They had won, but they were weary (筋疲力尽的) and bleeding. Slowly they began to limp (缓慢地行走) back towards the farm.
The sight of their dead comrades stretched upon the grass moved some of them to tears. And for a little while they halted (停止) in sorrowful silence at the place where the windmill had once stood.
Yes, it was gone; almost the last trace of their labour was gone! Even the foundations were partially (部分地) destroyed.
And in rebuilding it they could not this time, as before, make use of the fallen stones. This time the stones had vanished too.
The force of the explosion had flung (猛掷) them to distances of hundreds of yards. It was as though the windmill had never been.
As they approached (靠近) the farm, Squealer, who had unaccountably been absent during the fighting, came skipping towards them, whisking his tail and beaming (高兴的微笑) with satisfaction.
And the animals heard, from the direction of the farm buildings, the solemn booming (轰鸣) of a gun.
"What is that gun firing for?" said Boxer.
"To celebrate our victory!" cried Squealer.
"What victory?" said Boxer. His knees were bleeding, he had lost a shoe and split (裂开) his hoof, and a dozen pellets had lodged (卡住) themselves in his hind leg.
"What victory, comrade? Have we not driven the enemy off our soil−the sacred soil of Animal Farm? "
"But they have destroyed the windmill. And we had worked on it for two years!"
"What matter? We will build another windmill. We will build six windmills if we feel like it. You do not appreciate, comrade, the mighty (伟大的) thing that we have done.
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The enemy was in occupation of this very ground that we stand upon. And now−thanks to the leadership of Comrade Napoleon−we have won every inch of it back again!"
"Then we have won back what we had before," said Boxer.
"That is our victory," said Squealer.
They limped into the yard. The pellets under the skin of Boxer's leg smarted (感到刺痛) painfully. He saw ahead of him the heavy labour of rebuilding the windmill from the foundations, and already in imagination he braced himself for the task.
But for the first time it occurred to him that he was eleven years old and that perhaps his great muscles were not quite what they had once been.{1}
But when the animals saw the green flag flying, and heard the gun firing again−seven times it was fired in all−and heard the speech that Napoleon made, congratulating them on their conduct, it did seem to them after all that they had won a great victory.
The animals slain (杀死) in the battle were given a solemn funeral. Boxer and Clover pulled the wagon which served as a hearse (灵车), and Napoleon himself walked at the head of the procession (队伍).
Two whole days were given over to celebrations.
There were songs, speeches, and more firing of the gun, and a special gift of an apple was bestowed (赠予) on every animal, with two ounces (盎司) of corn for each bird and three biscuits for each dog.
It was announced that the battle would be called the Battle of the Windmill, and that Napoleon had created a new decoration, the Order of the Green Banner, which he had conferred upon himself.
In the general rejoicings the unfortunate affair of the banknotes was forgotten.{2}
It was a few days later than this that the pigs came upon a case of whisky (威士忌酒) in the cellars (地窖) of the farmhouse.
It had been overlooked (忽视) at the time when the house was first occupied. That night there came from the farmhouse the sound of loud singing, in which, to everyone's surprise, the strains (旋律) of Beasts of England were mixed up.{3}
At about half past nine Napoleon, wearing an old bowler (圆顶高帽) hat of Mr. Jones's, was distinctly seen to emerge from the back door, gallop (急速移动) rapidly round the yard, and disappear indoors again.
But in the morning a deep silence hung over the farmhouse. Not a pig appeared to be stirring.
It was nearly nine o'clock when Squealer made his appearance, walking slowly and dejectedly (沮丧地), his eyes dull, his tail hanging limply behind him, and with every appearance of being seriously ill.
He called the animals together and told them that he had a terrible piece of news to impart. Comrade Napoleon was dying!
A cry of lamentation (伤感) went up. Straw was laid down outside the doors of the farmhouse, and the animals walked on tiptoe.
With tears in their eyes they asked one another what they should do if their Leader were taken away from them. A rumour went round that Snowball had after all contrived to introduce poison into Napoleon's food.{4}
At eleven o'clock Squealer came out to make another announcement. As his last act upon earth, Comrade Napoleon had pronounced a solemn decree (命令): the drinking of alcohol was to be punished by death.
By the evening, however, Napoleon appeared to be somewhat better, and the following morning Squealer was able to tell them that he was well on the way to recovery.
By the evening of that day Napoleon was back at work, and on the next day it was learned that he had instructed (指示) Whymper to purchase in Willingdon some booklets (小册子) on brewing (酿啤酒) and distilling (蒸馏).
A week later Napoleon gave orders that the small paddock beyond the orchard, which it had previously been intended to set aside as a grazing−ground for animals who were past (超出) work, was to be ploughed up.
It was given out that the pasture was exhausted and needed re−seeding; but it soon became known that Napoleon intended to sow it with barley.
About this time there occurred a strange incident which hardly anyone was able to understand. One night at about twelve o'clock there was a loud crash in the yard, and the animals rushed out of their stalls.
It was a moonlit (月光照耀的) night. At the foot of the end wall of the big barn, where the Seven Commandments were written, there lay a ladder broken in two pieces.
Squealer, temporarily stunned (昏迷), was sprawling beside it, and near at hand there lay a lantern (提灯), a paint−brush, and an overturned pot of white paint.
The dogs immediately made a ring round Squealer, and escorted (护送) him back to the farmhouse as soon as he was able to walk.
None of the animals could form any idea as to what this meant, except old Benjamin, who nodded his muzzle with a knowing air, and seemed to understand, but would say nothing.
But a few days later Muriel, reading over the Seven Commandments to herself, noticed that there was yet another of them which the animals had remembered wrong.
They had thought the Fifth Commandment was "No animal shall drink alcohol," but there were two words that they had forgotten. Actually the Commandment read: "No animal shall drink alcohol to excess."
Boxer's split hoof was a long time in healing (愈合). They had started the rebuilding of the windmill the day after the victory celebrations were ended.
Boxer refused to take even a day off work, and made it a point of honour not to let it be seen that he was in pain.{5} In the evenings he would admit privately to Clover that the hoof troubled him a great deal.
Clover treated the hoof with poultices (湿敷药物) of herbs which she prepared by chewing (嚼) them, and both she and Benjamin urged Boxer to work less hard.
"A horse's lungs (肺) do not last for ever," she said to him. But Boxer would not listen. He had, he said, only one real ambition left−to see the windmill well under way before he reached the age for retirement.