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1、【英文读物】The Bravest of the BravePREFACE My Dear Lads:There are few great leaders whose lives and actions have so completely fallen into oblivion as those of the Earl of Peterborough. His career as a general was a brief one, extending only over little more than a year, and yet in that time he showed a
2、genius for warfare which has never been surpassed, and performed feats of daring worthy of taking their place among those of the leaders of chivalry.The fact that they have made so slight a mark upon history is due to several reasons. In the first place, they were overshadowed by the glory and succe
3、sses of Marlborough; they were performed in a cause which could scarcely be said to be that of England, and in which the public had a comparatively feeble interest; the object, too, for which he fought was frustrated, and the war was an unsuccessful one, although from no fault on his part.But most o
4、f all, Lord Peterborough failed to attain that place in the list of British worthies to which his genius and his bravery should have raised him, because that genius was directed by no steady aim or purpose. Lord Peterborough is, indeed, one of the most striking instances in history of genius and tal
5、ent wasted, and a life thrown away by want of fixed principle and by an inability or unwillingness to work with other men. He quarreled in turn with every party and with almost every individual with whom he came in contact; and while he himself was constantly changing his opinions, he was intolerant
6、 of all opinions differing from those which he at the moment held, and was always ready to express in the most open and offensive manner his contempt and dislike for those who differed from him. His eccentricities were great; he was haughty and arrogant, hasty and passionate; he denied his God, quar
7、reled with his king, and rendered himself utterly obnoxious to every party in the state.And yet there was a vast amount of good in this strange man. He was generous and warm hearted to a fault, kind to those in station beneath him, thoughtful and considerate for his troops, who adored him, cool in d
8、anger, sagacious in difficulties, and capable at need of evincing a patience and calmness wholly at variance with his ordinary impetuous character. Although he did not scruple to carry deception, in order to mislead an enemy, to a point vastly beyond what is generally considered admissible in war, h
9、e was true to his word and punctiliously honorable in the ordinary affairs of life.For the historical events I have described, and for the details of Peterboroughs conduct and character, I have relied chiefly upon the memoir of the earl written by Mr. C. Warburton, and published some thirty years ag
10、o.CHAPTER I: THE WAR OF THE SUCCESSION “He is an idle vagabond!” the mayor of the good town of Southampton said, in high wrath“a neer do well, and an insolent puppy; and as to you, Mistress Alice, if I catch you exchanging words with him again, ay, or nodding to him, or looking as if in any way you
11、were conscious of his presence, I will put you on bread and water, and will send you away for six months to the care of my sister Deborah, who will, I warrant me, bring you to your senses.”The Mayor of Southampton must have been very angry indeed when he spoke in this way to his daughter Alice, who
12、in most matters had her own way. Especially did it show that he was angry, since he so spoke in the presence of Mistress Anthony, his wife, who was accustomed to have a by no means unimportant share in any decision arrived at respecting family matters.She was too wise a woman, however, to attempt to
13、 arrest the torrent in full flood, especially as it was a matter on which her husband had already shown a very unusual determination to have his own way. She therefore continued to work in silence, and paid no attention to the appealing glance which her daughter, a girl of fourteen, cast toward her.
