英文名著精选阅读:《红字》第二十二章(上)
Chapter 22 THE PROCESSION
第二十二章 游行
BEFORE Hester Prynne could call together her thoughts, and consider what was practicableto be done in this new and startling aspect of affairs, the sound of military music was heard approaching along a contiguousstreet. It denoted the advance of the procession of magistrates and citizens, on its way towards the meeting-house; where, in compliancewith a custom thus early established, and ever since observed, the Reverend Mr. Dimmesdale was to deliver an Election Sermon.
海丝特·白兰还没来得及集中她的思路,考虑采取什么切实的措施来应付这刚刚出现的惊人局面,已经从毗邻的街道上传来了越来越近的军乐声。这表示官民们的游行队伍正在朝着议事厅前进;按照早已确立并一直遵照执行的规矩,丁梅斯代尔牧师先生将在那里进行庆祝选举的布道。
Soon the head of the procession showed itself with a slow and stately march, turning a corner, and making its way across the market-place. First came the music. It comprised a variety of instruments, perhaps imperfectly adapted to one another, and played with no great skill; but yet attaining the great object for which the harmonyof drum and clarionaddresses itself to the multitude- that of imparting a higher and more heroicair to the scene of life that passes before the eye. Little Pearl at first clapped her hands, but then lost, for an instant, the restless agitation that had kept her in a continual effervescencethroughout the morning; she gazed silently, and seemed to be borne upward, like a floating sea-bird, on the long heaves and swells of sound. But she was brought back to her former mood by the shimmer of the sunshine on the weapons and bright armourof the military company, which followed after the music, and formed the honorary escort of the procession. This body of soldiery- which still sustains a corporate existence, and marches down from past ages with an ancient and honourable fame- was composed of no mercenarymaterials. Its ranks were filled with gentlemen, who felt the stirrings of martial impulse, and sought to establish a kind of College of Arms, where, as in an association of Knights Templars, they might learn the science, and, so far as peaceful exercise would teach them, the practices of war. The high estimation then placed upon the military character might be seen in the lofty port of each individual member of the company. Some of them, indeed, by their services in the Low Countries and on other fields of European warfare, had fairly won their title to assume the name and pomp of soldiership. The entire array, moreover, clad in burnished steel, and with plumagenodding over their bright morions, had a brilliancy of effect which no modern display can aspireto equal.
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