章节正文
which was to be gathered from my close-shutting lips. But,
for all that, and above all minor distinctions,
the likeness rose striking, salient, wonderful.
Sapt ceased speaking, and the King still frowned. Then, gradually,
the corners of his mouth began to twitch, his nose came down
(as mine does when I laugh), his eyes twinkled, and, behold!
he burst into the merriest fit of irrepressible laughter,
which rang through the woods and proclaimed him a jovial soul.
"Well met, cousin!" he cried, stepping up to me, clapping me
on the back, and laughing still. "You must forgive me if I was
taken aback. A man doesn't expect to see double at this time
of day, eh, Fritz?"
"I must pray pardon, sire, for my presumption," said I.
"I trust it will not forfeit your Majesty's favour."
"By Heaven! you'll always enjoy the King's countenance,"
he laughed, "whether I like it or not; and, sir, I shall very gladly
add to it what services I can. Where are you travelling to?"
"To Strelsau, sire--to the coronation."
The King looked at his friends: he still smiled, though his
expression hinted some uneasiness. But the humorous side of
the matter caught him again.
"Fritz, Fritz!" he cried, "a thousand crowns for a sight
of brother Michael's face when he sees a pair of us!"
and the merry laugh rang out again.
"Seriously," observed Fritz von Tarlenheim, "I question Mr.
Rassendyll's wisdom in visiting Strelsau just now."
The King lit a cigarette.
"Well, Sapt?" said he, questioningly.
"He mustn't go," growled the old fellow.
"Come, colonel, you mean that I should be in Mr. Rassendyll's debt, if--"
"Oh, ay! wrap it up in the right way," said Sapt, hauling a great pipe
out of his pocket.
"Enough, sire," said I. "I'll leave Ruritania today."
"No, by thunder, you shan't--and that's sans phrase, as Sapt likes it.
For you shall dine with me tonight, happen what will afterwards.
Come, man, you don't meet a new relation every day!"
"We dine sparingly tonight," said Fritz von Tarlenheim.
"Not we--with our new cousin for a guest!" cried the King;
and, as Fritz shrugged his shoulders, he added: "Oh!
I'll remember our early start, Fritz."
"So will I--tomorrow morning," said old Sapt, pulling at his pipe.
"O wise old Sapt!" cried the King. "Come, Mr. Rassendyll--by the way,
what name did they give you?"
"Your Majesty's," I answered, bowing.
"Well, that shows they weren't ashamed of us," he laughed.
"Come, then, cousin Rudolf; I've got no house of my own here,
but my dear brother Michael lends us a place of his, and we'll
make shift to entertain you there;" and he put his arm through
mine and, signing to the others to accompany us, walked me off,
westerly, through the forest.
We walked for more than half an hour, and the King smoked
cigarettes and chattered incessantly. He was full of interest
in my family, laughed heartily when I told him of the portraits
with Elphberg hair in our galleries, and yet more heartily when
he heard that my expedition to Ruritania was a secret one.
"You have to visit your disreputable cousin on the sly, have you?"
said he.
Suddenly emerging from the wood, we came on a small and rude hunting-lodge.
It was a one-storey building, a sort of bungalow, built entirely of wood.
As we approached it, a little man in a plain livery came out to meet us.
The only other person I saw about the place was a fat elderly woman,
whom I afterwards discovered to be the mother of Johann, the duke's keeper.
"Well, is dinner ready, Josef?" asked the King.
The little servant informed us that it was, and we soon
sat down to a plentiful meal. The fare was plain enough:
the King ate heartily, Fritz von Tarlenheim delicately,
old Sapt voraciously. I played a good knife and fork,
as my custom is; the King noticed my performance with approval.
"We're all good trenchermen, we Elphbergs," said he. "But what?
--we're eating dry! Wine, Josef! wine, man! Are we beasts,
to eat without drinking? Are we cattle, Josef?"
At this reproof Josef hastened to load the table with bottles.
"Remember tomorrow!" said Fritz.
"Ay--tomorrow!" said old Sapt.
