Английский язык с Марком Твеном. Принц и нищий / Mark Twain. The Prince and the Pauper

Now the doors swung open (и вот двери распахнулись; to swing — качаться); one high-sounding title after another (один звучный титул за другим) was announced (объявлялся), the personages owning them followed (персонажи, владеющие ими, следовали = шли следом), and the place was quickly half filled (и место было быстро наполовину заполнено) with noble folk and finery (дворянским людом и роскошью). But Tom was hardly conscious (но Том едва осознавал: «был осознающим, сознательным») of the presence of these people (присутствие этих людей), so wrought up was he (таким взбудораженным был он; to work up — будоражить, возбуждать) and so intensely absorbed (и так глубоко поглощен) in that other and more interesting matter (тем другим и более интересным делом). He seated himself, absently (он уселся рассеянно), in his chair of state (на своем троне), and turned his eyes upon the door with manifestations of impatient expectancy (и обернул свои глаза к двери с выражением нетерпеливого ожидания); seeing which (при виде чего: «видя что»), the company forbore to trouble him (собрание воздерживалось от того, чтобы тревожить его), and fell to chatting (и принялись обсуждать; to fall to — приняться; to chat — болтать) a mixture of public business and court gossip (смесь государственных дел и придворных слухов) one with another (один с другим = между собой).

violent [`vaıələnt], read — прошедшее время [red], obeisance [q`beısəns]

Death — and a violent death — for these poor unfortunates! The thought wrung Tom's heartstrings. The spirit of compassion took control of him, to the exclusion of all other considerations; he never thought of the offended laws, or of the grief or loss which these three criminals had inflicted upon their victims, he could think of nothing but the scaffold and the grisly fate hanging over the heads of the condemned. His concern made him even forget, for the moment, that he was but the false shadow of a king, not the substance; and before he knew it he had blurted out the command:

'Bring them here!'

Then he blushed scarlet, and a sort of apology sprung to his lips; but observing that his order had wrought no sort of surprise in the earl or the waiting page, he suppressed the words he was about to utter. The page, in the most matter-of-course way, made a profound obeisance and retired backward out of the room to deliver the command. Tom experienced a glow of pride and a renewed sense of the compensating advantages of the kingly office. He said to himself, 'Truly it is like what I used to feel when I read the old priest's tales, and did imagine mine own self a prince, giving law and command to all, saying, " Do this, do that," while none durst offer let or hindrance to my will.'