Коллектив авторов - «Дракула» и другие лучшие мистические истории на английском

Hark! it had swayed till the clapper had touched the bell. The sound was but a tiny one, but the bell was only beginning to sway, and it would increase.

At the sound the Judge, who had been keeping his eyes fixed on Malcolmson, looked up, and a scowl of diabolical anger overspread his face. His eyes fairly glowed like hot coals, and he stamped his foot with a sound that seemed to make the house shake. A dreadful peal of thunder broke overhead as he raised the rope again, whilst the rats kept running up and down the rope as though working against time. This time, instead of throwing it, he drew close to his victim, and held open the noose as he approached. As he came closer there seemed something paralyzing in his very presence, and Malcolmson stood rigid as a corpse. He felt the Judge’s icy fingers touch his throat as he adjusted the rope. The noose tightened – tightened. Then the Judge, taking the rigid form of the student in his arms, carried him over and placed him standing in the oak chair, and stepping up beside him, put his hand up and caught the end of the swaying rope of the alarm-bell. As he raised his hand the rats fled squeaking and disappeared through the hole in the ceiling. Taking the end of the noose which was round Malcolmson’s neck he tied it to the hanging bell-rope, and then descending pulled away the chair.

When the alarm-bell of the Judge’s House began to sound a crowd soon assembled. Lights and torches of various kinds appeared, and soon a silent crowd was hurrying to the spot. They knocked loudly at the door, but there was no reply. Then they burst in the door, and poured into the great dining-room, the doctor at the head.

There at the end of the rope of the great alarm-bell hung the body of the student, and on the face of the Judge in the picture was a malignant smile.

goitre – an enlarged thyroid gland, illness of the hormones deficiency

‘Red’ and ‘Blue’ books– Blue book is an official document with information on a particular subject, published by the British government; Red book is an official, or canonical, collection of data or regulations.

Bradshaw’s Guide– a series of railway timetables and travelers’ guide books

the Honfoglalas– Hungarian conquest or land-taking, resulting in the settlement of the Hungarian people in Central Europe (9–10th centuries)

shame of Cassova– he means the Turkish victory at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389, fought between the Serbian Principality and the invading Ottoman Empire.

the Crescent– the symbol of Islam and the Ottoman Empire

battle of Mohács(1526) – the battle fought between the forces of Ottoman Sultan Suleiman I, and the forces of the Kingdom of Hungary, resulting in the Ottoman victory

Omnia Romae venalia sunt– Everything in Rome is for sale. ( Latin )

‘Marmion’– a poem by Walter Scott (1771–1832) about the Battle of Flodden Field (1513)

fash masel– trouble myself ( local language )

cured herrin’s– herring, preserved by fermentation, or pickling, or smoking

gang ageean wards– go ahead towards

crammle aboon the grees– climb about the steps

lack belly-timber sairly by the clock – I’m hungry, surely, it’s time

lock, stock, and barrel– everything, all of it

bairns– children

a’belderin’– crying

touters– here: crooks

skeer= scare

hafflin– youth

steans– tombstones

acant– crooked

scowderment– chaos, confusion

jouped– jumbled

Yabblins —possibly

balm-bowl– chamber pot

kirkgarth– churchyard

consate —imagine

be happed here– are buried here

snod an’ snog– smooth and compact

toom– empty

baccabox– mouth

aftest abaft– near stern

bier-bank– churchyard path

antherums– doubts

jommling and jostling– jamming and pushing

thruff-stone– a table-like tombstone covering the entire body

gawm– understand

acrewk’d– twisted

lamiter– a deformed person

the clegs and dowps– the flies and the crows

Gabriel– archangel, messenger from God to people

keckle– to cackle, to laugh

aud– old

daffled– beaten down

abaft the krok-hooal —about the crock-hole (grave)

caffin’– joking

The chafts will wag as they be used to —the chaps will laugh as they’re used to do

dooal– pity

mares tails —clouds in the form of thin, wispy strands

lanthorns– the chambers at the top of lighthouses, surrounding the light

mirabile dictu– amazingly ( Latin )

theyoungCasabianca– Giocante, young son of Luc-Julien-Joseph Casabianca, the captain of a French ship ‘Orient.’ During the Battle of the Nile in 1798 he remained at the burning ship not to leave his post without his father’s orders. Both of them and the remaining crew were killed in the explosion of the ship.

wolds– woods on high ground

cum grano– with a grain ( Latin ); the phrase ‘cum grano salis’ (with a grain of salt) means ‘with a bit of common sense.’