CHAPTER XIV WHEREIN WILL APPEAR THE NAME OF ENJOLRAS' MISTRESS





Courfeyrac, seated on a paving-stone beside Enjolras, continued to insult the cannon, and each time that that gloomy cloud of projectiles which is called grape-shot passed overhead with its terrible sound he assailed it with a burst of irony.



"You are wearing out your lungs, poor, brutal, old fellow, you pain me, you are wasting your row. That's not thunder, it's a cough."



And the bystanders laughed.



Courfeyrac and Bossuet, whose brave good humor increased with the peril, like Madame Scarron, replaced nourishment with pleasantry, and, as wine was lacking, they poured out gayety to all.



"I admire Enjolras," said Bossuet. "His impassive temerity astounds me. He lives alone, which renders him a little sad, perhaps; Enjolras complains of his greatness, which binds him to widowhood. The rest of us have mistresses, more or less, who make us crazy,that is to say, brave. When a man is as much in love as a tiger, the least that he can do is to fight like a lion. That is one way of taking our revenge for the capers that mesdames our grisettes play on us. Roland gets himself killed for Angelique; all our heroism comes from our women. A man without a woman is a pistol without a trigger; it is the woman that sets the man off. Well, Enjolras has no woman. He is not in love, and yet he manages to be intrepid. It is a thing unheard of that a man should be as cold as ice and as bold as fire."



Enjolras did not appear to be listening, but had any one been near him, that person would have heard him mutter in a low voice: "Patria."



Bossuet was still laughing when Courfeyrac exclaimed:



"News!"



And assuming the tone of an usher making an announcement, he added:



"My name is Eight-Pounder."



In fact, a new personage had entered on the scene. This was a second piece of ordnance.



The artillery-men rapidly performed their manoeuvres in force and placed this second piece in line with the first.



This outlined the catastrophe.



A few minutes later, the two pieces, rapidly served, were firing point-blank at the redoubt; the platoon firing of the line and of the soldiers from the suburbs sustained the artillery.



Another cannonade was audible at some distance. At the same time that the two guns were furiously attacking the redoubt from the Rue de la Chanvrerie, two other cannons, trained one from the Rue Saint-Denis, the other from the Rue Aubry-le-Boucher, were riddling the Saint-Merry barricade. The four cannons echoed each other mournfully.



The barking of these sombre dogs of war replied to each other.



One of the two pieces which was now battering the barricade on the Rue de la Chanvrerie was firing grape-shot, the other balls.



The piece which was firing balls was pointed a little high, and the aim was calculated so that the ball struck the extreme edge of the upper crest of the barricade, and crumbled the stone down upon the insurgents, mingled with bursts of grape-shot.



The object of this mode of firing was to drive the insurgents from the summit of the redoubt, and to compel them to gather close in the interior, that is to say, this announced the assault.



The combatants once driven from the crest of the barricade by balls, and from the windows of the cabaret by grape-shot, the attacking columns could venture into the street without being picked off, perhaps, even, without being seen, could briskly and suddenly scale the redoubt, as on the preceding evening, and, who knows? Take it by surprise.



"It is absolutely necessary that the inconvenience of those guns should be diminished," said Enjolras, and he shouted: "Fire on the artillery-men!"



All were ready. The barricade, which had long been silent,poured forth a desperate fire; seven or eight discharges followed, with a sort of rage and joy; the street was filled with blinding smoke, and, at the end of a few minutes, athwart this mist all streaked with flame, two thirds of the gunners could be distinguished lying beneath the wheels of the cannons. Those who were left standing continued to serve the pieces with severe tranquillity, but the fire had slackened.



"Things are going well now," said Bossuet to Enjolras. "Success."



Enjolras shook his head and replied:



"Another quarter of an hour of this success, and there will not be any cartridges left in the barricade."



It appears that Gavroche overheard this remark.







