基督山伯爵 英文版 The Count of Monte Cristo
大仲马 Alexandre Dumas père
Chapter 34 Page 1
The Colosseum.
Franz had so managed his route, that during the ride to theColosseum they passed not a single ancient ruin, so that nopreliminary impression interfered to mitigate the colossalproportions of the gigantic building they came to admire.The road selected was a continuation of the Via Sistina;then by cutting off the right angle of the street in whichstands Santa Maria Maggiore and proceeding by the Via Urbanaand San Pietro in Vincoli, the travellers would findthemselves directly opposite the Colosseum. This itinerarypossessed another great advantage, -- that of leaving Franzat full liberty to indulge his deep reverie upon the subjectof Signor Pastrini's story, in which his mysterious host ofMonte Cristo was so strangely mixed up. Seated with foldedarms in a corner of the carriage, he continued to ponderover the singular history he had so lately listened to, andto ask himself an interminable number of questions touchingits various circumstances without, however, arriving at asatisfactory reply to any of them. One fact more than therest brought his friend "Sinbad the Sailor" back to hisrecollection, and that was the mysterious sort of intimacythat seemed to exist between the brigands and the sailors;and Pastrini's account of Vampa's having found refuge onboard the vessels of smugglers and fishermen, reminded Franzof the two Corsican bandits he had found supping so amicablywith the crew of the little yacht, which had even deviatedfrom its course and touched at Porto-Vecchio for the solepurpose of landing them. The very name assumed by his hostof Monte Cristo and again repeated by the landlord of theHotel de Londres, abundantly proved to him that his islandfriend was playing his philanthropic part on the shores ofPiombino, Civita-Vecchio, Ostia, and Gaeta, as on those ofCorsica, Tuscany, and Spain; and further, Franz bethoughthim of having heard his singular entertainer speak both ofTunis and Palermo, proving thereby how largely his circle ofacquaintances extended.
But however the mind of the young man might be absorbed inthese reflections, they were at once dispersed at the sightof the dark frowning ruins of the stupendous Colosseum,through the various openings of which the pale moonlightplayed and flickered like the unearthly gleam from the eyesof the wandering dead. The carriage stopped near the MetaSudans; the door was opened, and the young men, eagerlyalighting, found themselves opposite a cicerone, whoappeared to have sprung up from the ground, so unexpectedwas his appearance.
The usual guide from the hotel having followed them, theyhad paid two conductors, nor is it possible, at Rome, toavoid this abundant supply of guides; besides the ordinarycicerone, who seizes upon you directly you set foot in yourhotel, and never quits you while you remain in the city,there is also a special cicerone belonging to each monument-- nay, almost to each part of a monument. It may,therefore, be easily imagined there is no scarcity of guidesat the Colosseum, that wonder of all ages, which Martialthus eulogizes: "Let Memphis cease to boast the barbarousmiracles of her pyramids, and the wonders of Babylon betalked of no more among us; all must bow to the superiorityof the gigantic labor of the Caesars, and the many voices ofFame spread far and wide the surpassing merits of thisincomparable monument."
As for Albert and Franz, they essayed not to escape fromtheir ciceronian tyrants; and, indeed, it would have been somuch the more difficult to break their bondage, as theguides alone are permitted to visit these monuments withtorches in their hands. Thus, then, the young men made noattempt at resistance, but blindly and confidinglysurrendered themselves into the care and custody of theirconductors. Albert had already made seven or eight similarexcursions to the Colosseum, while his less favoredcompanion trod for the first time in his life the classicground forming the monument of Flavius Vespasian; and, tohis credit be it spoken, his mind, even amid the glibloquacity of the guides, was duly and deeply touched withawe and enthusiastic admiration of all he saw; and certainlyno adequate notion of these stupendous ruins can be formedsave by such as have visited them, and more especially bymoonlight, at which time the vast proportions of thebuilding appear twice as large when viewed by the mysteriousbeams of a southern moonlit sky, whose rays are sufficientlyclear and vivid to light the horizon with a glow equal tothe soft twilight of an eastern clime. Scarcely, therefore,had the reflective Franz walked a hundred steps beneath theinterior porticoes of the ruin, than, abandoning Albert tothe guides (who would by no means yield their prescriptiveright of carrying their victims through the routineregularly laid down, and as regularly followed by them, butdragged the unconscious visitor to the various objects witha pertinacity that admitted of no appeal, beginning, as amatter of course, with the Lions' Den, and finishing withCaesar's "Podium,"), to escape a jargon and mechanicalsurvey of the wonders by which he was surrounded, Franzascended a half-dilapidated staircase, and, leaving them tofollow their monotonous round, seated himself at the foot ofa column, and immediately opposite a large aperture, whichpermitted him to enjoy a full and undisturbed view of thegigantic dimensions of the majestic ruin.
