In two panoramic chapters, McCullough introduces us to the travelers as they prepare for their adventure. “Emotions ran high on the eve of departure,” he writes. “Melancholy and second thoughts interspersed with intense excitement were the common thing.” The trip was arduous, the French drizzle constant, and bureaucracy evidently dates to Vercingetorix.
The raw afternoon is rawest, and the dense fog is densest, and the muddy streets are muddiest near that leaden-headed old obstruction, appropriate ornament for the threshold of a leaden-headed old corporation, Temple Bar. And hard by Temple Bar, in Lincoln's Inn Hall, at the very heart of the fog, sits the Lord High Chancellor in his High Court of Chancery.
drizzle
(drĭz'əl)
v., -zled, -zling, -zles. v.intr.
To rain gently in fine, mistlike drops.
v.tr.
- To let fall in fine drops or particles: drizzled melted butter over the asparagus.
- To moisten with fine drops: drizzled the asparagus with melted butter.
A fine, gentle, misty rain.
[Perhaps from Middle English drisning, fall of dew, from Old English -drysnian, in gedrysnian, to pass away, vanish.]
drizzly driz'zly adj.Vercingetorix (d. 46 bc), the chieftain who interrupted Caesar's conquest of Gaul by uniting his tribe, the Arverni, with other Gallic tribes in revolt in 52 bc. Taking advantage of the tribesmen's superior knowledge of their home terrain, he was able to wage an effective guerrilla war against the Romans. For reasons unknown he decided to concentrate his forces at Alesia (now Alise-Sainte-Reine), permitting Julius to crush the uprising in an epic siege. He surrendered and after being exhibited in chains during Caesar's triumph (46 bc) in Rome he was strangled.
— Robert Foley
leaden- [lédn]
[形]
1 ((文))鉛色［鈍い灰色］の.
2 （鉛のように）重い.
3 活気のない, のろのろした；ものうげな, 陰うつな, 重苦しい, 意気消沈した
4 ((限定))鉛（製）の.
a leaden pace
のろい歩調
のろい歩調
a leaden heart
ふさいだ心.
ふさいだ心.
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