A Child's History of England.31

The English in general were on King Henry's side, though many of the Normans were on Robert's. But the English sailors deserted [动词与名词读音不同] the King, and took a great part of the English fleet over to Normandy; so that Robert came to invade this country in no foreign vessels, but in English ships. The virtuous Anselm, however, whom Henry had invited back from abroad, and made Archbishop of Canterbury, was steadfast in the King's cause; and it was so well supported that the two armies, instead of fighting, made a peace. Poor Robert, who trusted anybody and everybody, readily trusted his brother, the King; and agreed to go home and receive a pension from England, on condition that all his followers were fully pardoned. This the King very faithfully promised, but Robert was no sooner gone than he began to punish them.

六级/考研单词: fleet, invade, vessel, punish
trusted anybody and everybody... 某笑话大意：A去行刺B，自称叫nobody，B受伤后大叫，守卫问咋滴了，B说：Nobody hurts me. 马三立的一个相声：妈妈让小孩看晾晒的衣服，一个小偷自称名叫“逗你玩”…… “有人偷衣服！” “谁呀？” “逗你玩” “这孩子”

Among them was the Earl of Shrewsbury, who, on being summoned by the King to answer to five-and-forty accusations, rode away to one of his strong castles, shut himself up therein, called around him his tenants and vassals, and fought for his liberty, but was defeated and banished. Robert, with all his faults, was so true to his word, that when he first heard of this nobleman having risen against his brother, he laid waste the Earl of Shrewsbury's estates in Normandy, to show the King that he would favour no breach of their treaty. Finding, on better information, afterwards, that the Earl's only crime was having been his friend, he came over to England, in his old thoughtless, warm-hearted way, to intercede with the King, and remind him of the solemn promise to pardon all his followers.

六级/考研单词: summon, tenant, liberty, noble, treaty, solemn

This confidence [信赖] might have put the false King to the blush, but it did not. Pretending to be very friendly, he so surrounded his brother with spies and traps, that Robert, who was quite in his power, had nothing for it but to renounce his pension and escape while he could. Getting home to Normandy, and understanding the King better now, he naturally allied himself with his old friend the Earl of Shrewsbury, who had still thirty castles in that country. This was exactly what Henry wanted. He immediately declared that Robert had broken the treaty, and next year invaded Normandy.

六级/考研单词: confide, blush, spy, trap, treaty, invade

Robert was quite in his power... Rober很有right……？If it is in sb's power to do sth, they have the authority or ability to do it.

He pretended that he came to deliver [解救] the Normans, at their own request, from his brother's misrule. There is reason to fear that his misrule was bad enough; for his beautiful wife had died, leaving him with an infant son, and his court was again so careless, dissipated, and ill-regulated, that it was said he sometimes lay in bed of a day for want of clothes to put on - his attendants having stolen all his dresses. But he headed his army like a brave prince and a gallant soldier, though he had the misfortune to be taken prisoner by King Henry, with four hundred of his Knights. Among them was poor harmless Edgar Atheling, who loved Robert well. Edgar was not important enough to be severe with. The King afterwards gave him a small pension, which he lived upon and died upon, in peace, among the quiet woods and fields of England.

六级/考研单词: gorgeous, infant, clothe, thief, princess, misfortune, knight

If you describe sb as dissipated, you disapprove of them because they spend too much time enjoying physical pleasures such as drinking alcohol in a way that is harmful.

And Robert - poor, kind, generous, wasteful, heedless [attention-less] Robert, with so many faults, and yet with virtues that might have made a better and a happier man - what was the end of him? If the King had had the magnanimity [generosity] to say with a kind air [manner], 'Brother, tell me, before these noblemen, that from this time you will be my faithful follower and friend, and never raise your hand against me or my forces more!' he might have trusted Robert to the death. But the King was not a magnanimous man. He sentenced his brother to be confined for life in one of the Royal Castles. In the beginning of his imprisonment, he was allowed to ride out, guarded; but he one day broke [move] away from his guard and galloped off. He had the evil fortune to ride into a swamp, where his horse stuck fast and he was taken. When the King heard of it he ordered him to be blinded, which was done by putting a red-hot metal basin on his eyes.

六级/考研单词: generous, noble, confine, imprison, wicked, swamp, basin