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

The Prisoner of Zenda-Part23_Anthony Hope(1863-1933)_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
and he had received a wound, in the embrasure of the window.



Till nearly half-past two Sapt waited; then, following my orders,

he had sent Fritz to search the banks of the moat. I was not there.



Hastening back, Fritz told Sapt; and Sapt was for following orders still,

and riding at full speed back to Tarlenheim; while Fritz would not hear



of abandoning me, let me have ordered what I would. On this they disputed

some few minutes; then Sapt, persuaded by Fritz, detached a party



under Bernenstein to gallop back to Tarlenheim and bring up the marshal,

while the rest fell to on the great door of the chateau.



For several minutes it resisted them; then, just as Antoinette de Mauban

fired at Rupert of Hentzau on the bridge, they broke in,



eight of them in all: and the first door they came to was the door

of Michael's room; and Michael lay dead across the threshold,



with a sword-thrust through his breast. Sapt cried out at his death,

as I had heard, and they rushed on the servants; but these, in fear,



dropped their weapons, and Antoinette flung herself weeping at Sapt's feet.

And all she cried was,that I had been at the end of the bridge and leapt off.



"What of the prisoner?" asked Sapt; but she shook her head. Then Sapt

and Fritz, with the gentlemen behind them, crossed the bridge,



slowly, warily, and without noise; and Fritz stumbled over

the body of De Gautet in the way of the door. They felt him



and found him dead.

Then they consulted, listening eagerly for any sound from



the cells below; but there came none, and they were greatly

afraid that the King's guards had killed him, and having



pushed his body through the great pipe, had escaped the same

way themselves. Yet, because I had been seen here, they had



still some hope (thus indeed Fritz, in his friendship, told me);

and going back to Michael's body, pushing aside Antoinette,



who prayed by it, they found a key to the door which I had locked,

and opened the door. The staircase was dark, and they would not



use a torch at first, lest they should be more exposed to fire.

But soon Fritz cried: "The door down there is open! See, there is light!"



So they went on boldly, and found none to oppose them. And when they

came to the outer room and saw the Belgian, Bersonin, lying dead,



they thanked God, Sapt saying: "Ay, he has been here." Then rushing

into the King's cell, they found Detchard lying dead across



the dead physician, and the King on his back with his chair by him.

And Fritz cried: "He's dead!" and Sapt drove all out of the room



except Fritz, and knelt down by the King; and, having learnt more

of wounds and the sign of death than I, he soon knew that the King



was not dead, nor, if properly attended, would die. And they covered

his face and carried him to Duke Michael's room, and laid him there;



and Antoinette rose from praying by the body of the duke and went

to bathe the King's head and dress his wounds, till a doctor came.



And Sapt, seeing I had been there, and having heard Antoinette's story,

sent Fritz to search the moat and then the forest. He dared send no one else.



And Fritz found my horse, and feared the worst. Then, as I have told,

he found me, guided by the shout with which I had called on Rupert



to stop and face me. And I think a man has never been more glad

to find his own brother alive than was Fritz to come on me; so that,



in love and anxiety for me, he thought nothing of a thing so great

as would have been the death of Rupert Hentzau. Yet, had Fritz



killed him, I should have grudged it.

The enterprise of the King's rescue being thus prosperously



concluded, it lay on Colonel Sapt to secure secrecy as to the

King ever having been in need of rescue. Antoinette de Mauban



and Johann the keeper (who, indeed, was too much hurt to be

wagging his tongue just now) were sworn to reveal nothing;



and Fritz went forth to find--not the King, but the unnamed

friend of the King, who had lain in Zenda and flashed for a



moment before the dazed eyes of Duke Michael's servants on

the drawbridge. The metamorphosis had happened; and the King,



wounded almost to death by the attacks of the gaolers who

guarded his friend, had at last overcome them, and rested now,



wounded but alive, in Black Michael's own room in the Castle.

There he had been carried, his face covered with a cloak,



from the cell; and thence orders issued, that if his friend were

found, he should be brought directly and privately to the King,



and that meanwhile messengers should ride at full speed to

Tarlenheim, to tell Marshall Strakencz to assure the princess of



the King's safety and to come himself with all speed to greet

the King. The princess was enjoined to remain at Tarlenheim,



and there await her cousin's coming or his further injunctions.

Thus the King would come to his own again, having wrought






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