Albe vous a nommé, je ne vous connais plus : ' Alba

has chosen you (one of her champions), so I know you no longer.' This quotation from Corneille's Horace (Act 11. Scène iii. ) refers to the well-known combat of the Horatii. The three brothers Horatii and the three brothers Curiatii vvere chosen to fîght as champions for their respective cities of Rome and Alba. One of the Curiatii was betrothed to a sister of the Horatii, who told him that now, as they had to fight on opposite sides, he could no longer be regarded as their friend. Similarly hère Bennezons and Cortail, though friends, find themselves in opposite political camps.

.. 19. louve: an allusion to the suckling of Romulus and Remus by the she-wolf.

,, 28. la Vendée était possible, i.e. l'insurrection en Vendée.

, , 30. s'y fussent rendus : the second form of the past conditional.