登陆注册
22898800000164

第164章 PART TWO(49)

It was an inhabited spot where there was no one;it was a desert place where there was some one;it was a boulevard of the great city,a street of Paris;more wild at night than the forest,more gloomy by day than a cemetery.

It was the old quarter of the Marche-aux-Chevaux.

The rambler,if he risked himself outside the four decrepit walls of this Marche-aux-Chevaux;if he consented even to pass beyond the Rue du Petit-Banquier,after leaving on his right a garden protected by high walls;then a field in which tan-bark mills rose like gigantic beaver huts;then an enclosure encumbered with timber,with a heap of stumps,sawdust,and shavings,on which stood a large dog,barking;then a long,low,utterly dilapidated wall,with a little black door in mourning,laden with mosses,which were covered with flowers in the spring;then,in the most deserted spot,a frightful and decrepit building,on which ran the inscription in large letters:

POST NO BILLS,——this daring rambler would have reached little known latitudes at the corner of the Rue des Vignes-Saint-Marcel.There,near a factory,and between two garden walls,there could be seen,at that epoch,a mean building,which,at the first glance,seemed as small as a thatched hovel,and which was,in reality,as large as a cathedral.It presented its side and gable to the public road;hence its apparent diminutiveness.

Nearly the whole of the house was hidden.Only the door and one window could be seen.

This hovel was only one story high.

The first detail that struck the observer was,that the door could never have been anything but the door of a hovel,while the window,if it had been carved out of dressed stone instead of being in rough masonry,might have been the lattice of a lordly mansion.

The door was nothing but a collection of worm-eaten planks roughly bound together by cross-beams which resembled roughly hewn logs.It opened directly on a steep staircase of lofty steps,muddy,chalky,plaster-stained,dusty steps,of the same width as itself,which could be seen from the street,running straight up like a ladder and disappearing in the darkness between two walls.

The top of the shapeless bay into which this door shut was masked by a narrow scantling in the centre of which a triangular hole had been sawed,which served both as wicket and air-hole when the door was closed.On the inside of the door the figures 52 had been traced with a couple of strokes of a brush dipped in ink,and above the scantling the same hand had daubed the number 50,so that one hesitated.Where was one?

Above the door it said,'Number 50';the inside replied,'no,Number 52.'

No one knows what dust-colored figures were suspended like draperies from the triangular opening.

The window was large,sufficiently elevated,garnished with Venetian blinds,and with a frame in large square panes;only these large panes were suffering from various wounds,which were both concealed and betrayed by an ingenious paper bandage.And the blinds,dislocated and unpasted,threatened passers-by rather than screened the occupants.

The horizontal slats were missing here and there and had been *****ly replaced with boards nailed on perpendicularly;so that what began as a blind ended as a shutter.

This door with an unclean,and this window with an honest though dilapidated air,thus beheld on the same house,produced the effect of two incomplete beggars walking side by side,with different miens beneath the same rags,the one having always been a mendicant,and the other having once been a gentleman.

The staircase led to a very vast edifice which resembled a shed which had been converted into a house.

This edifice had,for its intestinal tube,a long corridor,on which opened to right and left sorts of compartments of varied dimensions which were inhabitable under stress of circumstances,and rather more like stalls than cells.These chambers received their light from the vague waste grounds in the neighborhood.

All this was dark,disagreeable,wan,melancholy,sepulchral;traversed according as the crevices lay in the roof or in the door,by cold rays or by icy winds.

An interesting and picturesque peculiarity of this sort of dwelling is the enormous size of the spiders.

To the left of the entrance door,on the boulevard side,at about the height of a man from the ground,a small window which had been walled up formed a square niche full of stones which the children had thrown there as they passed by.

A portion of this building has recently been demolished.From what still remains of it one can form a judgment as to what it was in former days.

As a whole,it was not over a hundred years old.A hundred years is youth in a church and age in a house.It seems as though man's lodging partook of his ephemeral character,and God's house of his eternity.

The postmen called the house Number 50-52;but it was known in the neighborhood as the Gorbeau house.

Let us explain whence this appellation was derived.

Collectors of petty details,who become herbalists of anecdotes,and prick slippery dates into their memories with a pin,know that there was in Paris,during the last century,about 1770,two attorneys at the Chatelet named,one Corbeau(Raven),the other Renard(Fox).The two names had been forestalled by La Fontaine.The opportunity was too fine for the lawyers;they made the most of it.A parody was immediately put in circulation in the galleries of the court-house,in verses that limped a little:——

Maitre Corbeau,sur un dossier perche,[13]

Tenait dans son bee une saisie executoire;

Maitre Renard,par l'odeur alleche,

Lui fit a peu pres cette histoire:He!bonjour.

Etc.

[13]Lawyer Corbeau,perched on a docket,held in his beak a writ of execution;Lawyer Renard,attracted by the smell,addressed him nearly as follows,etc.

