登陆注册
5292700000051

第51章 ALICIA'S DIARY(26)

The expected lightning radiates round,and a rumbling as from its subterranean vaults--if there are any--fills the castle.The lightning repeats itself,and,coming after the aforesaid thoughts of martial men,it bears a fanciful resemblance to swords moving in combat.It has the very brassy hue of the ancient weapons that here were used.The so sudden entry upon the scene of this metallic flame is as the entry of a presiding exhibitor who unrolls the maps,uncurtains the pictures,unlocks the cabinets,and effects a transformation by merely exposing the materials of his science,unintelligibly cloaked till then.The abrupt configuration of the bluffs and mounds is now for the first time clearly revealed--mounds whereon,doubtless,spears and shields have frequently lain while their owners loosened their sandals and yawned and stretched their arms in the sun.For the first time,too,a glimpse is obtainable of the true entrance used by its occupants of old,some way ahead.

There,where all passage has seemed to be inviolably barred by an almost vertical facade,the ramparts are found to overlap each other like loosely clasped fingers,between which a zigzag path may be followed--a cunning construction that puzzles the uninformed eye.

But its cunning,even where not obscured by dilapidation,is now wasted on the solitary forms of a few wild badgers,rabbits,and hares.Men must have often gone out by those gates in the morning to battle with the Roman legions under Vespasian;some to return no more,others to come back at evening,bringing with them the noise of their heroic deeds.But not a page,not a stone,has preserved their fame.

Acoustic perceptions multiply to-night.We can almost hear the stream of years that have borne those deeds away from us.Strange articulations seem to float on the air from that point,the gateway,where the animation in past times must frequently have concentrated itself at hours of coming and going,and general excitement.There arises an ineradicable fancy that they are human voices;if so,they must be the lingering air-borne vibrations of conversations uttered at least fifteen hundred years ago.The attention is attracted from mere nebulous imaginings about yonder spot by a real moving of something close at hand.

I recognize by the now moderate flashes of lightning,which are sheet-like and nearly continuous,that it is the gradual elevation of a small mound of earth.At first no larger than a man's fist it reaches the dimensions of a hat,then sinks a little and is still.

It is but the heaving of a mole who chooses such weather as this to work in from some instinct that there will be nobody abroad to molest him.As the fine earth lifts and lifts and falls loosely aside fragments of burnt clay roll out of it--clay that once formed part of cups or other vessels used by the inhabitants of the fortress.

The violence of the storm has been counterbalanced by its transitoriness.From being immersed in well-nigh solid media of cloud and hail shot with lightning,I find myself uncovered of the humid investiture and left bare to the mild gaze of the moon,which sparkles now on every wet grass-blade and frond of moss.

But I am not yet inside the fort,and the delayed ascent of the third and last escarpment is now made.It is steeper than either.The first was a surface to walk up,the second to stagger up,the third can only be ascended on the hands and toes.On the summit obtrudes the first evidence which has been met with in these precincts that the time is really the nineteenth century;it is in the form of a white notice-board on a post,and the wording can just be discerned by the rays of the setting moon:

CAUTION.--Any Person found removing Relics,Skeletons,Stones,Pottery,Tiles,or other Material from this Earthwork,or cutting up the Ground,will be Prosecuted as the Law directs.

Here one observes a difference underfoot from what has gone before:

scraps of Roman tile and stone chippings protrude through the grass in meagre quantity,but sufficient to suggest that masonry stood on the spot.Before the eye stretches under the moonlight the interior of the fort.So open and so large is it as to be practically an upland plateau,and yet its area lies wholly within the walls of what may be designated as one building.It is a long-violated retreat;all its corner-stones,plinths,and architraves were carried away to build neighbouring villages even before mediaeval or modern history began.Many a block which once may have helped to form a bastion here rests now in broken and diminished shape as part of the chimney-corner of some shepherd's cottage within the distant horizon,and the corner-stones of this heathen altar may form the base-course of some adjoining village church.

Yet the very bareness of these inner courts and wards,their condition of mere pasturage,protects what remains of them as no defences could do.Nothing is left visible that the hands can seize on or the weather overturn,and a permanence of general outline at least results,which no other condition could ensure.

The position of the castle on this isolated hill bespeaks deliberate and strategic choice exercised by some remote mind capable of prospective reasoning to a far extent.The natural configuration of the surrounding country and its bearing upon such a stronghold were obviously long considered and viewed mentally before its extensive design was carried into execution.Who was the man that said,'Let it be built here!'--not on that hill yonder,or on that ridge behind,but on this best spot of all?Whether he were some great one of the Belgae,or of the Durotriges,or the travelling engineer of Britain's united tribes,must for ever remain time's secret;his form cannot be realized,nor his countenance,nor the tongue that he spoke,when he set down his foot with a thud and said,'Let it be here!'

