comme il plaît à Dieu, at their own sweet will

Page 71. — 2. donnent. In 1829 Mérimée wrote vendront, which he changed after visiting Corsica in 1839 and learning of the Corsicans’ primitive but generous habits.

3. et des châtaignes. Chestnuts, either roasted or ground into flour, from which a sort of bread is made, are one of the principal foods of the Corsican poor. Mérimée added the words in 1842.

4. des parents du mort. The vendetta, or hereditary blood-feud, whereby the relatives of a person killed take bloody revenge for him, is said still to exist in Corsica. It is stated that the death of one girl once thereby caused an entire village to be wiped out. — si ce n’est, except.

1 7. couleur de revers de botte, leathery. Mérimée’s reference is to turned-over boot tops showing the natural color of the leather, the rest of the boot showing the other side of the hide, artificially colored and polished. — habilité au tir; this trait, as well as the name Falcone, ma}' have been suggested by the Hawk-eye of Cooper’s Leather slocking Tales. Hawk-eye is rendered Œil de Falcon in the French version of Cooper.

23. et l’on. L’ is often used before on if the preceding word is et, ou, où, que, si, though not if the following word begins with 1.