14、 But although she said nothing, her husband understood in her silence an unuttered protest.“It is no use your taking that scamps part, Mary, in this matter. I am determined to have my own way, and the townspeople know well that when Richard Anthony makes up his mind, nothing will move him.”“I have h
15、ad no opportunity to take his part, Richard,” his wife said quietly; “you have been storming without interruption since you came in five minutes ago, and I have not uttered a single word.”“But you agree with me, Maryyou cannot but agree with methat it is nothing short of a scandal for the daughter o
16、f the Mayor of Southampton to be talking to a penniless young rogue like that at the garden gate.”“Alice should not have met him there,” Mistress Anthony said; “but seeing that she is only fourteen years old, and the boy only sixteen, and he her second cousin, I do not see that the matter is so very
17、 shocking.”“In four more years, Mistress Anthony,” the mayor said profoundly, “he will be twenty, and she will be eighteen.”“So I suppose, Richard; I am no great head at a figures, but even I can reckon that. But as at present they are only fourteen and sixteen, I repeat that I do not see that it ma
18、ttersat least not so very much. Alice, do you go to your room, and remain there till I send for you.”The girl without a word rose and retired. In the reign of King William the Third implicit obedience was expected of children.“I think, Richard,” Mrs. Anthony went on when the door closed behind her d
19、aughter, “you are not acting quite with your usual wisdom in treating this matter in so serious a light, and in putting ideas into the girls head which would probably never have entered there otherwise. Of course Alice is fond of Jack. It is only natural that she should be, seeing that he is her sec
20、ond cousin, and that for two years they have lived together under this roof.”“I was a fool, Mistress Anthony,” the mayor said angrily, “ever to yield to your persuasions in that matter. It was unfortunate, of course, that the boys father, the husband of your Cousin Margaret, should have been turned
21、out of his living by the Sectarians, as befell thousands of other clergymen besides him. It was still more unfortunate that when King Charles returned he did not get reinstated; but, after all, that was Margarets business and not mine; and if she was fool enough to marry a pauper, and he well nigh o
22、ld enough to be her fatherwell, as I say, it was no business of mine.”“He was not a pauper, Richard, and you know it; and he made enough by teaching to keep him and Margaret comfortably till he broke down and died three years ago, and poor Margaret followed him to the grave a year later. He was a go
23、od manin every way a good man.”“Tut, tut! I am not saying he wasnt a good man. I am only saying that, good or bad, it was no business of mine; and then nothing will do but I must send for the boy and put him in my business. And a nice mess he made of itan idler, more careless apprentice, no cloth me
24、rchant, especially one who stood well with his fellow citizens, and who was on the highway to becoming mayor of his native city, was ever crossed with.”“I think he was hardly as bad as that, Richard. I dont think you were ever quite fair to the boy.”“Not fair, Mary! I am surprised at you. In what wa
25、y was I not quite fair?”“I dont think you meant to be unfair, Richard; but you see you were a littlejust a littleprejudiced against him from the first; because, instead of jumping at your offer to apprentice him to your trade, he said he should like to be a sailor.”“Quite enough to prejudice me, too
26、, madam. Why, there are scores of sons of respectable burgesses of this town who would jump at such an offer; and here this penniless boy turns up his nose at it.”“It was foolish, no doubt, Richard; but you see the boy had been reading the lives of admirals and navigatorshe was full of life and spir
27、itand I believe his father had consented to his going to sea.”“Full of life and spirit, madam!” the mayor repeated more angrily than before; “let me tell you it is these fellows who are full of life and adventure who come to the gallows. Naturally I was offended; but as I had given you my word I kep
28、t to it. Every man in Southampton knows that the word of Richard Anthony is as good as his bond. I bound him apprentice, and what comes of it? My foreman, Andrew Carson, is knocked flat on his back in the middle of the shop.”Mrs. Anthony bit her lips to prevent herself from smiling.“We will not spea
29、k any more about that, Richard,” she said; “because, if we did, we should begin to argue. You know it is my opinion, and always has been, that Carson deliberately set you against the boy; that he was always telling you tales to his disadvantage; and although I admit that the lad was very wrong to kn
30、ock him down when he struck him, I think, my dear, I should have done the same had I been in his place.”“Then, madam,” Mr. Anthony said solemnly, “you would have deserved what happened to himthat you should be turned neck and crop into the street.”Mrs. Anthony gave a determined nod of her heada nod
31、which signified that she should have a voice on that point. However, seeing that in her husbands present mood it was better to say no more, she resumed her work.While this conversation had been proceeding, Jack Stilwell, who had fled hastily when surprised by the mayor as he was talking to his daugh
