【国外文学】The Yarn of Old Harbour Town.docx
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1、【国外文学】The Yarn of Old Harbour TownCHAPTER I LUCY ACTON Old Harbour House stood about a mile from the Harbour. It confronted the town which lay about one mile and a half off, right across a wide, romantic, heavily-wooded ravine. The banks of this gap sloped softly and pleasantly into a plain of meado
2、ws and two or three farms whose dyes of roof and cattle enriched the verdure; and down there ran a river singing in measures of music as it flowed into the Harbour and mingled its bright water with the brine of the deep beyond. Above, on the placid slope of down close against Old Harbour Town, hung
3、a straggler building or two, lonely in importance, or consequential in some trifling pomp of land; at the point of cliff on Old Harbour House side, a low, pursy lighthouse wheezed at night aPg 2 yellow gleam that was a home-greeting or God-speed to some five score fishermen who dredged in these and
4、further waters; and on the brow confronting the lighthouse a venerable windmill revolved its vans against the sky. It has been said that Old Harbour House stood. The house takes its place as a beauty of the past. On Christmas Eve 1832, fire reduced it to a few blackened walls. All through the long n
5、ight the flames made a wild, grand show; sea and land were illuminated for leagues and leagues. Out of the ashes of the beautiful building sprang that commonplace phoenix, the local poet, who celebrated the one tradition of Old Harbour Town in a copy of rhymes, of which the first verse should be fou
6、nd imprinted on the title-page of this book. The house, or at least the front of it, was built after a design by Inigo Jones. The pediment was perforated by a circular window glazed with a casement whose frame resembled the spokes of a ship's wheel. A variety of antique symbolism resembling the
7、hideous sculptures which sometimes close the chapters in books of the seventeenth century, under-ran the eaves. The tall, narrow windows gleamed blackly amidst the skeletons of the winter, or the coloured embroidery of thePg 3 summer creepers. The hall door was noble and hospitable in expanse. A car
8、riage drive swept from it on either hand the oval lawn to a handsome gate whose supports were crowned by the arms of the Actons on the one hand and the arms of a family into which one of the Actons had married on the other hand. One bright morning in April in that memorable year 1805, Captain Charle
9、s Acton, R.N. (retired), stood on his lawn in front of the house watching a gardener who was at work at a flower-bed. He was a slightly-built but tall, very gentleman-like man, one of the last in a crowd to be picked out as a seafarer. He was pale, his nose aquiline, lips thin, and the expression of
10、 the mouth firm. He was dressed in a frill shirt, loose cravat of white cambric, red-striped waistcoat, long green coat with a high collar and small cuffs, tight breeches to the ankle buttoned to the middle of the thigh, and top-boots; a rather low-crowned, broad-brimmed hat sat somewhat cocked on h
11、is head. His hair was long, without powder, and tied a little way down the back in a sort of tail. He was suddenly hailed from the gate by a loud, hearty voice. "What cheer! How are ye, Captain, how are ye this fine morning? Have you heard the news?" Pg 4 The gate was thrust open and there
12、 entered Rear-Admiral Sir William Lawrence, a round-faced, bullet-headed seaman of the old type. He was dressed in a bottle-green coat, metal buttons, red waistcoat, knee breeches and stockings, shoes and large buckles; and being totally bald he wore a wig, perched at the back of which was a little
13、round hat. Sir William again asked Captain Acton if he had heard the news. "French landed?" enquired Captain Acton, as they strolled away from the flower-bed and paced the grass, in which the daisies were springing, in a quarterdeck walk, the Admiral taking about one and a half rolling ste
14、ps to Captain Acton's one. "Yes, the French have landed, but not just in the way they like. One of our frigatesI haven't got to hear her namechased a French privateersman ashore five miles up the coast yesterday afternoon; after taking out of her ten thousand pounds in gold, which the b
15、eggars had sneaked from a British West Indiaman off Dungeness two or three nights before, they set her on fire. I had a mind this morning to ride over and view the wreck or what remains of her." "Lucy told me at breakfast this morning that on going to bed last night she noticed a faint tin
16、ge in the air as of the rising moonPg 5 away to the eastward. 'Twas the burning wreck, I presume?" "No doubt. She'd light up a wide area." "I expect the frigate that chased her will be one of the Western squadron," said Captain Acton. "How finely those ships are
17、 doing their work! Since they've been sweeping these waters scarce a French picaroon dare put his nose out; when before, the seas swarmed like a tropic calm with bristling fins of sharks." "You have to thank Pellew for the idea of those squadrons," said Sir William. "What a g
18、allant fellow he is! Whenever I hear his name I recall the story told of him when he was a midshipman. He was aboard the Blonde. You remember Pownoll?" Captain Acton nodded. "General Burgoyne arrived alongside to ship for America. The yards were manned. The General climbed aboard, and look
19、ing aloft spied a youngster standing on his head on the main topsail yard-arm. 'It's only young Pellew, one of my midshipmen,' says Captain Pownoll. 'But suppose he falls, sir?' said the General. 'Why, sir,' answers Pownoll, 'if he falls he'll sink under the ship&
20、#39;s bottom and come up t'other side.'" "Yes. Very characteristic. I rank Pellew after Nelson." Pg 6 "Why, no, sir." "Who, then?" "I consider Cochrane possesses all the potentialities of Nelson. Then gallant old Jervis"the Admiral interrupted him
21、self and gazed with an arch leer at his companion. "As you know, I have had the honour," said Captain Acton with slight sarcasm, "to serve under my Lord St Vincent when he was Sir John Jervis, I may claim to know him." "Oh yes, thoroughlyvery thoroughly." "I admit
22、the gallantry of his action with the Pegase. It was as brilliant as a hundred other actions between single ships, not one of which nevertheless brought the victor an earldom. What made Jervis a Lord? Was it his own, or the genius of Nelson? That manœuvre of the Commodore on the 14th won th
23、e battle. We took four ships from the enemy, and two of them were captured by Nelson. But I dislike St Vincent for opinions which he is at no pains to disguise. He objects to the education of the poor." "So do I, sir," said Sir William. "We'll not argue the point. St Vincent
24、objects to inoculation for small-pox because he says that that disease is intended by God to keep the population down." Sir William laughed. "He objects to service clubs. He said toPg 7 a friend of mine, 'Take my advice and have nothing to do with them; they are one of the signs of the
25、 times of which I highly disapprove; these assemblies of Army and Navy may in time become dangerous to the Government.' When he was Commander-in-Chief he strongly discouraged matrimony. He hated to have married officers in his fleet, for he said they were the first to run into port, and the last
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