son héritier, i.e. Charles VIII (r

1. 60. un signal de son beffroi. The alarm-bell was of course hung in the belfry-tower.

1. 68. son favori. Béranger says in a footnote : i On sait que ce roi, retiré au Plessis-lez-Tours avec Tristan, confident et exécuteur de ses volontés, voulait voir quelquefois les paysans danser devant les fenêtres de son château.' This Tristan was Louis' Provost, Tristan l'Ermite, notorious for his cruelty.

Les Deux Cousins. (Page 63.)

This song appeared in 1821, shortly before the baptism of the infant Duc de Bordeaux (born September 29, 1820), the posthumous son of the Duc de Berry, who had been murdered on February 13. The birth of an heir to the throne was hailed by the monarchists with the utmost enthusiasm, while the hopes of the Liberal party were shattered for a time. It was bound to occur to many minds, however, that only ten years before another heir to a more splendid throne had been hailed, amid equal transports of joy, with the title of ■ Roi de Rome.' This ' little king,' the son of Napoleon, was now living in exile near Vienna, and it is he who is supposed to write the letter represented by the poem to the little Duc de Bordeaux, with whom he could claim cousinship, the mothers on either side being descended from the imperial house of Germany, as will appear from the following table :

Francis I = Maria Theresa

(Emperor of Germany, lived 1708-1765)

Leopold II (Emperor of Germany)

Francis I (Emperor of Austria)

Maria Carolina = Ferdinand I

Comte d'Artois (later Charles X King of France)

(King of the Two Sicilies)

Napoleon I = Maria Louisa Duc de Berry = Maria Carolina

François Charles Joseph,

Duc de Reichstadt

(< Roi de Rome ')

Henri, Duc de Bordeaux (< Henri V ')

1. 1. cousin germain. The table above shows that the term is not strictly accurate.

1. 2. D'un lieu d'exil. From the castle of Schonbrunn, close to Vienna, where Napoleon's son dwelt with his grandfather, the Emperor of Austria, and where he died of consumption in 1832. An interesting study of the Duc de Reichstadt 's life at Schonbrunn has been made by E. Rostand in his drama, V Aiglon.

I. 11. comme les confiseurs. On the interest which sweetconfectioners have in baptisms cf. note to Les Révérends Pères, 1. 26.

II. 13-14. Les eaux d'un Jlewve bien mondain vont laver ton âme chrétienne. It is evident from these lines that the song was written before the baptism, which took place on the first of May. The little duke, however, was not baptized with Seine water, as Béranger expected, but with water from the river Jordan, brought home by Chateaubriand after his journey to Palestine in 1806.

1. 15. On m'offrit de l'eau du Jourdain. Béranger mentions in a note that Chateaubriand was said to have offered some of his water from the Jordan for the baptism of the ■ Roi de Rome.' Professor Hartmann rightly points out that the fact is most improbable : Chateaubriand had been hostile to Napoleon and the Empire since the murder of the Due d'Enghien in 1804, and in 181 1 he was actually forbidden by Napoleon to take his seat and pronounce his ' Discours de Réception ' on his election to the ( Académie Française.'

1. 20. le butin des abeilles. It has already been mentioned that the bee figured on the arms of Napoleon.

1. 27. Des sceptres étaient mes hochets. In the portrait of the * Roi de Rome' painted by Gérard in 18 12, the infant is represented playing with a globe and a sceptre.

1. 28. Mon bourlet. More usually ' bourrelet.' The ' bourrelet ' is a small padded hat, projecting some distance beyond the face and head, once in common use to break the falls of children learning to walk, when they make any 'faux pas,' and still occasionally met with in country districts of France.

1. 30. Même au saint-père ôtait la sienne. The Pope having refused to be dictated to by Napoleon, the ' États Romains ' were annexed to the French Crown, Rome itself becoming in 1809 the chef -lieu of the French 'Département du Tibre.'

I. 35. au cordon bleu. The gold cross of the 'Ordre du Saint-Esprit,' instituted in 1578 by Henri III, was worn on a broad blue band. Abolished in 1789, this order was revived at the Restoration, and finally abolished in 1830.

1. 36. De P honneur V étoile sacrée, i. e. the Croix de la Légion d'Honneur. These two lines are intended as a hit at the eight field-marshals who, on the 30th of September, 1820, had accepted the knighthood of the ' Ordre du Saint- Esprit,' an act of treachery to the memory of Napoleon which his son is supposed to be unaware of, and to consider as very improbable.

1. 39. Ils auront tenu leur serment, ' I have no doubt they have kept their oath,' a piece of further sarcasm against the field-marshals.

1. 45. Je puis avoir mon tour. The Duc de Bordeaux ' had his turn' in 1830. He had become better known as the Comte de Chambord, the magnificent castle of Chambord, near Blois, having been acquired for him by public subscription in 182 1. After 1830 he spent his whole life in exile, and from 1843 never ceased to urge his claim to the Crown and to the title of King Henry V. In August, 1873, the grandson of Louis-Philippe, the Comte de Paris, solemnly recognized the rights of the elder branch of the Bourbons to the Crown, and restored unity among the ranks of the monarchists, and in October of that year negotiations took place with a view to the restoration of the Monarchy, but the Comte de Chambord refused to give up the white flag of the Bourbons for the tricolour flag and the constitutional principles which the latter involved, and the negotiations fell through. The Comte de Chambord died without leaving an heir in 1883,

and the right to the Crown reverted to the House of Orléans. The Comte de Paris died in 1894, and the present claimant is Louis Philippe Robert, Duc d'Orléans, who was born at York House in 1869.

Le Cinq Mai. (Page 65.)

1 Jamais la chanson n'avait élevé ses prétentions si haut qu'en osant déplorer la mort du plus grand homme des temps modernes et peut-être des temps anciens, de celui qui avait à lui seul gagné autant de batailles qu'Alexandre et César, autant administré que Charlemagne et Louis XIV, et à qui nous devons un code civil, résumé de notre nouvelle position sociale, dont le bienfait compense à lui seul les maux que les ennemis de Napoléon ont prétendu qu'il avait faits à la France.' (Note by Béranger.)

Napoleon died at St. Helena on the 5th of May, 1821, and the news reached Paris on the 5th of July. This song was therefore written after that date, and is the last in the 1821 edition, published in October. It is at the same time the first in date of the songs written to glorify Napoleon. There have been up to this time occasional references to him, as in Le Dieu des Bonnes Gens, and frequent mention has been made of his soldiers, but until Napoleon's death Béranger wrote none of those songs intended to enshrine him in the memory of the people, which bulk so largely in the subsequent editions of the ' Chansons.'

The poet supposes that a veteran of the imperial armies is passing St. Helena on his way home from India, on the 5th of May. He suddenly sees a black flag hoisted on the shore as a sign that Napoleon has passed away.

1. 1. Des Espagnols. ' Une tois son cadre déterminé, l'auteur crut devoir y faire entrer des Espagnols plutôt que tout autre peuple, parce que ceux-ci passaient pour avoir le plus à se plaindre de Napoléon.' (Note by Béranger.)