The King drained a bumper to his "Cousin Rudolf," as he was
gracious--or merry--enough to call me; and I drank its fellow
to the "Elphberg Red," whereat he laughed loudly.
Now, be the meat what it might, the wine we drank
was beyond all price or praise, and we did it justice.
Fritz ventured once to stay the King's hand.
"What?" cried the King. "Remember you start before I do,
Master Fritz--you must be more sparing by two hours than I."
Fritz saw that I did not understand.
"The colonel and I," he explained, "leave here at six: we ride
down to Zenda and return with the guard of honour to fetch the
King at eight, and then we all ride together to the station."
"Hang that same guard!" growled Sapt.
"Oh! it's very civil of my brother to ask the honour for his regiment,"
said the King. "Come, cousin, you need not start early.
Another bottle, man!"
I had another bottle--or, rather, a part of one, for the larger half
travelled quickly down his Majesty's throat. Fritz gave up his
attempts at persuasion: from persuading, he fell to being persuaded,
and soon we were all of us as full of wine as we had any right to be.
The King began talking of what he would do in the future, old Sapt
of what he had done in the past, Fritz of some beautiful girl or other,
and I of the wonderful merits of the Elphberg dynasty. We all talked
at once, and followed to the letter Sapt's exhortation to let the morrow
take care of itself.
At last the King set down his glass and leant back in his chair.
"I have drunk enough," said he.
"Far be it from me to contradict the King," said I.
Indeed, his remark was most absolutely true--so far as it went.
While I yet spoke, Josef came and set before the King a marvellous
old wicker-covered flagon. It had lain so long in some darkened cellar
that it seemed to blink in the candlelight.
"His Highness the Duke of Strelsau bade me set this wine
before the King, when the King was weary of all other wines,
and pray the King to drink, for the love that he bears his brother."
"Well done, Black Michael!" said the King. "Out with the cork,
Josef. Hang him! Did he think I'd flinch from his bottle?"
The bottle was opened, and Josef filled the King's glass.
The King tasted it. Then, with a solemnity born of the hour
and his own condition, he looked round on us:
"Gentlemen, my friends--Rudolf, my cousin ('tis a scandalous story,
Rudolf, on my honour!), everything is yours to the half of Ruritania.
But ask me not for a single drop of this divine bottle, which I will
drink to the health of that--that sly knave, my brother, Black Michael."
And the King seized the bottle and turned it over his mouth,
and drained it and flung it from him, and laid his head on his
arms on the table.
And we drank pleasant dreams to his Majesty--and that is all
I remember of the evening. Perhaps it is enough.
CHAPTER 4
The King Keeps His Appointment
Whether I had slept a minute or a year I knew not. I awoke with
a start and a shiver; my face, hair and clothes dripped water,
and opposite me stood old Sapt, a sneering smile on his face
and an empty bucket in his hand. On the table by him sat Fritz
von Tarlenheim, pale as a ghost and black as a crow under the eyes.
I leapt to my feet in anger.
"Your joke goes too far, sir!" I cried.
"Tut, man, we've no time for quarrelling. Nothing else would
rouse you. It's five o'clock."
"I'll thank you, Colonel Sapt--" I began again, hot in spirit,
though I was uncommonly cold in body.
"Rassendyll," interrupted Fritz, getting down from the table
and taking my arm, "look here."
The King lay full length on the floor. His face was red as his hair,
and he breathed heavily. Sapt, the disrespectful old dog,
kicked him sharply. He did not stir, nor was there any break
in his breathing. I saw that his face and head were wet with water,
as were mine.
"We've spent half an hour on him," said Fritz.
"He drank three times what either of you did," growled Sapt.
I knelt down and felt his pulse. It was alarmingly languid
and slow. We three looked at one another.
"Was it drugged--that last bottle?" I asked in a whisper.
"I don't know," said Sapt.
"We must get a doctor."
"There's none within ten miles, and a thousand doctors
wouldn't take him to Strelsau today. I know the look of it.
He'll not move for six or seven hours yet."
"But the coronation!" I cried in horror.
