解説　場面 20「月夜の出発」

"It chanced that some little time later Hugo left his guests to carry food and drink—with other worse things, perchance—to his captive, and so found the cage empty and the bird escaped. Then, as it would seem, he became as one that hath a devil, for, rushing down the stairs into the dining-hall, he sprang upon the great table, flagons and trenchers flying before him, and he cried aloud before all the company that he would that very night render his body and soul to the Powers of Evil if he might but overtake the wench. And while the revellers stood aghast at the fury of the man, one more wicked or, it may be, more drunken than the rest, cried out that they should put the hounds upon her. Whereat Hugo ran from the house, crying to his grooms that they should saddle his mare and unkennel the pack, and giving the hounds a kerchief of the maid's, he swung them to the line, and so off full cry in the moonlight over the moor.

「しばらくして、ヒューゴは客たちを残し、囚われの娘に食べ物と酒を届けに行った。おそらくは、それより悪い企てもあったろう。ところが、鳥籠は空で、鳥は逃げていた。すると、彼は悪魔に取りつかれたようになったらしい。階段を駆け下りて食堂へ飛び込むと、大卓の上に跳び上がり、大酒杯や皿を蹴散らし、一同の前で大声に叫んだ。あの娘に追いつけさえするなら、今夜にもこの身と魂を悪の力に渡す、と。酒宴の者たちが男の激怒に呆然とする中、ほかの者より邪悪だったか、あるいは酔いが深かった一人が、猟犬を娘にけしかければよいと叫んだ。そこでヒューゴは屋敷から走り出て、厩の者たちに牝馬に鞍を置き、猟犬の群れを犬舎から出せと叫んだ。犬たちに娘のハンカチを嗅がせ、においの跡へ向けると、吠えたてる群れを連れて月光の荒れ地へ駆け去った。

"Now, for some space the revellers stood agape, unable to understand all that had been done in such haste. But anon their bemused wits awoke to the nature of the deed which was like to be done upon the moorlands. Everything was now in an uproar, some calling for their pistols, some for their horses, and some for another flask of wine. But at length some sense came back to their crazed minds, and the whole of them, thirteen in number, took horse and started in pursuit. The moon shone clear above them, and they rode swiftly abreast, taking that course which the maid must needs have taken if she were to reach her own home.

「さて、酒宴の者たちはしばらく口を開けて立ち尽くし、あまりの急展開に何が起こったのか理解できなかった。だが、やがて酔いで鈍った頭にも、荒れ地で行われようとしていることの意味が分かってきた。たちまち大騒ぎとなり、ある者は拳銃を、ある者は馬を、またある者はもう一本の酒を求めて叫んだ。しかし、ようやく取り乱した頭に多少の分別が戻り、十三人の一同は全員馬に乗り、あとを追い始めた。頭上には月が澄んで輝き、彼らは並んで速く馬を走らせた。娘が家へ帰るなら必ず通るはずの道を選んだのである。