We left the spires of Amsterdam behind us, and sailed over the smooth waters of the lake on our way to the Zuyder Zee. The history of this remarkable sea is a romance in itself. In the days when Rome was mistress of the world, it had no existence. Where the waves now roll, vast tracts of forest surrounded a great inland lake, with but one river to serve it as an outlet to the sea. Swelled by a succession of tempests, the lake overflowed its boundaries: its furious waters, destroying every obstacle in their course, rested only when they reached the furthest limits of the land. The Northern Ocean beyond burst its way in through the gaps of ruin; and from that time the Zuyder Zee existed as we know it now. The years advanced, the generations of man succeeded each other; and on the shores of the new ocean there rose great and populous cities, rich in commerce, renowned in history. For centuries their prosperity lasted, before the next in this mighty series of changes ripened and revealed itself. Isolated from the rest of the world, vain of themselves and their good fortune, careless of the march of progress in the nations round them, the inhabitants of the Zuyder Zee cities sunk into the fatal torpor of a secluded people. The few members of the population who still preserved the relics of their old energy emigrated, while the mass left behind resignedly witnessed the diminution of their commerce and the decay of their institutions. As the years advanced to the nineteenth century, the population was reckoned by hundreds where it had once been numbered by thousands. Trade disappeared; whole streets were left desolate. Harbors, once filled with shipping, were destroyed by the unresisted accumulation of sand. In our own times the decay of these once flourishing cities is so completely beyond remedy, that the next great change in contemplation is the draining of the now dangerous and useless tract of water, and the profitable cultivation of the reclaimed land by generations that are still to come. Such, briefly told, is the strange story of the Zuyder Zee. As we advanced on our voyage, and left the river, I noticed the tawny hue of the sea, caused by sand-banks which color the shallow water, and which make the navigation dangerous to inexperienced seamen. We found our moorings for the night at the fishing island of Marken-a low, lost, desolate-looking place, as I saw it under the last gleams of the twilight. Here and there, the gabled cottages, perched on hillocks, rose black against the dim gray sky. Here and there, a human figure appeared at the waterside, standing, fixed in contemplation of the strange boat. And that was all I saw of the island of Marken. Lying awake in the still night, alone on a strange sea, there were moments when I found myself beginning to doubt the reality of my own position. Was it all a dream? My thoughts of suicide; my vision of the mother and daughter; my
Оставили мы амстердамские шпили за спиной и поплыли по заливу Эй на пути к Зейдерзе.
| journey back to the metropolis, led by the apparition of the child; my voyage to Holland; my night anchorage in the unknown sea-were these, so to speak, all pieces of the same morbid mental puzzle, all delusions from which I might wake at any moment, and find myself restored to my senses again in the hotel at London? Bewildered by doubts which led me further and further from any definite conclusion, I left my bed and went on deck to change the scene. It was a still and cloudy night. In the black void around me, the island was a blacker shadow yet, and nothing more. The one sound that reached my ears was the heavy breathing of the captain and his crew sleeping on either side of me. I waited, looking round and round the circle of darkness in which I stood. No new vision showed itself. When I returned again to the cabin, and slumbered at last, no dreams came to me. All that was mysterious, all that was marvelous, in the later events of my life seemed to have been left behind me in England. Once in Holland, my course had been influenced by circumstances which were perfectly natural, by commonplace discoveries which might have revealed themselves to any man in my position. What did this mean? Had my gifts as a seer of visions departed from me in the new land and among the strange people? Or had my destiny led me to the place at which the troubles of my mortal pilgrimage were to find their end? Who could say? Early the next morning we set sail once more. Our course was nearly northward. On one side of me was the tawny sea, changing under certain conditions of the weather to a dull pearl-gray. On the other side was the flat, winding coast, composed alternately of yellow sand and bright-green meadow-lands; diversified at intervals by towns and villages, whose red-tiled roofs and quaint church-steeples rose gayly against the clear blue sky. | |