Fritz shrugged his shoulders, as I began to see was his habit
on most occasions.
"We must send word that he's ill," he said.
"I suppose so," said I.
Old Sapt, who seemed as fresh as a daisy, had lit his pipe
and was puffing hard at it.
"If he's not crowned today," said he, "I'll lay a crown he's
never crowned."
"But heavens, why?"
"The whole nation's there to meet him; half the army--ay, and
Black Michael at the head. Shall we send word that the King's drunk?"
"That he's ill," said I, in correction.
"Ill!" echoed Sapt, with a scornful laugh. "They know his
illnesses too well. He's been "ill" before!"
"Well, we must chance what they think," said Fritz helplessly.
"I'll carry the news and make the best of it."
Sapt raised his hand.
"Tell me," said he. "Do you think the King was drugged?"
"I do," said I.
"And who drugged him?"
"That damned hound, Black Michael," said Fritz between his teeth.
"Ay," said Sapt, "that he might not come to be crowned.
Rassendyll here doesn't know our pretty Michael. What think you,
Fritz, has Michael no king ready? Has half Strelsau no other candidate?
As God's alive, man the throne's lost if the King show himself not
in Strelsau today. I know Black Michael."
"We could carry him there," said I.
"And a very pretty picture he makes," sneered Sapt.
Fritz von Tarlenheim buried his face in his hands. The King breathed
loudly and heavily. Sapt stirred him again with his foot.
"The drunken dog!" he said; "but he's an Elphberg and the son
of his father, and may I rot in hell before Black Michael sits
in his place!"
For a moment or two we were all silent; then Sapt, knitting his
bushy grey brows, took his pipe from his mouth and said to me:
"As a man grows old he believes in Fate. Fate sent you here.
Fate sends you now to Strelsau."
I staggered back, murmuring "Good God!"
Fritz looked up with an eager, bewildered gaze.
"Impossible!" I muttered. "I should be known."
"It's a risk--against a certainty," said Sapt. "If you
shave, I'll wager you'll not be known. Are you afraid?"
"Sir!"
"Come, lad, there, there; but it's your life, you know,
if you're known--and mine--and Fritz's here. But, if you don't go,
I swear to you Black Michael will sit tonight on the throne,
and the King lie in prison or his grave."
for all that, and above all minor distinctions,
the likeness rose striking, salient, wonderful.
Sapt ceased speaking, and the King still frowned. Then, gradually,
the corners of his mouth began to twitch, his nose came down
(as mine does when I laugh), his eyes twinkled, and, behold!
he burst into the merriest fit of irrepressible laughter,
which rang through the woods and proclaimed him a jovial soul.
"Well met, cousin!" he cried, stepping up to me, clapping me
on the back, and laughing still. "You must forgive me if I was
taken aback. A man doesn't expect to see double at this time
of day, eh, Fritz?"
"I must pray pardon, sire, for my presumption," said I.
"I trust it will not forfeit your Majesty's favour."
"By Heaven! you'll always enjoy the King's countenance,"
he laughed, "whether I like it or not; and, sir, I shall very gladly
add to it what services I can. Where are you travelling to?"
"To Strelsau, sire--to the coronation."
The King looked at his friends: he still smiled, though his
expression hinted some uneasiness. But the humorous side of
the matter caught him again.
"Fritz, Fritz!" he cried, "a thousand crowns for a sight
of brother Michael's face when he sees a pair of us!"
and the merry laugh rang out again.
"Seriously," observed Fritz von Tarlenheim, "I question Mr.
Rassendyll's wisdom in visiting Strelsau just now."
The King lit a cigarette.
"Well, Sapt?" said he, questioningly.
"He mustn't go," growled the old fellow.
"Come, colonel, you mean that I should be in Mr. Rassendyll's debt, if--"
"Oh, ay! wrap it up in the right way," said Sapt, hauling a great pipe
out of his pocket.
"Enough, sire," said I. "I'll leave Ruritania today."
"No, by thunder, you shan't--and that's sans phrase, as Sapt likes it.
For you shall dine with me tonight, happen what will afterwards.
