When Julien was left back to prison he had been put in a cell reserved for those under sentence of death. He, who, as a rule, observed the most trifling details, had never noticed that he was not being taken up to his old dungeon. He was thinking of what he would say to Madame de Renal, if, before the fatal moment, he should have the good fortune to see her. He felt that she would not allow him to speak, and was seeking a way of expressing his repentance in the first words he would utter. 'After such an action, how am I to convince her that I love her and her only? For after all I sought to kill her either out of ambition or for love of Mathilde.'
于连被押回监狱，关进死囚牢房。平时他总是最细小的情况都不放过，这一次竟没有发觉他们并未让他回到主塔楼牢房。他一心想着跟德·莱纳夫人说些什么，如果他在最后的时刻有幸见到她的话。他想她会打断他的话，于是就希望一见面就把他的悔恨完全表达出来。干了这样的事，怎么让她相信我爱的只是她呢？因为说到底，我是想杀了她，或是出于野心，或是出于对玛蒂尔德的爱。
On getting into bed he found himself between sheets of a coarse cloth.The scales fell from his eyes. 'Ah! I am in the condemned cell,' he said to himself, 'awaiting my sentence. It is right …
他躺在床上，发现单子是粗布做的。他的眼睛睁开了。“啊！我是作为死囚关在黑牢里了，”他对自己说，“这是公正的……”
'Conte Altamira told me once that, on the eve of his death, Danton said in his loud voice: "It is strange, the verb to guillotine cannot be conjugated in all its tenses; one can say: I shall be guillotined, thou shalt be guillotined, but one does not say: I have been guillotined."
“阿尔塔米拉伯爵跟我讲过，丹东在死前曾用他那粗嗓门说：‘怪哉，斩首这个动词不能有全部的时间变化；可以说：我将被斩首，你将被斩首，可是不能说：我已被斩首。’”
'Why not,' Julien went on, 'if there is another life? Faith, if I meet the Christian Deity, I am lost: He is a tyrant, and, as such, is full of ideas of vengeance; His Bible speaks of nothing but fearful punishments. I never loved Him! I could never even believe that anyone did love Him sincerely. He is devoid of pity.' (Here Julien recalled several passages from the Bible.) 'He will punish me in some abominable manner…
“为什么不能呢，”于连想，“如果有来世的话？……说真的，如果我碰见基督徒的上帝，我就完了，那是个暴君，因此，他满脑子报复的念头；他的《圣经》说的尽是残酷的惩罚。我从未爱过他，我甚至从未想相信人你爱他是真诚的。他没有怜悯心（他于是想起了《圣经》中好几个段落）。他将以可恶的方式惩罚我……”
'But if I meet the God of Fenelon! He will say to me perhaps: "Much shall be pardoned thee, because thou hast loved much … "
“然而，如果我碰见的是费奈隆的上帝就好了！他也许会对我说：你很多的罪都赦免了，因为你的爱多……”
'Have I loved much? Ah! I did love Madame de Renal, but my conduct has been atrocious. There, as elsewhere, I abandoned a simple and modest merit for what was brilliant…
“我的爱多吗？啊！我爱过德·莱纳夫人，然而我的行为是残忍的。在这件事上和在别的事上一样，为了闪光的东西抛弃了质朴平常的东西……”
'But then, what a prospect! Colonel of Hussars, should we go to war; Secretary of Legation in time of peace; after that, Ambassador … for I should soon have learned the business… and had I been a mere fool,need the son-in-law of the Marquis de La Mole fear any rival? All my foolish actions would have been forgiven me, or rather counted to me as merits. A man of distinction, enjoying the most splendid existence in Vienna or London …
“可是，那是怎样的前景啊！……战时是轻骑兵上校，平时是外交使团的秘书，然后是大使……因为我很快会熟谙事务的……即便我不过是个傻瓜，德·拉莫尔候爵的女婿还怕有对手吗？我的任何蠢事都会被原谅，甚至还会被当作才能呢。有才能的人，在维也纳或伦敦过最豪华的生活……”
'Not precisely that, Sir, to be guillotined in three days' time.'
“不一定吧，先生，三天后的断头者。”
Julien laughed heartily at this sally of his own wit. 'Indeed, man has two different beings inside him,' he reflected. 'What devil thought of that malicious touch?
于连说了这句俏皮话，开心地笑了。“实际上，每个人身上都有两个人，”他想，“见鬼，谁会这样聪明想到这儿呢？”
'Very well, yes, my friend, guillotined in three days' time,' he replied to the interrupter. 'M. de Cholin will hire a window, sharing the expense with the abbe Maslon. Well, for the cost of hiring that window, which of those two worthies will rob the other?'
