目 录 上一节 下一节 
房门应声打开,两个汉子正准备把昏迷不醒的奥立弗拖进牢房,这时,一位身穿黑色旧礼服的老人匆匆闯进法庭,朝审判席走去。他面带一点凄苦的神色,但看得出是个正派人。 'Stop, stop! don't take him away! For Heaven's sake stop a moment!' cried the new comer, breathless with haste. “等一等,等一等。别把带他走。看在上帝的分上,请等一会儿。”这个刚刚赶到的人上气不接下气地叫道。 Although the presiding Genii in such an office as this, exercise a summary and arbitrary power over the liberties, the good name, the character, almost the lives, of Her Majesty's subjects, expecially of the poorer class; and although, within such walls, enough fantastic tricks are daily played to make the angels blind with weeping; they are closed to the public, save through the medium of the daily press.(Footnote: Or were virtually, then.) Mr. Fang was consequently not a little indignant to see an unbidden guest enter in such irreverent disorder. 尽管法律的各位守护神在这类衙门里对女王陛下的臣民,尤其是对较为贫困的臣民的自由、名誉、人品,乃至于生命滥施淫威,尽管在这四壁之内,荒唐得足以叫天使们哭瞎双眼的把戏日复一日,衍演无穷,这一切对于公众却始终是秘而不宣的,除非通过每天的报纸泄漏出去。范昂先生看见一位不速之客这般唐突无礼地闯进门来,顿时勃然大怒。 'What is this? Who is this? Turn this man out. Clear the office!' cried Mr. Fang. “这是干什么?这是谁呀?把这家伙赶出去,都给我出去。”范昂先生吼声如雷。 'I WILL speak,' cried the man; 'I will not be turned out. I saw it all. I keep the book-stall. I demand to be sworn. I will not be put down. Mr. Fang, you must hear me. You must not refuse, sir.' “我就是要说,”那人大声说道,“别想把我撵出去。事情我都看见了。书摊是我开的,我请求起誓,谁也别想封住我的嘴巴。范昂先生,你必须听听我的陈述,你不能拒绝。” 
那人理直气壮,态度十人强硬,事情变得相当严重,马虎过去是不行的了。 'Swear the man,' growled Mr. Fang. with a very ill grace. 'Now, man, what have you got to say?' “让这人起誓,”范昂先生老大不高兴地喝道,“喂,讲吧,你有什么要说的?” 'This,' said the man: 'I saw three boys: two others and the prisoner here: loitering on the opposite side of the way, when this gentleman was reading. The robbery was committed by another boy. I saw it done; and I saw that this boy was perfectly amazed and stupified by it.' Having by this time recovered a little breath, the worthy book-stall keeper proceeded to relate, in a more coherent manner the exact circumstances of the robbery. “是这样的,”那人说道,“我亲眼看见三个孩子,另外两个连同这名被告,在马路对面闲逛,这位先生当时在看书,偷东西的是另一个孩子,我看见他下手的,这个孩子在旁边给吓呆了。”说到这里,可敬的书摊掌柜缓过气来了,他比较有条理地将这件扒窃案的经过情形讲了一遍。 'Why didn't you come here before?' said Fang, after a pause. “你干吗不早点来?”范昂顿了一下才问。 'I hadn't a soul to mind the shop,' replied the man. 'Everybody who could have helped me, had joined in the pursuit. I could get nobody till five minutes ago; and I've run here all the way.' “没人替我看铺子,所有能给我帮忙的全撵上去了,五分钟以前我才找着人,我是一路跑来的。” 
“起诉人正在看书,是不是啊?”范昂又顿了一下,问道。 'Yes,' replied the man. 'The very book he has in his hand.' “是的,那本书还在他手里哩。” 'Oh, that book, eh?' said Fang. 'Is it paid for?' “呵,是那本书么,哦?”范昂说道,“付钱了没有?” 'No, it is not,' replied the man, with a smile. “没有,还没付呢。”摊主带着一丝笑意答道。 'Dear me, I forgot all about it!' exclaimed the absent old gentleman, innocently. “天啦,我全给忘啦。”有些优惚的老绅士天真地高声叫道。 
“好一位正人君子,还来告发一个可怜的孩子。”范昂作出滑稽的样子,希望借此能显得很厚道。“我想,先生,你已经在一种非常可疑、极不光彩的情形之下把那本书据为己有了,你兴许还自以为运气不错吧,因为产权人不打算提出起诉。喂,你就当这是你的一次教训吧,否则法律总有一天会找上你的。这个小孩子以释放。退庭。” 'D--n me!' cried the old gentleman, bursting out with the rage he had kept down so long, 'd--n me! I'll--' “岂有此理。”布朗罗先生强压多时的怒气终于爆发了。“岂有此理。我要--” 'Clear the office!' said the magistrate. 'Officers, do you hear?Clear the office!' “退庭。”推事不容他分说。“诸位警官,你们听见没有?