Come, man, you don't meet a new relation every day!"
"We dine sparingly tonight," said Fritz von Tarlenheim.
"Not we--with our new cousin for a guest!" cried the King;
and, as Fritz shrugged his shoulders, he added: "Oh!
I'll remember our early start, Fritz."
"So will I--tomorrow morning," said old Sapt, pulling at his pipe.
"O wise old Sapt!" cried the King. "Come, Mr. Rassendyll--by the way,
what name did they give you?"
"Your Majesty's," I answered, bowing.
"Well, that shows they weren't ashamed of us," he laughed.
"Come, then, cousin Rudolf; I've got no house of my own here,
but my dear brother Michael lends us a place of his, and we'll
make shift to entertain you there;" and he put his arm through
mine and, signing to the others to accompany us, walked me off,
westerly, through the forest.
We walked for more than half an hour, and the King smoked
cigarettes and chattered incessantly. He was full of interest
in my family, laughed heartily when I told him of the portraits
with Elphberg hair in our galleries, and yet more heartily when
he heard that my expedition to Ruritania was a secret one.
"You have to visit your disreputable cousin on the sly, have you?"
said he.
Suddenly emerging from the wood, we came on a small and rude hunting-lodge.
It was a one-storey building, a sort of bungalow, built entirely of wood.
As we approached it, a little man in a plain livery came out to meet us.
The only other person I saw about the place was a fat elderly woman,
whom I afterwards discovered to be the mother of Johann, the duke's keeper.
"Well, is dinner ready, Josef?" asked the King.
The little servant informed us that it was, and we soon
sat down to a plentiful meal. The fare was plain enough:
the King ate heartily, Fritz von Tarlenheim delicately,
old Sapt voraciously. I played a good knife and fork,
as my custom is; the King noticed my performance with approval.
"We're all good trenchermen, we Elphbergs," said he. "But what?
--we're eating dry! Wine, Josef! wine, man! Are we beasts,
to eat without drinking? Are we cattle, Josef?"
At this reproof Josef hastened to load the table with bottles.
"Remember tomorrow!" said Fritz.
"Ay--tomorrow!" said old Sapt.
The King drained a bumper to his "Cousin Rudolf," as he was
gracious--or merry--enough to call me; and I drank its fellow
to the "Elphberg Red," whereat he laughed loudly.
Now, be the meat what it might, the wine we drank
was beyond all price or praise, and we did it justice.
Fritz ventured once to stay the King's hand.
"What?" cried the King. "Remember you start before I do,
Master Fritz--you must be more sparing by two hours than I."
Fritz saw that I did not understand.
"The colonel and I," he explained, "leave here at six: we ride
down to Zenda and return with the guard of honour to fetch the
King at eight, and then we all ride together to the station."
"Hang that same guard!" growled Sapt.
"Oh! it's very civil of my brother to ask the honour for his regiment,"
said the King. "Come, cousin, you need not start early.
Another bottle, man!"
I had another bottle--or, rather, a part of one, for the larger half
travelled quickly down his Majesty's throat. Fritz gave up his
attempts at persuasion: from persuading, he fell to being persuaded,
and soon we were all of us as full of wine as we had any right to be.
The King began talking of what he would do in the future, old Sapt
of what he had done in the past, Fritz of some beautiful girl or other,
and I of the wonderful merits of the Elphberg dynasty. We all talked
at once, and followed to the letter Sapt's exhortation to let the morrow
take care of itself.
At last the King set down his glass and leant back in his chair.
"I have drunk enough," said he.
"Far be it from me to contradict the King," said I.
Indeed, his remark was most absolutely true--so far as it went.
While I yet spoke, Josef came and set before the King a marvellous
old wicker-covered flagon. It had lain so long in some darkened cellar
that it seemed to blink in the candlelight.
"His Highness the Duke of Strelsau bade me set this wine
before the King, when the King was weary of all other wines,
and pray the King to drink, for the love that he bears his brother."
"Well done, Black Michael!" said the King. "Out with the cork,
Josef. Hang him! Did he think I'd flinch from his bottle?"
