| Bonaparte had had a dozen British naval captains in his hands during the last few years, and he could have trumped up charges against half of them. | За последние несколько лет в руки Бонапарту попали десятки британских капитанов, против половины из них он мог бы сфабриковать обвинения. |
| Presumably it was destiny which had selected Hornblower and Bush to suffer. | Вероятно, на Хорнблауэра и Буша пал выбор судьбы. |
| Hornblower told himself that for twenty years he had been aware of a premonition of sudden death. | Хорнблауэр убеждал себя, что двадцать лет ходил под угрозой внезапной насильственной смерти. |
| It was certain and inevitable now. | И вот она перед ним, неминуемая, неотвратимая. |
| He hoped he would meet it bravely, go down with colours flying; but he mistrusted his own weak body. | Он надеялся, что встретит ее смело, пойдет на дно под развевающимися флагами, однако он не доверял слабому телу. |
| He feared that his cheeks would be pale and his teeth would chatter, or worse still, that his heart would weaken so that he would faint before the firing party had done their work. | Он боялся, что лицо побелеет и зубы будут стучать, хуже того, что подведет сердце, и он упадет в обморок. |
| That would be a fine opportunity for a mordant couple of lines in the Momteur Universel - fine reading for Lady Barbara and Maria. | "Moniteur Universel" не преминет напечатать пару язвительных строк - отличное чтение для леди Барбары и Марии. |
| If he had been alone in the room he would have groaned aloud in his misery and turned over restlessly. | Будь он в комнате один, он бы громко стонал и ворочался с боку на бок. |
| But as it was he lay grimly rigid and silent. | А так он лежал неподвижно, молча. |
| If his subordinates were awake they would never be allowed to guess that he was awake, too. | Если его подчиненные проснутся, они не догадаются, что он бодрствует. |
| To divert his mind from his approaching execution he cast round in search of something else to think about, and new subjects presented themselves in swarms. | Он стал думать, как бы отвлечься от будущего расстрела и мысли не замедлили нахлынуть. |
| Whether Admiral Leighton were alive or dead, and whether, if the latter were the case, Lady Barbara Leighton would think more often or less often about Hornblower, her lover; how Maria's pregnancy was progressing; what was the state of British public opinion regarding the loss of the Sutherland, and, more especially, what Lady Barbara thought about his surrendering - there were endless things to think and worry about; there was endless flotsam bobbing about in the racing torrent of his mind. |
