| Он перегнулся через парапет и поглядел вниз; уступ высотой в двадцать пять футов, затем ров, а по дну рва вьется крепкий частокол, который не прорвать иначе, как подойдя вплотную. |
| No hurried, extemporized attack could carry the citadel of Rosas. | С налету Росас не взять. |
| A score of sentries paced the ramparts, even as did he; in the opposite face he could see the massive gates with the portcullis down, where a hundred men of the grand guard were always ready to beat back any surprise attack which might elude the vigilance of the twenty sentinels. | Десятка два часовых, подобно самому Хорнблауэру, расхаживали по стене, напротив высились массивные ворота с крытой галереей, на которой укрывались еще человек сто, готовые отразить атаку, если ее не заметят первые двадцать. |
| Down there, in the body of the place, a company of infantry was being put through its drill - the shrill words of command were clearly audible to him up here. | Во дворе под стеной маршировало пехотное подразделение - до Хорнблауэра отчетливо долетали итальянские команды. |
| It was Italian which was being spoken; Bonaparte had attempted his conquest of Catalonia mainly with the foreign auxiliaries of his empire, Italians, Neapolitans, Germans, Swiss, Poles. | Бонапарт завоевывает Каталонию силами своих сателлитов - здесь воюют итальянцы, неаполитанцы, немцы, швейцарцы, поляки. |
| The uniforms of the infantry down there were as ragged as the lines they were forming; the men were in tatters, and even the tatters were not homogeneous - the men wore white or blue or grey or brown according to the resources of the depots which had originally sent them out. | Мундиры на солдатах - не лучше, чем их строй -лохмотья, да и те разномастные - белые, серые, коричневые, в зависимости от того, что нашлось на складе. |
| They were half starved, poor devils, as well. | К тому же они голодают, бедолаги. |
| Of the five or six thousand men based on Rosas the ones he could see were all that could be spared for military duty; the others were all out scouring the countryside for food - Bonaparte never dreamed of trying to feed the men whom he compelled to serve him, just as he only paid them, as an afterthought, a year or two in arrears. | Из пяти-шести тысяч расквартированных в Росасе солдат этот полк единственный занят строевой подготовкой - остальные рыщут по окрестностям в поисках пропитания, Бонапарт не намерен кормить людей, чьими руками завоевывает мир, равно как и платит от случая к случаю, с опозданием годика этак на два. |
| It was amazing that his ramshackle Empire had endured so long - that was the clearest proof of the incompetence of the various kingdoms who had pitted their strength against it. |