世纪文学经典:《百年孤独》第7章Part 7

Actually, they did not dare carry out the sentence. The rebelliousness of the town made the military men think that the execution of Colonel Aureliano Buendía might have serious political consequences not only in Macondo but throughout the area of the swamp, so they consulted the authorities in the caPital of the province. On Saturday night, while they were waiting for an answer Captain Roque Carnicero went with some other officers to Catarino's place. Only one woman, practically threatened, dared take him to her room. "They don't want to go to bed with a man they know is going to die," she confessed to him. "No one knows how it will come, but everybody is going around saying that the officer who shoots Colonel Aureliano Buendía and all the soldiers in the squad, one by one, will be murdered, with no escape, sooner or later, even if they hide at the ends of the earth." Captain Roque Carnicero mentioned it to the other officers and they told their superiors. On Sunday, although no one had revealed it openly,although no action on the part of the military had disturbed the tense calm of those days, the whole town knew that the officers were ready to use any manner of pretext to avoid responsibility for the execution. The official order arrived in the Monday mail: the execution was to be carried out within twenty-four hours. That night the officers put seven slips of paper into a cap, and Captain Roque Carnicero's unpeaceful fate was foreseen by his name on the prize slip. "Bad luck doesn't have any chinks in it," he said with deep bitterness. "I was born a son of a bitch and I'm going to die a son of a bitch." At five in the morning he chose the squad by lot, formed it in the courtyard, and woke up the condemned man with a premonitory phrase.
"Let's go, Buendía," he told him. "Our time has come."
"So that's what it was," the colonel replied. "I was dreaming that my sores had burst."
Rebeca Buendía got up at three in the morning when she learned that Aureliano would be shot. She stayed in the bedroom in the dark, watching the cemetery wall through the half-opened window as the bed on which she sat shook with José Arcadio's snoring. She had waited all week with the same hidden persistence with which during different times she had waited for Pietro Crespi's letters. "They won't shoot him here," José Arcadio, told her. "They'll shoot him at midnight in the barracks so that no one will know who made up the squad, and they'll bury him right there." Rebeca kept on waiting. "They're stupid enough to shoot him here," she said. She was so certain that she had foreseen the way she would open the door to wave goodbye. "They won't bring him through the streets," José Arcadio insisted, with six scared soldiers and knowing that the people are ready for anything." Indifferent to her husband's logic, Rebeca stayed by the window.
"You'll see that they're just stupid enough," she said.
On Tuesday, at five-in the. morning, José Arcadio had drunk his coffee and let the dogs out when Rebeca closed the window and held onto the head of the bed so as not to fall down. "There, they're bringing him," she sighed. "He's so handsome." José Arcadio looked out the window and saw him. tremulous in the light of dawn. He already had his back to the wall and his hands were on his hips because the burning knots in his armpits would not let him lower them. "A person fucks himself up so much," Colonel Aureliano Buendía said. "Fucks himself up so much just so that six weak fairies can kill him and he can't do anything about it." He repeated it with so much rage that it almost seemed to be fervor, and Captain Roque Carnicero was touched, because he thought he was praying. When the squad took aim, the rage had materialized into a viscous and bitter substance that put his tongue to sleep and made him close his eyes. Then the aluminum glow of dawn disappeared and he saw himself again in short pants, wearing a tie around his neck, and he saw his father leading him into the tent on a splendid afternoon, and he saw the ice. When he heard the shout he thought that it was the final command to the squad. He opened his eyes with a shudder of curiosity, expecting to meet the incandescent trajectory of the bullets, but he only saw Captain Roque Carnicero with his arms in the air and José Arcadio crossing the street with his fearsome shotgun ready to go off.
"Don't shoot," the captain said to José Arcadio. "You were sent by Divine Providence."
