经典！《喀尔巴阡古堡，牛博士》让无数读者意犹未尽！(15)

Such was the fate of the famous tulip, which, after several days" splendour, became emaciated, and fell lifeless.
It was soon the same with the domestic animals, from the housedog to the pig in its sty, from the canary in its cage to the turkey in the poultry-yard. In normal times, it must be stressed these animals were no less phlegmatic than their masters. The dogs and cats vegetated rather than lived. They never gave a wriggle of pleasure or a snarl of wrath. Their tails moved no more than if they had been made of bronze. Such a thing as a bite or scratch had not been known from time immemorial. As for mad dogs, they were looked upon as imaginary beasts, like the griffins and those in the menagerie of the Apocalypse.
But what a change had taken place in a few months, the smallest incidents of which are recorded here! Dogs and cats began to show teeth and claws. Several had had to be punished for repeated offences. A horse was seen, for the first time, to take its bit between its teeth and rush through the streets of Quiquendone; an ox was observed to dash itself, with lowered horns, upon one of its fellows; an ass to seen to turn itself upside down, its legs in the air, in the Place Saint Ernuph, and to bray as it never brayed before; a sheep- yes, a sheep-valiantly defended its own cutlets from the butcher"s knife.