Диссертация (958832), страница 82

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Когдапобедитель достиг границы родного поместья, ему навстречу выбежал сам старик-отец изаключил сына в объятия.«Клятва! Клятва!» – закричал молодой Лэмбтон и ещё раз протрубил в рог. Слугиопомнились и выпустили Бориса, который вприпрыжку понёсся к хозяину. Тот поднял свойсияющий меч и обезглавил верного пса.Но клятва уже была нарушена, и на протяжении девяти поколений Лэмбтоны ненаходили спокойной смерти в своей постели. Последний представитель их рода, которогокоснулось это проклятье, умер 130 лет назад в собственной карете, проезжая поБраджфордскому мосту.The Lambton Worm (Jac.

Vol.2 198-203; L01)An English legendA wild young fellow was the heir of Lambton, the fine estate and hall by the side of the swiftflowing Wear. Not a Mass would he hear in Brugeford Chapel of a Sunday, but a-fishing he would go.And if he did not haul in anything, his curses could be heard by the folk as they went by to Brugeford.Well, one Sunday morning he was fishing as usual, and not a salmon had risen to him, hisbasket was bare of roach or dace.

And the worse his luck, the worse grew his language, till the passersby were horrified at his words as they went to listen to the Mass-priest.At last young Lambton felt a mighty tug at his line. “At last,” quoth he, “a bite worth having!”and he pulled and he pulled, till what should appear above the water but a head like an eft's, with nineholes on each side of its mouth. But still he pulled till he had got the thing to land, when it turned outto be a Worm of hideous shape. If he had cursed before, his curses were enough to raise the hair onyour head.“What ails thee, my son?” said a voice by his side, “and what hast thou caught, that thoushouldst stain the Lord's Day with such foul language?”456Looking round, young Lambton saw a strange old man standing by him.“Why, truly,” he said, “I think I have caught the devil himself.

Look you and see if you knowhim.”But the stranger shook his head, and said, “It bodes no good to thee or thine to bring such amonster to shore. Yet cast him not back into the Wear; thou hast caught him, and thou must keep him,”and with that away he turned, and was seen no more.The young heir of Lambton took up the gruesome thing, and, taking it off his hook, cast it intoa well close by, and ever since that day that well has gone by the name of the Worm Well.For some time nothing more was seen or heard of the Worm, till one day it had outgrown thesize of the well, and came forth full-grown.

So it came forth from the well and betook itself to theWear. And all day long it would lie coiled round a rock in the middle of the stream, while at night itcame forth from the river and harried the country side. It sucked the cow's milk, devoured the lambs,worried the cattle, and frightened all the women and girls of the district, and then it would retire for therest of the night to the hill, still called the Worm Hill, on the north side of the Wear, about a mile and ahalf from Lambton Hall.This terrible visitation brought young Lambton, of Lambton Hall, to his senses. He took uponhimself the vows of the Cross, and departed for the Holy Land, in the hope that the scourge he hadbrought upon his district would disappear.

But the grisly Worm took no heed, except that it crossed theriver and came right up to Lambton Hall itself where the old lord lived on all alone, his only sonhaving gone to the Holy Land. What to do? The Worm was coming closer and closer to the Hall;women were shrieking, men were gathering weapons, dogs were barking and horses neighing withterror. At last the steward called out to the dairy maids, “Bring all your milk hither,” and when they didso, and had brought all the milk that the nine kye of the byre had yielded, he poured it all into the longstone trough in front of the Hall.The Worm drew nearer and nearer, till at last it came up to the trough.

But when it sniffed themilk, it turned aside to the trough and swallowed all the milk up, and then slowly turned round andcrossed the river Wear, and coiled its bulk three times round the Worm Hill for the night.Henceforth the Worm would cross the river every day, and woe betide the Hall if the troughcontained the milk of less than nine kye. The Worm would hiss, and would rave, and lash its tail roundthe trees of the park, and in its fury it would uproot the stoutest oaks and the loftiest firs. So it went onfor seven years.

Many tried to destroy the Worm, but all had failed, and many a knight had lost his lifein fighting with the monster, which slowly crushed the life out of all that came near it.At last the Childe of Lambton came home to his father's Hall, after seven long years spent inmeditation and repentance on holy soil. Sad and desolate he found his folk: the lands untilled, thefarms deserted, half the trees of the park uprooted, for none would stay to tend the nine kye that themonster needed for his food each day.The Childe sought his father, and begged his forgiveness for the curse he had brought on theHall.“Thy sin is pardoned,” said his father; “but go thou to the Wise Woman of Brugeford, and findif aught can free us from this monster.”To the Wise Woman went the Childe, and asked her advice.“ ‘Tis thy fault, O Childe, for which we suffer,” she said; “be it thine to release us.”“I would give my life,” said the Childe.“Mayhap thou wilt do so,” said she.

