FLORIAN

Fables.

P. 81. the Duke de Penthilvre (Louis Marie Joseph de Bourbon, 1725 — 1793). -The unfortunate Princess de Lamballe, murdered by the Paris sansculottcs in 1792, was his daughter-in-law.

Lavoisier (Antoine Laurent, 1743 — 1794) was sent to the guillotine because he had occupied an officiai position, as one of the farmers of the taxes.

La jeune poule. We hâve selected thèse two fables, not only on account of their literary merit, but also for the political allusions they contain.

1. 1. cloquetant. Littré gives neither clocheter nor cloquder ; cloquetant means hère hobbling about.

1. 13. Cest la faute de mes confrères, excellent description of the French revolutionists.

P. 82, 1. I. Gens de sac et de ^^r(/t;= scélérats, people condemned to be drowned, and, for that purpose, thrust into a sack fastened at the top with a rope. (See Littré.)

1. 18. Comme fît Diomède, 6-r..- see Homer's Iliad, X, for the adventure of Diomede and Ulysses, who entered the Trojan camp by night and slew many warriors. Homer compares Diomede to a lion : *'So the grim lion, from his nightiy den, O'erleaps the fences, and invades the pen; On sheep and goats, resistless in his way, He falls, and foaming rends the guardless prey."

Pope's Iliad, x. 564.

1. 23. Utt valeureux lio7t, &^c. It is not easy to see to what events in the previous history of Europe this is an allusion, but the truth of its moral might be illustrated by the fate of Prussia during the Revolutionary wars.

P. 83, 1. 18. le'se', injured (L. lado) : cf. the phrase "lèse-majesté," Lat. Icesa ma/estas, high treason.