| The captain suggested to me to visit the famous towns of Edam and Hoorn; but I declined to go on shore. | Капитан посоветовал мне посетить знаменитые города Зандам и Хорн, но я отказался съехать на берег. |
| My one desire was to reach the ancient city in which Mrs. Van Brandt had been left deserted. | Единственным моим желанием было добраться до старинного города, в котором была брошена мистрис Ван Брандт. |
| As we altered our course, to make for the promontory on which Enkhuizen is situated, the wind fell, then shifted to another quarter, and blew with a force which greatly increased the difficulties of navigation. | Когда мы изменили направление нашего пути, чтобы повернуть к тому мысу, на котором расположен Энкхейзин, ветер спал - потом повернул в другую сторону и подул с силой, чрезвычайно замедлившей скорость нашего плавания. |
| I still insisted, as long as it was possible to do so, on holding on our course. | Я все настаивал, пока было возможно, чтобы держаться нашего маршрута. |
| After sunset, the strength of the wind abated. | После заката солнца сила ветра уменьшилась. |
| The night came without a cloud, and the starry firmament gave us its pale and glittering light. | Ночь настала безоблачная, и звездное небо мерцало нам своим бледным и меланхолическим светом. |
| In an hour more the capricious wind shifted back again in our favor. | Через час причудливый ветер опять переменился в нашу пользу. |
| Toward ten o'clock we sailed into the desolate harbor of Enkhuizen. | К десяти часам мы повернули к пустынной пристани Энкхейзина. |
| The captain and crew, fatigued by their exertions, ate their frugal suppers and went to their beds. | Капитан и матросы, утомленные своим нелегким трудом, сели за свой скромный ужин и потом легли спать. |
| In a few minutes more, I was the only person left awake in the boat. | Через несколько минут я один не спал на судне. |
| I ascended to the deck, and looked about me. | Я вышел на палубу и осмотрелся вокруг. |
| Our boat was moored to a deserted quay. | Судно наше бросило якорь у пустынной набережной. |
| Excepting a few fishing vessels visible near us, the harbor of this once prosperous place was a vast solitude of water, varied here and there by dreary banks of sand. | Исключая небольшое число маленьких судов, стоявших около нас, пристань этого когда то богатого города была обширной водной пустыней, желтеющей там и сям печальными песчаными берегами. |
| Looking inland, I saw the lonely buildings of the Dead City-black, grim, and dreadful under the mysterious starlight. | Заглянув в глубину берега, я увидел скромные постройки мертвого города - черные, угрюмые и страшные в таинственном звездном сиянии. |
| Not a human creature, not even a stray animal, was to be seen anywhere. | Ни одного человеческого существа, даже заблудившегося пса не было видно нигде. |
| The place might have been desolated by a pestilence, so empty and so lifeless did it now appear. | Точно свирепая чума опустошила это место, так оно казалось пусто и безжизненно. |
| Little more than a hundred years ago, the record of its population reached sixty thousand. | Чуть больше ста лет назад население города доходило до шестидесяти тысяч. |
| The inhabitants had dwindled to a tenth of that number when I looked at Enkhuizen now! | Количество жителей сократилось на десятую часть от этого числа теперь, когда я глядел на Энкхейзин. |
| I considered with myself what my next course of proceeding was to be. | Я разговаривал сам с собой о том, что мне теперь делать. |
| The chances were certainly against my discovering Mrs. Van Brandt if I ventured alone and unguided into the city at night. | Невероятно было, чтобы я нашел мистрис Ван Брандт, если бы пошел в город ночью один без проводника. |
| On the other hand, now that I had reached the place in which she and her child were living, friendless and deserted, could I patiently wait through the weary interval that must elapse before the morning came and the town was astir? | С другой стороны, теперь, когда я дошел до того дома, в котором она жила со своей дочерью, без друзей и брошенная всеми, мог ли я терпеливо ожидать окончания этого скучного промежутка времени, который должен был пройти до наступления утра и начала рабочего дня в городе? |