Franz had remained for nearly a quarter of an hour perfectlyhidden by the shadow of the vast column at whose base he hadfound a resting-place, and from whence his eyes followed themotions of Albert and his guides, who, holding torches intheir hands, had emerged from a vomitarium at the oppositeextremity of the Colosseum, and then again disappeared downthe steps conducting to the seats reserved for the Vestalvirgins, resembling, as they glided along, some restlessshades following the flickering glare of so manyignes-fatui. All at once his ear caught a sound resemblingthat of a stone rolling down the staircase opposite the oneby which he had himself ascended. There was nothingremarkable in the circumstance of a fragment of granitegiving way and falling heavily below; but it seemed to himthat the substance that fell gave way beneath the pressureof a foot, and also that some one, who endeavored as much aspossible to prevent his footsteps from being heard, wasapproaching the spot where he sat. Conjecture soon becamecertainty, for the figure of a man was distinctly visible toFranz, gradually emerging from the staircase opposite, uponwhich the moon was at that moment pouring a full tide ofsilvery brightness.
The stranger thus presenting himself was probably a personwho, like Franz, preferred the enjoyment of solitude and hisown thoughts to the frivolous gabble of the guides. And hisappearance had nothing extraordinary in it; but thehesitation with which he proceeded, stopping and listeningwith anxious attention at every step he took, convincedFranz that he expected the arrival of some person. By a sortof instinctive impulse, Franz withdrew as much as possiblebehind his pillar. About ten feet from the spot where he andthe stranger were, the roof had given way, leaving a largeround opening, through which might be seen the blue vault ofheaven, thickly studded with stars. Around this opening,which had, possibly, for ages permitted a free entrance tothe brilliant moonbeams that now illumined the vast pile,grew a quantity of creeping plants, whose delicate greenbranches stood out in bold relief against the clear azure ofthe firmament, while large masses of thick, strong fibrousshoots forced their way through the chasm, and hung floatingto and fro, like so many waving strings. The person whosemysterious arrival had attracted the attention of Franzstood in a kind of half-light, that rendered it impossibleto distinguish his features, although his dress was easilymade out. He wore a large brown mantle, one fold of which,thrown over his left shoulder, served likewise to mask thelower part of his countenance, while the upper part wascompletely hidden by his broad-brimmed hat. The lower partof his dress was more distinctly visible by the bright raysof the moon, which, entering through the broken ceiling,shed their refulgent beams on feet cased in elegantly madeboots of polished leather, over which descended fashionablycut trousers of black cloth.
From the imperfect means Franz had of judging, he could onlycome to one conclusion, -- that the person whom he was thuswatching certainly belonged to no inferior station of life.Some few minutes had elapsed, and the stranger began to showmanifest signs of impatience, when a slight noise was heardoutside the aperture in the roof, and almost immediately adark shadow seemed to obstruct the flood of light that hadentered it, and the figure of a man was clearly seen gazingwith eager scrutiny on the immense space beneath him; then,as his eye caught sight of him in the mantle, he grasped afloating mass of thickly matted boughs, and glided down bytheir help to within three or four feet of the ground, andthen leaped lightly on his feet. The man who had performedthis daring act with so much indifference wore theTranstevere costume. "I beg your excellency's pardon forkeeping you waiting," said the man, in the Roman dialect,"but I don't think I'm many minutes after my time, teno'clock his just struck on the Lateran."
"Say not a word about being late," replied the stranger inpurest Tuscan; "'tis I who am too soon. But even if you hadcaused me to wait a little while, I should have felt quitesure that the delay was not occasioned by any fault ofyours."
"Your excellency is perfectly right in so thinking," saidthe man; "I came here direct from the Castle of St. Angelo,and I had an immense deal of trouble before I could get achance to speak to Beppo."
"And who is Beppo?"
"Oh, Beppo is employed in the prison, and I give him so mucha year to let me know what is going on within his holiness'scastle."
"Indeed! You are a provident person, I see."