The bottle was opened, and Josef filled the King's glass.
The King tasted it. Then, with a solemnity born of the hour
and his own condition, he looked round on us:
"Gentlemen, my friends--Rudolf, my cousin ('tis a scandalous story,
Rudolf, on my honour!), everything is yours to the half of Ruritania.
But ask me not for a single drop of this divine bottle, which I will
drink to the health of that--that sly knave, my brother, Black Michael."
And the King seized the bottle and turned it over his mouth,
and drained it and flung it from him, and laid his head on his
arms on the table.
And we drank pleasant dreams to his Majesty--and that is all
I remember of the evening. Perhaps it is enough.
CHAPTER 4
The King Keeps His Appointment
Whether I had slept a minute or a year I knew not. I awoke with
a start and a shiver; my face, hair and clothes dripped water,
and opposite me stood old Sapt, a sneering smile on his face
and an empty bucket in his hand. On the table by him sat Fritz
von Tarlenheim, pale as a ghost and black as a crow under the eyes.
I leapt to my feet in anger.
"Your joke goes too far, sir!" I cried.
"Tut, man, we've no time for quarrelling. Nothing else would
rouse you. It's five o'clock."
"I'll thank you, Colonel Sapt--" I began again, hot in spirit,
though I was uncommonly cold in body.
"Rassendyll," interrupted Fritz, getting down from the table
and taking my arm, "look here."
The King lay full length on the floor. His face was red as his hair,
and he breathed heavily. Sapt, the disrespectful old dog,
kicked him sharply. He did not stir, nor was there any break
in his breathing. I saw that his face and head were wet with water,
as were mine.
"We've spent half an hour on him," said Fritz.
"He drank three times what either of you did," growled Sapt.
I knelt down and felt his pulse. It was alarmingly languid
and slow. We three looked at one another.
"Was it drugged--that last bottle?" I asked in a whisper.
"I don't know," said Sapt.
"We must get a doctor."
"There's none within ten miles, and a thousand doctors
wouldn't take him to Strelsau today. I know the look of it.
He'll not move for six or seven hours yet."
"But the coronation!" I cried in horror.
Fritz shrugged his shoulders, as I began to see was his habit
on most occasions.
"We must send word that he's ill," he said.
"I suppose so," said I.
Old Sapt, who seemed as fresh as a daisy, had lit his pipe
and was puffing hard at it.
"If he's not crowned today," said he, "I'll lay a crown he's
never crowned."
"But heavens, why?"
"The whole nation's there to meet him; half the army--ay, and
Black Michael at the head. Shall we send word that the King's drunk?"
"That he's ill," said I, in correction.
"Ill!" echoed Sapt, with a scornful laugh. "They know his
illnesses too well. He's been "ill" before!"
"Well, we must chance what they think," said Fritz helplessly.
"I'll carry the news and make the best of it."
Sapt raised his hand.
"Tell me," said he. "Do you think the King was drugged?"
"I do," said I.
"And who drugged him?"
"That damned hound, Black Michael," said Fritz between his teeth.
"Ay," said Sapt, "that he might not come to be crowned.
Rassendyll here doesn't know our pretty Michael. What think you,
Fritz, has Michael no king ready? Has half Strelsau no other candidate?
As God's alive, man the throne's lost if the King show himself not
in Strelsau today. I know Black Michael."
"We could carry him there," said I.
"And a very pretty picture he makes," sneered Sapt.
Fritz von Tarlenheim buried his face in his hands. The King breathed
loudly and heavily. Sapt stirred him again with his foot.
"The drunken dog!" he said; "but he's an Elphberg and the son
of his father, and may I rot in hell before Black Michael sits
in his place!"
For a moment or two we were all silent; then Sapt, knitting his
bushy grey brows, took his pipe from his mouth and said to me:
"As a man grows old he believes in Fate. Fate sent you here.
Fate sends you now to Strelsau."
I staggered back, murmuring "Good God!"
Fritz looked up with an eager, bewildered gaze.
"Impossible!" I muttered. "I should be known."
