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I can’t quite remember the date, but I think it was in 1805 that Miss Jenkyns wrote the longest series of letters—on occasion of her absence on a visit to some friends near Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
我记不太清日期了，但我想是在1805年，詹金斯小姐写了一系列最长的信——当时她不在家，去泰恩河畔纽卡斯尔附近的一些朋友家做客。
These friends were intimate with the commandant of the garrison there, and heard from him of all the preparations that were being made to repel the invasion of Buonaparte, which some people imagined might take place at the mouth of the Tyne.
这些朋友与那里的驻军指挥官关系密切，从他那里听说了为击退拿破仑·波拿巴入侵所做的一切准备，有些人认为入侵可能发生在泰恩河口。
Miss Jenkyns was evidently very much alarmed;
詹金斯小姐显然非常惊慌；
and the first part of her letters was often written in pretty intelligible English, conveying particulars of the preparations which were made in the family with whom she was residing against the dreaded event;
她信件的前半部分通常是用相当易懂的英文写的，描述了她所居住的家庭为应对这一可怕事件所做的准备工作的细节；
the bundles of clothes that were packed up ready for a flight to Alston Moor (a wild hilly piece of ground between Northumberland and Cumberland);
打包好逃往奥尔斯顿荒原（诺森伯兰郡和坎伯兰郡之间的一片荒凉的丘陵地带）所需的几包衣服；
the signal that was to be given for this flight, and for the simultaneous turning out of the volunteers under arms—which said signal was to consist (if I remember rightly) in ringing the church bells in a particular and ominous manner.
逃亡时要发出的信号，以及让武装志愿者同时出动的信号——这个信号（如果我没记错的话）就是以一种特殊而且不祥的方式敲响教堂的钟。
One day, when Miss Jenkyns and her hosts were at a dinner-party in Newcastle, this warning summons was actually given (not a very wise proceeding, if there be any truth in the moral attached to the fable of the Boy and the Wolf; but so it was), and Miss Jenkyns, hardly recovered from her fright, wrote the next day to describe the sound, the breathless shock, the hurry and alarm;
有一天，詹金斯小姐和她的东道主们在纽卡斯尔参加一个晚宴，当时真的发出了这样的警报（如果《狼来了》这则寓言所蕴含的寓意有任何真实性的话，这可不是一个非常明智的做法；但当时就这样发出了警报），詹金斯小姐惊魂未定，第二天就写信描述了那声音、那令人窒息的震惊、匆忙和恐慌；
and then, taking breath, she added, “How trivial, my dear father, do all our apprehensions of the last evening appear, at the present moment, to calm and enquiring minds!”
然后，她喘了口气，接着写道：“我亲爱的父亲，我们昨晚所有的担忧在此时此刻，在平静而好奇的心灵看来是多么无关紧要啊！”
And here Miss Matty broke in with— “But, indeed, my dear, they were not at all trivial or trifling at the time.
这时，马蒂小姐插嘴说：“但是，亲爱的，它们在当时可一点儿都不无关紧要或微不足道。
I know I used to wake up in the night many a time and think I heard the tramp of the French entering Cranford.
我知道，我过去常常在夜里醒来很多次，以为听到了法国人进入克兰福德的脚步声。
Many people talked of hiding themselves in the salt mines—and meat would have kept capitally down there, only perhaps we should have been thirsty.
许多人说要躲在盐矿里——肉在那里可以保存得很好，只是也许我们会口渴。
And my father preached a whole set of sermons on the occasion;
我父亲对于这件事讲了一整套布道词；
one set in the mornings, all about David and Goliath, to spirit up the people to fighting with spades or bricks, if need were;
一套是在早上，都是关于大卫和巨人歌利亚的，以激励人们用铁锹或砖头战斗，如果有必要的话；
and the other set in the afternoons, proving that Napoleon (that was another name for Bony, as we used to call him) was all the same as an Apollyon and Abaddon.
另一套是在下午，证明拿破仑（这是我们过去对波拿巴的另一个称呼）和亚玻伦、亚巴顿没什么两样。（注：亚玻伦和亚巴顿是《圣经》中的怪兽。）
I remember my father rather thought he should be asked to print this last set; but the parish had, perhaps, had enough of them with hearing.”
