登陆注册
5257200000029

第29章 Chapter 11(2)

Such tranquil stupidity, such supernatural gravity, such self-righteousness, and such ineffable self-complacency as were in the countenance and attitude of that gray-bodied, dark-winged, bald-headed, and preposterously uncomely bird! He was so ungainly, so pimply about the head, so scaly about the legs, yet so serene, so unspeakably satisfied! He was the most comical-looking creature that can be imagined. It was good to hear Dan and the doctor laugh--such natural and such enjoyable laughter had not been heard among our excursionists since our ship sailed away from America. This bird was a godsend to us, and I should be an ingrate if I forgot to make honorable mention of him in these pages. Ours was a pleasure excursion; therefore we stayed with that bird an hour and made the most of him. We stirred him up occasionally, but he only unclosed an eye and slowly closed it again, abating no jot of his stately piety of demeanor or his tremendous seriousness. He only seemed to say, "Defile not Heaven's anointed with unsanctified hands."We did not know his name, and so we called him "The Pilgrim." Dan said:

"All he wants now is a Plymouth Collection."

The boon companion of the colossal elephant was a common cat! This cat had a fashion of climbing up the elephant's hind legs and roosting on his back. She would sit up there, with her paws curved under her breast, and sleep in the sun half the afternoon. It used to annoy the elephant at first, and he would reach up and take her down, but she would go aft and climb up again. She persisted until she finally conquered the elephant's prejudices, and now they are inseparable friends. The cat plays about her comrade's forefeet or his trunk often, until dogs approach, and then she goes aloft out of danger. The elephant has annihilated several dogs lately that pressed his companion too closely.

We hired a sailboat and a guide and made an excursion to one of the small islands in the harbor to visit the Castle d'If. This ancient fortress has a melancholy history. It has been used as a prison for political offenders for two or three hundred years, and its dungeon walls are scarred with the rudely carved names of many and many a captive who fretted his life away here and left no record of himself but these sad epitaphs wrought with his own hands. How thick the names were! And their long-departed owners seemed to throng the gloomy cells and corridors with their phantom shapes.

We loitered through dungeon after dungeon, away down into the living rock below the level of the sea, it seemed. Names everywhere!--some plebeian, some noble, some even princely. Plebeian, prince, and noble had one solicitude in common--they would not be forgotten! They could suffer solitude, inactivity, and the horrors of a silence that no sound ever disturbed, but they could not bear the thought of being utterly forgotten by the world. Hence the carved names. In one cell, where a little light penetrated, a man had lived twenty-seven years without seeing the face of a human being--lived in filth and wretchedness, with no companionship but his own thoughts, and they were sorrowful enough and hopeless enough, no doubt. Whatever his jailers considered that he needed was conveyed to his cell by night through a wicket.

This man carved the walls of his prison house from floor to roof with all manner of figures of men and animals grouped in intricate designs. He had toiled there year after year, at his self-appointed task, while infants grew to boyhood--to vigorous youth--idled through school and college--acquired a profession--claimed man's mature estate--married and looked back to infancy as to a thing of some vague, ancient time almost. But who shall tell how many ages it seemed to this prisoner? With the one, time flew sometimes;with the other, never--it crawled always. To the one, nights spent in dancing had seemed made of minutes instead of hours; to the other, those selfsame nights had been like all other nights of dungeon life and seemed made of slow, dragging weeks instead of hours and minutes.

One prisoner of fifteen years had scratched verses upon his walls, and brief prose sentences--brief, but full of pathos. These spoke not of himself and his hard estate, but only of the shrine where his spirit fled the prison to worship--of home and the idols that were templed there. He never lived to see them.

The walls of these dungeons are as thick as some bedchambers at home are wide--fifteen feet. We saw the damp, dismal cells in which two of Dumas' heroes passed their confinement--heroesof Monte Cristo. It was here that the brave Abbé wrote a book with his own blood, with a pen made of a piece of iron hoop, and by the light of a lamp made out of shreds of cloth soaked in grease obtained from his food; and then dug through the thick wall with some trifling instrument which he wrought himself out of a stray piece of iron or table cutlery and freed Dantés from his chains. It was a pity that so many weeks of dreary labor should have come to naught at last.

They showed us the noisome cell where the celebrated "Iron Mask"--that ill-starred brother of a hardhearted king of France--was confined for a season before he was sent to hide the strange mystery of his life from the curious in the dungeons of Ste. Marguerite. The place had a far greater interest for us than it could have had if we had known beyond all question who the Iron Mask was, and what his history had been, and why this most unusual punishment had been meted out to him. Mystery! That was the charm.

That speechless tongue, those prisoned features, that heart so freighted with unspoken troubles, and that breast so oppressed with its piteous secret had been here. These dank walls had known the man whose dolorous story is a sealed book forever! There was fascination in the spot.

