《魔法師的外甥》第16期:鍾與錘(3)
They went on out of that courtyard into another doorway, and up a great flight of steps and through vast rooms that opened out of one another till you were dizzy with the mere size of the place. Every now and then they thought they were going to get out into the open and see what sort of country lay around the enormous palace. But each time they only got into another courtyard. They must have been magnificent places when people were still living there. In one there had once been a fountain. A great stone monster with wide-spread wings stood with its mouth open and you could still see a bit of piping at the back of its mouth, out of which the water used to pour. Under it was a wide stone basin to hold the water; but it was as dry as a bone. In other places there were the dry sticks of some sort of climbing plant which had wound itself round the pillars and helped to pull some of them down. But it had died long ago. And there were no ants or spiders or any of the other living things you expect to see in a ruin; and where the dry earth showed between the broken flagstones there was no grass or moss.
It was all so dreary and all so much the same that even Digory was thinking they had better put on their yellow rings and get back to the warm, green, living forest of the In-between place, when they came to two huge doors of some metal that might possibly be gold. One stood a little ajar. So of course they went to look in. Both started back and drew a long breath: for here at last was something worth seeing.
For a second they thought the room was full of people - hundreds of people, all seated, and all perfectly still. Polly and Digory, as you may guess, stood perfectly still themselves for a good long time, looking in. But presently they decided that what they were looking at could not be real people. There was not a movement nor the sound of a breath among them all. They were like the most wonderful waxworks you ever saw.
This time Polly took the lead. There was something in this room which interested her more than it interested Digory: all the figures were wearing magnificent clothes. If you were interested in clothes at all, you could hardly help going in to see them closer. And the blaze of their colours made this room look, not exactly cheerful, but at any rate rich and majestic after all the dust and emptiness of the others. It had more windows, too, and was a good deal lighter.
I can hardly describe the clothes. The figures were all robed and had crowns on their heads. Their robes were of crimson and silvery grey and deep purple and vivid green: and there were patterns, and pictures of flowers and strange beasts, in needlework all over them. Precious stones of astonishing size and brightness stared from their crowns and hung in chains round their necks and peeped out from all the places where anything was fastened.
"Why haven't these clothes all rotted away long ago?" asked Polly.
"Magic," whispered Digory. "Can't you feel it? I bet this whole room is just stiff with enchantments. I could feel it the moment we came in."
"Any one of these dresses would cost hundreds of pounds," said Polly.
But Digory was more interested in the faces, and indeed these were well worth looking at. The people sat in their stone chairs on each side of the room and the floor was left free down the middle. You could walk down and look at the faces in turn.
"They were nice people, I think," said Digory.
四周的景物千篇一律，顯得十分陰森可怖。迪格雷正想着，他們不如戴上黃戒指，回到中間地帶那片溫暖而充滿生機的綠樹林中去；這時，他們來到兩扇巨大的門前，門是用一種像金了的金屬做的，其中一扇半開着。他們很自然地朝裏一望，兩人都深吸一口氣，退了回來，終於找到值得看的地方了。
剛開始的那會兒，他們以爲屋子裏盡是人―——
好幾百人，全都一動不動地坐着。你可以猜到，波莉和迪格雷也一動不動地站了很久。但他們很快意識到，他們看見的可能不是真人。沒有動靜，也聽不見呼吸。可能是蠟像，他們見過的最好的蠟像。
這一次，波莉一馬當先，屋子裏有些東西對她的吸引超過了對迪格雷的吸引。所有的那些塑像全都衣着華麗。如果你對服裝感興趣，會忍不住走近去着。經過了那麼多空蕩蕩、灰撲撲的房間後，這間屋裏服飾的光澤，雖說不上十分賞心悅目，但無論如何，都將屋子映襯得多姿多彩。而且，這裏有更多的窗戶，要明亮得多。
我很難描繪他們的服裝。那些塑像全部長袍加身，頭戴王冠。緋紅、銀灰、深紫和鮮綠色的長袍上繡着圖案、花卉和怪獸。大得驚人、亮得耀眼的珍稀寶石從他們的王冠和項鍊上進射出奪目的光彩，全身每一處有裝飾的地方都閃耀着珠光寶氣。
“爲什麼這些衣服這麼久沒有腐爛？”波莉問。
“魔法。”迪格雷悄聲說，“你感覺不到嗎？我敢打賭，整個這間房子都中了魔法。一進來我就感覺到了。”
“那些衣服隨便哪件都值幾百英鎊吧？”波莉說。
但迪格雷更感興娜的，是那一張張很有看頭的面孔。那些人坐在屋子四周的石椅上，地板中間空出一片，可以走過去，依次觀看那些臉。
“我覺得這些人很好看。”迪格雷說。
