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第23节

classic mystery and detective stories-第23节

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soul but what he acknowledged the sovereign necessity of prayer。

In my awe; in my rapture; all my thoughts seemed enlarged and

illumed and exalted。  I prayedall my soul seemed one prayer。  All

my past; with its pride and presumption and folly; grew distinct as

the form of a penitent; kneeling for pardon before setting forth on

the pilgrimage vowed to a shrine。  And; sure now; in the deeps of a

soul first revealed to myself; that the Dead do not die forever; my

human love soared beyond its brief trial of terror and sorrow。

Daring not to ask from Heaven's wisdom that Lilian; for my sake;

might not yet pass away from the earth; I prayed that my soul might

be fitted to bear with submission whatever my Maker might ordain。

And if surviving herwithout whom no beam from yon material sun

could ever warm into joy a morrow in human lifeso to guide my

steps that they might rejoin her at last; and in rejoining; regain

forever!



How trivial now became the weird riddle; that; a little while

before; had been clothed in so solemn an awe!  What mattered it to

the vast interests involved in the clear recognition of Soul and

Hereafter; whether or not my bodily sense; for a moment; obscured

the face of the Nature I should one day behold as a spirit?

Doubtless the sights and the sounds which had haunted the last

gloomy night; the calm reason of Faber would strip of their magical

seemings; the Eyes in the space and the Foot in the circle might be

those of no terrible Demons; but of the wild's savage children whom

I had seen; halting; curious and mute; in the light of the morning。

The tremor of the ground (if not; as heretofore; explicable by the

illusory impression of my own treacherous senses) might be but the

natural effect of elements struggling yet under a soil unmistakably

charred by volcanoes。  The luminous atoms dissolved in the caldron

might as little be fraught with a vital elixir as are the splendors

of naphtha or phosphor。  As it was; the weird rite had no magic

result。  The magician was not rent limb from limb by the fiends。

By causes as natural as ever extinguished life's spark in the frail

lamp of clay; he had died out of sightunder the black veil。



What mattered henceforth to Faith; in its far grander questions and

answers; whether Reason; in Faber; or Fancy; in me; supplied the

more probable guess at a hieroglyph which; if construed aright; was

but a word of small mark in the mystical language of Nature?  If

all the arts of enchantment recorded by Fable were attested by

facts which Sages were forced to acknowledge; Sages would sooner or

later find some cause for such portentsnot supernatural。  But

what Sage; without cause supernatural; both without and within him;

can guess at the wonders he views in the growth of a blade of

grass; or the tints on an insect's wing?  Whatever art Man can

achieve in his progress through time; Man's reason; in time; can

suffice to explain。  But the wonders of God?  These belong to the

Infinite; and these; O Immortal! will but develop new wonder on

wonder; though thy sight be a spirit's; and thy leisure to track

and to solve an eternity。



As I raised my face from my clasped hands; my eyes fell full upon a

form standing in the open doorway。  There; where on the night in

which Lilian's long struggle for reason and life had begun; the

Luminous Shadow had been beheld in the doubtful light of a dying

moon and a yet hazy dawn; there; on the threshold; gathering round

her bright locks the aureole of the glorious sun; stood Amy; the

blessed child!  And as I gazed; drawing nearer and nearer to the

silenced house; and that Image of Peace on its threshold; I felt

that Hope met me at the doorHope in the child's steadfast eyes;

Hope in the child's welcoming smile!



〃I was at watch for you;〃 whispered Amy。  〃All is well。〃



〃She lives stillshe lives!  Thank God; thank God!〃



〃She livesshe will recover!〃 said another voice; as my head sunk

on Faber's shoulder。  〃For some hours in the night her sleep was

disturbed; convulsed。  I feared; then; the worst。  Suddenly; just

before the dawn; she called out aloud; still in sleep:



〃'The cold and dark shadow has passed away from me and from Allen

passed away from us both forever!'



〃And from that moment the fever left her; the breathing became

soft; the pulse steady; and the color stole gradually back to her

cheek。  The crisis is past。  Nature's benign Disposer has permitted

Nature to restore your life's gentle partner; heart to heart; mind

to mind〃



〃And soul to soul;〃 I cried in my solemn joy。  〃Above as below;

soul to soul!〃  Then; at a sign from Faber; the child took me by

the hand and led me up the stairs into Lilian's room。



Again those dear arms closed around me in wifelike and holy love;

and those true lips kissed away my tearseven as now; at the

distance of years from that happy morn; while I write the last

words of this Strange Story; the same faithful arms close around

me; the same tender lips kiss away my tears。







Thomas De Quincey





The Avenger





〃Why callest thou me murderer; and not rather the wrath of God

burning after the steps of the oppressor; and cleansing the earth

when it is wet with blood?〃





That series of terrific events by which our quiet city and

university in the northeastern quarter of Germany were convulsed

during the year 1816; has in itself; and considered merely as a

blind movement of human tiger…passion ranging unchained among men;

something too memorable to be forgotten or left without its own

separate record; but the moral lesson impressed by these events is

yet more memorable; and deserves the deep attention of coming

generations in their struggle after human improvement; not merely

in its own limited field of interest directly awakened; but in all

analogous fields of interest; as in fact already; and more than

once; in connection with these very events; this lesson has

obtained the effectual attention of Christian kings and princes

assembled in congress。  No tragedy; indeed; among all the sad ones

by which the charities of the human heart or of the fireside have

ever been outraged; can better merit a separate chapter in the

private history of German manners or social life than this

unparalleled case。  And; on the other hand; no one can put in a

better claim to be the historian than myself。



I was at the time; and still am; a professor in that city and

university which had the melancholy distinction of being its

theater。  I knew familiarly all the parties who were concerned in

it; either as sufferers or as agents。  I was present from first to

last; and watched the whole course of the mysterious storm which

fell upon our devoted city in a strength like that of a West Indian

hurricane; and which did seriously threaten at one time to

depopulate our university; through the dark suspicions which

settled upon its members; and the natural reaction of generous

indignation in repelling them; while the city in its more

stationary and native classes would very soon have manifested THEIR

awful sense of things; of the hideous insecurity for life; and of

the unfathomable dangers which had undermined their hearths below

their very feet; by sacrificing; whenever circumstances allowed

them; their houses and beautiful gardens in exchange for days

uncursed by panic; and nights unpolluted by blood。  Nothing; I can

take upon myself to assert; was left undone of all that human

foresight could suggest; or human ingenuity could accomplish。  But

observe the melancholy result: the more certain did these

arrangements strike people as remedies for the evil; so much the

more effectually did they aid the terror; but; above all; the awe;

the sense of mystery; when ten cases of total extermination;

applied to separate households; had occurred; in every one of which

these precautionary aids had failed to yield the slightest

assistance。  The horror; the perfect frenzy of fear; which seized

upon the town after that experience; baffles all attempt at

description。  Had these various contrivances failed merely in some

human and intelligible way; as by bringing the aid too tardily

still; in such cases; though the danger would no less have been

evidently deepened; nobody would have felt any further mystery than

what; from the very first; rested upon the persons and the motives

of the murderers。  But; as it was; when; in ten separate cases of

exterminating carnage; the astounded police; after an examination

the most searching; pursued from day to day; and almost exhausting

the patience by the minuteness of the investigation; had finally

pronounced that no attempt apparently had been made to benefit by

any of the signals preconcerted; that no footstep apparently had

moved in that directionthen; and after that result; a blind

misery of fear fell upon the population; so much the worse than any

anguish of a beleaguered

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