拿破侖與國際象棋-Napoleon and Chess

　　Napoleon and Chess

　　After the Waterloo Campaign, Napoleon was banished (流放) onto a lonely island named St Helena in South Atlantic. He became a prisoner for life. Facing the vast sea, he always thought of escaping from the island, but that was impossible. He knew nothing about the topography (地形) of the island!

　　Once a good friend of his went to see him. Since there wa always someone keeping watch on them, they talked about only the old days. When they parted, the friend took out a set of chess made of tusk and nephrite (軟玉), and said to Napoleon, "I give this to you. Maybe it will be of some help." Napoleon liked it very much. He used to play with the chessmen (棋子) and study chess manuals (棋譜), to pass the last days of his life.

　　After his death, many of the things he had ever used were auctioned (拍賣). The set of chess was also sold and resold several times at very high prices. Finally it was collected by the National Museum in France. When the staff members were cleaning the chessmen, they found the bottom of Black King could be twisted off (擰開). They opened it and, to their great surprise, in it there was a detailed map about how to escape from the island. It was a great pity that Napoleon had never discovered the secret, and thus he nulified (使......無用) his friend＇ s effort.

　　[點評]

　　文章的語言非常有變化。分詞短語，從句及轉接詞的運用使文章條理清楚，緊湊連貫。讀者從中了解了拿破侖最后的日子，不禁要問：假如象棋里的秘密被拿破侖發現了，歷史是否要被改寫?

　　[參考譯文]

　　拿破侖與國際象棋

　　滑鐵盧戰役之后，拿破侖被流放到南大西洋上一個叫做海倫娜的孤島上。他成為了終身囚犯。面對浩瀚的大海，他常想從島上逃走，可那是不可能的，他對島上的地形一無所知!

　　有一次，他的一位好朋友去看他。因為總是有人看著他們，所以他們只是回憶談論舊日的時光。分手時，那位朋友拿山一副象牙和軟玉做的象棋，對拿破侖說：“我把這個送給你。也許能用得上。”拿破侖非常喜歡這副棋。他經常擺弄棋子，研究棋譜以打發他的余生。

　　他死后，生前所用過的部分東西都被拍賣。那副象棋也以不菲的價格幾經買賣，最后被法國國家博物館收藏。工作人員在清洗棋子的時候，發現黑國王的底部可以擰開。他們將它打開，大吃一驚，里面竟是一張逃離孤島的詳細地圖。遺憾無比，拿破侖沒能發現這個秘密，因此也就枉費了他朋友的良苦用心。