英语翻译They had forsaken (抛弃) the familiar medium; they had trusted themselves to the mercies of those who had no reason to care for them; knowing their protector's indifference,they had lived for long i
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themselves在此可直接用本意即“他们自己”,主语是过去完成时态,于是常或译成：他们使自己去相信,后面是宾语“那些（人或事物）”,由who限定在“人”上,再后面就是宾语的辅助补充了,联系该句全文即可译为：他们忠厚地就相信了那些（不需要任何理由就来）关心他们的人.
接下来的从句其实就在解释“那些人”为什么来关心他们的真实原因,即“了解他们的保护人其实对他们的（情况或境遇并）不关心的现状”
在文中如果去掉themsalves,不但在感情色彩上就明显丢分了,而且后面的mercies也因此显得形只影单,且语法上也出现了漏洞,为了保证前后的完整和连贯性,也需要去掉.句子结构就不得不进行修改：they had trusted those people who ……;.与原句进行比较,不难得出themselves在此处的用法：类似于中文的文学修饰,至于在英语语法中是什么叫法,sorry,i don't know too.
======以下答案可供参考======
供参考答案1:
trust themselves to 的意思是“让他们自己去信任某些人或事”。
所以，they had trusted themselves to the mercies of those who had no reason to care for them 的意思，便是：“他们把自己托付给原本没理由会照顾他们的人（或鬼神）”
点点滴滴供参考答案2:
trust themselves to 的意思是“让他们自己去信任某些人或事”。
所以，they had trusted themselves to the mercies of those who had no reason to care for them 的意思，便是：“他们把自己托付给原本没理由会照顾他们的人（或鬼神）”