我记得我父亲认为应该有人让他印刷这最后一套布道词；但是教区的人也许听这些话就已经听够了。”
Peter Marmaduke Arley Jenkyns (“poor Peter!” as Miss Matty began to call him) was at school at Shrewsbury by this time.
这时彼得·马默杜克·阿利·詹金斯（马蒂小姐开始称呼他为“可怜的彼得！”）已经在什鲁斯伯里上学了。
The rector took up his pen, and rubbed up his Latin once more, to correspond with his boy.
教区长拿起笔，又温习了一下他的拉丁语，以便与他的小儿子通信。
It was very clear that the lad’s were what are called show letters.
很明显，小儿子的信是所谓的炫耀式信件。
They were of a highly mental description, giving an account of his studies, and his intellectual hopes of various kinds, with an occasional quotation from the classics;
内容都是非常精神层面的描述，讲述了他的学业，以及他对各种知识的渴望，偶尔还会引经据典；
but, now and then, the animal nature broke out in such a little sentence as this, evidently written in a trembling hurry, after the letter had been inspected: “Mother dear, do send me a cake, and put plenty of citron in.”
但是，时不时地，他的动物本性会在这样一个小句子中爆发出来，显然这是在检查完整封信后匆忙地、字迹颤抖着写下的：“亲爱的妈妈，一定要给我寄一个蛋糕，里面多放些香橼。”
The “mother dear” probably answered her boy in the form of cakes and “goody,” for there were none of her letters among this set; but a whole collection of the rector’s, to whom the Latin in his boy’s letters was like a trumpet to the old war-horse.
“亲爱的妈妈”大概是用蛋糕和“好吃的东西”来给她儿子回信，因为在这一套信件中没有她的来信；但是有一整套教区长的信，对他来说，看到儿子信中的拉丁语就像一匹老战马听到战斗号角一样。
I do not know much about Latin, certainly, and it is, perhaps, an ornamental language, but not very useful, I think—at least to judge from the bits I remember out of the rector’s letters.
我当然对拉丁语所知不多，它也许是一种装饰性语言，但我认为不是很有用——至少就我记得的教区长信中的一些片段来看是这样。
One was, “You have not got that town in your map of Ireland; but Bonus Bernardus non videt omnia, as the Proverbia say.”
其中一段是，“你在你的爱尔兰地图上没有找到那个小镇；但是正如谚语所说，‘善人伯纳德并非无所不见’。”
Presently it became very evident that “poor Peter” got himself into many scrapes.
现在，“可怜的彼得”显然闯了很多祸。
There were letters of stilted penitence to his father, for some wrong-doing;
有几封写给父亲的措辞生硬的忏悔信，是为他所犯的某些过错而写的；
and among them all was a badly-written, badly-sealed, badly-directed, blotted note:
在这些信中，有一封字迹潦草、封口不严、地址不详，还沾有污迹的便条：
“My dear, dear, dear, dearest mother, I will be a better boy; I will, indeed; but don’t, please, be ill for me; I am not worth it; but I will be good, darling mother.”
“我亲爱的、亲爱的、亲爱的、最亲爱的妈妈，我会做个好孩子的；我一定会的；但请您不要为我生病；我不值得您这样做；但我会变好的，亲爱的妈妈。”
Miss Matty could not speak for crying, after she had read this note.
读完这张便条后，马蒂小姐哭得说不出话来。
She gave it to me in silence, and then got up and took it to her sacred recesses in her own room, for fear, by any chance, it might get burnt.
她默默地把便条递给我看，然后起身把便条带到她自己房间里的神圣壁橱里，唯恐它万一被烧掉。
“Poor Peter!” she said; “he was always in scrapes; he was too easy.
“可怜的彼得！”她说，“他总是闯祸，他太容易轻信别人了。
They led him wrong, and then left him in the lurch.
他们给他指错了路，然后就丢下他不管了。
But he was too fond of mischief.
但是他太喜欢淘气了。
He could never resist a joke.
他总是忍不住要开玩笑。
Poor Peter!”
可怜的彼得！”