"It's a risk--against a certainty," said Sapt. "If you
shave, I'll wager you'll not be known. Are you afraid?"
"Sir!"
"Come, lad, there, there; but it's your life, you know,
if you're known--and mine--and Fritz's here. But, if you don't go,
I swear to you Black Michael will sit tonight on the throne,
and the King lie in prison or his grave."
- striking [´straikiŋ]
a.显著的，明显的 (初中英语单词) - forgive [fə´giv] vt.原谅，谅解，宽恕 (初中英语单词)
- pardon [´pɑ:dən] n.&vt.原谅；饶恕；赦免 (初中英语单词)
- wisdom [´wizdəm] n.智慧，聪明，才智 (初中英语单词)
- thunder [´θʌndə] n.雷 vi.打雷 vt.吼出 (初中英语单词)
- phrase [freiz] n.短语；词组；措词 (初中英语单词)
- ashamed [ə´ʃeimd] a.惭愧；不好意思 (初中英语单词)
- entertain [,entə´tein] vt.招待；娱乐；使高兴 (初中英语单词)
- expedition [,ekspi´diʃən] n.远征；探险；迅速 (初中英语单词)
- performance [pə´fɔ:məns] n.履行；行为；工作 (初中英语单词)
- throat [θrəut] n.咽喉；嗓子；出入口 (初中英语单词)
- persuasion [pə´sweiʒən] n.说服(力)；劝说；见解 (初中英语单词)
- absolutely [´æbsəlu:tli] ad.绝对地；确实 (初中英语单词)
- divine [di´vain] a.神圣的 v.预言 (初中英语单词)
- shiver [´ʃivə] v.&n.(使)颤抖；碎片 (初中英语单词)
- sharply [´ʃɑ:pli] ad.锋利地；剧烈地 (初中英语单词)
- drunken [´drʌŋkən] a.喝醉的；常醉的 (初中英语单词)
- knitting [´nitiŋ] n.编织(物)；接合；联合 (初中英语单词)
- likeness [´laiknis] n.相似；肖像；外表 (高中英语单词)
- colonel [´kə:nəl] n.海(陆)军上校 (高中英语单词)
- heartily [´hɑ:tili] ad.衷心地；亲切地 (高中英语单词)
- plentiful [´plentifəl] a.丰富的；多的 (高中英语单词)
- highness [´hainis] n.高，高贵，高尚 (高中英语单词)
- bucket [´bʌkit] n.水桶 (高中英语单词)
- damned [dæmd] a.该死的 ad.非常，极 (高中英语单词)
- twitch [twitʃ] v.&n.(使)抽动；急拉 (英语四级单词)
- forfeit [´fɔ:fit] n.罚金 a.丧失了的 (英语四级单词)
- uneasiness [ʌn´i:zinis] n.不安，担忧；不自在 (英语四级单词)
- humorous [´hju:mərəs] a.富于幽默的，诙谐的 (英语四级单词)
- bungalow [´bʌŋgələu] n.(有凉台的)平房 (英语四级单词)
- livery [´livəri] a.有肝病征象的 (英语四级单词)
- elderly [´eldəli] a. 较老的，年长的 (英语四级单词)
- whereat [weər´æt] ad.对于...；在这里 (英语四级单词)
- dynasty [´dinəsti] n.王朝；朝代 (英语四级单词)
- contradict [,kɔntrə´dikt] v.反驳；否认 (英语四级单词)
- speaking [´spi:kiŋ] n.说话 a.发言的 (英语六级单词)
- incessantly [in´sesntli] ad.不断地，不停地 (英语六级单词)
- reproof [ri´pru:f] n.谴责；责备 (英语六级单词)
- exhortation [,egzɔ:´teiʃən] n.劝告 (英语六级单词)
- solemnity [sə´lemniti] n.庄严；(隆重的)仪式 (英语六级单词)
- taking [´teikiŋ] a.迷人的 n.捕获物 (英语六级单词)
- scornful [´skɔ:nful] a.轻蔑的，藐视的 (英语六级单词)
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章节正文
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