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Selected Writings-Part4_Guy De Maupassant(1850-1893)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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Mademoiselle Fifi WOULD HAVE A MINE, and on that occasion all the



officers thoroughly enjoyed themselves for five minutes. The

little marquis went into the drawing-room to get what he wanted,



and he brought back a small, delicate china teapot, which he

filled with gunpowder, and carefully introduced a piece of German



tinder into it, through the spout. Then he lighted it, and took

this infernal machine into the next room; but he came back



immediately and shut the door. The Germans all stood expectantly,

their faces full of childish, smiling curiosity, and as soon as



the explosion had shaken the chateau, they all rushed in at once.

Mademoiselle Fifi, who got in first, clapped his hands in delight



at the sight of a terra-cotta Venus, whose head had been blown

off, and each picked up pieces of porcelain, and wondered at the



strange shape of the fragments, while the major was looking with

a paternal eye at the large drawing-room which had been wrecked



in such a Neronic fashion, and which was strewn with the

fragments of works of art. He went out first, and said, with a



smile: "He managed that very well!"

But there was such a cloud of smoke in the dining-room, mingled



with the tobacco smoke, that they could not breathe, so the

commandant opened the window, and all the officers, who had gone



into the room for a glass of cognac, went up to it.

The moist air blew into the room, and brought a sort of spray



with it, which powdered their beards. They looked at the tall

trees which were dripping with the rain, at the broad valley



which was covered with mist, and at the church spire in the

distance, which rose up like a gray point in the beating rain.



The bells had not rung since their arrival. That was the only

resistance which the invaders had met with in the neighborhood.



The parishpriest had not refused to take in and to feed the

Prussian soldiers; he had several times even drunk a bottle of



beer or claret with the hostile commandant, who often employed

him as a benevolent intermediary; but it was no use to ask him



for a single stroke of the bells; he would sooner have allowed

himself to be shot. That was his way of protesting against the



invasion, a peaceful and silent protest, the only one, he said,

which was suitable to a priest, who was a man of mildness, and



not of blood; and everyone, for twenty-five miles round, praised

Abbe Chantavoine's firmness and heroism, in venturing to proclaim



the public mourning by the obstinate silence of his church bells.

The whole village grew enthusiastic over his resistance, and was



ready to back up their pastor and to risk anything, as they

looked upon that silent protest as the safeguard of the national



honor. It seemed to the peasants that thus they had deserved

better of their country than Belfort and Strassburg, that they



had set an equallyvaluable example, and that the name of their

little village would become immortalized by that; but with that



exception, they refused their Prussian conquerors nothing.

The commandant and his officers laughed among themselves at that



inoffensive courage, and as the people in the whole country round

showed themselves obliging and compliant toward them, they



willingly tolerated their silent patriotism. Only little Count

Wilhelm would have liked to have forced them to ring the bells.



He was very angry at his superior's politic compliance with the

priest's scruples, and every day he begged the commandant to



allow him to sound "ding-dong, ding-dong," just once, only just

once, just by way of a joke. And he asked it like a wheedling



woman, in the tender voice of some mistress who wishes to obtain

something, but the commandant would not yield, and to console



HERSELF, Mademoiselle Fifi made A MINE in the chateau.

The five men stood there together for some minutes, inhaling the



moist air, and at last, Lieutenant Fritz said, with a laugh: "The

ladies will certainly not have fine weather for their drive."



Then they separated, each to his own duties, while the captain

had plenty to do in seeing about the dinner.



When they met again, as it was growing dark, they began to laugh

at seeing each other as dandified and smart as on the day of a



grand review. The commandant's hair did not look as gray as it

did in the morning, and the captain had shaved--had only kept his



mustache on, which made him look as if he had a streak of fire




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