After ascending and descending several steps in the corridors, which were so dark that they were lighted by lamps at mid-day, La Esmeralda, still surrounded by her lugubrious escort, was thrust by the police into a gloomy chamber. —
在走廊里上上下下走了几步之后，那里昏暗得连正午都要用灯照明，拉埃斯梅拉达仍然被她那不祥的护送包围，被警察推进了一个阴暗的房间。 —

This chamber, circular in form, occupied the ground floor of one of those great towers, which, even in our own century, still pierce through the layer of modern edifices with which modern Paris has covered ancient Paris. There were no windows to this cellar; —
这个圆形的房间占据着一座高塔的底层，甚至在我们这个世纪，现代巴黎覆盖了古代巴黎的建筑物。墙上没有窗户； —

no other opening than the entrance, which was low, and closed by an enormous iron door. —
除了低矮而由巨大铁门关闭的入口之外，再无其他开口。 —

Nevertheless, light was not lacking; a furnace had been constructed in the thickness of the wall; —
然而，光线并不缺乏；一座炉子建造在厚实的墙壁内； —

a large fire was lighted there, which filled the vault with its crimson reflections and deprived a miserable candle, which stood in one corner, of all radiance. —
火光在那里熊熊燃烧，用它的绯红反射充满了拱顶的室内，使得角落里燃烧的一支可怜的蜡烛失去了所有光辉。 —

The iron grating which served to close the oven, being raised at that moment, allowed only a view at the mouth of the flaming vent-hole in the dark wall, the lower extremity of its bars, like a row of black and pointed teeth, set flat apart; —
此时炉子关闭的铁栅门被抬起，只露出了在漆黑的墙壁中的喷火口处的光线，其下端的铁栏像一排黑色尖牙一样，平放开； —

which made the furnace resemble one of those mouths of dragons which spout forth flames in ancient legends. —
它使炉子看起来像是古老传说中喷出火焰的龙口之一。 —

By the light which escaped from it, the prisoner beheld, all about the room, frightful instruments whose use she did not understand. —
逃离其中的光线使囚犯看到了，房间四处都是她看不懂用途的可怕器具。 —

In the centre lay a leather mattress, placed almost flat upon the ground, over which hung a strap provided with a buckle, attached to a brass ring in the mouth of a flat-nosed monster carved in the keystone of the vault. —
中央放着一张皮床垫，几乎平放在地面上，上面挂着一条带有扣子的皮带，系在一个扁鼻怪物口中的黄铜环上，这怪物雕在拱顶的基石上。 —

Tongs, pincers, large ploughshares, filled the interior of the furnace, and glowed in a confused heap on the coals. —
夹子、钳子、大犁铧填满了炉子的内部，在煤炭上闪闪发光地一团杂乱的堆积。 —

The sanguine light of the furnace illuminated in the chamber only a confused mass of horrible things.
炉子的绯红光照亮了房间里只有一团可怕事物的混乱堆积。

This Tartarus was called simply, The Question Chamber.
这个地狱被简单地称为审讯室。

On the bed, in a negligent attitude, sat Pierrat Torterue, the official torturer. —
在床上，姿态懒散地坐着皮拉·托特吕，即官方酷刑执行者。 —

His underlings, two gnomes with square faces, leather aprons, and linen breeches, were moving the iron instruments on the coals.
他的手下，两个长着方脸、穿着皮围裙和亚麻短裤的地精，正在煤炭上移动铁器具。

In vain did the poor girl summon up her courage; —
可怜的女孩虽然鼓起勇气，但徒劳无功； —

on entering this chamber she was stricken with horror.
进入这个房间时，她被恐怖所震慑。

The sergeants of the bailiff of the courts drew up in line on one side, the priests of the officiality on the other. —
法庭执法官的警长们排成一列，官府的神父们排成另一列。 —

A clerk, inkhorn, and a table were in one corner.
一个写字员、墨池和一张桌子在角落里。

Master Jacques Charmolue approached the gypsy with a very sweet smile.
雅克·夏尔莫卢大师带着非常甜美的微笑走近吉普赛人。

“My dear child,” said he, “do you still persist in your denial?”
“亲爱的孩子，”他说道，”你还坚持否认吗？”

