Isaiah xlvii

21. 14. De V avoir arrachée à sa propre gloire, Verbs of taking away, as in Latin, take the dative when the action of taking away is ouly figurative, and not one of real taking, extracting^ tearing, etc. They take de (in Latin de or ab), when the action is real, literal. Thus : V enfant lui a été arraché des braSf *the child was tom from her arms;' V enfant a été arraché AUX bras de sa mère, *the child was taken from its mother's care.' Again : s^ échapper dîl prison is * to escape from prison ; * but échapper X la prison is 'to escape imprisonment, being put to prison.* The foUowing sentence of Chesterfield : * Roman consuls and dictators were often taken from the plough,' would be rendered by les consuls et

134 FRENCH SACRED ORATORF.

Its dictaieurs de Rame étaient souvent pris À la charnu. Cf. detraxit annulum DE digito (Ter.); detrahere sacerdotem AB aris (Cic.); and with the dative: princeps detraxit milites imperatorj.

Marior^Theresa, Queen of France,

Maria-Theresa, the only child of Philip IV, King of Spain. and of Elizabeth of France, daughter of Henry IV, King of France, was bom on the 20th of September 1638. She married her first cousin, Louis XIV, King of France, in 1660, a year after the fajnous treaty of the Pyrénées was signed by Cardinal Mazarin and Don Louis de Haro. This queen, remarkable for her piety, lived in retirement in the voluptuous court of her husband. She died in 1683. Two years and a half later, Louis XIV married the widow of the poet Scarron, Madame de Maintenon. The funeral oration on Maria-Theresa is far more a panegyric of Louis XIV than of the Queen, whose best panegyric seems to hâve been bestowed upon her by Louis XIV, when he exdaimed, at her death : * Voilà le premier chagrin qu*elle nCait donné*

Louis XIV, the most magnificent and powerful monarch of modem times, son of Louis XIH and of Ann of Austria, was bom at St. Germain-en-Laye, on the 5th of September 1638. He became King of France in 1643, and reigned 72 years. After the death of Philip IV, his father-in-law, he claimed Flanders and Franche-Comté as his wife*s dowry ; he conquered Flanders in 1667 and Franche-Comté in 1668 ; invaded Holland in 167a, and annexed successively Alsace, Artois, Flanders, Franche-Comté, Cerdagne and Roussillon. He died on the ist of September 1715, leaving his crown to his great grandson, Louis XV. This despotic monarch, whose maxim was : * VEtat c'est moi^ owed the greater part of his glory to the unequalled list of great statesmen, gênerais, poets, and worthies of ail sorts who adomed his reign.

' The Personal qualities of the French king added to the respect inspired by the power and importance of his kingdom. No sovereign has ever represented the majesty of a great state with more dignity and grâce. He was his own prime

minister, and performed the duties of a prime minister with

an ability and an indnstry which could not be reasonably expected from one who had in infancy succeeded to a crown, and who had been surrounded by flatterers before he could speak. He had shown, in an eminent degree, two talents invaluable to a prince, the talent of choosing his servants well, and the talent of appropriating to himself the chief part of the crédit of their acts. In his dealings with foreign powers, he had some generosity, but no justice. His perfidy and violence, however, excited less enmity than the insolence with which he constantly reminded his neighbours of his own greatness and of their littleness. He did not at this time profess the austère dévotion, which, at a later period, gave to his court the aspect of a monastery. On the contrary, he was as licentious, though by no means as frivolous and indolent» as his brother of Ëngland/ {Macaulay.)

22. I. En méprisant les saisons. An allusion to an incident in the Dutch campaign. * Enfin l'hiver vint (167a): les glaces couvrirent les inondations de la EU)llande. Luxembourg, qui commandait dans Utrecht, fit un nouveau genre de guerre inconnu aux Français, et mit la Hollande dans un nouveau danger, aussi terrible que les précédents. Il assemble, une nuit, près de douze mille fantassins tirés des garnisons voisines. On arme leurs souliers de crampons. Il se met à leur tête, et marche sur la glace vers Leyde et vers La Haye.' ( Voltaire,)

22. 3. Nul fleuve ne les arrête. An allusion to the celebrated passage of the Rhine which took place on the I2th of June 167^. Louis XIV attacked the United Provinces by land and by sea. He entered the Dutch territory at the head of 100,000 men, and in less than three months reduced three provinces and forty cities. Armand de Gramont, comte de Guiche, was the first to throw himself into the Rhine, and was followed by the army.

