See Introd., liii

1. 35. éternellement regrettables, ever to be regretted (not in the more common, colloquial sensé of ' unfortunate ').

Page 17. 1. i. On. Notice the use of on, not in the absolutely but in the comparatively indefinite sensé. That is, hère : the Germans belonging to the varions States.

1. 34. Attila, the famous leader of the Huns, who, fourteen centuries before Napoléon had made himself master of Europe by force of arms, was superstitiously reverenced by his own people, and superstitiously feared by the peoples he conquered. The former proclaimed him a god, the latter held him to be the very Prince of Darkness, under whose tread the grass withered and died.

Page 18. 11. 32-33. entrer dans les calculs et le savoir-faire . . . , to share in the calculating spirit and harsh pragmatism of the nineteenth century.

Page 19. 11. 23-28. Quinet was deeply convinced that the Reformation, wherever it triumphed, smoothed the way for libéral institutions. In Germany the Lutheran creed fostered the spirit of independence, and the Thirty Years' War, which was the outcome of that spirit, shattered the absolute sway of the Emperor.

1. 32. On the loth of August, 1792, after the insolent proclamation of the Duke of Brunswick, an insurrection broke out in Paris. The Tuileries vvere invaded, after the Swiss guard had been eut down, and the King and his family had to place themselves under the protection of the Assembly. The Assembly, overpowered by the Commune (the Paris City Council) and by the mob, imprisoned the royal family in the Temple. That day marked the downfall of the monarchy and was the prélude to the Republic.

1. 33. The Place deGrève {now Place de l'Hôtel de Ville) was the spotwheremost public exécutions took place during the Monarchy.

Arcole{ij()6) was the scène of one of the brilliant victories won by Bonaparte over the Austrians in Italy. In Quinet's eyes, it heralded the triumph of the Révolution in Europe, since he then considered Bonaparte as the soldier of the Révolution (see Introd., xv).

Page 20. 1. i. The Holy Roman Emperor, Frédéric II, who •

igo FRANCE ET ALLEMAGNE

died in 1250, so dazzled his contemporaries by his greatness that they would not believe he had ceased to live. The popular imagination pictured him sitting in a cave by a marble table which his long white beard circled sevenfold, eternally motionless and eternally deathless. Quinet was familiar with this legend, which was a favourite one with the romanticists. They often confused Frédéric II with his grandfather Frédéric I, surnamed Barbarossa, and applied the aforesaid legend to the latter. They completed the story by adding that, when after two centuries the cave was discovered and opened, the figure of the ancient monarch crumbled to dust.