“Yes,” she replied, in a dying voice.
“是的，”她以奄奄一息的声音回答。

“In that case,” replied Charmolue, “it will be very painful for us to have to question you more urgently than we should like. —
“那样的话，”夏尔莫卢回答说，”我们将不得不比我们本来希望的更加急切地询问你，那将是非常痛苦的。 —

Pray take the trouble to seat yourself on this bed. —
请费心在这张床上坐下。 —

Master Pierrat, make room for mademoiselle, and close the door.”
皮埃拉大师，给小姐让出位置，并关上门。”

Pierrat rose with a growl.
皮埃拉发出低声咆哮。

“If I shut the door,” he muttered, “my fire will go out.”
“如果我关上门，”他喃喃自语道，”我的火就会熄灭。”

“Well, my dear fellow,” replied Charmolue, “leave it open then.”
“好了，亲爱的朋友，”夏尔莫卢回答说，”那么就让它开着吧。”

Meanwhile, la Esmeralda had remained standing. —
与此同时，埃斯梅拉达一直站着。 —

That leather bed on which so many unhappy wretches had writhed, frightened her. —
那张皮革床上曾经有许多不幸的可怜人痛苦地扭动，吓坏了她。 —

Terror chilled the very marrow of her bones; she stood there bewildered and stupefied. —
恐惧冻结了她的骨骼；她呆立在那里，目瞪口呆。 —

At a sign from Charmolue, the two assistants took her and placed her in a sitting posture on the bed. —
在查莫卢的一个手势下，两名助手将她带到床上并让她坐起来。 —

They did her no harm; but when these men touched her, when that leather touched her, she felt all her blood retreat to her heart. —
他们并没有伤害她; 但当这些人碰触她时，当那块皮革碰到她时，她感到自己的血液都往心脏内收缩了。 —

She cast a frightened look around the chamber. —
她惊恐地环顾了一下房间。 —

It seemed to her as though she beheld advancing from all quarters towards her, with the intention of crawling up her body and biting and pinching her, all those hideous implements of torture, which as compared to the instruments of all sorts she had hitherto seen, were like what bats, centipedes, and spiders are among insects and birds.
她感觉好像从四面八方都有东西朝着她逼近，有意要爬上她的身体，咬和拧她，那些可怕的酷刑工具，与她此前所见过的各种器械相比，就好比蝙蝠、蜈蚣和蜘蛛在昆虫和鸟类中的位置一样。

“Where is the physician?” asked Charmolue.
“医生在哪里?“查莫卢问道。

“Here,” replied a black gown whom she had not before noticed.
“在这儿,“一个黑袍人答道，之前她没有注意到他。

She shuddered.
她颤抖了起来。

“Mademoiselle,” resumed the caressing voice of the procucrator of the Ecclesiastical court, “for the third time, do you persist in denying the deeds of which you are accused?”
“小姐,“审判官温柔的声音继续说道，”这已是第三次，你还坚持否认你被指控的罪行吗?”

This time she could only make a sign with her head.
这一次她只能摇头示意。

“You persist?” said Jacques Charmolue. “Then it grieves me deeply, but I must fulfil my office.”
“你坚持吗?“雅克·查莫卢说道，”那我感到非常难过，但我必须履行我的职责。”

“Monsieur le Procureur du Roi,” said Pierrat abruptly, “How shall we begin?”
“国王检察官先生,“皮拉突然插嘴说道，”我们该从哪里开始呢?”

Charmolue hesitated for a moment with the ambiguous grimace of a poet in search of a rhyme.
查莫卢犹豫了一会儿，面带着诗人寻找押韵词的模棱两可的表情。

“With the boot,” he said at last.
“从靴子开始吧,“他最终说道。

The unfortunate girl felt herself so utterly abandoned by God and men, that her head fell upon her breast like an inert thing which has no power in itself.
这个不幸的女孩感觉到上帝和人类对她完全放弃了，她的头像一样绝对没有力量的惰物般落在胸前。

The tormentor and the physician approached her simultaneously. —
折磨者和医生同时走近她。 —

At the same time, the two assistants began to fumble among their hideous arsenal.
与此同时，两位助手开始在他们可怕的工具中翻来覆去。

At the clanking of their frightful irons, the unhappy child quivered like a dead frog which is being galvanized. —
听到他们可怕的铁链声响，那个不幸的孩子像被通电一样抖动。 —

“Oh!” she murmured, so low that no one heard her; “Oh, my Phoebus!” —
“哦！”她低声呢喃，没有人听到她；“哦，我的Phoebus！” —