同类推荐
  • 伤寒论

    伤寒论

    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。
  • The Arrow of Gold

    The Arrow of Gold

    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。
  • 两垣奏议

    两垣奏议

    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。
  • Jean of the Lazy A

    Jean of the Lazy A

    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。
  • 反三国志演义

    反三国志演义

    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。
热门推荐
  • 剑朝道

    剑朝道

    长剑执于手,天下任我走行天道之意,惩不公之事
  • 半壶城

    半壶城

    刹那,山河之间风云突变,当新的格局慢慢形成之后,所面临的是藏在暗处的波涛汹涌。皇子出雪原,有人暗处蛰伏。一步之距,危机四伏。一封密信,为何绕路远行?大雪坪何人阻拦,想问剑。莺语湖畔芦苇荡,百里芦苇倒悬天。七王汇聚,为何说还有一位?白衣书生,走进大周城,百人跪拜,离去时,眼中含泪。最后还有莺语金鲤,切勿轻易跃龙门。
  • 毛泽东与水浒传

    毛泽东与水浒传

    毛泽东与水浒传,围绕毛泽东与水浒精神这个主调,全面收集详尽介绍了毛泽东阅读、欣赏、评论、运用《水浒传》的专题资料,仔细分析了毛泽东那视角独特、个性新奇的读书经验,具体揭示了毛泽东从梁山好汉身上挖掘到的古代革命造反者的精神内涵。毛泽东对梁山好汉的反抗精神、民主精神、平等精神、拼命精神、“打虎”精神……都进行了深入的挖掘和精心的吸纳;对梁山好汉的政治和政策、胆略和策略、战略和战术……都给予了别开生面启人心扉的解读,并恰到好处地将其转化为革命实践中敢于斗争和善于斗争的物质力量。同时,毛泽东也毫不含糊地指出了梁山好汉在精神状态和斗争策略方面的不足和失误,作为革命的借鉴。
  • 我的巴赫先生

    我的巴赫先生

    禁欲系鬼才时尚设计师VS双面性格钢琴美少女!晋江大神红枣甜宠力作!全文甜宠无虐点!叶景瓷能在半睡半醒中背下《第三钢琴协奏曲》,能把日内瓦大赛的指定曲目只看一次就全部记住,她的人生从来所向披靡,直到遇上段莫宁。他一而再再而三地拒绝她,成了比钢琴更让她有兴趣的挑战。段莫宁高傲、冷冽,他从没想到,他能遇上比时装设计更棘手的叶景瓷,更没想过,未来的某天,一贯骄傲的自己竟然会单膝下跪请求她穿上自己设计的礼服。爱是陪你共享荣光,也是陪你走过低谷和绝望。世间最美妙的奇遇就是,我终于遇到了你,我的巴赫先生。
  • 魂澜

    魂澜

    简月因养父的阴谋魂穿帝澜大陆——以修炼魂力为主的异世大陆,在一个又一个阴谋中她不得不加快提升自己的力量。一个是异世大陆万人敬仰的上尊,一个是兽族自幼联姻的皇子,她该如何选择。
  • THE SEA-WOLF

    THE SEA-WOLF

    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。
  • 甜妻,你好萌

    甜妻,你好萌

    她,失忆女,为寻找记忆回到这座城,三次阴差阳错毁了他的合作,被抓住成为地下情人,从此万劫不复,陷入了他的圈套。他,霸道男,为隐藏情感被迫结了婚,屡次碰见破坏他事情的女人,索性将她抓住并惩罚,以为会是游戏,却不曾想有了情。她要逃?怎么可以……一把将女人紧紧的抵在门上,一手握住她的蛮腰,往前一送,勾起嘴角魅惑问道:“婉婉,要去哪里?”某女见他如此,索性送上自己的双臂,圈住他的脖颈,挑眉戏谑:“带你一起!”
  • 边境大剿匪

    边境大剿匪

    中朝人民的友谊,有力地抵抗住了帝国主义国家的侵略,不仅符合中朝民族的利益,也利于推动整个亚洲乃至世界走向和平。毛泽东:卢汉如能在我军入滇时举行起义,宣布反帝、反封建、反蒋桂立场,则云南问题可以和平方式解决。龙泽汇说:“卢主席派我来,是为了要反蒋起义的事,他希望能够尽快行动。”卢汉说:“目前形势紧急,我们要是等到解放大军攻到威宁、盘县一带才起义,还有什么意义呢?”
  • 天行

    天行

    号称“北辰骑神”的天才玩家以自创的“牧马冲锋流”战术击败了国服第一弓手北冥雪,被誉为天纵战榜第一骑士的他,却受到小人排挤,最终离开了效力已久的银狐俱乐部。是沉沦,还是再次崛起?恰逢其时,月恒集团第四款游戏“天行”正式上线,虚拟世界再起风云!
  • 其实不想当魔王

    其实不想当魔王

    在网上订了个“娃娃”,备注的要求是:可爱的,萌萌哒,越小越好的那种。结果快递送了个特别的“娃娃”,不仅能放电,还附带超级魔王系统。其实叶枫真的不想当魔王,当个死肥宅也不错,真的。但是,实力它不允许啊!