Another war began right there. Captain Roque Carnicero and his six men left with Colonel Aureliano Buendía to free the revolutionary general Victorio Medina, who had been condemned to death in Riohacha. They thought they could save time by crossing the mountains along the trail that José Arcadio Buendía had followed to found Macondo, but before a week was out they were convinced that it was an impossible undertaking. So they had to follow the dangerous route over the outcroppings; with no other munitions but what the firing squad had. They would camp near the towns and one of them, with a small gold fish in his hand, would go in disguise in broad daylight to contact the dormant Liberals, who would go out hunting on the following morning and never return. When they saw Riohacha from a ridge in the mountains, General Victorio Medina had been shot. Colonel Aureliano Buendía's men proclaimed him chief of the revolutionary forces of the Caribbean coast with the rank of general. He assumed the position but refused the promotion and took the stand that he would never accept it as long as the Conservative regime was in power. At the end of three months they had succeeded in arming more than a thousand men, but they were wiped out. The survivors reached the eastern frontier. The next thing that was heard of them was that they had landed on Cabo de la Vela, coming from the smaller islands of the Antilles, and a message from the government was sent all over by telegraph and included in jubilant proclamations throughout the country announcing the death of Colonel Aureliano Buendía. But two days later a multiple telegram which almost overtook the previous one announced another uprising on the southern plains. That was how the legend of the ubiquitous Colonel Aureliano Buendía, began. Simultaneous and contradictory information declared him victorious in Villanueva. defeated in Guacamayal, devoured by Motilón Indians, dead in a village in the swamp, and up in arms again in Urumita. The Liberal leaders, who at that moment were negotiating for participation in the congress, branded him in adventurer who did not represent the party. The national government placed him in the category of a bandit and put a price of five thousand pesos on his head. After sixteen defeats, Colonel Aureliano Buendía left Guajira with two thousand well-armed Indians and the garrison, which was taken by surprise as it slept, abandoned Riohacha. He established his headquarters there and proclaimed total war against the regime. The first message he received from the government was a threat to shoot Colonel Gerineldo Márquez within forty-eight hours if he did not withdraw with his forces to the eastern frontier. Colonel Roque Carnicero, who was his chief of staff then, gave him the telegram with a look of consternation, but he read it with unforeseen joy.
