“I know it,” said Denys quietly; “but what can I do? I cannot leave thee till the fever leaves thee; and it is on thee still, for thou art both red and white by turns; I have watched thee. I must e'en go on to Cologne, I doubt, and then strike across.”
“Thank Heaven,” said Gerard joyfully39. He added eagerly, with a little touch of self-deception, “'Twere a sin to be so near Cologne and not see it. Oh, man, it is a vast and ancient city such as I have often dreamed of, but ne'er had the good luck to see. Me miserable40, by what hard fortune do I come to it now? Well then, Denys,” continued the young man less warmly, “it is old enough to have been founded by a Roman lady in the first century of grace, and sacked by Attila the barbarous, and afterwards sore defaced by the Norman Lothaire. And it has a church for every week in the year forbye chapels41 and churches innumerable of convents and nunneries, and above all, the stupendous minster yet unfinished, and therein, but in their own chapel42, lie the three kings that brought gifts to our Lord, Melchior gold, and Gaspar frankincense, and Balthazar the black king, he brought myrrh; and over their bones stands the shrine43 the wonder of the world; it is of ever-shining brass44 brighter than gold, studded with images fairly wrought45, and inlaid with exquisite46 devices, and brave with colours; and two broad stripes run to and fro, of jewels so great, so rare, each might adorn47 a crown or ransom48 its wearer at need; and upon it stand the three kings curiously49 counterfeited50, two in solid silver, richly gilt51; these be bareheaded; but he of Aethiop ebony, and beareth a golden crown; and in the midst our blessed Lady, in virgin52 silver, with Christ in her arms; and at the corners, in golden branches, four goodly waxen tapers53 do burn night and day. Holy eyes have watched and renewed that light unceasingly for ages, and holy eyes shall watch them in saecula. I tell thee, Denys, the oldest song, the oldest Flemish or German legend, found them burning, and they shall light the earth to its grave. And there is St. Ursel's church, a British saint's, where lie her bones and all the other virgins54 her fellows; eleven thousand were they who died for the faith, being put to the sword by barbarous Moors55, on the twenty-third day of October, two hundred and thirty-eight. Their bones are piled in the vaults56, and many of their skulls57 are in the church. St. Ursel's is in a thin golden case, and stands on the high altar, but shown to humble58 Christians59 only on solemn days.”
“Eleven thousand virgins!” cried Denys. “What babies German men must have been in days of yore. Well, would all their bones might turn flesh again, and their skulls sweet faces, as we pass through the gates. 'Tis odds but some of them are wearied of their estate by this time.”
“Tush, Denys!” said Gerard; “why wilt60 thou, being good, still make thyself seem evil? If thy wishing-cap be on, pray that we may meet the meanest she of all those wise virgins in the next world, and to that end let us reverence61 their holy dust in this one. And then there is the church of the Maccabees, and the cauldron in which they and their mother Solomona were boiled by a wicked king for refusing to eat swine's flesh.”
“Oh, peremptory62 king! and pig-headed Maccabees! I had eaten bacon with my pork liever than change places at the fire with my meat.”
“Nay, bridle64 thy choler, and tell me, are there nought but churches in this thy so vaunted city? for I affect rather Sir Knight65 than Sir Priest.”
“Ay, marry, there is an university near a hundred years old; and there is a market-place, no fairer in the world, and at the four sides of it houses great as palaces; and there is a stupendous senate-house all covered with images, and at the head of them stands one of stout66 Herman Gryn, a soldier like thyself, lad.”
“A rare one. He slew69 a lion in fair combat, with nought but his cloak and a short sword. He thrust the cloak in the brute's mouth, and cut his spine70 in twain, and there is the man's effigy71 and eke3 the lion's to prove it. The like was never done but by three more, I ween; Samson was one, and Lysimachus of Macedon another, and Benaiah, a captain of David's host.”
“Marry! three tall fellows. I would like well to sup with them all to-night.”
“So would not I,” said Gerard drily.
“But tell me,” said Denys, with some surprise, “when wast thou in Cologne?”
“Never but in the spirit. I prattle72 with the good monks73 by the way, and they tell me all the notable things both old and new.
“Ay, ay, have not I seen your nose under their very cowls? But when I speak of matters that are out of sight, my words they are small, and the thing it was big; now thy words be as big or bigger than the things; art a good limner with thy tongue; I have said it; and for a saint, as ready with hand, or steel, or bolster—as any poor sinner living; and so, shall I tell thee which of all these things thou hast described draws me to Cologne?”
“Ay, Denys.”
