A Child's History of England.99

CHAPTER 21 ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE FIFTH

FIRST PART

The Prince of Wales began his reign like a generous and honest man. He set the young Earl of March free; he restored their estates and their honours to the Percy family, who had lost them by their rebellion against his father; he ordered the imbecile [idiot] and unfortunate Richard to be honourably buried among the Kings of England; and he dismissed all his wild companions, with assurances [promises] that they should not want, if they would resolve to [make a definite/formal decision to] be steady, faithful, and true.

It is much easier to burn men than to burn their opinions; and those of the Lollards were spreading every day. The Lollards were represented [申诉] by the priests - probably falsely for the most part [mostly] - to entertain [consider] treasonable designs against the new King; and Henry, suffering himself to be worked upon by these representations [formal complaint/statement], sacrificed his friend Sir John Oldcastle, the Lord Cobham, to them, after trying in vain to convert [改变信仰] him by arguments. He was declared guilty, as the head of the sect [教派], and sentenced to the flames; but he escaped from the Tower before the day of execution (postponed for fifty days by the King himself), and summoned the Lollards to meet him near London on a certain day. So the priests told the King, at least. I doubt whether there was any conspiracy beyond such as was got up by their agents. On the day appointed, instead of five-and-twenty thousand men, under the command of Sir John Oldcastle, in the meadows of St. Giles, the King found only eighty men, and no Sir John at all. There was, in another place, an addle-headed [昏头昏脑的] brewer, who had gold trappings [caparison, 马衣] to his horses, and a pair of gilt [镀金的] spurs in his breast - expecting to be made a knight next day by Sir John, and so to gain the right to wear them - but there was no Sir John, nor did anybody give information respecting [关于] him, though the King offered great rewards for such intelligence. Thirty of these unfortunate Lollards were hanged and drawn [拉(死)] immediately, and were then burnt, gallows and all [连绞架带人]; and the various prisons in and around London were crammed full of others. Some of these unfortunate men made various confessions of treasonable designs; but, such confessions were easily got, under torture and the fear of fire, and are very little to be trusted. To finish the sad story of Sir John Oldcastle at once [at the same time], I may mention that he escaped into Wales, and remained there safely, for four years. When discovered by Lord Powis, it is very doubtful if he would have been taken alive - so great was the old soldier's bravery - if a miserable [卑鄙的] old woman had not come behind him and broken his legs with a stool. He was carried to London in a horse-litter, was fastened by an iron chain to a gibbet [示众架], and so roasted to death.

the priests说the Lollards谋反; John是King的朋友和Lollards派的; King被the priests说服了; King劝John改变信仰, John不干... the priests说John召集党众。狄大人认为谋反是the priests的特工们编的和设的局。

The new knight was then dressed in his armor, had his sword girded, and given his spurs. [Journey to Knighthood]

so great was the old soldier's bravery... 我觉得他宁可拒捕而死而不愿roasted to death.

work on: 1. spending time working; 2. try very hard to achieve; 3. try continuously to influence/persuade

To make the state of France as plain as I can in a few words, I should tell you that the Duke of Orleans, and the Duke of Burgundy, commonly called 'John without fear,' had had a grand reconciliation of their quarrel in the last reign, and had appeared to be quite in a heavenly [very pleasing] state of mind [the way sb is thinking and feeling]. Immediately after which, on a Sunday, in the public streets of Paris, the Duke of Orleans was murdered by a party of twenty men, set on [attack] by the Duke of Burgundy - according to his own deliberate [intentional, unhurried] confession. The widow of King Richard had been married in France to the eldest son of the Duke of Orleans. The poor mad King was quite powerless to help her, and the Duke of Burgundy became the real master of France. Isabella dying, her husband (Duke of Orleans since the death of his father) married the daughter of the Count of Armagnac, who, being a much abler man than his young son-in-law, headed his party; thence [from there] called after him Armagnacs. Thus, France was now in this terrible condition, that it had in it the party of the King's son, the Dauphin Louis; the party of the Duke of Burgundy, who was the father of the Dauphin's ill-used [abused] wife; and the party of the Armagnacs; all hating each other; all fighting together; all composed of the most depraved [completely evil] nobles that the earth has ever known; and all tearing unhappy France to pieces.

called after him Armagnacs: called Armagnac人 after him

六级/考研单词: princess, reign, generous, march, uprising, dismiss, companion, resolve, tentative, priest, probable, entertain, sacrifice, vain, convert, guilt, flame, execute, postpone, summon, conspire, meadow, spur, breast, knight, intellect, cram, confess, torture, wretched, stool, fasten, roast, armour, sword, reconcile, quarrel, accord, deliberate, widow, elder, potent, thereby, compose, noble