on procéda aux constatations, they proceeded

to ascertain the conditions under which the crime had been committed.

87. 7, brûlées à mesure, burned as they were received (properly, at the rate they came in).

à portée du bras, within reach of his hand. la force publique, the police force.

ce qui s'était passé, what had taken place. par exemple (idiomatic), to be sure.

Vendetta. See note to p. 80, 1. 28. ne vous irait pas (idiom), would not suit you, or satisfy you.

91. 1. Paris était bloqué. This refers to the blockade of 1870-1871 by the Germans during the Franco-Prussian war. It began September 19, 1870; sorties were made Nov. 30, Dec. 3, 1870, Jan. 10-13, and Jan. 19, 1871. The city capitulated by the Treaty of Versailles, January 28. The story of this long and heroic siège lias been told in a very attractive way by Sarcey, "Le Siège de Paris."

91. 2. Les moineaux se faisaient bien rares... et les égoûts se dépeuplaient. Se faisaient = became. The whole paragraph is an allusion to the famine which prevailed during the blockade. Sparrows and rats were for a while the only kind of méat available for most people.

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91. 3. On mangeait n'importe quoi, people would eat no matter what.

91. 6. boulevard extérieur. A boulevard is originally a bulwark or rampart of a fortification; now often simply a public walk or street occupying the site of demolished fortifications. As the city grew Paris had several times to build new fortifications. The "grands boulevards" are on the site of the oldest line of fortifications encircling the city; the "boulevards extérieurs" are on the site of the next bulwarks in date, while now a third belt of walls surrounds modem Paris.

91. 7. dans sa culotte d'uniforme, in the trousers of his uniform. The uniform of the National guard, a body formed in Paris as early as 1789 by the citizens subject to military duties on occasion of danger or riots; later it was abolished; in 1830 it was re-established. The new military organization, after the war of 1870-1871, has definitely done away with it.