A Child's History of England.219

SECOND PART

That the Merry Monarch might be very merry indeed, in the merry times when his people were suffering under pestilence [瘟疫] and fire, he drank and gambled and flung away [挥金(如土)] among his favourites the money which the Parliament had voted for the war. The consequence of this was that the stout-hearted English sailors were merrily starving of want [需要], and dying in the streets; while the Dutch, under their admirals De Witt and De Ruyter, came into the River Thames, and up the River Medway as far as Upnor, burned the guard-ships, silenced the weak batteries [炮台], and did what they would to the English coast for six whole weeks. Most of the English ships that could have prevented them had neither powder nor shot [弹头] on board; in this merry reign, public officers made themselves as merry as the King did with the public money; and when it was entrusted to them to spend in national defences or preparations, they put it into their own pockets with the merriest grace in the world.

狄大人不知道“话说三遍淡如水”, merry起来没完。

Lord Clarendon had, by this time, run as long a course as is usually allotted [分配] to the unscrupulous [不道德的] ministers of bad kings. He was impeached by his political opponents, but unsuccessfully. The King then commanded him to withdraw from England and retire to France, which he did, after defending himself in writing. He was no great loss at home, and died abroad some seven years afterwards.

There then came into power a ministry [部] called the Cabal [阴谋] Ministry, because it was composed of Lord Clifford, the Earl of Arlington, the Duke of Buckingham (a great rascal [流氓], and the King's most powerful favourite), Lord Ashley, and the Duke of Lauderdale, c. a. b. a. l. As the French were making conquests in Flanders, the first Cabal proceeding was to make a treaty with the Dutch, for uniting with Spain to oppose the French. It was no sooner made than the Merry Monarch, who always wanted to get money without being accountable to a Parliament for his expenditure, apologised to the King of France for having had anything to do with it, and concluded [缔结] a secret treaty with him, making himself his infamous pensioner to the amount of two millions of livres down [首付], and three millions more a year; and engaging to [允诺] desert that very Spain, to make war against those very Dutch, and to declare himself a Catholic when a convenient time should arrive. This religious king had lately been crying to his Catholic brother on the subject of his strong desire to be a Catholic; and now he merrily concluded [complete] this treasonable conspiracy against the country he governed, by undertaking [同意] to become one [Catholic] as soon as he safely could. For all of which, though he had had ten merry heads instead of one, he richly deserved to lose them by the headsman's axe.

六级/考研单词: merry, sovereign, gamble, fling, parliament, starve, powder, shot, reign, entrust, nationwide, grace, allot, compose, potent, treaty, unite, accountable, notorious, million, engage, catholic, secular, lately, desire, conspire, undertake, ax

17世纪的尼德兰包括荷兰、比利时、卢森堡。尼德兰是接受了新教改革的地区，1568年开始反抗西班牙的统治，史称八十年战争。西班牙一方则称之为低地国叛乱。低地国得名于莱茵河从这里入海，形成一片低洼的低地平原，大体位于法国（法兰西王国）和德国（神圣罗马帝国）之间。这场战争直到1648年才结束，一开始只是尼德兰与西班牙之间的战争，后来成为新教国家与天主教国家之间的一场世界大战，瑞典、法国、英国都被卷入，最后通过《威斯特伐利亚和约》确立了欧洲的版图，其中一条就是尼德兰(不含比利时)独立。独立的尼德兰七省联合共和国，又称荷兰共和国，因为荷兰是联合七省中最大的一个，从1648年到17世纪末，它是世界上最强大的国家，商业、贸易、海军都首屈一指，即便到了18世纪后期，它也仍然是全世界最富有的国家，人均收入排欧洲第一。[链接]