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| They were going to shoot Bush, too. | Они расстреляют и Буша. |
| Presumably they would lash him to a stake to have a fair shot at him - curious how, while it was easy to order a party to shoot an upright figure, however helpless, every instinct revolted against shooting a helpless man prostrate on a stretcher. | Наверно, привяжут к столбу - удивительно, как легко приказать солдатам стрелять в стоящего, даже совершенно беспомощного человека, и как трудно - в простертого на носилках. |
| It would be a monstrous crime to shoot Bush, who, even supposing his captain were guilty, could have done nothing except obey orders. | Это будет чудовищным преступлением. Пусть даже капитан виноват, Буш только исполнял приказы. |
| But Bonaparte would do it. | Но Бонапарт пойдет и на это. |
| The necessity of rallying Europe round him in his struggle against England was growing ever more pressing. | Необходимость сплотить Европу в борьбе против Англии подстегивает его все сильнее. |
| The blockade was strangling the Empire of the French as Antaeus had been strangled by Hercules. | Блокада душит Французскую Империю, как душил Антея Геракл. |
| Bonaparte's unwilling allies - all Europe, that was to say, save Portugal and Sicily - were growing restive and thinking about defection; the French people themselves, Hornblower shrewdly guessed, were by now none too enamoured of this King Stork whom they had imposed on themselves. | Вынужденные союзники Бонапарта, то есть вся Европа, исключая Португалию и Сицилию, беспокоится и подумывает о переходе в другой стан. Сами французы, догадывался Хорнблауэр, подобно лафонтеновским лягушкам, не в восторге от короля-аиста, которого сами же выпросили себе на голову. |
| It would not be sufficient for Bonaparte merely to say that the British fleet was the criminal instrument of a perfidious tyranny; he had said that for a dozen years. | Бонапарту мало сказать, что британский флот -преступное орудие вероломной тирании, он говорил это десятки раз. |
| The mere announcement that British naval officers had violated the laws of war would carry small enough weight, too. | Объявить, что британский флотский офицер нарушил воинские соглашения, тоже будет пустым сотрясением воздуха. |
| But to try a couple of officers and shoot them would be a convincing gesture, and the perverted statement of facts issued from Paris might help to sustain French public opinion - European public opinion as well - for another year or two in its opposition to England. |
