человека/), took his pipe from his mouth and said to me (вынул трубку изо рта и сказал мне):
“As a man grows old he believes in Fate (когда человек стареет: «становится старым», он /начинает/ верить в Судьбу). Fate sent you here (Судьба послала вас сюда). Fate sends you now to Strelsau (Судьба теперь посылает вас в Стрелсо).”
“Ay,” said Sapt, “that he might not come to be crowned. Rassendyll here doesn’t know our pretty Michael. What think you, Fritz, has Michael no king ready? Has half Strelsau no other candidate? As God’s alive, man the throne’s lost if the King show himself not in Strelsau today. I know Black Michael.”
“We could carry him there,” said I.
“And a very pretty picture he makes,” sneered Sapt.
Fritz von Tarlenheim buried his face in his hands. The King breathed loudly and heavily. Sapt stirred him again with his foot.
“The drunken dog!” he said; “but he’s an Elphberg and the son of his father, and may I rot in hell before Black Michael sits in his place!”
For a moment or two we were all silent; then Sapt, knitting his bushy grey brows, took his pipe from his mouth and said to me:
“As a man grows old he believes in Fate. Fate sent you here. Fate sends you now to Strelsau.”
I staggered back, murmuring “Good God (я отшатнулся назад, пробормотав: «Боже милостивый»)!”
Fritz looked up with an eager, bewildered gaze (Фриц посмотрел напряженным, недоумевающим взглядом; eager – страстно жаждущий /чего-л./; напряженный, ищущий /о взгляде/; to bewilder – смущать; приводить в недоумение).
“Impossible!” I muttered. “I should be known (невозможно! – забормотал я, – меня узнают).”
“It’s a risk – against a certainty (это риск – против верной /гибели/: «против уверенности»),” said Sapt. “If you shave, I’ll wager you’ll not be known (если вы побреетесь, держу пари, вас не узнают). Are you afraid (вы боитесь)?”
“Sir!”
“Come, lad, there, there (ну же, парень; there /межд./ – ну вот! ну конечно!; служит для привлечения внимания); but it’s your life, you know, if you’re known – and mine – and Fritz’s here (но /на кону/ ваша жизнь, сами понимаете, если вас узнают – и моя, и вот Фрица). But, if you don’t go, I swear to you Black Michael will sit tonight on the throne (но если вы не поедете, клянусь, Черный Михаэль сегодня вечером сядет на трон), and the King lie in prison or his grave (а король /сядет/ в тюрьму или ляжет в могилу).”
“The King would never forgive it,” I stammered (король никогда не простил бы этого, – произнес я, заикаясь).
“Are we women (мы, что, женщины)? Who cares for his forgiveness (кого волнует его прощение)?”
The clock ticked fifty times, and sixty and seventy times, as I stood in thought (часы протикали пятьдесят, шестьдесят, семьдесят раз, пока я стоял в раздумьях). Then I suppose a look came over my face (потом, я полагаю, выражение моего лица изменилось; to come over – приезжать, переезжать; прийти в /какое-л./ состояние, стать /каким-л./), for old Sapt caught me by the hand, crying (потому что старик Сэпт схватил меня за руку, крикнув; to catch):
“You’ll go (вы едете)?”
I staggered back, murmuring “Good God!”
Fritz looked up with an eager, bewildered gaze.
“Impossible!” I muttered. “I should be known.”
“It’s a risk – against a certainty,” said Sapt. “If you shave, I’ll wager you’ll not be known. Are you afraid?”
“Sir!”
“Come, lad, there, there; but it’s your life, you know, if you’re known – and mine – and Fritz’s here. But, if you don’t go, I swear to you Black Michael will sit tonight on the throne, and the King lie in prison or his grave.”
“The King would never forgive it,” I stammered.
“Are we women? Who cares for his forgiveness?”
The clock ticked fifty times, and sixty and seventy times, as I stood in thought. Then I suppose a look came over my face, for old Sapt caught me by the hand, crying:
“You’ll go?”
“Yes, I’ll go,” said I (да, еду, – сказал я), and I turned my eyes on the prostrate figure of the King on the floor (и бросил взгляд: «повернул глаза» на распростертую на полу фигуру короля).
“Tonight,” Sapt went on in a hasty whisper (сегодня вечером, – продолжал Сэпт торопливым шепотом), “we are to lodge in the Palace (мы разместимся во дворце). The moment they leave us you and I will mount our horses (как только: «в тот момент, /когда/» нас оставят /одних/, мы с вами сядем на коней; to mount – взбираться, восходить; садиться на лошадь) – Fritz must stay there and guard the King’s room (Фриц
