The Ungrateful Soldier
Here is another story of the bat-tle-field, and it is much like the one which I have just told you. Not quite a hundred years after the time of Sir Philip Sidney there
was a war between the Swedes and the Danes. One day a great battle was
fought, and the Swedes were beaten, and driven from the field. A
soldier of the Danes who had been slightly wounded was sitting on the
ground. He was about to take a drink from a flask. All at once he
heard some one say,
"O sir! give me a drink, for I am dying."
It was a wounded Swede who spoke. He was lying on the ground only a
little way off. The Dane went to him at once. He knelt down by the
side of his fallen foe, and pressed the flask to his lips.
"Drink," said he, "for thy need is greater than mine."
Hardly had he spoken these words, when the Swede raised himself on his
elbow. He pulled a pistol from his pocket, and shot at the man who
would have be-friend-ed him. The bullet grazed the Dane's shoulder,but did not do him much harm.
"Ah, you rascal!" he cried. "I was going to befriend you, and you
repay me by trying to kill me. Now I will punish you. I would have
given you all the water, but now you shall have only half." And with
that he drank the half of it, and then gave the rest to the Swede.
When the King of the Danes heard about this, he sent for the soldier and had him tell the story just as it was. "Why did you spare the life of the Swede after he had tried to kill
you?" asked the king.
"Because, sir," said the soldier, "I could never kill a wounded enemy."
"Then you deserve to be a no-ble-man," said the king. And here-ward-ed him by making him a knight, and giving him a noble title.
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在菲利普·西德尼爵士去世后不到100年，瑞典與丹麥之間爆發了一場戰爭。一天，在一場大戰中，瑞典人戰敗，并被趕出了戰場。一個受了輕傷的丹麥士兵坐在地上，正要拿起瓶子喝水。忽然，他聽到一個聲音說道：
“哦，先生！給我喝點吧，我快要渴死了。”
說話的人是一個受傷的瑞典人，就躺在不遠處。丹麥人立即走到他的面前。他跪在那個躺在地上的敵人身旁，把瓶子壓到他的唇邊。
“喝吧，”他說道，“因為你比我更需要。”
他還沒有說完這些話，瑞典人就用胳膊肘支撐著起來了。他從口袋里拔出一把手槍，向幫助他的這個男子開了槍。子彈從丹麥人的肩膀上擦過去，但是沒有造成什么傷害。
“啊，無賴！”他喊道，“我正要幫你，你卻要殺死我。現在，我要讓你得到懲罰。我本來想把全部的水都給你，但是現在，你只能喝一半。”于是，他喝了一半的水，把剩下的給了瑞典人。
當丹麥國王聽到這件事情之后，他派人把那個丹麥士兵叫來，并讓他把故事如實地講出來。
“在瑞典人試圖殺死你之后，你為什么還要留住他的性命？”國王問道。
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“閣下，因為，”士兵說道，“我從來不殺受傷的敵人。”
“那么你一定是一個品格高貴的人。”國王說道，于是封他為騎士，并授予他貴族頭銜。
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