登陆注册
3554300000010

第10章 BOOK THE FIRST:RECALLED TO LIFE(10)

A shrill sound of laughter and of amused voices—voices of men,women,and children—resounded in the street while this wine game lasted. There was little roughness in the sport,and much playfulness.There was a special companionship in it,and observable inclination on the part of every one to join some other one,which led,especially among the luckier or lighter-hearted,to frolicsome embraces,drinking of healths,shaking of hands,and even joining of hands and dancing,a dozen together.When the wine was gone,and the places where it had been most abundant were raked into a gridiron-pattern by fingers,these demonstrations ceased,as suddenly as they had broken out.The man who had left his saw sticking in the firewood he was cutting,set it in motion again;the woman who had left on a door-step the little pot of hot ashes,at which she had been trying to soften the pain in her own starved fingers and toes,or in those of her child,returned to it;men with bare arms,matted locks,and cadaverous faces,who had emerged into the winter light from cellars,moved away,to descend again;and a gloom gathered on the scene that appeared more natural to it than sunshine.

The wine was red wine,and had stained the ground of the narrow street in the suburb of Saint Antoine,in Paris,where it was spilled. It had stained many hands,too,and many faces,and many naked feet,and many wooden shoes.The hands of the man who sawed the wood,left red marks on the billets;and the forehead of the woman who nursed her baby,was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again.Those whohad been greedy with the staves of the cask,had acquired a tigerish smear about the mouth;and one tall joker so besmirched,his head more out of a long squalid bag of a night-cap than in it,scrawled upon a wall with his fingers dipped in muddy wine-lees—BLOOD.

The time was to come,when that wine too would be spilled on the street-stones,and when the stain of it would be red upon many there.

And now that the cloud settled on Saint Antoine,which a momentary gleam had driven from his sacred countenance,the darkness of it was heavy—cold,dirt,sickness,ignorance,and want,were the lords in waiting on the saintly presence—nobles of great power all of them;but,most especially the last. Samples of a people that had undergone a terrible grinding and regrinding in the mill,and certainly not in the fabulous mill which ground old people young,shivered at every corner,passed in and out at every doorway,looked from every window,fluttered in every vestige of a garment that the wind shook.The mill which had worked them down,was the mill that grinds young people old;the children had ancient faces and grave voices;and upon them,and upon the grown faces,and ploughed into every furrow of age and coming up afresh,was the sign,Hunger.It was prevalent everywhere.Hunger was pushed out of the tall houses,in the wretched clothing that hung upon poles and lines;Hunger was patched into them with straw and rag and wood and paper;Hunger was repeated in every fragment of the small modicum of firewood that the man sawed off;Hunger stared down from the smokeless chimneys,and started up from the filthy street that had no offal,among its refuse,or anything to eat.Hunger was the inionon the baker's shelves,written in every small loaf of his scanty stock of bad bread;at the sausage-shop,in every dead-dog preparation that was offered for sale.Hunger rattled its dry bones among the roasting chestnuts in the turned cylinder;Hunger was shred into atomies in every farthing porringer of husky chips of potato,fried with some reluctant drops of oil.

Its abiding place was in all things fitted to it. A narrow winding street,full of offence and stench,with other narrow winding streets diverging,all peopled by rags and nightcaps,and all smelling of rags and nightcaps,and all visible things with a brooding look upon them that looked ill.In the hunted air of the people there was yet some wild-beast thought of the possibility of turning at bay.Depressed and slinking though they were,eyes of fire were not wanting among them;nor compressed lips,white with what they suppressed;or foreheads knitted into the likeness of the gallows-rope they mused about enduring,or inflicting.The trade signs(and they were almost as many as the shops)were,all,grim illustrations of Want.The butcher and the porkman painted up only the leanest scrags of meat;the baker,the coarsest of meagre loaves.The people rudely pictured as drinking in the wine-shops,croaked over their scanty measures of thin wine and beer,and were gloweringly confidential together.Nothing was represented in a flourishing condition,save tools and weapons;but,the cutler's knives and axes were sharp and bright,the smith's hammers were heavy,and the gunmaker's stock was murderous.The crippling stones of the pavement,with their many little reservoirs of mud and water,had no footways,but broke off abruptly at the doors.The kennel,to make amends,ran down the middle of the street—when it ran at all:which was only after heavyrains,and then it ran,by many eccentric fits,into the houses.Across the streets,at wide intervals,one clumsy lamp was slung by a rope and pulley;at night,when the lamplighter had let these down,and lighted,and hoisted them again,a feeble grove of dim wicks swung in a sickly manner overhead,as if they were at sea.Indeed they were at sea,and the ship and crew were in peril of tempest.

For,the time was to come,when the gaunt scarecrows of that region should have watched the lamplighter,in their idleness and hunger,so long,as to conceive the idea of improving on his method,and hauling up men by those ropes and pulleys,to flare upon the darkness of their condition. But,the time was not come yet;and every wind that blew over France shook the rags of the scarecrows in vain,for the birds,fine of song and feather,took no warning.