"How wonderful!" he exclaimed. "We have a telegraph office in Macondo now."

问题在于，军事当局不敢执行判决。全镇的愤怒情绪使他们想到，处决奥雷连诺上校，不仅在马孔多，而且在整个沼泽地带，都会引起严重的政治后果。因此，他们就向省城请示。星期六晚上，还没接到回答的时候，罗克·卡尼瑟洛上尉和其他几名军官一起前往卡塔林诺游艺场。在所有的娘儿们中，只有一个被他吓怕了的同意把他领进她的房间。“她们都不愿意跟就要死的人睡觉，”她解释说。“谁也不知道这是怎么回事，可是周围的人都说，枪决奥雷连诺上校的军官和行刑队所有的士兵，或早或迟准会接二连三地遭到暗杀，即使他们躲到天涯海角。”罗克·卡尼瑟洛上尉向其他的军官提到了这一点，他们又报告了上级。星期日，军事当局一点没有破坏马孔多紧张的宁静空气，虽然谁也没有向谁公开谈到什么，但是全镇的人已经知道，军官们不想承担责任，准备利用一切借口避免参加行刑。星期一，邮局送来了书面命令：判决必须在二十四小时之内执行。晚上，军官们把七张写上自己名字的纸片扔在一顶军帽里抽彩，罗克。 卡尼瑟洛倒霉的运气使他中了彩。“命运是无法逃避的，”上尉深感苦恼说。“我生为婊子的儿子，死也为婊子的儿子。”早晨五时，也用抓阄儿的办法，他挑选了一队士兵，让他们排列在院子里，用例行的话叫醒了判处死刑的人。
“走吧，奥雷连诺，”他说。“时刻到啦。”
“哦！原来如此，”上校回答。“我梦见我的脓疮溃烂啦。”
自从知道奥雷连诺要遭枪决，雷贝卡每天都是清晨三点起床。卧室里一片漆黑，霍·阿卡蒂奥的鼾声把床铺震得直颤，她却坐在床上，透过微开的窗子观察墓地的墙壁。她坚持不懈地暗暗等了一个星期，就象过去等待皮埃特罗·克列斯比的信函一样。“他们不会在这儿枪毙他的，”霍·阿卡蒂奥向她说。为了不让别人知道谁开的枪，他们会利用深夜在兵营里处决他，并且埋在那儿。“雷贝卡继续等待。“那帮无耻的坏蛋准会在这儿枪毙他，”她回答。她很相信这一点，甚至想把房门稍微打开一些，以便向死刑犯挥手告别。“他们不会只让六名胆怯的士兵押着他走过街道的，”霍·阿卡蒂奥坚持说道。“因为他们知道老百姓什么都干得出来。”雷贝卡对丈夫所说的道理听而不闻，继续守在窗口。
“你会看见这帮坏蛋多么可耻，”她说。
星期二早晨五点钟，霍·阿卡蒂奥喝完咖啡，放出狗去的时候，雷贝卡突然关上窗子，抓住床头，免得跌倒。“他们带他来啦，”她叹息一声。“他多神气啊。”霍·阿卡蒂奥看了看窗外，突然战栗一下；在惨白的晨光中，他瞧见了弟弟，弟弟穿着他霍。 阿卡蒂奥年轻时穿过的裤子。奥雷连诺已经双手叉腰站在墙边，腋下火烧火燎的脓疮妨碍他把手放下。“挨苦受累，受尽折磨，”奥雷连诺上校自言自语地说，“都是为了让这六个杂种把你打死，而你毫无办法。”他一再重复这句话，而罗克·卡尼瑟洛上尉却把他的愤怒当成宗教热情，以为他在祈祷，因而深受感动。士兵们举枪瞄准的时候，奥雷连诺上校的怒火止息了，嘴里出现了一种粘滞、苦涩的东西，使得他的舌头麻木了，两眼也闭上了。铝色的晨光忽然消失，他又看见自己是个穿着裤衩、扎着领结的孩子，看见父亲在一个晴朗的下午带他去吉卜赛人的帐篷，于是他瞧见了冰块。当他听到一声喊叫时，他以为这是上尉给行刑队的最后命令。他惊奇地睁开眼来，料想他的视线会遇见下降的弹道，但他只发现罗克·卡尼瑟洛上尉与霍·阿卡蒂奥，前者举着双手呆立不动，后者拿着准备射击的可怕的猎枪跑过街道。
“别开枪，”上尉向霍·阿卡蒂奥说，“你是上帝派来的嘛。”
从这时起，又开始了一场战争。罗克·卡尼瑟洛上尉和六名士兵，跟奥雷连诺上校一起前去营救在列奥阿察判处死刑的革命将军维克多里奥·麦丁纳。为了赢得时间，他们决定沿着霍·阿·布恩蒂亚建立马孔多村之前经过的道路，翻过山岭。可是没过一个星期，他们就已明白这是作不到的事。最后，他们不得不从山上危险的地方悄悄地过去，虽然他们的子弹寥寥无几，——只有士兵们领来行刑的那一些。他们将在城镇附近扎营，派一个人乔装打扮，手里拿着一条小金鱼，天一亮就到路上去溜达，跟潜伏的自由党人建立联系：这些自由党人清晨出来“打猎”，是从来都不回去的。可是，当他从山梁上终于望见列奥阿察的时候，维克多里奥·麦丁纳将军已被枪决了。奥雷连诺上校的追随者宣布他为加勒比海沿岸革命军总司令，头衔是将军。他同意接受这个职位，可是拒绝了将军头衔，并且说定在推翻保守党政府之前不接受这个头衔。在三个月当中，他武装了一千多人，可是几乎都牺牲了。幸存的人越过了东部边境。随后知道，他们离开了安的列斯群岛（注：在西印度群岛），在维拉角登陆，重新回到国内；在这之后不久，政府的报喜电报就发到全国各地，宣布奥雷连诺上校死亡。又过了两天，一份挺长的电报几乎赶上了前一份电报，报告了南部平原上新的起义。因此产生了奥雷连诺上校无处不在的传说。同一时间传来了互相矛盾的消息：上校在比利亚努埃瓦取得了胜利；在古阿卡马耶尔遭到了失败；被摩蒂龙部落的印第安人吃掉；死于沼泽地带的一个村庄；重新在乌鲁米特发动了起义。这时，自由党领袖正在跟政府举行关于容许自由党人进入国会的谈判，宣布他为冒险分子，不能代表他们的党。政府把他算做强盗，悬赏五千比索取他的首级。在十六次失败以后，奥雷连诺上校率领两千装备很好的印第安人，离开瓜希拉，进攻列奥阿察，惊惶失措的警备队逃出了这个城市。奥雷连诺把司令部设在列奥阿察，宣布了反对保守党人的全民战争。政府给他的第一个正式回电向他威胁说，如果起义部队不撤到东部边境，四十八小时之后就要枪决格林列尔多·马克斯上校。罗克·卡尼瑟洛上校这时已经成了参谋长，他把这份电报交给总司令的时候，神色十分沮丧，可是奥雷连诺看了电报却意外地高兴。
“好极了！”他惊叫一声。“咱们马孔多有了电报局啦！”