à ce qu'on assure, as I am assured

1. 25. prince royal : General Bemadotte had been elected Crown Prince of Sweden in August 1810. He was soon forced by Napoleon's extravagant demands to take up a hostile attitude, and in April 18 12 concluded a secret treaty with Russia, afterwards joining openly in the war against Napoléon.

1. 30. Prague, capital of Bohemia, an ancient city ; has often been exposed to the calamities of war, especially at the time of the Hussite insurrection.

112 NOTF.S.

1. 31. V cliquette. "La série des sens est marque, écriteau, et, par suite, ordre, arrangement, d'où cérémonial^ (Littré.)

P. 51,1. II. au partage de la Pologne. The first partition of Poland took place in 1772; the second occurred in 1793. This was followed in 1795 by a final division of the remaining provinces among the three powers, Riissia obtaining on each occasion by far the largest share.

1. 16. Varsovie. Warsaw, formerly the capital of Poland, still retains in a certain measure this position, being the résidence of a viceroy who govems in the name of the emperor of Russia.

1. 17. Gallicie. Galicia was the south-western portion of Poland, w'hich belongs to Austria. The object of the confédération being to aid in the restoration of the kingdom of Poland, it was of course impossible for Austria to allow the growth of an independent spirit in her own territory. An independent duchy of Warsaw had been formed in 1807 out of that part of Poland which had belonged to Prussia, and to this Napoléon now meant to add Russian Poland, but he did not intend to touch Galicia.

1. 32. pour se rétablir com?>ie nation. "Depuis plus de soixante ans, la Pologne ne figure plus parmi les nations, et toutes les fois que les nations Européennes s'agitent, la Pologne aussi se remue. Est-ce un fantôme? est-ce un peuple? Je ne sais : il se peut que la Pologne soit

morte, mais elle n'est pas oubliée Tout le monde s'est servi de la

Pologne; personne ne l'a jamais servie." (Guizot, Mémoires.)

P. 52, 1. 2. ils le perdrotit, â^e. : it is clear from this that Mad. de Staël expected Napoléon to be victorious in the struggle with Russia : she means that though the Pôles would become, through Napoleon's victory, a nation nominally independent, they would be really his subjects like ail other nations in Europe.