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Meanwhile the German chieftain, the Frankish Baron, the Northman Duke (or whatever their names and titles) occupied their share of the territory which once had been part of the great Roman Empire and among the ruins of past glory, they built a world of their own which pleased them mightily and which they considered quite perfect.
同時，那些日爾曼酋長、法蘭克男爵或諾曼底大公們（或者是別的什么頭銜和稱號的貴族），他們心安理得地占據著自己那份原屬羅馬帝國的土地，在帝國昔日輝煌的廢墟中建立起自己的新世界。這個世界看起來是如此完美，已經完全使他們心滿意足了。
They managed the affairs of their castle and the surrounding country to the best of their ability. They were as faithful to the commandments of the Church as any weak mortal could hope to be. They were sufficiently loyal to their king or emperor to keep on good terms with those distant but always dangerous potentates. In short, they tried to do right and to be fair to their neighbours without being exactly unfair to their own interests.
他們盡最大的努力來處理好自己的城堡和四野鄉村的事務，兢兢業業地工作。他們像任何軟弱的"凡人"一樣，期望著來世的天堂，對教會的紀律畢恭畢敬。他們對自己的國王或皇帝表現出十足的忠誠，以便和這些距離遙遠但向來危險的君主們保持良好的關系。一句話，他們總是盡力把事情做正確、做漂亮，對鄰居們公正而又不真正損害自己的利益。
It was not an ideal world in which they found themselves. The greater part of the people were serfs or "villains," farm-hands who were as much a part of the soil upon which they lived as the cows and sheep whose stables they shared. Their fate was not particularly happy nor was it particularly unhappy. But what was one to do? The good Lord who ruled the world of the Middle Ages had undoubtedly ordered everything for the best. If He, in his wisdom, had decided that there must be both knights and serfs, it was not the duty of these faithful sons of the church to question the arrangement. The serfs therefore did not complain but when they were too hard driven, they would die off like cattle which are not fed and stabled in the right way, and then something would be hastily done to better their condition.
當然，他們有時也感覺到，自己身處的并非一個理想的世界。在這里，大部分人淪為農奴或"長期雇工"。這些人和牛羊同住于牛欄羊圈，自身也和牛羊一樣，變成了依附土地的一部分。他們的命運談不上特別幸福，也算不得異常悲慘。除此之外，還能期望他們怎樣呢？主宰著中世紀生活的偉大上帝，他當然毫無疑問是按著盡善盡美的方式來安排世界的。如果憑其不可揣測的智慧，決定這個世界該同時存在騎士和農奴，那么作為教會虔誠的兒女，他們是不應該質疑這種安排的。因此，身為農奴的人們也沒什么好抱怨。如果被驅使得太厲害，他們會像飼養不當的牲畜一樣默默死去。之后，主人們不過是手忙腳亂地做點事情，稍微改善一下他們的生活狀況。還能怎樣呢？