同类推荐
  • 阴真君金石五相类

    阴真君金石五相类

    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。
  • 佛说咒小儿经

    佛说咒小儿经

    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。
  • 三天易髓

    三天易髓

    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。
  • 入众日用

    入众日用

    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。
  • 惟日杂难经

    惟日杂难经

    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。
热门推荐
  • 权门盛宠:国民女神带回家

    权门盛宠:国民女神带回家

    梁音音在酒吧坑了个男人,从此后再无宁日。“我想要的,钱或是人,绝不会给它机会溜走。尤其是你——梁音音!”溜不掉,迂回还不会么。梁音音星星眼:“给你当保姆好伐,一个月后两清!”慕安南最宠谁,莫过于在那个晚上自作聪明跌进他怀里的小狐狸。抓住了,一辈子都不会放手。
  • 如何与异性交往(青少年心理健康指导丛书)

    如何与异性交往(青少年心理健康指导丛书)

    青少年时期是身体、心理发生转变的一个重要阶段,他们正处于半独立半依赖、半幼稚半成熟状态,被称之为“心理断乳期”、“青春躁动期”或“成长关键期”,而学习的压力、价值的趋向、不良风气的影响等最易使青少年在认识上出现一片“真空”,产生心理障碍。《如何与异性交往》关于如何解决青少年心理问题和障碍,以优美、流畅的文笔,真实地呈现了不同风格和理论取向的青少年心理问题咨询的治疗全景。为广大青少年认识自我的各种心理问题和困惑,获取自我调节和预防的心理学专业知识,提高心理障碍的免疫力提供了多种专业手段,也为家庭、学校和社会预防青少年心理问题和障碍提供了具有理论性、科学性和实用性的专业参考价值。
  • 佛说宝雨经

    佛说宝雨经

    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。
  • 王牌甜心指令

    王牌甜心指令

    “想知道你的身世,那就来这里。”一张莫名的邀请函使对甜点毫无经验,仅凭借着超常的嗅觉的菜鸟新手夜允珂来到了传说中皇室的贵族甜点学院。仅为了在四年一届的“卡斯兰帝皇家甜点”大赛中取得冠军并且找到父母,没想到刚入学就麻烦接踵而至!本来身为初级部菜鸟的她莫名其妙的被分配到了高级甜点部!更倒霉的是第一天就华丽丽的在校门口摔倒,被中级部学姐的挑衅!奈何四位高级部的精英恶魔殿下对她偏偏特别照顾。梦幻终会破碎,这特别的照顾竟然隐含着令人震撼的阴谋……!当她在朋友和导师的帮助下从一场场一赛中脱颖而出…从菜鸟进化成大神…当她站在这个甜点界的巅峰时。才发现她的身份竟然是……!
  • 谎言的颓

    谎言的颓

    28年前,天真的自己,任性的自我,追忆前半生的错误与幸福
  • 名门千金:下堂逍遥妃

    名门千金:下堂逍遥妃

    “本王娶你,全是因为皇上那个荒唐至极的梦!”在喜庆的洞房中,她的挣扎,只换来高高在上的男人更加凶猛羞辱的对待。她,一朝穿越成将门千金,却被皇上为保江山社稷许配给了狠辣霸道的祈亲王。新婚第二天,她被丢进了荒凉的角落里,成了令天下人笑柄的下堂王妃。但是有谁知道无数个夜里,那个将她弃之如敝履的男人却夜夜索情,还高傲的宣称:“贱人,你不配得到本王的爱,你永远只是本王的肉娈!”**海阔凭鱼跃,天高任鸟飞,当下堂王妃一跃成为逍遥王妃时,她微微一笑,也能引无数英雄竞折腰。彼时,她面对那个男人嫣然一笑,倾倒众生。“赫连祈风,凭你称霸天下,位尊九五,也配不上我的爱!”而男人却笑的自信而邪魅,“那本王就用整个天下来换你的爱,可好?”
  • 吃桃儿吗

    吃桃儿吗

    毕业时白桃甩了宋迟,“那啥,毕业快乐,咱们就此别过,江湖再见!”没想到工作后,竟然发现他是自己的上司。在更加深入了解中,她发现,宋迟冷漠腹黑的外表下竟然是一枚傲娇别扭大狼狗!“太可怕了!他是怎么做到的?你们不要被他骗了!”却不知更可怕的还在后面,宋迟用一副美丽的皮囊,一步一步的将自己的小初恋重新骗到自己身后。从此以后,大狼狗和小猫咪,幸福快乐的生活在一起。小甜饼,小甜饼,小甜饼!
  • 沧之物语

    沧之物语

    《沧》系列是一部大型的玄幻史诗,不管你是文艺青年,热血男儿,纯情少女;又或者是喜欢历史、喜欢神话、喜欢人生故事、喜欢小清新,喜欢看爽文,喜欢看烧脑文,喜欢看爱情,你都可以在这里找到属于你的快乐。因为《沧》虽然是一个系列,但是每一部的作品所处时代、所处人物(主角或者配角啊)和背景也不同,你将会看到每一个人的故事,每一个人的信念与人生。(因为有个重名的所以暂时叫做《沧之物语》吧。)
  • 自然的奥秘

    自然的奥秘

    大自然中充满了神奇和未知的奥秘,无论是奇趣盎然的动物、生机勃勃的植物。每一个知识都带来超乎想象的神奇感受,每一次翻阅都会有无限的遐想……本书分山川的奥秘、海洋的奥秘、天空的奥秘、动植物的奥秘四部分内容。
  • 墨庄漫录

    墨庄漫录

    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。