préparèrent, 'paved the way for

1. 13. Une rencontre... décida, 'To an interview... was really due that fatal admiration.' Décider with an accusative of the person means 'to induce'; with an accusative of the thing, as here, 'to bring about,' 'turn the scale in favour of.' The English 'decide' is either décider de or se décider, according to meaning.

1. 15. voulus, not voulais, because it denotes a subsequent action, not something going on at the time marked by décida, E.B. 1J2.

1.17. le y* floréal an VI, 19 May, 1798. The Republican Calendar dated from Sept. 22, 1792, the day on which the Convention met and the Republic was decreed. There is a useful comparative table of the Gregorian and Republican Calendars at the beginning of Masson"s French Dictionary.

1. 18. à me pénétrer, E.B. 203 (4). We should use a different metaphor, 'steep' or 'fill.'