“But hear me, and mark me well. Thou, and thou alone,canst kill the Worm. But, to this end, thou go to the smithy and have thy armour studded with spearheads. Then go to the Worm’s Rock in the Wear, and station thyself there. Then, when the Wormcomes to the Rock at dawn of day, try thy prowess on him, and God gi’e thee a good deliverance.”“And this I will do,” said Childe Lambton.“But one thing more,” said the Wise Woman, going back to her cell. “If thou slay the Worm,swear that thou wilt put to death the first thing that meets thee as thou crossest again the threshold ofLambton Hall.

Do this, and all will be well with thee and thine. Fulfil not thy vow, and none of theLambtons, for generations three times three, shall die in his bed. Swear, and fail not.”457The Childe swore as the Wise Woman bid, and went his way to the smithy. There he had hisarmour studded with spear-heads all over. Then he passed his vigils in Brugeford Chapel, and at dawnof day took his post on the Worm’s Rock in the River Wear.As dawn broke, the Worm uncoiled its snaky twine from around the hill, and came to its rock inthe river. When it perceived the Childe waiting for it, it lashed the waters in its fury and wound itscoils round the Childe, and then attempted to crush him to death. But the more it pressed, the deeperdug the spear-heads into its sides.

Still it pressed and pressed, till all the water around was crimsonedwith its blood. Then the Worm unwound itself, and left the Childe free to use his sword. He raised it,brought it down, and cut the Worm in two. One half fell into the river, and was carried swiftly away.Once more the head and the remainder of the body encircled the Childe, but with less force, and thespear-heads did their work. At last the Worm uncoiled itself, snorted its last foam of blood and fire,and rolled dying into the river, and was never seen more.The Childe of Lambton swam ashore, and, raising his bugle to his lips, sounded its note thrice.This was the signal to the Hall, where the servants and the old lord had shut themselves in to pray forthe Childe’s success. When the third sound of the bugle was heard, they were to release Boris, theChilde’s favourite hound.

But such was their joy at learning of the Childe’s safety and the Worm’sdefeat, that they forgot orders, and when the Childe reached the threshold of the Hall his old fatherrushed out to meet him, and would have clasped him to his breast.“The vow! the vow!” called out the Childe of Lambton, and blew still another blast upon hishorn.

This time the servants remembered, and released Boris, who came bounding to his young master.The Childe raised his shining sword, and severed the head of his faithful hound.But the vow was broken, and for nine generations of men none of the Lambtons died in his bed.The last of the Lambtons died in his carriage as he was crossing Brugeford Bridge, one hundred andthirty years ago.Мод и виверн (Shuker-I 48-51; L16)Английская легендаРодители Мод вовсе не были бы против, если бы их маленькая дочь захотела завестикотёнка или щенка, но они были, мягко говоря, обеспокоены, увидев стоящее перед нимисущество, хотя оно и было маленьким и ярким.

Чуть ранее в тот день Мод гуляла по лесунедалеко от своей родной деревни Мордифорд, что в английском графстве Херефордшир.Вдруг она увидела странное животное небольшого размера, которое казалось грустным ипотерянным. Оно апатично тыкалось мордочкой в заросли цветов; было очевидно, что этодетёныш, потерявший родителей.Это существо было похоже на дракончика. Тельце его, размером с огурец, было покрытоярко-зелёной чешуёй, сверкающей на солнце, слово яркий перидот.

Этот покров делалсоздание, сидевшее, словно птица, упираясь в землю парой лапок, ещё более похожим наупомянутый овощ. Животное постоянно расправляло хрупкие перепончатые крылья и хлопалоими, однако было видно, что оно ещё слишком юное, чтобы научиться летать. Как толькосущество увидело девочку, его грустное настроение как рукой сняло, и оно принялось бегатьвокруг ребёнка, радуясь, что его одиночеству был положен конец.Мод была просто в восторге от своего нового друга и взяла это создание домой суверенностью, что родители разделят её радость.

Но они поняли, что девочка принесла домойвиверна (пусть и пока ещё очень маленького), и поэтому их реакция была совсем иной. Тоном,не допускающим возражений, они настояли на том, что Мод должна отнести существо туда, гдеона его нашла. Пытаясь не поддаваться слёзным протестам дочери, они выставили её за дверь ис грустью, но в то же время с облегчением, наблюдали, как девочка медленно идёт обратно влес в сопровождении своего странного маленького спутника.Однако как только дом исчез из виду, Мод свернула с главной тропинки, ведущей в лес,и побежала в своё тайное убежище – удалённое от людских глаз место, в котором она провеламножество счастливых часов вдали от мира взрослых.

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