“那好！是的，我的朋友，三天后的断头者，”他回答那个人道。“德·肖兰先生将跟马斯隆神甫合租一个窗口。好，在这个窗口的租金上，这两位可敬的人物谁将占谁的便宜呢？”
A passage from Rotrou's Venceslas entered his head suddenly.
他突然想起罗特鲁的《旺赛斯拉斯》的这一段：
Ladislas: My soul is well prepared.
拉迪斯拉斯：……我的灵魂已做好准备。
The King (his father): So is the scaffold; lay your head thereon.
国王（拉迪斯拉斯之父）：绞刑架也已做好准备；把您的头放上去吧。
'A good answer,' he thought, and fell asleep. Someone awakened him in the morning by shaking him violently.
“回答得妙！”他想，然后就睡着了。早晨有人紧紧地抱住他，把他弄醒了。
'What, already!' said Julien, opening a haggard eye. He imagined himself to be in the headsman's hands.
“怎么，时候已经到了！”于连睁开惊恐的眼睛。他以为是刽子手抓住了他。
It was Mathilde. 'Fortunately, she did not understand.' This reflection restored all his presence of mind. He found Mathilde changed as though after six months of illness: she was positively unrecognisable.
原来是玛蒂尔德。“幸亏她没有听懂我的意思。”他这么一想，完全恢复了镇静。他发现玛蒂尔德形容大变，像是病了半年，真真让人认不出来了。
'That wretch Frilair has betrayed me,' she said to him, wringing her hands; rage prevented her from speaking.
“这个卑鄙的福利莱背叛了我，”她对他说，绞着手，气得哭都哭不出来了。
'Was I not fine yesterday when I rose to speak?' replied Julien. 'I was improvising, and for the first time in my life! It is true that there is reason to fear it may also be the last.'
“我昨天发言的时候不是很美吗？”于连回答。“我是即席发言，有生以来还是第一次！说真的，这恐怕也是最后一次了。”
At this moment Julien was playing upon Mathilde's nature with all the calm of a skilled pianist touching the keys of a piano… 'The advantage of noble birth I lack, it is true,' he went on, 'but the great heart of Mathilde has raised her lover to her own level. Do you suppose that Boniface de La Mole cut a better figure before his judges?'
此时此刻，于连玩弄玛蒂尔德的性格，冷静得像一位熟练的钢琴家弹琴……“显赫的出身这种优越条件，我是没有，”他说，“然而，玛蒂尔德的崇高心灵把她的情人抬到了她的高度。您认为博尼法斯·德·拉莫尔在法官面前会表现得更好吗？”
Mathilde, that morning, was tender without affectation, like any poor girl dwelling in an attic; but she could not win from him any simpler speech. He paid her back, unconsciously, the torment that she had often inflicted on him.
玛蒂尔德这一天像住在六层楼上的穷姑娘，温情脉脉，毫不做作，然而她从他那儿得不到更朴实的话。她从前常常让他受到的折磨，他回敬给了她。
'We do not know the source of the Nile,' Julien said to himself; 'it has not been granted to the eye of man to behold the King of Rivers in the form of a simple rivulet: similarly no human eye shall ever see Julien weak, if only because he is not weak. But I have a heart that is easily moved; the most commonplace words, if they are uttered with an accent of truth, may soften my voice and even make my tears begin to flow.How often have not the sere hearts despised me for this defect! They believed that I was begging for mercy: that is what I cannot endure.
“没有人知道尼罗河的源头，”于连心想，“人类的眼睛不能看见处在普通的溪流状态的河中之王，因此，任何人的眼睛也将看不到软弱的于连，首先是因为他不软弱，但是，我有一颗易于打动的心，最普通的一句话，只要用诚恳的口气说出来，就能让我的声音变得温和，甚至让我流泪。有多少次那些心肠冷酷的人因为这个缺点而看不起我啊！他们以为我在乞求宽恕，这就是我所不能忍受的。”
'They say that the thought of his wife overcame Danton at the foot of the scaffold; but Danton had given strength to a nation of coxcombs, and prevented the enemy from reaching Paris . . I alone know what I might have managed to do… To others, I am at best only a might-have-been.
