看Louise Penny學英文：A Rule Against Murder （下）

這書介紹了羅丹的著名雕像－－加萊義民(The Burghers of Calais)：

在英法百年戰爭時，戰勝的英軍首領英王愛德華三世包圍了法國港口城市加萊，斷絕了進城的糧草，這城最終被逼乞降。愛德華三世說，只要加萊城交出六位有聲望的市民，他才會放過這座城的市民。他要那六人脫下外衣，頸套繩索，拿著城門鑰匙前來受死。結果，全市最富有的市民之一Eustache de Saint Pierre自願犧牲，然後有五個人跟隨。他們很勇敢，但他們都只是普通人，所以當他們走出城門時，面容哀愁，心內驚懼......　想不到的是，這個故事有個快樂結局－－當時的英國皇后知道此事後，憐憫這些人，懷著孩子的她請求丈夫為了他們肚內的孩子放過這六個人。
可能聽過太多殘酷的歷史故事，這段西方歷史令人振奮。

好，又來到摘錄時間：

－Murder was deeply human. A person was killed and a person killed. And what powered the final thrust wasn’t a whim, wasn’t an event. It was an emotion. Something once healthy and human had become wretched and bloated and finally buried. But not put to rest. It lay there, often for decades, feeding on itself, growing and gnawing, grim and full of grievance. Until it finally broke free of all human restraint. Not conscience, not fear, not social convention could contain it. When that happened, all hell broke lose. And a man became a murderer.
作者不只一次在作品中描述謀殺是怎樣發生的。我摘錄這句，是因為她這四個g的文字遊戲。

－After years of investigating murders Chief Inspector Gamache knew one thing about hate. It bound you forever to the person you hated. Murder wasn’t committed out of hate, it was done as a terrible act of freedom. To finally rid yourself of the burden.
－He often felt like a ferryman, taking men and women from one shore to another. From the rugged, though familiar, terrain of grief and shock into a netherworld visited by a blessed few. To a shore where men killed each other on purpose.

－“Have you ever been walking down the street and smelled something, and suddenly you’re someplace else? It’s as if the smell transports you.” With anyone other than the Chief Inspector he’d feel foolish saying that. “I do. But it’s more than that,” said Gamache. “A feeling goes with it. I’ll suddenly feel melancholy or at ease or calm. For no reason, except the scent.”
我也碰上過同樣情況。水仙花的氣味，發霉的氣味和草味都特別容易令我有此情況。

－Gamache clasped his hands behind his back and they fell into step, walking silently across the lawn and toward the lake. The sun was just setting, filling the evening sky with spectacular lurid color. Purples and pinks and golds, it seemed to change every moment.
漂亮！

－The mist was slowly burning off the lake and every now and then a bird skimmed the surface, hungry for insects.

－Bean was the first Morrow he’d seen with a look of joy, of delight, of rapture. Gamache recognized it because he felt those things himself, every day.
有讀者批評作者將Gamache這個人寫得太完美。不過我卻覺得，有這樣一個人作榜樣也不錯。

－Beauvoir slapped at his neck and his hand came away with a smear of blood and a tiny black leg. He knew he was covered in bug bodies. You’d think, he thought, other bugs would get the message. But there was probably a reason blackflies didn’t rule the world. Torment it, yes, but nothing else.
哈～

－He poured and they took the food, Beauvoir counting to make sure he got his fair share.
之前摘錄過，再post一次。

－“The martlet,” said Gamache, placing his large hands behind his back and staring onto the lake with its soft waves. Clouds were slowly moving in. “Now there’s an interesting bird. Used a lot in heraldry. It’s thought to signify enterprise and hard work. The martlet’s also meant to signify the fourth child.”
上網查了，marlet是這種雀：

－The mind is its own place, can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven,”

－“We’re all blessed and we’re all blighted, Chief Inspector,” said Finney. “Every day each of us does our sums. The question is, what do we count?”

－Gamache smiled, which angered Peter even more. This was his coup de grâce, the final thrust he’d kept in abeyance to be brought out and used only if things got desperate. Now he’d dropped his bomb but Hiroshima remained, untouched, even smiling.

“Be careful,” Gamache whispered. “You’re making hurting a habit. Spreading it around won’t lessen your pain, you know. Just the opposite.”

Peter攻擊Gamache的話真夠惡毒（這裡沒寫，要看小說才明白）。他一直想擺腳家人，但卻不知不覺受他們影響，與母親和大哥一樣出口傷人。