' Par son ordre Gramont le premier dans les flots

S*avan€e soutenu des regards du héros:

Son coursier écumant sous son maître intrépide

Nage tout orgueilleux de la main qui le guidée

(Boileau.)

136 FRENCH SACRED ORATORV.

The king, after exhorting his army to cross the river, himself remained on the shore. Boileau says :

* Louis ^ les animant du feu de son courage^ Se plaint de sa grandeur qui rattache au rivage^

Boileau was, however, too much of a courtier to mean thèse lines to be ironical.

'Tel fut ce passage du Rhin, action éclatante et unique, célébrée alors comme im des grands événements qui dussent occuper la mémoire des hommes. Cet air de grandeur dont le roi relevait toutes ses actions, le bonheur rapide de ses conquêtes, la splendeur de son règne, Tidolâtrie de ses courtisans ; enfin, le goût que le peuple, et surtout les Parisiens, ont pour l'exagération, joint à Tignorance de la guerre où Ton est dans Poisiveté des grandes villes: tout cela fit regarder à Paris le passage du Rhin comme un prodige qu^on exagérait encore. . . .

'Dès qu'on eut passé le Rhin, on prit Doesbourg, Zutphen, Arnheim, Norembourg, Nimègue, Schenk, Bonunel, Crèvecœur, etc. Il n'y avait guère d'heures dans la journée oii le roi ne reçût la nouvelle de quelque conquête.' ( Voltaire^ 22. ^. On sait que Louis foudroie les villes. During the Dutch war, Louis personally took Condé (April 26, 1676), Bouchain (March 17, 1677), Valenciennes, on the same day. Cambrai (April 5, 1677), Ghent (March 9, 1678), and Ypres (March 25, 1678). He took Ghent in five days, and Ypres in seven. Thèse brilliant successes enabled Boileau to publish his eighth Epistle, which begins thus : ' Grand roi, cesse de vaincre, ou je cesse d^ écrire.* This epistle, howevcr, written at the time of the disasters in Alsace, must hâve sounded highly ironical, when Louis XIV had indeed too much ceased to conquer.

* Louis XIV, lorsqu'il vint assiéger Gand, qu'il prit en doq jours, s'était détourné pour passer par la Lorraine et menacer Luxembourg, afin d'attirer l'ennemi de ce côté et dis' traire son attention.' ( Villemain.) 22. 20. Dans le plus grand éloignement. * A la sollicitation de l'empereur Leopold (1640- 1705), une expédition fut dirigée contre, les Turcs. Montécuculli fait, dans ses mémoires, le ■plus grand éloge de la va\t\ic iiaxi^9\.^,V.\ajc^<dle on dot

le succès de la journée décisive du Saint- Gothard (1664), qui amena une trêve de vingt ans entre la Turquie et l'Autriche.' ( VilUmain.) 22. a a. La France, presque sans vaisseaux, etc. Under the ministry of Colbert (1619-1685), the greatest administrator in the reign of Louis XIV, order was restored in the finances of the country, roads were made, manufactures established, science, letters and fine-arts protected, the navy placed on a sound footing, etc. ' Cinq arsenaux de marine sont bâtis à Brest, à Rochefort, à Toulon, à Dunkerque, au Havre-de Grâce. Dès Tannée 167a, on a soixante vaisseaux de ligne et quarante frégates. Dans Tannée 1 681, il se trouve cent quatrevingt-dix-huit vaisseaux de guerre, en comptant les allèges ; et trente galères sont dans le port de Toulon, ou armées ou prêtes à l'être. Onze mille hommes de troupes réglées servent sur les vaisseaux ; les galères en ont trois mille. Il y a cent soixante-huit mille hommes d*enclassés pour tous les services divers de la marine.' ( Voltaire.)