“据说丹东在断头台下想起了妻子，大为感动；但是丹东曾赋与一个到处是轻浮的年轻人的国家以力量，并且拒敌人于巴黎之外……只有我自己知道我能做出什么事来……而在别人看来，我充其量只是个也许。”
'If Madame de Renal had been here, in my cell, instead of Mathilde,should I have been able to control myself? The intensity of my despair and of my repentance would have appeared in the eyes of the Valenods,and of all the patricians of the neighbourhood, a craven fear of death;they are so proud, those feeble hearts, whom their financial position places out of reach of temptation! "You see what it is," M. de Moirod and M. de Cholin, who have just sentenced me to death, would have said, "to be born the son of a carpenter! One may become learned, clever, but courage!… Courage is not taught at school." Even this poor Mathilde, who is now weeping, or rather who can no longer weep,' he said, looking at her red eyes … and he took her in his arms: the sight of genuine grief made him forget his syllogism. 'She has been weeping all night,perhaps,' he said to himself: 'but one day how ashamed she will be when she remembers! She will regard herself as having been led astray, in early youth, by the low opinions of a plebeian… Croisenois is weak enough to marry her, and, i' faith, he will do well for himself. She will make him play a part。
“如果不是玛蒂尔德，而是德·莱纳夫人在我的牢房里，我能够保证我自己吗？我的过度的绝望和过度的悔恨，在瓦勒诺们和当地所有贵族的眼里，可能被当作对死亡的可耻的恐惧；这些内心懦弱的人，他们的经济地位使之免受诱惑，他们多自豪啊！德·莫瓦罗先生和德·肖兰先生刚刚判了我死刑，他们会说：‘看看什么叫生为木匠的儿子！他可以变得博学，机智，可勇气呢！……勇气是学不来的。’即使是这个可怜的玛蒂尔德，她现在在哭，或者不如说她哭不出来了，”他想，望着她的红红的眼睛……他把她搂紧在怀里，因为他看到这种真正的痛苦，不禁忘了自己的推论……“她也许哭了一整夜，”他对自己说，“然而有朝一日，这个回忆什么样的羞愧不能让她感到呢？她会认为自己在风华正茂的时候被一个平民的卑劣的思想方式引入歧途……克鲁瓦泽努瓦这个人相当软弱，会娶她的，而且我相信他做得对。她会使他扮演一个角色的。
Which a firm spirit planning vast designs
根据抱负远大而且坚定的人,
Has o'er the loutish minds of common men.
'Ah, now; here is a pleasant thing: now that I am to die, all the poetry I ever learned in my life comes back to me. It must be a sign of decadence … '
“啊哈！这倒有趣：自我被判死刑以后，我一生中知道的那些诗句都记起来了。这是衰败的迹象……”
Mathilde kept on saying to him in a faint voice: 'He is there, in the next room.' At length he began to pay attention to her words. 'Her voice is feeble,' he thought, 'but all her imperious nature is still in its accents. She lowers her voice in order not to lose her temper.
玛蒂尔德有气无力地对他说了好几遍：“他在隔壁房间里。”最后他终于注意听这句话了。“她的声音微弱，”他想，“然而口吻中她那专横的性格分毫无损。她为了压住火才放低了声音。”
'Who is there?' he asked her gently.
“谁在那儿？”他对她说，态度很温和。
'The lawyer, to make you sign your appeal.'
“律师，要您在上诉状上签字。”
'I shall not appeal.'
“我不上诉。”
'What! You will not appeal,' she said, rising to her feet, her eyes ablaze with anger, 'and why not, if you please?'
“怎么！您不上诉，”她说着站了起来，眼睛里闪着怒火，“请问这是为什么？”
'Because at this moment I feel that I have the courage to die without exciting undue derision. And who can say that in two months' time, after a long confinement in this damp cell, I shall be so well prepared? I foresee interviews with priests, with my father … I can imagine nothing so unpleasant. Let us die.'
“因为此刻我有赴死的勇气，不至于太让人笑话。谁能对我说，两个月后，长时间呆在这潮湿的黑牢里，我的状态还这么好？我预料还要跟教士见面，跟我父亲见面……这世界上再没有比这更让我不愉快的事了。让我死吧。”
This unexpected obstinacy awoke all the latent pride in Mathilde's nature. She had not been able to see the abbe de Frilair before the hour at which the cells in the prison of Besancon were opened; her anger fell upon Julien. She adored him, and for the next quarter of an hour he was reminded by her imprecations against his character, her regrets that she had ever loved him, of that proud spirit which in the past had heaped such poignant insults upon him, in the library of the Hotel de La Mole.
这个意外的障碍把玛蒂尔德性格中的高傲部分完全唤醒了。在贝藏松监狱的牢房开门之前，她未能见到德·福利莱神父，便把一腔怒火发泄在于连头上。她崇拜他，然而在这一刻钟里，她却诅咒他的性格，后悔爱上了他。他从中又看见了从前在德·拉莫尔府的图书室里用令人心碎的语言百般辱骂他的那个高傲的人。
'Heaven owed it to the glory of your race to bring you into the world a man,' he told her.
