A Child's History of England.62

CHAPTER 1 ENGLAND UNDER EDWARD THE FIRST, CALLED LONGSHANKS

It was now the year of our Lord one thousand two hundred and seventy-two; and Prince Edward, the heir to the throne, being away in the Holy Land, knew nothing of his father's death. The Barons, however, proclaimed him King, immediately after the Royal funeral; and the people very willingly consented, since most men knew too well by this time what the horrors of a contest for the crown were. So King Edward the First, called, in a not very complimentary manner, Longshanks, because of the slenderness of his legs, was peacefully accepted by the English Nation.

shank: 小腿,腿。flank: 侧面. 马的flank是骑马时你的shank挨着的地方，不是马走路时和地面平行的地方。shin: front part of the leg below the knee. thigh: the top part of the leg, between the knee and the hip.

His legs had need to be strong, however long and thin they were; for they had to support him through many difficulties on the fiery sands of Asia, where his small force of soldiers fainted, died, deserted, and seemed to melt away. But his prowess [great skill] made light of it, and he said, 'I will go on, if I go on with no other follower than my groom [马夫]!'

A Prince of this spirit gave the Turks a deal of trouble. He stormed Nazareth, at which place, of all places on earth, I am sorry to relate, he made a frightful slaughter of innocent people; and then he went to Acre, where he got a truce of ten years from the Sultan. He had very nearly lost his life in Acre, through the treachery of a Saracen Noble, called the Emir of Jaffa, who, making the pretence that he had some idea of turning Christian and wanted to know all about that religion, sent a trusty messenger to Edward very often - with a dagger in his sleeve. At last, one Friday in Whitsun week, when it was very hot, and all the sandy prospect [景象] lay beneath the blazing sun, burnt up like a great overdone biscuit, and Edward was lying on a couch, dressed for coolness in only a loose robe, the messenger, with his chocolate-coloured face and his bright dark eyes and white teeth, came creeping in with a letter, and kneeled down like a tame tiger. But, the moment Edward stretched out his hand to take the letter, the tiger made a spring at his heart. He was quick, but Edward was quick too. He seized the traitor by his chocolate throat, threw him to the ground, and slew [slay的过去式] him with the very dagger he had drawn. The weapon had struck Edward in the arm, and although the wound itself was slight {per se}, it threatened to be mortal, for the blade of the dagger had been smeared with poison. Thanks, however, to a better surgeon than was often to be found in those times, and to some wholesome [有益健康的] herbs, and above all, to his faithful wife, Eleanor, who devotedly nursed him, and is said by some to have sucked the poison from the wound with her own red lips (which I am very willing to believe), Edward soon recovered and was sound [健康的] again.

Whitsun: the seventh Sunday after Easter, and the week that follows that Sunday. Easter: a Christian holy day in March or April when Christians remember the death of Christ and his return to life.
mortal: 不永生的; 致命的. immortal: 永世的; 不朽的. mortar: 迫击炮. martyr: 殉道者; 烈士.

六级/考研单词: princess, heir, throne, holy, proclaim, funeral, consent, contest, slim, flank, faint, melt, bridegroom, slaughter, innocent, acre, noble, seldom, sleeve, blaze, sofa, creep, kneel, tame, wound, mortal, poison, wholesome, herb, devote, suck, easter, march, christ, martyr