A Child's History of England.30

CHAPTER 10 ENGLAND UNDER HENRY THE FIRST, CALLED FINE-SCHOLAR

Fine-scholar, on hearing of the Red King's death, hurried to Winchester with as much speed as Rufus himself had made, to seize the Royal treasure. But the keeper of the treasure who had been one of the hunting-party in the Forest, made haste to Winchester too, and, arriving there at about the same time, refused to yield it up. Upon this, Fine-Scholar drew his sword, and threatened to kill the treasurer; who might have paid for his fidelity with his life, but that he knew longer resistance to be useless when he found the Prince supported by a company of powerful barons, who declared they were determined to make him King. The treasurer, therefore, gave up the money and jewels of the Crown: and on the third day after the death of the Red King, being a Sunday, Fine-Scholar stood before the high altar in Westminster Abbey, and made a solemn declaration that he would resign [give up] the Church property which his brother had seized; that he would do no wrong to the nobles; and that he would restore to the people the laws of Edward the Confessor, with all the improvements of William the Conqueror. So began the reign of King Henry the First.

六级/考研单词: haste, treasury, yield, sword, princess, potent, thereby, tertiary, solemn, noble, conquer, reign
arriving there... arrive是不及物动词(vi, verb intransitive)，there是副词。What time does the plane arrive at/in LA?

The people were attached to [like very much] their new King, both because he had known distresses, and because he was an Englishman by birth and not a Norman. To strengthen this last [best] hold [belief] upon them, the King wished to marry an English lady; and could think of no other wife than Maud the Good, the daughter of the King of Scotland. Although this good Princess did not love the King, she was so affected by the representations [the act of 描绘] the nobles made to her of the great charity [kindness ] it would be in her to unite the Norman and Saxon races, and prevent hatred and bloodshed between them for the future, that she consented to become his wife. After some disputing among the priests, who said that as she had been in a convent in her youth, and had worn the veil of a nun, she could not lawfully be married - against which the Princess stated that her aunt, with whom she had lived in her youth, had indeed sometimes thrown a piece of black stuff over her, but for no other reason than because the nun's veil was the only dress the conquering Normans respected in girl or woman, and not because she had taken the vows of a nun, which she never had - she was declared free to marry, and was made King Henry's Queen. A good Queen she was; beautiful, kind-hearted, and worthy of a better husband than the King.

六级/考研单词: distress, princess, affection, noble, charity, unite, consent, priest, veil, conquer, vow, gorgeous, worthy
he had known distresses... 他吃过苦，所以了解人民的疾苦？
it would be in her... [thefreedictionary] (talking about people)
She has it in her to succeed.
It's not in him to do that.
I couldn't find it in me to forgive him.
她有种内在的quality? It's up to her... 她的权力/责任

据说for no other reason than because... = if only because... 如果是因为...就好了。i.e. 狄大人的意思是：Normans没把nun当回事。

For he was a cunning and unscrupulous man, though firm and clever. He cared very little for his word, and took any means to gain his ends [aim, purpose, result, 想象下拔河]. All this is shown in his treatment of his brother Robert - Robert, who had suffered him to be refreshed with water, and who had sent him the wine from his own table, when he was shut up, with the crows flying below him, parched with thirst, in the castle on the top of St.Michael's Mount, where his Red brother would have let him die.

Before the King began to deal with Robert, he removed and disgraced all the favourites of the late King; who were for the most part base [not having good moral principles] characters, much detested by the people. Flambard, or Firebrand, whom the late King had made Bishop of Durham, of all things in the world, Henry imprisoned in the Tower; but Firebrand was a great joker and a jolly companion, and made himself so popular with his guards that they pretended to know nothing about a long rope that was sent into his prison at the bottom of a deep flagon of wine. The guards took the wine, and Firebrand took the rope; with which, when they were fast [deeply] asleep, he let himself down from a window in the night, and so got cleverly aboard ship and away to Normandy. [还有这种操作?]

六级/考研单词: cunning, tentative, refreshment, crow, thirst, mount, bishop, imprison, jolly, companion, jail, shallow, aboard

Now Robert, when his brother Fine-Scholar came to the throne, was still absent in the Holy Land [耶路撒冷]. Henry pretended that Robert had been made Sovereign of that country; and he had been away so long, that the ignorant people believed it. But, behold, when Henry had been some time King of England, Robert came home to Normandy; having leisurely returned from Jerusalem through Italy, in which beautiful country he had enjoyed himself very much, and had married a lady as beautiful as itself! In Normandy, he found Firebrand waiting to urge him to assert his claim to the English crown, and declare war against King Henry. This, after great loss of time in feasting and dancing with his beautiful Italian wife among his Norman friends, he at last did.

六级/考研单词: throne, absent, holy, sovereign, ignorant, gorgeous, impulse, assert, feast