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The Two Brothers-Part18_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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series of scrapes which more or less threatened his safety. He plotted

with the grandsons of Monsieur Hochon to worry the grocers of the



city; he gathered fruit before the owners could pick it, and made

nothing of scaling walls. He had no equal at bodily exercises, he



played base to perfection, and could have outrun a hare. With a keen

eye worthy of Leather-stocking, he loved huntingpassionately. His



time was passed in firing at a mark, instead of studying; and he spent

the money extracted from the old doctor in buying powder and ball for



a wretchedpistol that old Gilet, the sabot-maker, had given him.

During the autumn of 1806, Maxence, then seventeen, committed an



involuntary murder, by frightening in the dusk a young woman who was

pregnant, and who came upon him suddenly while stealing fruit in her



garden. Threatened with the guillotine by Gilet, who doubtless wanted

to get rid of him, Max fled to Bourges, met a regiment then on its way



to Egypt, and enlisted. Nothing came of the death of the young woman.

A young fellow of Max's character was sure to distinguish himself, and



in the course of three campaigns he did distinguish himself so highly

that he rose to be a captain, his lack of education helping him



strenuously. In Portugal, in 1809, he was left for dead in an English

battery, into which his company had penetrated without being able to



hold it. Max, taken prisoner by the English, was sent to the Spanish

hulks at the island of Cabrera, the most horrible of all stations for



prisoners of war. His friends begged that he might receive the cross

of the Legion of honor and the rank of major; but the Emperor was then



in Austria, and he reserved his favors for those who did brilliant

deeds under his own eye: he did not like officers or men who allowed



themselves to be taken prisoner, and he was, moreover, much

dissatisfied with events in Portugal. Max was held at Cabrera from



1810 to 1814.[1] During those years he became utterly demoralized, for

the hulks were like galleys, minus crime and infamy. At the outset, to



maintain his personal free will, and protect himself against the

corruption which made that horrible prison unworthy of a civilized



people, the handsome young captain killed in a duel (for duels were

fought on those hulks in a space scarcely six feet square) seven



bullies among his fellow-prisoners, thus ridding the island of their

tyranny to the great joy of the other victims. After this, Max reigned



supreme in his hulk, thanks to the wonderful ease and address with

which he handled weapons, to his bodily strength, and also to his



extreme cleverness.

[1] The cruelty of the Spaniards to the French prisoners at Cabrera



was very great. In the spring of 1811, H.M. brig "Minorca,"

Captain Wormeley, was sent by Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, then



commanding the Mediterranean fleet, to make a report of their

condition. As she neared the island, the wretched prisoners swam



out to meet her. They were reduced to skin and bone; many of them

were naked; and their miserable condition so moved the seamen of



the "Minorca" that they came aft to the quarter-deck, and asked

permission to subscribe three days' rations for the relief of the



sufferers. Captain Wormeley carried away some of the prisoners,

and his report to Sir Charles Cotton, being sent to the Admiralty,



was made the basis of a remonstrance on the part of the British

government with Spain on the subject of its cruelties. Sir Charles



Cotton despatched Captain Wormeley a second time to Cabrera with a

good many head of live cattle and a large supply of other



provisions.--Tr.

But he, in turn, committed arbitrary acts; there were those who



curried favor with him, and worked his will, and became his minions.

In that school of misery, where bitter minds dreamed only of



vengeance, where the sophistries hatched in such brains were laying




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