酷兔英语
    当前位置:
  1. 首页
  2. 文章
  3. 娱乐英语
  4. 原版小说
  5. 正文

An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge-Part1_Ambrose Bierce(1842-1914)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

0 收藏 0 分享 0 赞

章节正文
文章总共2页


soldier rode up to the gate and asked for a drink of water.

Mrs. Fahrquhar was only too happy to serve him with her own



white hands. While she was fetching the water her husband

approached the dusty horseman and inquired eagerly for news



from the front.

"The Yanks are repairing the railroads," said the man, "and



are getting ready for another advance. They have reached the

Owl Creek bridge, put it in order and built a stockade on the



north bank. The commandant has issued an order, which is

posted everywhere, declaring that any civilian caught



interfering with the railroad, its bridges, tunnels, or

trains will be summarily hanged. I saw the order."



"How far is it to the Owl Creek bridge?" Fahrquhar asked.

"About thirty miles."



"Is there no force on this side of the creek?"

"Only a picket post half a mile out, on the railroad, and a



single sentinel at this end of the bridge."

"Suppose a man -- a civilian and student of hanging --



should elude the picket post and perhaps get the better of

the sentinel," said Fahrquhar, smiling, "what could he



accomplish?"

The soldier reflected. "I was there a month ago," he



replied. "I observed that the flood of last winter had

lodged a great quantity of driftwood against the wooden pier



at this end of the bridge. It is now dry and would burn like

tinder."



The lady had now brought the water, which the soldier drank.

He thanked her ceremoniously, bowed to her husband and rode



away. An hour later, after nightfall, he repassed the

plantation, going northward in the direction from which he



had come. He was a Federal scout.

III



As Peyton Fahrquhar fell straight downward through the

bridge he lost consciousness and was as one already dead.



From this state he was awakened -- ages later, it seemed to

him -- by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat,



followed by a sense of suffocation. Keen, poignant agonies

seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of



his body and limbs. These pains appeared to flash along well

defined lines of ramification and to beat with an



inconceivably rapid periodicity. They seemed like streams of

pulsating fire heating him to an intolerable temperature. As



to his head, he was conscious of nothing but a feeling of

fullness -- of congestion. These sensations were



unaccompanied by thought. The intellectual part of his

nature was already effaced; he had power only to feel, and



feeling was torment. He was conscious of motion.

Encompassed in a luminous cloud, of which he was now merely



the fiery heart, without material substance, he swung

through unthinkable arcs of oscillation, like a vast



pendulum. Then all at once, with terrible suddenness, the

light about him shot upward with the noise of a loud splash;



a frightful roaring was in his ears, and all was cold and

dark. The power of thought was restored; he knew that the



rope had broken and he had fallen into the stream. There was

no additional strangulation; the noose about his neck



was already suffocating him and kept the water from his

lungs. To die of hanging at the bottom of a river! -- the



idea seemed to him ludicrous. He opened his eyes in the

darkness and saw above him a gleam of light, but how distant,



how inaccessible! He was still sinking, for the light became

fainter and fainter until it was a mere glimmer. Then it



began to grow and brighten, and he knew that he was rising

toward the surface -- knew it with reluctance, for he was now



very comfortable. "To be hanged and drowned," he thought,

"that is not so bad; but I do not wish to be shot. No; I



will not be shot; that is not fair."

He was not conscious of an effort, but a sharp pain in his



wrist apprised him that he was trying to free his hands. He

gave the struggle his attention, as an idler might observe






文章总共2页
文章标签:名著  

章节正文
Copyright © 2023 Qeto All rights reserved.
商务合作 | 联系我们 | 关于我们 | 版权声明 | 隐私条款 | 如果智培

京ICP备05059198号-1 京公网安备 11011202003401号