Коллектив авторов: Лучшие мистические истории на английском / The Stories of Mystery

General Browne accepted the invitation, though somewhat unwillingly. It was evident he was not to breathe freely or at ease till he left Woodville Castle far behind him. He could not refuse his friend’s invitation, however; and the less so that he was a little ashamed of the peevishness which he had displayed towards his well-meaning entertainer.

The General, therefore, followed Lord Woodville through several rooms into a long gallery hung with pictures, which the latter pointed out to his guest, telling the names and giving some account of the personages whose portraits presented themselves in progression. General Browne was but little interested in the details which these accounts conveyed to him. They were, indeed, of the kind which are usually found in an old family gallery. Here was a Cavalier who had ruined the estate in the royal cause; there a fine lady who had reinstated it by contracting a match with a wealthy Roundhead. [56] Roundheads – прозвище, которое получили защитники Парламента во время Гражданской войны в Англии. Они сражались против абсолютной власти короля Карла I, и стриглись очень коротко, чтобы подчеркнуть свое отличие от роялистов с их длинными локонами. There hung a gallant who had been in danger for corresponding with the exiled court at Saint Germains; here one who had taken arms for William at the Revolution; [57] William at the Revolution – Вильгельм III, принц Оранский (1650–1702) во время «Славной Революции», 5 ноября 1688 г., захватил Англию и сместил короля Якова II. and there a third that had thrown his weight alternately into the scale of Whig and Tory. [58] Whig and Tory – члены двух противоборствующих политических партий в Англии. Первоначально «виги» и «тори» были оскорбительными словами: виг (из шотландского наречия) означало «конокрад». Виги боролись против престолонаследия. Тори (в ирландском варианте «преступник-папист») поддерживали право короля наследовать престол.

While Lord Woodville was cramming these words into his guest’s ear ‘against the stomach of his sense,’ [59] against the stomach of his sense – цитата из «Бури» Уильяма Шекспира (акт 2, сцена 1) they gained the middle of the gallery, when he beheld General Browne suddenly start, and assume an attitude of the utmost surprise, not unmixed with fear, as his eyes were caught and suddenly riveted by a portrait of an old lady in a sacque, the fashionable dress of the end of the seventeenth century.

‘There she is!’ he exclaimed; ‘there she is, in form and features, though inferior in demoniac expression to the accursed hag who visited me last night!’

‘If that be the case,’ said the young nobleman, ‘there can remain no longer any doubt of the horrible reality of your apparition. That is the picture of a wretched ancestress of mine, of whose crimes a black and fearful catalogue is recorded in a family history in my charter-chest. The recital of them would be too horrible; it is enough to say that in yon fatal apartment incest and unnatural murder were committed. I will restore it to the solitude to which the better judgment of those who preceded me had consigned it; and never shall any one, so long as I can prevent it, be exposed to a repetition of the supernatural horrors which could shake such courage as yours.’

Thus the friends, who had met with such glee, parted in a very different mood, Lord Woodville to command the Tapestried Chamber to be unmantled and the door built up, and General Browne to seek in some less beautiful country, and with some less dignified friend, forgetfulness of the painful night which he had passed in Woodville Castle.

a adjective прилагательное

adv adverb наречие

cj conjunction союз

n noun существительное

num numeral числительное

past past tense прошедшее время

pl. plural множественное число

pron pronoun местоимение

p. p. past participle причастие прошедшего времени

prep preposition предлог

pr.p. present participle причастие настоящего времени

v verb глагол

abashed – a смущенный

abate – v утихать

aberration – n отклонение

abeyance – n неопределенность

abhor – v ненавидеть, питать отвращение

abject – a полный

abode – n место обитания, жилище

abuse – v издеваться

abyss – n пропасть

acquire – v получить

affliction – n заболевание

agile – a подвижный

ambiguity – n неоднозначность

amiable – a дружеский

ancestral – a старинный, наследственный

anguish – n страдание

appall – v пугать

apparition – n призрак

apprise – v рассказать

ardent – a пламенный

arduous – a впечатляющий, трудный

ascendency – n влияние

askance – adv неодобрительно

aslant – n строгость

assail – v нападать

assert – v утверждать

assumption – n предположение

astir – adv в движении

asunder – adv на части

asylum – n сумасшедший дом

athwart – adv поперек

atrociously – adv жестоко

attainment – n достижение

attire – n одежда

aught – pron что угодно

augur – v предвещать

avarice – n скупость

aversion – n отвращение

awestruck – a пораженный

baffle – v ставить в тупик

banish – v изгнать

battlements – n pl бойницы

bereavement – n скорбь, тяжелая утрата

bereft – a несчастный

beseech (besought, besought) –v умолять

bespattered – a обрызганный

bestial – a жестокий

bestow – v одарить

bewilder – v изумиться

bickering – n ссоры

bile – n желчь

bittern – n выпь

blasphemous – a богохульный

blind – n штора

booty – n трофей

bounder – n невежа