L’ENLÈVEMENT DE LA REDOUTE

V Enlèvement de la redoute, first published in 1829, describes a historical incident which was one of the preliminaries of the battle of Borodino during Napoleon’s campaign in Russia.

Page 87. — 1. Un militaire de mes amis, A friend of mine who was a soldier . . .

2. Grèce. Mérimée probably means he was one of the volunteers who set out from France under Colonel Favier in 1822 and 1823 to assist the Greeks in their struggle for independence from Turkey.

6. le 4 septembre. The incident on which Mérimée’s story rests occurred on September 5, 1812.

9. général B . . . , perhaps General Berthier, Napoleon’s chief of staff in the Russian campaign.

16. sa croix of the Legion of Honor, order open to soldiers and civilians, created by Napoleon in 1802.

21. Fontainebleau, a well-known town near Paris, became in 1802 the seat of a training school for infantty and cavalry officers. As the school was transferred to St.-Cyr in 1808, Mérimée errs in representing the hero as just leaving Fontainebleau in 1812.

24. C’est vous qui devez . . . , You are to replace him . . . C’est . . . qui (or que) is frequently used to stress some expression placed between est and the relative pronoun.

Page 88. — 3. Cheverino. The name of the redoubt is generally given as Schwardino or Chawarrino, from a village near which it was situated, the Russian name of which is Shevardinô.

1 2. il en coûtera bon, it will cost us dear.