“Thou, and thou only; no dead saint, but my living friend and comrade true; 'tis thou alone draws Denys of Burgundy to Cologne?”
Gerard hung his head.
At this juncture74 one of the younger boatmen suddenly inquired what was amiss with “little turnip-face?”
His young nephew thus described had just come aft grave as a judge, and burst out crying in the midst without more ado. On this phenomenon, so sharply defined, he was subjected to many interrogatories, some coaxingly75 uttered, some not. Had he hurt himself? had he over-ate himself? was he frightened? was he cold? was he sick? was he an idiot?
To all and each he uttered the same reply, which English writers render thus, oh! oh! oh! and French writers thus, hi! hi! hi! So fixed76 are Fiction's phonetics.
“Who can tell what ails77 the peevish78 brat79?” snarled80 the young boatman impatiently. “Rather look this way and tell me whom be these after!” The old man and his other son looked, and saw four men walking along the east bank of the river; at the sight they left rowing awhile, and gathered mysteriously in the stern, whispering and casting glances alternately at their passengers and the pedestrians81.
The sequel may show they would have employed speculation82 better in trying to fathom83 the turnip-face mystery; I beg pardon of my age: I mean the deep mind of dauntless infancy84.
“If 'tis as I doubt,” whispered one of the young men, “why not give them a squeak85 for their lives; let us make for the west bank.”
The old man objected stoutly86. “What,” said he, “run our heads into trouble for strangers! are ye mad? Nay, let us rather cross to the east side; still side with the strong arm! that is my rede. What say you, Werter?”
“I say, please yourselves.”
What age and youth could not decide upon, a puff87 of wind settled most impartially88. Came a squall, and the little vessel89 heeled over; the men jumped to windward to trim her; but to their horror they saw in the very boat from stem to stern a ditch of water rushing to leeward90, and the next moment they saw nothing, but felt the Rhine, the cold and rushing Rhine.
The officers unwound the cords from their waists.
Gerard could swim like a duck; but the best swimmer, canted out of a boat capsized, must sink ere he can swim. The dark water bubbled loudly over his head, and then he came up almost blind and deaf for a moment; the next, he saw the black boat bottom uppermost, and figures clinging to it; he shook his head like a water-dog, and made for it by a sort of unthinking imitation; but ere he reached it he heard a voice behind him cry not loud but with deep manly92 distress93, “Adieu, comrade, adieu!”
He looked, and there was poor Denys sinking, sinking, weighed down by his wretched arbalest. His face was pale, and his eyes staring wide, and turned despairingly on his dear friend. Gerard uttered a wild cry of love and terror, and made for him, cleaving94 the water madly; but the next moment Denys was under water.
The next, Gerard was after him.
The officers knotted a rope and threw the end in.
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收听单词发音
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1
worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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housekeeper
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| n.管理家务的主妇，女管家 | |
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eke
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| v.勉强度日，节约使用 | |
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4
cauterize
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| v.烧灼；腐蚀 | |
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5
digits
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| n.数字( digit的名词复数 )；手指，足趾 | |
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6
applied
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| adj.应用的；v.应用，适用 | |
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7
imprisoned
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| 下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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8
magistrate
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| n.地方行政官，地方法官，治安官 | |
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meditated
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| 深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑 | |
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alas
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| int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等) | |
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11
perjure
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| v.作伪证；使发假誓 | |
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12
affidavit
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| n.宣誓书 | |
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13
peal
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| n.钟声；v.鸣响 | |
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14
venting
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| 消除； 泄去； 排去； 通风 | |
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15
unnaturally
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| adv.违反习俗地；不自然地；勉强地；不近人情地 | |
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16
dungeon
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| n.地牢，土牢 | |
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17
odds
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| n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别 | |
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18
untold
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| adj.数不清的，无数的 | |
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refreshing
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| adj.使精神振作的，使人清爽的，使人喜欢的 | |
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20
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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21
dint
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| n.由于，靠；凹坑 | |
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22
ridiculed
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| v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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23
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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invalid
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| n.病人，伤残人；adj.有病的，伤残的；无效的 | |
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25
spanking
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| adj.强烈的，疾行的；n.打屁股 | |
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26
nought
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| n.／adj.无，零 | |
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soothed
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| v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦 | |
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28
rosebud
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| n.蔷薇花蕾，妙龄少女 | |
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29
nay
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| adv.不；n.反对票，投反对票者 | |
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30
abhor
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| v.憎恶；痛恨 | |
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31
syllable
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| n.音节；vt.分音节 | |
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32
Christian
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| adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒 | |
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33
bolster
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| n.枕垫；v.支持，鼓励 | |
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34
resounded
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| v.（指声音等）回荡于某处( resound的过去式和过去分词 )；产生回响；（指某处）回荡着声音 | |
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35
diabolical
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| adj.恶魔似的，凶暴的 | |
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urchin
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| n.顽童；海胆 | |
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37
constables