Then she fell back once more into her immobility and her marble silence. —
然后她再次陷入了她的不动和大理石般的沉默中。 —

This spectacle would have rent any other heart than those of her judges. —
这一幕会撕裂任何除她的法官以外的心。 —

One would have pronounced her a poor sinful soul, being tortured by Satan beneath the scarlet wicket of hell. —
一个人会认为她是一个可怜的有罪灵魂，在魔鬼的血色狱门下被撕碎。 —

The miserable body which that frightful swarm of saws, wheels, and racks were about to clasp in their clutches, the being who was about to be manipulated by the harsh hands of executioners and pincers, was that gentle, white, fragile creature, a poor grain of millet which human justice was handing over to the terrible mills of torture to grind. —
那一具不幸的身体，那群可怕的锯子、轮子和夹具即将握住的存在，将被执行者和镊子的手残忍对待，是那个温柔的、白色的、易碎的生物，是人类正义正在交给可怕的折磨之磨坊去磨碎的一粒小米。 —

Meanwhile, the callous hands of Pierrat Torterue’s assistants had bared that charming leg, that tiny foot, which had so often amazed the passers-by with their delicacy and beauty, in the squares of Paris.
与此同时，皮埃拉·托特鲁的助手冷酷的手已经露出了那条迷人的腿，那只小小的脚，那些曾经在巴黎的广场上以它们的细腻和美丽让路人吃惊的脚。

”‘Tis a shame!” muttered the tormentor, glancing at these graceful and delicate forms.
“真是一种耻辱！”折磨者嘀咕着，看着这些优雅而精致的形态。

Had the archdeacon been present, he certainly would have recalled at that moment his symbol of the spider and the fly. —
如果大教堂副主教在场，当时他肯定会想到他关于蜘蛛和苍蝇的象征。 —

Soon the unfortunate girl, through a mist which spread before her eyes, beheld the boot approach; —
很快，不幸的女孩透过眼前弥漫的雾，看到了那双靴子越来越近； —

she soon beheld her foot encased between iron plates disappear in the frightful apparatus. —
她很快看到自己的脚被铁板包裹在可怕的装置中消失。 —

Then terror restored her strength.
然后恐惧恢复了她的力量。

“Take that off!” she cried angrily; and drawing herself up, with her hair all dishevelled: “Mercy!”
“取下那个！”她愤怒地喊道；然后整理好头发，站了起来，用头发抓住：“饶命！”

She darted from the bed to fling herself at the feet of the king’s procurator, but her leg was fast in the heavy block of oak and iron, and she sank down upon the boot, more crushed than a bee with a lump of lead on its wing.
她从床上跳起，扑向国王代理人的脚下，但她的腿被沉重的橡木和铁块卡住，她倒在靴子上，比一只被铅块压住翅膀的蜜蜂更加碾压。

At a sign from Charmolue, she was replaced on the bed, and two coarse hands adjusted to her delicate waist the strap which hung from the ceiling.
在Charmolue的一声指令下，她被放回床上，两只粗糙的手将悬挂在天花板上的带子调整到她纤细的腰部。

“For the last time, do you confess the facts in the case?” —
“最后一次，你承认案件中的事实吗？” —

demanded Charmolue, with his imperturbable benignity.
查尔穆卢平静和仁慈地问道。

“I am innocent.”
“我是无辜的。”

“Then, mademoiselle, how do you explain the circumstance laid to your charge?”
“那么，小姐，你如何解释被控的情况呢？”

“Alas, monseigneur, I do not know.”
“唉，大人，我不知道。”

“So you deny them?”
“所以你否认了？”

“All!”
“全部否认！”

“Proceed,” said Charmolue to Pierrat.
查尔穆卢对皮亚拉说：“继续。”

Pierrat turned the handle of the screw-jack, the boot was contracted, and the unhappy girl uttered one of those horrible cries which have no orthography in any human language.
皮亚拉转动螺丝千斤顶的手柄，靴子被缩小，可怜的女孩发出了一声人类语言中没有拼写的可怕呼声。

“Stop!” said Charmolue to Pierrat. “Do you confess?” he said to the gypsy.
“停下！”查尔穆卢对皮亚拉说。“你承认吗？”他问吉卜赛人。

