enfants clef aniille. c\\\\(\xtn oï goo<\ ï^.xm\Y

1. 27. Dans totttes les batailles àfc. This statement is a little exaggerated. The battle of Solebay (1672) was on the whole a victory for the Dutch, nor had the French any advantage at sea till the year 1676, when they won three victories over the Dutch and wSpanish fleets, which gave them for some time the command of the Mediterranean. In 1690 Tourville beat the allied Dutch and English ships ofï Beachy Head, but this was the last of their victories, and the battle of la Hogue (1692) put an end to their maritime supremacy.

1. 35. se soutinrent. There was hardly any fighting at sea daring the war of the Spanish succession, for both sides threw ail their forces into the struggle on the continent.

1. 36. Le cardinal de Fleiny. The administration of Fleury, who had been Louis XV's tutor, was nearly contemporaneous with that of Walpole in England, and lasted from 1726 to 17^4. He, like Walpole, did his best during the greater part of his career to maintain the peace of Europe.

Page 79.

I. 3. avaient été à charge, had cost more than they brought in.

1. 7. s' étaient fortné des empires, se is hère in the dative.

1. II. le secondèrent à Penvi, vied with each other in seconding him. à Penvi (from the L. invitus) originally meant 'against the will of...'; thus: " à Marsile en alai ad enviz ou de gré " {Poème de Ronccvanx) ; then, 'by a spirit of émulation,' which, from the point of view of the différent persons concerned, implies an action against the will of their rivais.