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| n.警察( constable的名词复数 ) | |
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38
writ
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| n.命令状，书面命令 | |
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joyfully
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| adv. 喜悦地, 高兴地 | |
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miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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chapels
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| n.小教堂， （医院、监狱等的）附属礼拜堂( chapel的名词复数 )；（在小教堂和附属礼拜堂举行的）礼拜仪式 | |
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chapel
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| n.小教堂，殡仪馆 | |
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43
shrine
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| n.圣地，神龛，庙；v.将...置于神龛内，把...奉为神圣 | |
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44
brass
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| n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器 | |
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45
wrought
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| v.引起；以…原料制作；运转；adj.制造的 | |
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exquisite
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| adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的 | |
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adorn
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| vt.使美化，装饰 | |
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48
ransom
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| n.赎金，赎身；v.赎回，解救 | |
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49
curiously
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| adv.有求知欲地；好问地；奇特地 | |
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counterfeited
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| v.仿制，造假( counterfeit的过去分词 ) | |
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51
gilt
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| adj.镀金的；n.金边证券 | |
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52
virgin
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| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
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53
tapers
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| （长形物体的）逐渐变窄( taper的名词复数 )； 微弱的光； 极细的蜡烛 | |
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54
virgins
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| 处女，童男( virgin的名词复数 )； 童贞玛利亚（耶稣之母） | |
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55
moors
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| v.停泊，系泊（船只）( moor的第三人称单数 ) | |
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56
vaults
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| n.拱顶( vault的名词复数 )；地下室；撑物跳高；墓穴 | |
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57
skulls
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| 颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜 | |
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58
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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59
Christians
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| n.基督教徒( Christian的名词复数 ) | |
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60
wilt
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| v.(使)植物凋谢或枯萎；(指人)疲倦，衰弱 | |
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61
reverence
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| n.敬畏，尊敬，尊严；Reverence:对某些基督教神职人员的尊称；v.尊敬，敬畏，崇敬 | |
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62
peremptory
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| adj.紧急的，专横的，断然的 | |
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63
scurvy
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| adj.下流的，卑鄙的，无礼的；n.坏血病 | |
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64
bridle
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| n.笼头，束缚；vt.抑制，约束；动怒 | |
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65
knight
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| n.骑士，武士；爵士 | |
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67
feat
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| n.功绩；武艺，技艺；adj.灵巧的，漂亮的，合适的 | |
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68
niche
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| n.壁龛；合适的职务(环境、位置等) | |
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69
slew
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| v.（使）旋转；n.大量，许多 | |
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70
spine
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| n.脊柱，脊椎；(动植物的)刺；书脊 | |
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71
effigy
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| n.肖像 | |
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72
prattle
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| n.闲谈；v.（小孩般）天真无邪地说话；发出连续而无意义的声音 | |
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73
monks
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| n.修道士，僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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74
juncture
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| n.时刻，关键时刻，紧要关头 | |
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75
coaxingly
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| adv. 以巧言诱哄，以甘言哄骗 | |
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76
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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77
ails
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| v.生病( ail的第三人称单数 )；感到不舒服；处境困难；境况不佳 | |
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78
peevish
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| adj.易怒的，坏脾气的 | |
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79
brat
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| n.孩子；顽童 | |
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snarled
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| v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的过去式和过去分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说 | |
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81
pedestrians
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| n.步行者( pedestrian的名词复数 ) | |
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82
speculation
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| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
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83
fathom
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| v.领悟，彻底了解 | |
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84
infancy
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| n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期 | |
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85
squeak
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| n.吱吱声，逃脱；v.（发出）吱吱叫，侥幸通过；（俚）告密 | |
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stoutly
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| adv.牢固地，粗壮的 | |
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puff
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| n.一口(气)；一阵(风)；v.喷气，喘气 | |
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impartially
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| adv.公平地，无私地 | |
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vessel
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| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
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leeward
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| adj.背风的；下风的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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92
manly
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| adj.有男子气概的；adv.男子般地，果断地 | |
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distress
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| n.苦恼，痛苦，不舒适；不幸；vt.使悲痛 | |
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cleaving
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| v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的现在分词 ) | |
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