But it was an infernal fire, a hailstorm of leaden bullets, which split the walls on the outside, ground the tiles to powder, and in the interior cracked ceilings, furniture, window-frames, and door-frames, sending splinters of wood flying through the air, and clouds of plaster, and fragments of kitchen utensils and glass, whizzing, and rebounding, and breaking everything with a noise like the crushing of a skull. From time to time one of the soldiers who were firing from the windows fell crashing back to the floor, and was dragged to one side. Some staggered from room to room, pressing their hands on their wounds. There was already one dead body in the kitchen, with its forehead cleft. The semicircle of the enemy was drawing together.
那真是很厲害的攻擊，彈丸如雨，破壁碎瓦，天幕、窗子、家具、門戶，一擊就成粉碎。木片在空中飛舞，玻璃和陶器的破碎聲，軋啦軋啦地東西四起，聽去好像人的頭骨正在破裂。在窗口射擊防御的兵立，受傷倒在地板上，就被拖到一邊。也有用手抵住了傷口，呻吟著在這里那里走的。在廚房里，還有被擊碎了頭的死尸。敵軍的半圓形只管漸漸地逼近攏來。
At a certain point the captain, hitherto impassive, was seen to make a gesture of uneasiness, and to leave the room with huge strides, followed by a sergeant. Three minutes later the sergeant returned on a run, and summoned the drummer-boy, making him a sign to follow. The lad followed him at a quick pace up the wooden staircase, and entered with him into a bare garret, where he saw the captain writing with a pencil on a sheet of paper, as he leaned against the little window; and on the floor at his feet lay the well-rope.
過了一會兒，一向鎮定自若的大尉忽然現出不安的神情，帶了一個軍營急忙地出了那室。過了三分鐘光景，那軍曹跑來向少年鼓手招手。少年跟了軍曹急步登上樓梯，到了那屋頂閣里。大尉正倚著小窗拿了紙條寫字，腳旁擺著汲水用的繩子。
The captain folded the sheet of paper, and said sharply, as he fixed his cold gray eyes, before which all the soldiers trembled, on the boy:--"Drummer!"
大尉折疊了紙條，把他那使兵士戰栗的凜然的眼光注視著少年，很急迫地叫喚：“鼓手！”
The drummer-boy put his hand to his visor.
鼓手舉手到帽旁。
The captain said, "You have courage."
“你有勇氣嗎？”大尉說。
The boy's eyes flashed. "Yes, captain," he replied.
“是的，大尉！”少年回答，眼睛炯炯發光。
"Look down there," said the captain, pushing him to the window; "on the plain, near the houses of Villafranca, where there is a gleam of bayonets. There stand our troops, motionless. You are to take this billet, tie yourself to the rope, descend from the window, get down that slope in an instant, make your way across the fields, arrive at our men, and give the note to the first officer you see. Throw off your belt and knapsack."
大尉把少年推近窗口：“往下面看！靠近那屋子有槍刺的光吧，那里就是我軍的本隊。你拿了這條子，從窗口溜下去，快快地翻過那山坡，穿過那田畈跑入我軍的陣地，只要一遇見士官，就把這條子交給他。解下你的皮帶和背囊！”
The drummer took off his belt and knapsack and thrust the note into his breast pocket; the sergeant flung the rope out of the window, and held one end of it clutched fast in his hands; the captain helped the lad to clamber out of the small window, with his back turned to the landscape.
鼓手解下了皮帶背囊，把紙條放入口袋中。軍曹將繩子從窗口放下去，一端纏在自己的臂上。大尉將少年扶出了窗口，使他背向外面：
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