十四　这儿看到了安灼拉情人的名字





古费拉克坐在安灼拉旁边一块铺路石上，继续辱骂那门大炮，每次随着巨响迸射出被称为霰弹的大量炮弹时，他就用一连串的讽刺话来数落它。



"可怜的老畜生，你大叫大嚷，我替你难受，你吼不响了，这不象是放炮，而是在咳嗽呀。"



他周围的人哄然大笑起来。



古费拉克和博须埃，他们的英雄气概和舒畅心情随着危机与时俱增，就象斯卡隆夫人①那样，用开玩笑来代替饮食，因为没有葡萄酒了，他们就向群众灌注欢乐。



①斯卡隆夫人（Madame　Scarron），路易十四的情妇。　



博须埃说："我佩服安灼拉，他那沉着的胆量使我惊叹。他过着孤独的生活，这可能使他有些抑郁。安灼拉因他的伟大事业使他束身鳏居而抱怨，我们这些人，多少有些情妇使我们狂热，也就是说使我们勇敢。一个人能象老虎那样恋爱，至少也会象狮子那样去战斗。这也是对那些给我们颜色看的娘儿们的一种报复。罗兰①让人杀死自己，为的是使安杰丽嘉烦恼。我们的大无畏精神是从女人那儿来的。一个没有女人的男人是一支没有撞针的手枪；使男人奋发的正是女人。安灼拉没有女人，他不谈恋爱，可是他胆大无畏。一个人能冷若冰霜而又猛如烈火，这真是不可思议。"



安灼拉似乎不在听人讲话，可是如果有谁在他身旁，就会听到他在喃喃低语："祖国。"②博须埃还在谈笑，古费拉克突然大叫：



"来了个新玩意儿！"



①指意大利诗人阿里欧斯托（Arioste，1474-1533）的长诗《疯狂的罗兰》



中的主人公，他热恋着安杰丽嘉。



②"祖国"原文是拉丁文patria。



然后，模仿看门人的通报语调，又加上了一句：



"八磅炮阁下。"



确实，一个新脚色登上了舞台。这是第二门火炮。



炮兵们迅速而使劲地操作着，把这第二尊炮架好在第一尊旁边，准备射击。



这样就出现了收场的局面。



过不多久，这两门炮立刻进入战斗，对准街垒轰击，作战分队和郊区分队用排枪协助作战。



稍远处，人们还听到其他的炮火声。在这两门炮猛力轰击麻厂街棱堡的同时，另外又有两门炮，一门瞄准圣德尼街，另一门对着奥白利屠夫街，把圣美里街垒打得弹痕累累，有如筛孔。这四门炮相互间的回声都凄厉哀怨。



警犬阴郁的吠声也相互呼应。



轰击麻厂街街垒的两门炮，一门使用霰弹，一门发射实心弹。



那门发射实心弹的炮口瞄准得高些，算好要让炮弹击中街垒顶层，把它削平，把铺路石打成碎片，象霰弹一样去击伤那些起义者。



这样轰击的用意是想把棱堡顶上的战士赶下去，迫使他们退进街垒，也就是说总攻已迫在眉睫了。



当实心弹把战士从街垒顶上轰下来、霰弹又把小酒店窗口的起义者驱散以后，这样突击中队就可以冲进街道而不致遭到射击，甚至不被发觉，就可以象昨晚那样突然爬进棱堡，谁知道呢？也许可以用奇袭的办法拿下街垒。



"必须减轻这两门炮的干扰，"安灼拉说，接着他大声喊道，"向炮兵开火！"



人人都准备好了。沉寂了那么久的街垒又奋起开枪射击了，他们猛烈而欢快地连续发射了七八排枪弹，街上充满了浓烟，教人睁不开眼睛。几分钟过后，透过这有着一道道火焰的烟雾，大家可以隐约看到三分之二的炮兵已经倒在炮轮之下了。依然站着的那几个炮兵强作镇静，仍在使用那些火器，可是火力已经慢了下来。



"好极了，"博须埃向安灼拉说，"很成功！"



安灼拉摇摇头，回答说：



"这样的成功。再过它一刻钟，街垒里便剩不下十颗子弹了。"



伽弗洛什好象听到了这句话。
关键字:Les Miserables,悲惨世界Volume 5 Jean Valjean
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