"Why, you see, no one knows what may happen. Perhaps some ofthese days I may be entrapped, like poor Peppino and may bevery glad to have some little nibbling mouse to gnaw themeshes of my net, and so help me out of prison."
"Briefly, what did you glean?"
"That two executions of considerable interest will takeplace the day after to-morrow at two o'clock, as iscustomary at Rome at the commencement of all greatfestivals. One of the culprits will be mazzolato;* he is anatrocious villain, who murdered the priest who brought himup, and deserves not the smallest pity. The other suffereris sentenced to be decapitato;** and he, your excellency, ispoor Peppino."
* Knocked on the head.** Beheaded.
"The fact is, that you have inspired not only the pontificalgovernment, but also the neighboring states, with suchextreme fear, that they are glad of all opportunity ofmaking an example."
"But Peppino did not even belong to my band: he was merely apoor shepherd, whose only crime consisted in furnishing uswith provisions."
"Which makes him your accomplice to all intents andpurposes. But mark the distinction with which he is treated;instead of being knocked on the head as you would be if oncethey caught hold of you, he is simply sentenced to beguillotined, by which means, too, the amusements of the dayare diversified, and there is a spectacle to please everyspectator."
"Without reckoning the wholly unexpected one I am preparingto surprise them with."
shall I know whether your excellency has succeededor not."the head as you would.
"My good friend," said the man in the cloak, "excuse me forsaying that you seem to me precisely in the mood to commitsome wild or extravagant act."
"Perhaps I am; but one thing I have resolved on, and thatis, to stop at nothing to restore a poor devil to liberty,who has got into this scrape solely from having served me. Ishould hate and despise myself as a coward did I desert thebrave fellow in his present extremity."
"And what do you mean to do?"
"To surround the scaffold with twenty of my best men, who,at a signal from me, will rush forward directly Peppino isbrought for execution, and, by the assistance of theirstilettos, drive back the guard, and carry off theprisoner."
"That seems to me as hazardous as uncertain, and convincesme that my scheme is far better than yours."
"And what is your excellency's project?"
"Just this. I will so advantageously bestow 2,000 piastres,that the person receiving them shall obtain a respite tillnext year for Peppino; and during that year, anotherskilfully placed 1,000 piastres will afford him the means ofescaping from his prison."
"And do you feel sure of succeeding?"
"Pardieu!" exclaimed the man in the cloak, suddenlyexpressing himself in French.
"What did your excellency say?" inquired the other.
"I said, my good fellow, that I would do more single-handedby the means of gold than you and all your troop couldeffect with stilettos, pistols, carbines, and blunderbussesincluded. Leave me, then, to act, and have no fears for theresult."
"At least, there can be no harm in myself and party being inreadiness, in case your excellency should fail."
"None whatever. Take what precautions you please, if it isany satisfaction to you to do so; but rely upon my obtainingthe reprieve I seek."
"Remember, the execution is fixed for the day aftertomorrow, and that you have but one day to work in."
"And what of that? Is not a day divided into twenty-fourhours, each hour into sixty minutes, and every minutesub-divided into sixty seconds? Now in 86,400 seconds verymany things can be done."
"And how shall I know whether your excellency has succeededor not."
"Oh, that is very easily arranged. I have engaged the threelower windows at the Cafe Rospoli; should I have obtainedthe requisite pardon for Peppino, the two outside windowswill be hung with yellow damasks, and the centre with white,having a large cross in red marked on it."
"And whom will you employ to carry the reprieve to theofficer directing the execution?"
"Send one of your men, disguised as a penitent friar, and Iwill give it to him. His dress will procure him the means ofapproaching the scaffold itself, and he will deliver theofficial order to the officer, who, in his turn, will handit to the executioner; in the meantime, it will be as wellto acquaint Peppino with what we have determined on, if itbe only to prevent his dying of fear or losing his senses,because in either case a very useless expense will have beenincurred."
"Your excellency," said the man, "you are fully persuaded ofmy entire devotion to you, are you not?"
"Nay, I flatter myself that there can be no doubt of it,"replied the cavalier in the cloak.
"Well, then, only fulfil your promise of rescuing Peppino,and henceforward you shall receive not only devotion, butthe most absolute obedience from myself and those under methat one human being can render to another."
"Have a care how far you pledge yourself, my good friend,for I may remind you of your promise at some, perhaps, notvery distant period, when I, in my turn, may require youraid and influence."
