A Child's History of England.174

In this case, as in the cases of the Duke of Norfolk and Mary Queen of Scots, the Queen had commanded, and countermanded [撤销], and again commanded, the execution. It is probable that the death of her young and gallant favourite in the prime of his good qualities, was never off her mind afterwards, but she held out [坚持], the same vain, obstinate and capricious woman, for another year. Then she danced before her Court on a state occasion [国礼] - and cut, I should think, a mighty ridiculous figure, doing so in an immense ruff [宽而硬的皱领], stomacher [塑身衣] and wig, at seventy years old. For another year still, she held out, but, without any more dancing, and as a moody, sorrowful, broken creature. At last, on the tenth of March, one thousand six hundred and three, having been ill of a very bad cold, and made worse by the death of the Countess of Nottingham who was her intimate friend, she fell into a stupor [昏迷] and was supposed to be dead. She recovered her consciousness, however, and then nothing would induce her to go to bed; for she said that she knew that if she did, she should never get up again. There she lay for ten days, on cushions on the floor, without any food, until the Lord Admiral got her into bed at last, partly by persuasions and partly by main [sheer] force. When they asked her who should succeed her, she replied that her seat had been the seat of Kings, and that she would have for her successor, 'No rascal [流氓]'s son, but a King's.' Upon this, the lords present stared at one another, and took the liberty [冒昧地] of asking whom she meant; to which she replied, 'Whom should I mean, but our cousin of Scotland!' This was on the twenty-third of March. They asked her once again that day, after she was speechless, whether she was still in the same mind? She struggled up in bed, and joined her hands over her head in the form of a crown, as the only reply she could make. At three o'clock next morning, she very quietly died, in the forty-fifth year of her reign.

cut a ... figure: 具有...形象
stomacher: a heavily embroidered or jeweled garment formerly worn over the chest and stomach, especially by women. 好一个especially :-)

That reign had been a glorious one, and is made for ever memorable by the distinguished men who flourished in it. Apart from the great voyagers, statesmen, and scholars, whom it produced, the names of Bacon, Spenser, and Shakespeare, will always be remembered with pride and veneration by the civilised world, and will always impart [赋予] (though with no great reason, perhaps) some portion of their lustre [光彩; glory] to the name of Elizabeth herself. It was a great reign for discovery, for commerce, and for English enterprise [进取心] and spirit in general. It was a great reign for the Protestant religion and for the Reformation which made England free. The Queen was very popular, and in her progresses [巡游], or journeys about her dominions, was everywhere received with the liveliest joy. I think the truth is, that she was not half so good as she has been made out, and not half so bad as she has been made out. She had her fine qualities, but she was coarse, capricious, and treacherous, and had all the faults of an excessively vain young woman long after she was an old one. On the whole, she had a great deal too much of her father in her, to please me.

Many improvements and luxuries were introduced in the course of these five-and-forty years in the general manner of living; but cock-fighting, bull-baiting, and bear-baiting, were still the national amusements; and a coach was so rarely seen, and was such an ugly and cumbersome affair when it was seen, that even the Queen herself, on many high occasions, rode on horseback on a pillion [后座] behind the Lord Chancellor.

Bull-baiting is a blood sport involving pitting [较量] a bull against another animal, usually a dog.

明代宗在位的时候，郭登在大同曾经建造用于防守的偏厢车，辕长1.3丈，宽0.9丈，高0.75丈，厢用薄板，上置铳，编配10人使用，“出则左右相配，前后相接钩环牵互，车载衣、粮、器械并鹿角”。根据郭登奏折的记载(上偏箱车式疏)：“大同地居边塞。虏酋不时出没。军民艰于憔采。臣等辄出鄙见。模效古制。造为偏厢车。用以防护军民其车辕长一丈三尺。前后横辕阔九尺。高七尺五寸。厢用薄板。各留置铳之孔。轮轴如民间二样轻车。其出则左右两厢。次第联络。前后两头辕轸相依。各用钩镮。互相牵搭。绷布为幕。舒卷随宜。每车上插小黄旗以壮军威。仍载脱卸鹿角二。长一丈三尺。遇止离车十五步外。钩连为外藩每车用神鎗二人。铜礟一人鎗手二人。强弓一人。牌手二人。长刀二人。通用甲士十人。无事则轮流推挽。有事则齐力防卫衣粮器械皆具车内。遇贼来攻。势有可乘。则开壁出战。势或未便。则坚壁固守。外用常车。载大小各样将军铳。每方五座。共二十座。每座用推挽及药匠十二人。共二百四十人其马步官军。或一千。或二千。以为出哨策应转输樵采之人。皆处闱中。又置一四轮车。高一丈二尺。别用木梯接高一丈五尺有奇。上列五色旗。视其方有贼以其方旗招呼。听鼓而进。闻金而止。然必相度地形。斟酌进退。行如长蛇。首尾俱至。止为方域。四壁坚合守已制人。似为可用。”  模效古制

郭登(?-1472)，字元登。濠州钟离临淮(今安徽凤阳临淮关镇)人。明朝名将。明代宗即明景帝。南明时期弘光帝朱由崧上庙号“代宗”，但未被清代官方所承认。这就对了。朱祁钰(1428-1457)，明朝第七位皇帝，1449年九月-1457年正月在位，年号景泰。朱祁钰是明宣宗朱瞻基次子、明英宗朱祁镇(土木堡之变)异母弟，母吴贤妃。瓦剌wǎ là。

有些人用"大清"来嘲讽坐井观天，我赞同；个别人自居旗人，我齿冷。我不想谈论清朝对中国领土面积和文化发展等等的正面或负面作用，只想说：唐鲁孙, 镶红旗人, 珍妃和瑾妃的堂侄孙。他写文章提到清朝时几乎只用"前清"或"逊清"。