J'en atteste l'Evangile. Probably Luke vi

1. 24. Une besace. The besace, or bissac, was a linen bag, closed at both ends, and with a longitudinal slit in the middle, the extremities forming two pockets. It was carried over the

\6l CHANSONS CHOISIES DE BÉRANGER

shoulder by beggars, pilgrims, and mendicant friars. The expression ' être réduit à la besace ' is still used in the sense of ' to be reduced to beggary.'

1. 39. Diogene. For Diogenes and Alexander, it is obvious that we must read Béranger and Napoleon.

1. 63. Elle trinque à la guinguette. Trinquer (Germ, trinken) is to clink glasses, as is the fashion in France when drinking any one's health. The guinguettes are the small cabarets de barrière, or wine-shops and dancing-saloons of the outskirts of Paris. The origin of the word is unknown.

Les Gaulois et les Francs. (Page 8.)

1 A l'époque de la première invasion, on engagea tous les membres du Caveau à faire des chansons pour ranimer l'esprit public. Désaugiers en fit une, qui, je crois, commençait ainsi: —

Il reviendra, le fils de la victoire ! et que la police s'empressa de faire répandre. Celle-ci n'était que patriotique : elle n'eut point de succès et peut-être n'en méritait-elle pas, quoiqu'elle ne fût pas le fruit d'une inspiration de commande.' (Note by Béranger.)

The political situation in January, 1 8 1 4, was indeed desperate. Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig in October, 1 8 1 3, had beenfollowed by a retreat almost as disastrous as that from Russia, and the whole of Germany had thrown off his yoke, the princes of the Confederation of the Rhine entering into treaties with the Allies, while Hanover, Oldenburg, and Brunswick were reoccupied by their respective sovereigns. Murat had deserted Napoleon at Erfurt, and Italy was lost; the Anglo-Portuguese army had crossed the Bidassoa and invaded the south of France, and the armies of the Allies had also crossed the frontier (they arrived at Langres on January 18, and were joined there by the allied monarchs a few days later). In the meanwhile, Napoleon, by a decree of November nth, had augmented the taxes in open violation of the Constitution, and a sénatuseonsulte of the 15th had placed at his disposal 300,000 new recruits ; but the Legislative body had, like the Allies, taken courage from his misfortune?, and ventured to express the hope that liberty, safety, property, and the exercise ot political rights would be henceforth invariably maintained, whereupon Napoleon, in his wrath, had immediately adjourned the Législature.