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 花好月圆(中国好小说)

    花好月圆(中国好小说)

    刘雪英的人生像是一场浩劫,儿子是傻子,女儿尚小,丈夫老五连名义上都不是,家里的一分二亩地给老二占去了。她憧憬的花好月圆不在丈夫的头上。走投无路的她,带着一幅“花好月圆”的十字绣来到深圳,投靠她的“嫂子”吴佩云。在这个大家庭里,她只是个连名分都没有的外人,她要思忖如何在这个充满着明争暗斗的地方打好自己的根基。她小心翼翼、如履薄冰地朝着自己向往的花好月圆走去。
  • 马克思传

    马克思传

    本书是著名经济学家萧灼基先生历三十年而完成的一部完整的马克思学术传记,全面记述了马克思一生的学术思想发展历史,并结合当时的历史背景,社会实践,对不同时期的代表作进行了新的概括和总结,资料翔实,脉络清晰,具有重要的学术价值。
  • 全宋文

    全宋文

    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。
  • 我的王妃是吃货

    我的王妃是吃货

    一朝穿越的她想方设法想回去,她不甘心她的现代生活就这样没有了,和她谈了三年男朋友在订婚的那晚上和她的闺蜜出轨,她不甘心,她放心不下她的家人,一直寻找机会回去,可是天意弄人,自己竟然怀孕了,有一个娇宠自己的丈夫,可是她已经对爱情心死,自己已经没有心思去拥有一份爱情,后来偶遇高僧告诉她,她本是这个时空的人,只是弄错了,现在已经换回,让她安心留在这个时空,这一切到底是真是假?【情节虚构,请勿模仿】
  • 春闺玉堂

    春闺玉堂

    十二岁的方幼清,从姑母家重头再来。谁害父流放,谁夺她性命,谁让她一生努力化为乌有?她誓要查清这一切缘由,再不让今生重蹈上世覆辙。然上有姑父朝堂大员,一家之主;中有婶母虎视眈眈,机关算计;下有姐妹心机叵测,手段层出;另有仆妇丫鬟迎高踩低,狐假虎威。她这位表小姐,无依无靠,无权无势,如何从寄人篱下中拼搏而出?春闺褴褛,玉堂锦绣。圆上一世的遗憾,补这一生的美满。
  • 浮光

    浮光

    当一个小摄影师爱上了大明星,他们恩怨纠缠,他们爱恋牵扯,鸭毛一堆,狗血一升,大团圆收场。可是,可是,你见过这样的大明星吗?你见过这样的摄影师吗?习惯了被人注视的人,总会不自觉地戴上面具。习惯了用镜头观察别人的人,总会不自觉地寻找那面具上的微小裂痕。但凡热爱光影,关心传言,那便都与明星最近。近到用手触及报刊画片,就能亲密端详。所以摄影师谢明朗并不曾期许过能与言采有更多接触,对方太过璀璨,反而并非合情的交叉线。然而总是如此,有人长存在闪光灯下,就需得另一人为他按下闪光。或你,或他,或面目模糊芸芸众人,只为那仅有的一人在瞬间打上最夺目光华。他不巧要为他打出一束光。他不巧被拉近,得以窥知那束光背后,有怎样的今日和过往。二十四帧的美未必真实,编织出美梦的人未必流连梦境。太过入戏的好演员,大约总难能有真正的好人生。所幸,当浮光散去,长存在流光溢彩之中的浮华人影,终有一天,也能尘埃落定。留予他们的,并非仅仅只是爱情。  
  • 当家万万岁

    当家万万岁

    一睁眼,阎如玉直接进了土匪窝,还成了山中女大王。山中上下三百六十口,老衰幼弱残兵多,面黄肌瘦顿顿挨饿,还成了山下小官刷政绩的BOSS窝。即便如此,日子还得过。占山头、开荒地、存钱粮、努力洗白直奔小康,却愁得小的们整日心慌慌……“老大,今科的状元天文地理样样精通,勉勉强强可做新郎。”“老大,前日来攻打的将军,骁勇善战,威震四方,俘虏过来,可供观赏。”“老大,当朝的国舅来卧底,自是白嫩如玉、举世无双,不如顺便.....?”
  • 王爷嫁给我可好

    王爷嫁给我可好

    你是否还宅着家里看着小说吃着零食?巧了!本书女主就是个不折不扣的zhai女,有天狂风大作,某女神经大条的跑到大树下大喊“老天爷i,我要穿越!”
  • 人文山水珞珈

    人文山水珞珈

    武汉拥有真正意义上的现代大学,并非始于一九一三年在武昌东厂口方言学堂校址、利用原有设施和教员设立的国立武昌高等师范学校;更非始于一八九三年由张之洞在武昌三佛阁大朝街口创办的自强学堂,而是始于一九二八年经国民政府大学院允准,在国立武昌中山大学基础上创建的国立武汉大学,距今尚不足百年。一九三二年,武汉大学迁入位于东湖西南依山而建的新校区,从此与人文山水朝夕相伴,追随中国教育快速世界化(现代化)的步伐,在中国社会急遽现代化的进程中走到了今天。“生年不满百,常怀千岁忧。”忧人忧事忧人事之所短,而忧其所短则必知其所长。
  • 健康生活方式的智慧

    健康生活方式的智慧

    也许有人会问,怎样的生活方式才能称之为健康的呢?而这正是本书向大家讲明的一个主要理念,这本书将从关注自身的健康状况、远离危害健康的各种因素、改善饮食、科学运动、调整心态、养生保健、瑜珈健身等诸多方面向读者提供最新的健康知识,引导读者学会如何建立良好的生活方式,本书从而帮助您从不同角度了解那些被越来越多的人所关注的健康新知,把健康掌握在自己的手中!本书对于所有追求快乐、健康、长寿的人来说,无疑是必备的一本健康秘籍。