"Hop-Frog..." - читать интересную книгу автора (Poe Edgar Allan)

"Come here, Hop-Frog," said he, as the jester and his friend entered
the room; "swallow this bumper to the health of your absent friends,
[here Hop-Frog sighed,] and then let us have the benefit of your
invention. We want characters- characters, man- something novel- out
of the way. We are wearied with this everlasting sameness. Come,
drink! the wine will brighten your wits."
Hop-Frog endeavored, as usual, to get up a jest in reply to these
advances from the king; but the effort was too much. It happened to be
the poor dwarf's birthday, and the command to drink to his 'absent
friends' forced the tears to his eyes. Many large, bitter drops fell
into the goblet as he took it, humbly, from the hand of the tyrant.
"Ah! ha! ha!" roared the latter, as the dwarf reluctantly drained
the beaker.- "See what a glass of good wine can do! Why, your eyes are
shining already!"
Poor fellow! his large eyes gleamed, rather than shone; for the
effect of wine on his excitable brain was not more powerful than
instantaneous. He placed the goblet nervously on the table, and looked
round upon the company with a half- insane stare. They all seemed
highly amused at the success of the king's 'joke.'
"And now to business," said the prime minister, a very fat man.
"Yes," said the King; "Come lend us your assistance. Characters,
my fine fellow; we stand in need of characters- all of us- ha! ha!
ha!" and as this was seriously meant for a joke, his laugh was
chorused by the seven.
Hop-Frog also laughed although feebly and somewhat vacantly.
"Come, come," said the king, impatiently, "have you nothing to
suggest?"
"I am endeavoring to think of something novel," replied the dwarf,
abstractedly, for he was quite bewildered by the wine.
"Endeavoring!" cried the tyrant, fiercely; "what do you mean by
that? Ah, I perceive. You are Sulky, and want more wine. Here, drink
this!" and he poured out another goblet full and offered it to the
cripple, who merely gazed at it, gasping for breath.
"Drink, I say!" shouted the monster, "or by the fiends-"
The dwarf hesitated. The king grew purple with rage. The courtiers
smirked. Trippetta, pale as a corpse, advanced to the monarch's
seat, and, falling on her knees before him, implored him to spare
her friend.
The tyrant regarded her, for some moments, in evident wonder at
her audacity. He seemed quite at a loss what to do or say- how most
becomingly to express his indignation. At last, without uttering a
syllable, he pushed her violently from him, and threw the contents
of the brimming goblet in her face.
The poor girl got up the best she could, and, not daring even to
sigh, resumed her position at the foot of the table.
There was a dead silence for about half a minute, during which the
falling of a leaf, or of a feather, might have been heard. It was
interrupted by a low, but harsh and protracted grating sound which
seemed to come at once from every corner of the room.
"What- what- what are you making that noise for?" demanded the king,