退庭。” The mandate was obeyed; and the indignant Mr. Brownlow was conveyed out, with the book in one hand, and the bamboo cane in the other: in a perfect phrenzy of rage and defiance. He reached the yard; and his passion vanished in a moment. Little Oliver Twist lay on his back on the pavement, with his shirt unbuttoned, and his temples bathed with water; his face a deadly white; and a cold tremble convulsing his whole frame. 命令执行了。一手拿着书,一手握着竹杖的布朗罗先生虽说忿忿不平,还是给轰了出去。激奋与受到的挑衅使他怒不可遏。他来到院子里,怒气立刻烟消云散。小奥立弗·退斯特仰面躺在地上,衬衫已经解开,太阳穴上洒了些凉水,脸色惨白,身上不住地抽动,发出一阵阵寒颤。 'Poor boy, poor boy!' said Mr. Brownlow, bending over him. 'Call a coach, somebody, pray. Directly!' “可怜的孩子,可怜的孩子。”布朗罗先生朝奥立弗弯下腰来,“劳驾哪一位去叫辆马车来,快一点。” 
马车叫来了,奥立弗给小心翼翼地安顿在座位上,布朗罗先生跨进马车,坐在另一个座位上。 'May I accompany you?' said the book-stall keeper, looking in. “我可以陪您一块儿去吗?’书摊老板把头伸了进来,说道。 'Bless me, yes, my dear sir,' said Mr. Brownlow quickly. 'I forgot you. Dear, dear! I have this unhappy book still! Jump in. Poor fellow! There's no time to lose.' “哎呀,可以可以,我亲爱的先生,”布朗罗先生连声说道,“我把您给忘了,天啦,天啦。我还拿着这本倒霉的书呢。上来吧。可怜的小家伙。再不能耽误时间了。” The coach rattled away, over nearly the same ground as that which Oliver had traversed when he first entered London in company with the Dodger; and, turning a different way when it reached the Angel at Islington, stopped at length before a neat house, in a quiet shady street near Pentonville. Here, a bed was prepared, without loss of time, in which Mr. Brownlow saw his young charge carefully and comfortably deposited; and here, he was tended with a kindness and solicitude that knew no bounds. 马车辚辚,沿着与当初奥立弗由机灵鬼陪着首次进入伦敦几乎完全相同的一条路驶去,过了爱灵顿街的安琪儿酒家便折向另一条路,一直开到本顿维尔附近一条幽静的林阴道才停了下来。在这里,布朗罗先生亲自督阵,立刻安排好一张床,把小家伙安顿得十分周到舒适。在这里,他受到了无微不至的殷切照料。 But, for many days, Oliver remained insensible to all the goodness of his new friends. The sun rose and sank, and rose and sank again, and many times after that; and still the boy lay stretched on his uneasy bed, dwindling away beneath the dry and wasting heat of fever. The worm does not work more surely on the dead body, than does this slow creeping fire upon the living frame. 然而,日子一天天过去,奥立弗对一班新朋友的精心照料却始终漠然不知。太阳升起来,落下去,又升起来,又落下去,数不清多少天过去了。这孩子依然直挺挺地躺在那张来之不易的床上,经受着热病的熬煎,一天天变得消瘦。蛆虫蚕食死尸也不如用慢悠悠的文火烤干活人来得那么有把握。 
这一天,瘦骨嶙峋、苍白如纸的奥立弗终于醒过来了,仿佛刚刚做完一场漫长的噩梦似的。他从床上吃力地欠起身来,头搭拉在颤抖的肩上,焦虑不安地望了望四周。 'What room is this? Where have I been brought to?' said Oliver. 'This is not the place I went to sleep in.' “这是什么地方?我这是在哪儿?”奥立弗说,“这不是我睡觉的地方。” He uttered these words in a feeble voice, being very faint and weak; but they were overheard at once. The curtain at the bed's head was hastily drawn back, and a motherly old lady, very neatly and precisely dressed, rose as she undrew it, from an arm-chair close by, in which she had been sitting at needle-work. 他身体极度衰弱,说这番话的声音非常低,但立刻有人听见了。床头的帘子一下子撩开了,一位衣着整洁、面容慈祥的老太太从紧靠床边的一张扶手椅里站起来,她先前就坐在那儿做针线活。 'Hush, my dear,' said the old lady softly. 'You must be very quiet, or you will be ill again; and you have been very bad,--as bad as bad could be, pretty nigh. Lie down again; there's a dear!' With those words, the old lady very gently placed Oliver's head upon the pillow; and, smoothing back his hair from his forehead, looked so kindly and loving in his face, that he could not help placing his little withered hand in hers, and drawing it round his neck. “嘘,亲爱的,”老太太和蔼地说,“你可得保持安静,要不你又会生病的,你病得可不轻--别提病得有多厉害了,真够玄的。还是躺下吧,真是好孩子。”老太太一边说,一边轻轻地把奥立弗的头搁到枕头上,将他额前的头发拨到一边。她望着奥立弗,显得那样慈祥,充满爱心,他忍不住伸出一只瘦弱的小手,搭在她的手上,还把她的手拉过来勾住自己的脖子。
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