mort glorieusement, (who had) died with glory

3. Fontenoy, village in Belgium, scene of a battle (May 11, 1745) ‘in the war of Austrian Succession. The allied Austrian, English, and Dutch troops were defeated by the French.

4. la passion des animaux, a rage for animals. Notice the omission of the indefinite article before the following assion; the reason is that it is in apposition.

5. s’il en fut, lit. “if (ever) there was one,” trans. if you like.

6. elle ne voulut rien entendre, she would not (listen to) consider anything.

7. elle avait fini par croire a la fatalité, lit. “she had ended by believing in fatality”; she came to the conclusion that it was fate.

Page 4.—1. Vinfortuné courait depuis longtemps, lit. “the unfortunate (cat) was running since a long time,” i. e. had been running for a long time. In speaking of an action which began before the time spoken of, and continues at the time spoken of, two tenses would, strictly speaking, be necessary ; for’ the sake of brevity one is dispensed with. French keeps the tense which expresses the continuation of the action, viz. the present or imperfect, English prefers the one which marks the beginning of the action in the past, viz. the perfect or pluperfect.

2. je donne un louis a qui sauvera, notice: (1) the vivid present

donne, to be translated in English by the future; (2) the omission of the antecedent ce/uz before gui; this happens often after the prepositions four and @; (3) the strict use of the future in the relative clause, where English, less correctly, uses the present.

3. le chat faillit étre étouffé, lit. “the cat failed (i. e. just missed) being smothered”; trans. the cat was well nigh smothered.

4. se disputaient; se is here used in the reciprocal sense, “ each other,” and is a dative of interest; trans. strove for.

5. a demi mort, 4al/ dead ; a demi is an adverbial expression.