同类推荐
  • English Stories London

    English Stories London

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 北郭集

    北郭集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 佛说瞻婆比丘经

    佛说瞻婆比丘经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 南迁录

    南迁录

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 阿毗达磨识身足论

    阿毗达磨识身足论

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。
热门推荐
  • 东槎纪略

    东槎纪略

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • Boyhood in Norway

    Boyhood in Norway

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 冷凰天下

    冷凰天下

    强力推荐自己的新文:《逃妃八夫》手刃杀父仇人的同时,杀手冷霜失去生命,重生在一个不存在于历史的世界,成为冥夜国冷王府的小郡主——冷霜。重生,是福还是祸,是巧合还是命中注定?她手持软剑,笑傲江湖,人人看中的武林盟主之位,她却弃之如敝屣;她剑锋一指,犹如大将般驰骋沙场,遇佛杀佛,遇神诛神,运筹帷幄之间,称霸大陆。魅影,她前世的恋人,今世天下第一杀手:霜,我永远是你的,生生世世生死相随,没有你,我绝不独活。冷霜:傻瓜!既然如此,你我便生死与共。如若我不死,便不准你死。冷谦,冷王府小王爷,她今世的哥哥:霜儿,不要叫我哥哥,我不要做你的哥哥,叫我谦。冷霜:谦,如你所愿。但是从今往后,只有我能这样叫你。逸尘,天机老人的得意弟子,她今世的师父:霜儿,我不再逃避了,从今往后你去哪我便去哪。冷霜:甚好,那以后我往东,你便不能往西。记住了吗?还有他,他,他……最终她又会选择谁陪她笑睨天下呢?本文杀手穿越,女主绝非善类,腹黑,狠辣,血腥,美男多多,结局np,更多的精彩尽在《冷凰天下》。【文中美男】魅影:冷酷帅哥,外冷内热——第一杀手(由亲亲粉色沙滩领养!!)逸尘:谪仙美男,清冷绝尘——女主师父(由亲亲清宁88领养!!)冷谦:温文尔雅,风度翩翩——小王爷(由亲亲13430369750领养!!)裴扬:邪魅妖精,红衣紫眸——邪教教主(由亲亲夜雨清痕领养!!)端木文绯:娇俏可爱,狡黠活泼——异国皇子(由亲亲kiranono领养!!)端木文熙:单纯善良,医术高明——异国皇子(由亲亲轩辕琉璃领养!!)轩辕旭:英俊帅哥,睿智儒雅——太子(由亲亲x蝶舞飞扬领养!!)易水寒:冷酷侍卫,忠心耿耿——贴身侍卫(由亲亲珈蓝领养!!)轩辕瑾:俊俏美男,心思单纯——十一皇子(由亲亲livialin领养!!)轩辕烨:暴躁美男,心胸狭窄——闵王爷(由亲亲mashanhu20领养!!)赫连傲天:霸道强势,野心勃勃——异国皇帝(由亲亲greenshine123领养!!)【ps】文中小狐狸雪由亲亲冥公子领养!!!喜欢的亲们,请收藏+推荐+留言,影子会保持日更,偶尔会爆发,绝不弃坑,亲们放心跳坑吧!!!****亲帮偶建的读者群【如影相随】,群号为123592318,敲门砖是偶的笔名,欢迎亲们加入
  • 海阳十咏·玄览亭

    海阳十咏·玄览亭

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 快乐之钟,在此刻敲响

    快乐之钟,在此刻敲响

    自信是成功的前提,快乐是生活调味剂。本书所选取的小故事不仅充满了幽默色彩,还流露出机敏智慧的闪光。阅读本书,既能培养孩子的幽默感,使其眼中的世界变得五彩缤纷,充满乐趣,又能让孩子树立自信,从而坚强地迎接人生中的挑战。
  • 住在心里的积雨云

    住在心里的积雨云

    每个人心里都住着一朵积雨云,它是隐藏在心底里的暗恋,它是与父母安排相背离的梦想,它是寄托全家期望的压力,它是永远也无法战胜的“别人家小孩”,它是嘲笑,是伤害,是欺骗,是背叛!夏初星的心里也住着一朵无人问津的积雨云,可是三个“发光体”的到来让一切发生了巨大的改变,是阴雨连绵?还是万里晴空?这性格迥异的四个人会组成怎样错综复杂的四元一次方程?第一象限生物和第三象限生物又会碰撞出什么样的火花?老师教不了答案,就在你的手里面。
  • 闲中今古录摘抄

    闲中今古录摘抄

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 重生之无敌神王在都市

    重生之无敌神王在都市

    神王林澈在大限来临之时,触摸仙域失败,意外穿越到因见义勇为而死亡的地球少年身上。
  • 成功的起点(学生心理健康悦读)

    成功的起点(学生心理健康悦读)

    成功就如同一个圆,有了终点,也有起点。好的起点是成功的一半。成功的起点来自于勤奋的汗水,来自于坚定的信念,来自于自信的微笑,来自于以美丽的心情去工作,来自于快乐不倒翁的心态,来自于好习惯的培养,来自于头脑灵活,善于利用现有条件创造成功……
  • 风之剑圣传

    风之剑圣传

    这是一个神奇的异世界,在这里魔力是所有人的追求,背负着世界命运的少年也不例外。当战争的怒吼降临这片大地时,当绝望亲临这片净土时,当万族等待被奴役或灭亡时,传说中的剑圣将会驱散阴霾,让秩序重归大地。