32、ter at the back gate of the garden, had made his way down to the wharves, and there, seating himself upon a pile of wood, had stared moodily at the tract of mud extending from his feet to the strip of water far away. His position was indeed an unenviable one. As Mrs. Anthony had said, his father was
33、 a clergyman of the Church of England, the vicar of a snug living in Lincolnshire, but he had been cast out when the Parliamentarians gained the upper hand, and his living was handed over to a Sectarian preacher. When, after years of poverty, King Charles came to the throne, the dispossessed ministe
34、r thought that as a matter of course he should be restored to his living; but it was not so. As in hundreds of other cases the new occupant conformed at once to the new laws, and the Rev. Thomas Stilwell, having no friends or interest, was, like many another clergyman, left out in the cold.But by th
35、is time he had settled at Oxfordat which university he had been educatedand was gaining a not uncomfortable livelihood by teaching the sons of citizens. Late in life he married Margaret Ullathorpe, who, still a young woman, had, during a visit to some friends at Oxford, made his acquaintance. In spi
36、te of the disparity of years the union was a happy one. One son was born to them, and all had gone well until a sudden chill had been the cause of Mr. Stilwells death, his wife surviving him only one year. Her death took place at Southampton, where she had moved after the loss of her husband, having
37、 no further tie at Oxford, and a week later Jack Stilwell found himself domiciled at the house of Mr. Anthony.It was in vain that he represented to the cloth merchant that his wishes lay toward a seafaring life, and that although his father had wished him to go into the ministry, he had given way to
38、 his entreaties. Mr. Anthony sharply pooh poohed the idea, and insisted that it was nothing short of madness to dream of such a thing when so excellent an opportunity of learning a respectable business was open to him.At any other time Jack would have resisted stoutly, and would have run away and ta
39、ken his chance rather than agree to the proposition; but he was broken down by grief at his mothers death. Incapable of making a struggle against the obstinacy of Mr. Anthony, and scarce caring what became of himself, he signed the deed of apprenticeship which made him for five years the slave of th
40、e cloth merchant. Not that the latter intended to be anything but kind, and he sincerely believed that he was acting for the good of the boy in taking him as his apprentice; but as Jack recovered his spirits and energy, he absolutely loathed the trade to which he was bound. Had it not been for Mistr
41、ess Anthony and Alice he would have braved the heavy pains and penalties which in those days befell disobedient apprentices, and would have run away to sea; but their constant kindness, and the fact that his mother with her dying breath had charged him to regard her cousin as standing in her place,
42、prevented him from carrying the idea which he often formed into effect.In the shop his life was wretched. He was not stupid, as his master asserted; for indeed in other matters he was bright and clever, and his father had been well pleased with the progress he made with his studies; but, in the firs
43、t place; he hated his work, and, in the second, every shortcoming and mistake was magnified and made the most of by the foreman, Andrew Carson. This man had long looked to be taken into partnership, and finally to succeed his master, seeing that the latter had no sons, and he conceived a violent jea
44、lousy of Jack Stilwell, in whose presence, as a prime favorite of Mistress Anthony and of her daughter, he thought he foresaw an overthrow of his plans.He was not long in effecting a breach between the boy and his masterfor Jacks carelessness and inattention gave him plenty of opportunitiesand Mr. A
45、nthony ere long viewed the boys errors as acts of willful disobedience. This state of things lasted for two years until the climax came, when, as Mr. Anthony had said to his wife, Jack, upon the foreman attempting to strike him, had knocked the latter down in the shop.Mr. Anthonys first impulse was
46、to take his apprentice before the justices and to demand condign punishment for such an act of flagrant rebellion; but a moments reflection told him that Jack, at the end of his punishment, would return to his house, where his wife would take his part as usual, and the quarrels which had frequently
47、arisen on his account would be more bitter than before.It was far better to get rid of him at once, and he accordingly ordered him from the shop, tore up his indenture before his eyes, and bade him never let him see his face again. For the first few hours Jack was delighted at his freedom. He spent
48、the day down on the wharves talking to the fishermen and sailors. There were no foreign bound ships in the port, and he had no wish to ship on board a coaster; he therefore resolved to wait until a vessel sailing for foreign ports should leave.He had no money; but a few hours after he left the shop
49、Mrs. Anthonys maid found him on the wharf, and gave him a letter from her mistress. In this was inclosed a sum of money sufficient to last him for some time, and an assurance that she did not share her husbands anger against him.“I have no doubt, my dear Jack,” she said, “that in time I could heal the breach and could arrange for you to come back again, but I think perhaps it is better as it is. You would never make a clothier, and I dont think you would ever become May