下载掌阅APP，畅读海量书库
立即打开
clamouring, begging noisily. prepare, make ready.
commission, doing. revenged, paid for; punished.
ventured, dared. pirates, sea-robers.
strutting, walking in a conceited way.
intruders, persons who go where they have no right.
1. King Æthelred the Second was called “The Unready,” because he was one of those silly people who are always doing the wrong thing. If you give them ever so much time to prepare for coming danger, they will be found at last only beginning to look around them when the danger has actually come.
2. During all the days of Dunstan, in fact ever since the death of Alfred, the Danes had been darting upon England, and burning, killing, robbing, without mercy. Æthelred gave them money to go away: they went for a short time, but then came back in swarms ten times as great, clamouring for more. And although they got more, they often did not go, but remained living in the houses of the English, eating and drinking of the best, and treating the people who were the real owners like the lowest slaves.
3. These pirates would go strutting about in dresses of scarlet and blue, with shields all gilt, and with much gold ornament on their axes and helmets. If an Englishman met them, they would knock him rudely from their path; or, if he ventured to resist, they would cut him down.
4. At last it became evident even to Æthelred that the payment system would not do any longer; and he then thought of another and a very dreadful plan of getting rid of these cruel intruders. Letters were sent secretly from London to all parts of the kingdom, desiring the English to prepare for a day of blood. Every Dane in the land was to be killed on a certain day; and the words “every Dane” meant not only the fierce men who had lately come over the sea to plunder, but thousands of peaceful and well-conducted Danes, who had long been settled in quiet farms and village trades in every part of the country.
5. There was much secret joy at the news, which flew like wild-fire everywhere; and the English took care to sharpen their blades against the coming of St. Brice's Day, 13th November 1002, which was the time chosen for the commission of this crime.
6. The day came, and the work was done. Men killed their sisters' husbands—their brothers' wives. Little babes, torn from their Danish mothers, were dashed against door-posts. Some Englishwomen who had married Danes were buried alive, or were cut with knives in the most dreadful manner and left to bleed to death.
7. There was one Danish lady, the sister of King Sweyn, who saw her children and her husband killed, and who, as she herself was led out to die, said that her death would be quickly and dreadfully revenged. She was right. Sweyn came across the sea with many ships, and for years the land was fi lled with the terrors of a most dreadful war. Even Edmund Ironside, the brave son of the Unready King, could not save the throne of the English from being overturned; and a Danish kingdom was set up in its room.
中文阅读
1. 国王埃瑟尔里德二世被封为“未准备好的国王”，因为这个糊涂虫老是做一些愚蠢到家的傻事。这类人差不多都有一个共同点，就是即使你事先告诉他们危险将至，让他们有充分时间做准备，他们却总是在最后一刻，在危险已经来临时，才开始张皇失措地环顾四周。
2. 在邓斯坦得势期间，也就是阿尔弗雷德逝世之后，丹麦人就攻入了英格兰，到处杀人放火，打家劫舍，几乎无恶不作。埃瑟尔里德驱赶他们的办法居然是给钱，其结果就是他们的确离开了，但是没多久又一窝蜂回来了，人数是前一次的十倍，索要的钱更是狮子大开口，比上一次多得多。更有甚者，拿了钱不走，霸占着当地人的房子，每天在里面堂而皇之地喝酒吃肉，把真正的房屋主人当卑贱奴隶一样呼来唤去。
3. 这些海盗出身的土匪，成天趾高气扬地到处游荡。他们穿一身猩红色或青蓝色的衣服，随身背着镀金的盾牌，扛着一把镶金边的斧子，戴着金色花纹的头盔。要是哪个倒霉的英国人被他们碰上，他们就前欺负敲诈，谁要是胆敢抵抗，立刻就会被他们杀掉。
4. 最后连埃瑟尔里德也知道拿钱解决不了问题；为了赶走这帮让他忍无可忍的强盗，埃瑟尔里德想出了一个极其冒险的下策；他悄悄地从伦敦给全国各部发出密信，让全英国的人为将到来的血战做准备。他要在某一天把这片土地上每一个丹麦人都杀掉；而“每一个丹麦人”就意味着，不仅包括那些过海而来的丹麦强盗，也包括那些早就在英国乡村定居下来，安守本分生活着，并规规矩矩与当地人做买卖的丹麦人。
5. 这一消息极具煽动力，立即不胫而走，传遍了大江南北；所有的英国人都开始在暗地里磨刀霍霍，等待着公元1002年11月13日圣布莱斯节的到来。这一天，就是被选定的屠杀日。
6. 屠杀日到来的这一天，一切按计划执行。有的人杀死了他们亲姐妹的丈夫，有的人杀死了他们亲兄弟的妻子；婴儿从妈妈的怀里被夺走，扔向门柱活生生地撞死；一些嫁给丹麦人的英国妇女被活活烧死，或者被用刀以极其残忍的方式刺伤，最终流血而死。
7. 其中有一个丹麦女子，她是丹麦国王斯韦恩的姐姐。当她看见她的孩子和丈夫都被杀害，自己也难道厄运时，留下了一句话：她的死很快将带来更可怕的复仇。她说对了。斯韦恩不久就率领舰队跨海而来，从此之后，这片国土便长年处于恐怖的战乱之中，经常尸横遍野，流血漂杵。即使勇敢的埃德蒙·埃恩赛德，也即“未准备好的国王”的儿子，也未能改变英国王权被推翻的命运；于是一个丹麦王国在这片焦土上诞生了。