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第20章

an inland voyage-第20章

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  It was not possible to be an Englishman and avoid  a feeling of elation; for the men who followed the drums were  small; and walked shabbily。  Each man inclined at his own angle;  and jolted to his own convenience; as he went。  There was nothing  of the superb gait with which a regiment of tall Highlanders moves  behind its music; solemn and inevitable; like a natural phenomenon。   Who that has seen it can forget the drum…major pacing in front; the  drummers' tiger…skins; the pipers' swinging plaids; the strange  elastic rhythm of the whole regiment footing it in time … and the  bang of the drum; when the brasses cease; and the shrill pipes take  up the martial story in their place?

A girl; at school in France; began to describe one of our regiments  on parade to her French schoolmates; and as she went on; she told  me; the recollection grew so vivid; she became so proud to be the  countrywoman of such soldiers; and so sorry to be in another  country; that her voice failed her and she burst into tears。  I  have never forgotten that girl; and I think she very nearly  deserves a statue。  To call her a young lady; with all its niminy  associations; would be to offer her an insult。  She may rest  assured of one thing:  although she never should marry a heroic  general; never see any great or immediate result of her life; she  will not have lived in vain for her native land。

But though French soldiers show to ill advantage on parade; on the  march they are gay; alert; and willing like a troop of fox…hunters。   I remember once seeing a company pass through the forest of  Fontainebleau; on the Chailly road; between the Bas Breau and the  Reine Blanche。  One fellow walked a little before the rest; and  sang a loud; audacious marching song。  The rest bestirred their  feet; and even swung their muskets in time。  A young officer on  horseback had hard ado to keep his countenance at the words。  You  never saw anything so cheerful and spontaneous as their gait;  schoolboys do not look more eagerly at hare and hounds; and you  would have thought it impossible to tire such willing marchers。

My great delight in Compiegne was the town…hall。  I doted upon the  town…hall。  It is a monument of Gothic insecurity; all turreted;  and gargoyled; and slashed; and bedizened with half a score of  architectural fancies。  Some of the niches are gilt and painted;  and in a great square panel in the centre; in black relief on a  gilt ground; Louis XII。 rides upon a pacing horse; with hand on hip  and head thrown back。  There is royal arrogance in every line of  him; the stirruped foot projects insolently from the frame; the eye  is hard and proud; the very horse seems to be treading with  gratification over prostrate serfs; and to have the breath of the  trumpet in his nostrils。  So rides for ever; on the front of the  town…hall; the good king Louis XII。; the father of his people。

Over the king's head; in the tall centre turret; appears the dial  of a clock; and high above that; three little mechanical figures;  each one with a hammer in his hand; whose business it is to chime  out the hours and halves and quarters for the burgesses of  Compiegne。  The centre figure has a gilt breast…plate; the two  others wear gilt trunk…hose; and they all three have elegant;  flapping hats like cavaliers。  As the quarter approaches; they turn  their heads and look knowingly one to the other; and then; KLING go  the three hammers on three little bells below。  The hour follows;  deep and sonorous; from the interior of the tower; and the gilded  gentlemen rest from their labours with contentment。

I had a great deal of healthy pleasure from their manoeuvres; and  took good care to miss as few performances as possible; and I found  that even the CIGARETTE; while he pretended to despise my  enthusiasm; was more or less a devotee himself。  There is something  highly absurd in the exposition of such toys to the outrages of  winter on a housetop。  They would be more in keeping in a glass  case before a Nurnberg clock。  Above all; at night; when the  children are abed; and even grown people are snoring under quilts;  does it not seem impertinent to leave these ginger…bread figures  winking and tinkling to the stars and the rolling moon?  The  gargoyles may fitly enough twist their ape…like heads; fitly enough  may the potentate bestride his charger; like a centurion in an old  German print of the VIA DOLOROSA; but the toys should be put away  in a box among some cotton; until the sun rises; and the children  are abroad again to be amused。

In Compiegne post…office a great packet of letters awaited us; and  the authorities were; for this occasion only; so polite as to hand  them over upon application。

In some ways; our journey may be said to end with this letter…bag  at Compiegne。  The spell was broken。  We had partly come home from  that moment。

No one should have any correspondence on a journey; it is bad  enough to have to write; but the receipt of letters is the death of  all holiday feeling。

'Out of my country and myself I go。'  I wish to take a dive among  new conditions for a while; as into another element。  I have  nothing to do with my friends or my affections for the time; when I  came away; I left my heart at home in a desk; or sent it forward  with my portmanteau to await me at my destination。  After my  journey is over; I shall not fail to read your admirable letters  with the attention they deserve。  But I have paid all this money;  look you; and paddled all these strokes; for no other purpose than  to be abroad; and yet you keep me at home with your perpetual  communications。  You tug the string; and I feel that I am a  tethered bird。  You pursue me all over Europe with the little  vexations that I came away to avoid。  There is no discharge in the  war of life; I am well aware; but shall there not be so much as a  week's furlough?

We were up by six; the day we were to leave。  They had taken so  little note of us that I hardly thought they would have  condescended on a bill。  But they did; with some smart particulars  too; and we paid in a civilised manner to an uninterested clerk;  and went out of that hotel; with the india…rubber bags; unremarked。   No one cared to know about us。  It is not possible to rise before a  village; but Compiegne was so grown a town; that it took its ease  in the morning; and we were up and away while it was still in  dressing…gown and slippers。  The streets were left to people  washing door…steps; nobody was in full dress but the cavaliers upon  the town…hall; they were all washed with dew; spruce in their  gilding; and full of intelligence and a sense of professional  responsibility。  KLING went they on the bells for the half…past six  as we went by。  I took it kind of them to make me this parting  compliment; they never were in better form; not even at noon upon a  Sunday。

There was no one to see us off but the early washerwomen … early  and late … who were already beating the linen in their floating  lavatory on the river。  They were very merry and matutinal in their  ways; plunged their arms boldly in; and seemed not to feel the  shock。  It would be dispiriting to me; this early beginning and  first cold dabble of a most dispiriting day's work。  But I believe  they would have been as unwilling to change days with us as we  could be to change with them。  They crowded to the door to watch us  paddle away into the thin sunny mists upon the river; and shouted  heartily after us till we were through the bridge。



CHANGED TIMES



THERE is a sense in which those mists never rose from off our  journey; and from that time forth they lie very densely in my note… book。  As long as the Oise was a small rural river; it took us near  by people's doors; and we could hold a conversation with natives in  the riparian fields。  But now that it had grown so wide; the life  along shore passed us by at a distance。  It was the same difference  as between a great public highway and a country by…path that  wanders in and out of cottage gardens。  We now lay in towns; where  nobody troubled us with questions; we had floated into civilised  life; where people pass without salutation。  In sparsely inhabited  places; we make all 

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