“为了你家族的荣耀，上天应该把你降生为男人，”他对她说。
'But as for myself,' he thought, 'I should be a rare fool to live two months longer in this disgusting abode, the butt of all the infamous and humiliating lies that the patrician faction is capable of inventing,my sole comfort the imprecations of this mad-woman… Well, the day after tomorrow, I shall be fighting a duel in the morning with a man well known for his coolness and for his remarkable skill… Very remarkable,' whispered Mephistopheles, 'he never misses his stroke.
“至于我，”他想，“我要是在这种令人厌恶的日子里再过上两个月，成为贵族集团可能编造的卑鄙无耻的诽谤的目标，而唯一的安慰只有这个疯女人的诅咒，那才叫傻呢……那好吧，后天早上，我就跟一个以冷静和技艺高超著称的人进行决斗……”“非常高超”魔鬼一方说，“他弹无虚发。”
'Very well, so be it, all's well that ends well.' (Mathilde's eloquence continued to flow.) 'Begad, no,' he said to himself, 'I shall not appeal.'
“好吧，但愿如此（玛蒂尔德仍在滔滔不绝地说）。不，”他对自己说，“我不上诉。”
Having made this decision, he relapsed into his dreams … 'The postman on his rounds will bring the newspaper at six o'clock, as usual; at eight, after M. de Renal has read it, Elisa, entering the room on tiptoe,will lay it down on her bed. Later, she will awake: suddenly, as she reads, she will grow troubled; her lovely hand will tremble; she will come to the words: At five minutes past ten he had ceased to live.
他决心已下，遂陷入梦幻……邮差将照例六点钟顺路将报纸送到；八点钟，德·莱纳先生看过之后，爱丽莎踮着脚把报纸放在她的床上。随后她醒了：她读着读着，突然慌乱起来，美丽的手抖个不停；她一直读到这些字……十点零五分，他停止了呼吸。
'She will shed hot tears, I know her; in vain did I seek to murder her,all will be forgotten, and the person whose life I sought to take will be the only one who will weep sincerely for my death.
“她将痛哭，我知道她的；就是我想杀她也没用，一切都将被忘记。我企图杀死的那个人将是唯一真心为我的死而哭泣的人。”
'Ah, this is a paradox!' he thought, and, for the next quarter of an hour, while Mathilde continued to make a scene, he thought only of Madame de Renal. In spite of himself, and albeit frequently replying to what Mathilde said to him, he could not free his mind from the memory of that bedroom at Verrieres. He saw the Gazette de Besancon lying on the counterpane of orange taffeta. He saw that snowy hand clutching it with a convulsive movement; he saw Madame de Renal weep … He followed the course of each tear over that charming face.
“啊！这是一个对比！”他想，在玛蒂尔德继续跟他吵闹的那一刻钟里，他只想着德·莱纳夫人。尽管他也常常回答玛蒂尔德的话，他还是不能把他的心从对维里埃那间卧房的回忆上移开。他看贝藏松的报纸放在橙黄色塔夫绸面的有指缝的被子上，他看见一只如此白皙的手痉挛地抓住它，他看见德·莱纳夫人在流泪……他眼看着眼泪一滴滴流过那张可爱的脸。
Mademoiselle de La Mole, having failed to get anything out of Julien, made the lawyer come in. He was fortunately an old Captain of the Army of Italy, of 1796, when he had served with Manuel.
德·拉莫尔小姐从于连嘴里什么也得不到，就把律师请了进来。幸好律师是从前一七九六年意大利军团的一名老上尉，曾经和马努埃尔是战友。
For the sake of form, he opposed the condemned man's decision. Julien, wishing to treat him with respect, explained all his reasons to him.
他反对犯人的决定，不过是做做样子。于连打算以尊敬的态度对待他，就向他逐条陈述理由。
'Faith, one may think as you do,' M. Felix Vaneau (this was the lawyer's name) said to him at length. 'But you have three clear days in which to appeal, and it is my duty to come back each day. If a volcano opened beneath the prison, in the next two months, you would be saved.You may die a natural death,' he said, looking at Julien.
“说真的，您这样想也可以，”费利克斯·瓦诺先生最后说，费利克斯·瓦诺是律师的名字，“不过您还有整整三天可以提出上诉，而且每天来是我的责任。如果两个月内监狱底下有座火山爆发，您就可以得救了。不过您也可能死于疾病，”他望着于连说。
Julien shook his hand. 'I thank you, you are an honest man. I shall think it over.'
于连和他握手。“我谢谢您，您是一个正直的人。我会考虑的。”
And when Mathilde left him, finally, with the lawyer, he felt far more affection for the lawyer than for her.
玛蒂尔德终于和律师一起出去了，于连觉得对律师比对她怀有多得多的友谊。