"Let that day come sooner or later, your excellency willfind me what I have found you in this my heavy trouble; andif from the other end of the world you but write me word todo such or such a thing, you may regard it as done, for doneit shall be, on the word and faith of" --
"Hush!" interrupted the stranger; "I hear a noise."
"'Tis some travellers, who are visiting the Colosseum bytorchlight."
"'Twere better we should not be seen together; those guidesare nothing but spies, and might possibly recognize you;and, however I may be honored by your friendship, my worthyfriend, if once the extent of our intimacy were known, I amsadly afraid both my reputation and credit would sufferthereby."
"Well, then, if you obtain the reprieve?"
"The middle window at the Cafe Rospoli will be hung withwhite damask, bearing a red cross."
"And if you fail?"
"Then all three windows will have yellow draperies."
"And then?"
"And then, my good fellow, use your daggers in any way youplease, and I further promise you to be there as a spectatorof your prowess."
"We understand each other perfectly, then. Adieu, yourexcellency; depend upon me as firmly as I do upon you."
Saying these words, the Transteverin disappeared down thestaircase, while his companion, muffling his features moreclosely than before in the folds of his mantle, passedalmost close to Franz, and descended to the arena by anoutward flight of steps. The next minute Franz heard himselfcalled by Albert, who made the lofty building re-echo withthe sound of his friend's name. Franz, however, did not obeythe summons till he had satisfied himself that the two menwhose conversation he had overheard were at a sufficientdistance to prevent his encountering them in his descent. Inten minutes after the strangers had departed, Franz was onthe road to the Piazza de Spagni, listening with studiedindifference to the learned dissertation delivered byAlbert, after the manner of Pliny and Calpurnius, touchingthe iron-pointed nets used to prevent the ferocious beastsfrom springing on the spectators. Franz let him proceedwithout interruption, and, in fact, did not hear what wassaid; he longed to be alone, and free to ponder over allthat had occurred. One of the two men, whose mysteriousmeeting in the Colosseum he had so unintentionallywitnessed, was an entire stranger to him, but not so theother; and though Franz had been unable to distinguish hisfeatures, from his being either wrapped in his mantle orobscured by the shadow, the tones of his voice had made toopowerful an impression on him the first time he had heardthem for him ever again to forget them, hear them when orwhere he might. It was more especially when this man wasspeaking in a manner half jesting, half bitter, that Franz'sear recalled most vividly the deep sonorous, yetwell-pitched voice that had addressed him in the grotto ofMonte Cristo, and which he heard for the second time amidthe darkness and ruined grandeur of the Colosseum. And themore he thought, the more entire was his conviction, thatthe person who wore the mantle was no other than his formerhost and entertainer, "Sinbad the Sailor."
Under any other circumstances, Franz would have found itimpossible to resist his extreme curiosity to know more ofso singular a personage, and with that intent have sought torenew their short acquaintance; but in the present instance,the confidential nature of the conversation he had overheardmade him, with propriety, judge that his appearance at sucha time would be anything but agreeable. As we have seen,therefore, he permitted his former host to retire withoutattempting a recognition, but fully promising himself a richindemnity for his present forbearance should chance affordhim another opportunity. In vain did Franz endeavor toforget the many perplexing thoughts which assailed him; invain did he court the refreshment of sleep. Slumber refusedto visit his eyelids and the night was passed in feverishcontemplation of the chain of circumstances tending to provethe identity of the mysterious visitant to the Colosseumwith the inhabitant of the grotto of Monte Cristo; and themore he thought, the firmer grew his opinion on the subject.Worn out at length, he fell asleep at daybreak, and did notawake till late. Like a genuine Frenchman, Albert hademployed his time in arranging for the evening's diversion;he had sent to engage a box at the Teatro Argentino; andFranz, having a number of letters to write, relinquished thecarriage to Albert for the whole of the day. At five o'clockAlbert returned, delighted with his day's work; he had beenoccupied in leaving his letters of introduction, and hadreceived in return more invitations to balls and routs thanit would be possible for him to accept; besides this, he hadseen (as he called it) all the remarkable sights at Rome.Yes, in a single day he had accomplished what his moreserious-minded companion would have taken weeks to effect.Neither had he neglected to ascertain the name of the pieceto be played that night at the Teatro Argentino, and alsowhat performers appeared in it.