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Some Reminiscences-Part9_JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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was an ardent lover of every sport. His temperament was as free

from hardness and animosity as can be imagined. Pupil of the



liberal-minded Benedictines who directed the only public school

of some standing then in the south, he had also read deeply the



authors of the eighteenth century. In him Christian charity was

joined to a philosophicalindulgence for the failings of human



nature. But the memory of these miserablyanxious early years,

his young man's years robbed of all generous illusions by the



cynicism of the sordid lawsuit, stood in the way of forgiveness.

He never succumbed to the fascination of the great shoot; and X,



his heart set to the last on reconciliation with the draft of the

will ready for signature kept by his bedside, died intestate.



The fortune thus acquired and augmented by a wise and careful

management passed to some distant relatives whom he had never



seen and who even did not bear his name.

Meantime the blessing of general peace descended upon Europe.



Mr. Nicholas B., bidding good-bye to his hospitablerelative, the

"fearless" Austrian officer, departed from Galicia, and without



going near his native place, where the odious lawsuit was still

going on, proceeded straight to Warsaw and entered the army of



the newly constituted Polish kingdom under the sceptre of

Alexander I., Autocrat of all the Russias.



This kingdom, created by the Vienna Congress as an acknowledgment

to a nation of its former independent existence, included only



the central provinces of the old Polish patrimony. A brother of

the Emperor, the Grand Duke Constantine (Pavlovitch), its Viceroy



and Commander-in-Chief, married morganatically to a Polish lady

to whom he was fiercely" target="_blank" title="ad.凶猛地，残忍地">fiercely attached, extended this affection to what



he called "My Poles" in a capricious and savage manner. Sallow

in complexion, with a Tartar physiognomy and fierce little eyes,



he walked with his fists clenched, his body bent forward, darting

suspicious glances from under an enormous cocked hat. His



intelligence was limited and his sanity itself was doubtful. The

hereditary taint expressed itself, in his case, not by mystic



leanings as in his two brothers, Alexander and Nicholas (in their

various ways, for one was mystically liberal and the other



mystically autocratic), but by the fury of an uncontrollable

temper which generally broke out in disgusting abuse on the



parade ground. He was a passionate" target="_blank" title="a.易动情的；易怒的">passionate militarist and an amazing

drill-master. He treated his Polish Army as a spoiled child



treats a favourite toy, except that he did not take it to bed

with him at night. It was not small enough for that. But he



played with it all day and every day, delighting in the variety

of pretty uniforms and in the fun of incessant drilling. This



childish passion, not for war but for mere militarism, achieved a

desirable result. The Polish Army, in its equipment, in its



armament and in its battlefieldefficiency, as then understood,

became, by the end of the year 1830, a first-rate tactical



instrument. Polish peasantry (not serfs) served in the ranks by

enlistment, and the officers belonged mainly to the smaller



nobility. Mr. Nicholas B., with his Napoleonic record, had no

difficulty in obtaining a lieutenancy, but the promotion in the



Polish Army was slow, because, being a separate organisation, it

took no part in the wars of the Russian Empire against Persia or



Turkey. Its first campaign, against Russia itself, was to be its

last. In 1831, on the outbreak of the Revolution, Mr. Nicholas






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