“All!” cried the wretched girl. “I confess! I confess! Mercy!”
“全部承认！”可怜的女孩喊道。“我承认！我承认！求求你！”

She had not calculated her strength when she faced the torture. —
面对折磨，她没有计算自己的力量。 —

Poor child, whose life up to that time had been so joyous, so pleasant, so sweet, the first pain had conquered her!
可怜的孩子，以前的生活如此欢乐、如此愉快、如此甜蜜，第一次痛苦就征服了她！

“Humanity forces me to tell you,” remarked the king’s procurator, “that in confessing, it is death that you must expect.”
“人性迫使我告诉你，”国王的检察官说，“承认之后，死亡将是你的命运。”

“I certainly hope so!” said she. And she fell back upon the leather bed, dying, doubled up, allowing herself to hang suspended from the strap buckled round her waist.
“我当然希望如此！”她说道。接着她倒在皮床上，身子弯曲，让自己悬挂在围绕腰部的皮带上。

“Come, fair one, hold up a little,” said Master Pierrat, raising her. —
“喂，美人儿，再坚持一下。”皮埃拉大师说着，扶起她。 —

“You have the air of the lamb of the Golden Fleece which hangs from Monsieur de Bourgogne’s neck.”
“你有点像那只挂在勃艮第公爵脖子上的金羔羊。”

Jacques Charmolue raised his voice,
雅克·夏尔莫卢提高声音，

“Clerk, write. Young Bohemian maid, you confess your participation in the feasts, witches’ sabbaths, and witchcrafts of hell, with ghosts, hags, and vampires? Answer.”
“书记，记录。年轻的吉卜赛女孩，你承认参与了地狱的盛宴、女巫萨满节和巫术，与鬼魂、老妖与吸血鬼一起？回答。”

“Yes,” she said, so low that her words were lost in her breathing.
“是的，”她说得很低，声音几乎淹没在呼吸声中。

“You confess to having seen the ram which Beelzebub causes to appear in the clouds to call together the witches’ sabbath, and which is beheld by socerers alone?”
“你承认看见别利泽布所引起的在云端出现、只有巫师们才能看见的召唤女巫萨满节的公羊吗？”

“Yes.”
“是的。”

“You confess to having adored the heads of Bophomet, those abominable idols of the Templars?”
“你承认崇拜波菲梅特的头颅，那些武士圣殿骑士的可憎偶像吗？”

“Yes.”
“是的。”

“To having had habitual dealings with the devil under the form of a goat familiar, joined with you in the suit?”
“你承认在形式上是一只山羊使魔，与你一起在审判中与恶魔交往？”

“Yes.”
“是的。”

“Lastly, you avow and confess to having, with the aid of the demon, and of the phantom vulgarly known as the surly monk, on the night of the twenty-ninth of March last, murdered and assassinated a captain named Phoebus de Chateaupers?”
“最后，你承认并确认，在去年三月二十九日的夜晚，借助恶魔和通俗所知为顽固僧侣的幻影，谋杀了名叫费博斯·德·夏多佩的队长？”

She raised her large, staring eyes to the magistrate, and replied, as though mechanically, without convulsion or agitation,–
她抬起那双瞪大的眼睛看着法官，机械般回答道，没有激动或动荡，–

“Yes.”
“是的。”

It was evident that everything within her was broken.
很明显她体内一切都是破碎的。

“Write, clerk,” said Charmolue. And, addressing the torturers, “Release the prisoner, and take her back to the court.”
“写吧，书记，”夏尔莫卢说。接着对刽子手们说，“释放囚犯，把她带回法庭。”

When the prisoner had been “unbooted,” the procurator of the ecclesiastical court examined her foot, which was still swollen with pain. —
当囚犯被“解靴”后，教会法庭的检察官检查了她的脚，仍然肿胀疼痛着。 —

“Come,” said he, “there’s no great harm done. —
“来吧，没什么大不了的。 —

You shrieked in good season. You could still dance, my beauty!”
你尖叫得正是时候。你还能跳舞，我的美人！”

Then he turned to his acolytes of the officiality,– “Behold justice enlightened at last! —
然后他转向他的官方部下，“瞧啊，正义终于被启蒙了！ —

This is a solace, gentlemen! Madamoiselle will bear us witness that we have acted with all possible gentleness.”
这是一个慰藉，先生们！小姐将会给我们证明我们已经以尽可能的温和行事。”