szaroczek
Junior Member
- Joined
- Dec 27, 2011
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Polish
- Home Country
- Poland
- Current Location
- Iceland
Hi, I'm new here. English is my foreign language so I sometimes might be somewhat clumsy in my expressions, but I hope experts will somehow do... ;-)
I'm currently reading Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". At some point narrator is describing some bigmouths bragging about themselves and their "marvelous" deeds on battle fields. Then such a sentence comes about:
"There were several more who had been equally great in the field, not one of whom but was persuaded that he had a considerable hand in bringing the war to a happy termination."
That "but" destroys my all understanding of it. I'd appreciate if someone could express this sentence in other words which would in some other, simpler way convey exactly the same meaning and sense. Or maybe there is just one simple single English-word equivalent for this wretched "but"-word which would do the job...
Thank you in advance
I'm currently reading Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". At some point narrator is describing some bigmouths bragging about themselves and their "marvelous" deeds on battle fields. Then such a sentence comes about:
"There were several more who had been equally great in the field, not one of whom but was persuaded that he had a considerable hand in bringing the war to a happy termination."
That "but" destroys my all understanding of it. I'd appreciate if someone could express this sentence in other words which would in some other, simpler way convey exactly the same meaning and sense. Or maybe there is just one simple single English-word equivalent for this wretched "but"-word which would do the job...
Thank you in advance