Prêt à mourir \ see note, p

37. 21. Psalms Ixjcvi. 5. Dormir un sommeil is an imitation of the text dormire somnum, * to sleep a sleep* Such tautological expressions are never used in French. Cf. faire une question, ' to ask a question ; * livrer une bataille, *to fight a battle ; ' remporter une victoire^ * to gain a victory,* etc. One exception is the familiar phrase dormir un bon somme, * to hâve a good nap.'

Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien,

Louis II, Prince de Condë, sumamed the Grand Condé, first known as duc ctEnghien, was bom in 162 1. At the âge of twentytwo, he defeated the Spaniards (1643) at Rocroy. In the following year he defeated the Germans at Freiburg, gained the famous battle of Nordlingen (1645), and took Dunkirk in 1646. In 1648 he gained the victory of Lens, which brought about the Treaty of Peace of Westphalia. During the war of the Fronde he first fought for the Court party and Mazarm, and afterwards for the Parliament. In 1668 he conquered Franche-Comté in three weeks; in 1672 he led the French troops into Holland, and ordered the celebrated passage of the Rhine ; defeated the Prince of Orange at Senef, in 1674, and succeeded, in 1675, Turenne, who had been killed, as chief commander of the French in Alsace. He compelled Montecuculli, in this his last campaign, to raise the sièges of Haguenau and Saveme, and thns placed the State in safety. He then retired to Chantilly. On the 6th of November, 1686, he suddenly quitted Chantilly to go to Fontainebleau, where his grand-daughter, the Duchess of Bourbon, was lying dangerously ill of small-pox. He died there on the iith of December, 1686.

* Voici Tim des plus grands chefs-d'œuvre de Bossuet : l'oraison funèbre du prince de Condé et celle de la reine d'Angleterre passent pour les deux morceaux les plus parfaits et les pins admirables que nous devions V. son ^«boÀft ox^Xovte, conune

elles sont les deux plus belles productions de Téloquence

française et peut-être de Téloquence humaine.' {Dussault»)

' Nous allons entendre pour la dernière fois la voix de Bossuet gémir sur les tombeaux ; et c'est par un chef-d'œuvre qu'il va descendre de la chaire funèbre ... Ce ne sont ni le respect, ni la reconnaissance, ni les égards dus au rang et au malheur, qui conduisent Bossuet au tombeau du grand Condé; il cède à un mouvement plus puissant et plus exalté. Le grand Condé avait toujours été le héros de son cœur et de son imagination.' {Cardinal de Bausset,)