Non, monsieur. Tâchez de parler plus distinctement

17-20. =Je ne sais (comprends) pas ce que vous avez dit {ce que vous dites); mais voici ce que j'ai à vous dire. J'ai besoin de vingt-cinq mille livres de traites sur Paris. Combien. . .

29-30. =Je ne comprends plus du tout. Je ne sais pas l'italien.

25. — 6-9. =AIonsieur, je ne comprends pas ce que vous dites, mais je crois que vous m'insultez. Et comme vous ne comprenez pas le français, allez {tâchez d'aller) à l'école.

17-19. = Arrêtez! Arrêtez! Je n'ai pas encore commencé! Ce Français stupide et ignorant (Ce stupide et ignorant Français) n'a pas compris!

29. — 21-22. . .et qui ne se casse jamais? The rel. pron. qui only repeats the last part of the compound interr. pron. qu'est-ce qui, "what," and must be left out in translation. Cf. also 29, 24-25.

31. — 7-10. This passage refers to the political situation described by Thiers in the preceding chapters of his "History of the French Revolution," and to the letter which Bonaparte, on his arrival in Egypt, wrote to the pasha, the representative and envoy of the Sultan of Constantinople, in order to separate his cause from that of the powerful Mamelukes. The Mamelukes were professional soldiers, excellent horsemen, originally slaves of Circassian (Caucasian) race. They had rendered themselves practically independent of the Sultan, and were the real masters of the country at the time of the French invasion. Bonaparte said in that letter that the French were the only allies the Sultan had in Europe, and that he came with a large army, not to attack his sovereignty and the authority of the Koran, but to subdue and punish for their insolent treatment of French citizens the Mamelukes, who were usurpers and tyrants, holding the pasha, the lawful ruler of Egypt, at Cairo, in a condition of weakness and abject inaction.

34. — 9-1 1. Il craignait que ses impétueux soldats . . eussent de la peine . .= . . n'eussent de la peine . . Cf. 6, 21-22, j'ai peur ou' on [ne] nous entende, and note.

38. — 19 ft\ The siege of Paris lasted from September 19, 1870, to January 28, 1871. Sarcey, the author of Le Siège de Paris, Impressions et Souvenirs, was an eye-witness of the events related in his work. The notes on which it was based, were written by him, while he was a soldier in the National Guard of Paris. The beginning of the chapter which we have selected, refers to conditions prevailing in the capital of France shortly before the Germans commenced its investment. The garde nationale, instituted in 1 85 1, resembled in some measure the state militia in the United States. No doubt, it had ample opportunity of doing, and also really did, some good work during the siege. But, on the whole, it proved to be very inefficient for several reasons, some of which are found in Sarcey's humorous account. The institution ceased to exist after the Franco- Prussian war, when the whole system of national defence, in France, was changed and reorganized on the model of the Prussian army.

45. — 10. ce ne pouvait être que des signaux = ce ne pouvaient être que des signaux. Cf. 1. 10-11, Ce sont des signaux, and 67, 16-17, 31 (foot-note), Sont-ce des vers . .1 = Est-ce des vers . .?

46. — 21 fï. Taine's famous work Les Origines de la France contemporaine was published in six volumes from 1875 to 1894. With the impartiality of a philosopher, without any political or national bias, but sometimes with the harshness of a severe judge and moralist, Taine treats, in this work, of monarchical France (volume I, L'ancien régime), of the great French Revolution (volumes II, III, IV, La Révolution), and of France as it appeared after the Revolution (volumes V, VI, Le régime moderne). The last volume was published one year after the death of the great thinker. The chapter we have selected {Le Roi), is taken from the first volume. Taine is best known in England and in the United States on account of his interesting "History of English Literature " (Histoire de la littérature anglaise), four volumes (1864).

52 — i ff. "Reading the Riot Act " or "The Three Warnings " (Les trois sommations) is one of Alphonse Daudet's "Monday Tales" (Contes du lundi), published in 1873. These stories belong to the first period of his literary works: he wrote them before his famous realistic novels. The Parisian joiner or cabinet-maker Bélisaire is supposed to relate Les trois sommations to a bourgeois or monsieur, Daudet himself in this case, shortly after the overthrow of the Commune at Paris, which lasted from March 18th to May 28th, 187 1. The story contains Bélisaire' s reminiscences of his childhood at the time of the February Revolution (1848). It describes with wonderful art the character of the gamin de Paris (Parisian street-boy) , and the political excitability, wild enthusiasm, curiosity, discontent, love of noise and rioting, and independence of the Parisian workman (ouvrier) .

3. ..la bonne leçon.. The "good lesson" refers to the suppression of the Commune, towards the end of May, 1 87 1, by the national troops sent by the Government, which was at Versailles. Thiers was President of the French Republic at that time.

53. — 27. . . les enfants . . , vocative, with pop. use of def. art., = enfants, mes enfants.

54. — 4. ..Guizot, qui est allé à Gand! This passage refers to an event in the early part of Guizot's political career. Of royalist sympathies, although of liberal tendencies, he served Louis XVIII. and followed the king to Ghent (Gand) after Napoleon I.'s return from the Island of Elba in 181 5. He was always unpopular with the masses for this and other political reasons. Being a moderate monarchist, he was disliked by Ultra- Royalists as well as by Bonapartists, and hated particularly by radical Republicans and Socialists. Guizot held important offices under the government of the Bourbons, and was most powerful under Louis- Philippe (1830-1848), but was dismissed in 1848, and finally lost his political influence entirely.

56. — 13. ..on en recevait de ces taloches.. The dir. obj. is de ces taloches (those blows, or some of those blows, on one's head) ; de ces corresponds to the partitive art des (=de les); en (some, i.e. blows) is redundant. Cf. 51

26-27, capables de vous donner de ces émotions-là, " . . such emotions," " . . emotions of that kind."

60, — 1 ff. Molière's comedy "The Tradesman Turned Nobleman " {Le Bourgeois gentilhomme) was represented on the stage for the first time in 1670. The student generally finds some satisfactory notes about the life and works of the great poet in the editions of his comedies adapted to the use of schools and colleges, for instance, in the Introduction to Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, edited by Delbos, Henry Holt 6° Co., New York.

62. — 17, 18-19. . .les trois opérations de l'esprit, are "perception " or "conception," "judgment," and "reasoning." Molière satirizes, in this passage, the pedantic philosophical school of his day, which continued the tradition of the scholastic philosophy of the Middle Ages. In its system of logic, there are five uni versais or general terms ("genus," "species," "difference," "property," and "accident"), ten categories ("substance," "quantity," "quality," "relation," "action," "passion," "time," "place," "situation," and "habit "), and nineteen figures or forms of syllogism indicated by barbarous words, without particular meaning in any language, in four mnemonic verses, of which the first is quoted by the maître de philosophie (1. 25-26).

68, — 12. . .et me donnez . . = . .et donnez-moi . .