Little was in sight to remind us of the nineteenth century; and, as we looked out upon the river in the morning sunlight, we could almost fancy that the centuries between us and that ever-to-be-famous June morning of 1215 had been drawn aside, and that we, English yeomen's sons in homespun cloth, with dirk at belt, were waiting there to witness the writing of that stupendous page of history, the meaning whereof was to be translated to the common people some four hundred and odd years later by one Oliver Cromwell, who had deeply studied it.
Il n’y avait presque plus rien dans le paysage pour nous rappeler le XIXe siecle. En regardant le fleuve scintiller sous le soleil matinal, nous pouvions presque nous figurer que nous avions remonté le temps nous séparant de ce matin inoubliable de juin 1215, et que nous étions de jeunes gardes d’Angleterre vetus de drap solide, la dague a la ceinture, attendant de voir s’écrire cette étonnante page d’histoire dont le sens devait etre traduit au vulgaire, quatre cents ans plus tard, par un certain Olivier Cromwell, qui l’avait étudiée a fond.