au point de, 'so as to,' E.B

1. 24. parviennent. The verb parvenir is sometimes used without the contemptuous sense attached to its participle parvenu.

1. 25. Séide, the name of a slave of Mahomet, who was among the first to recognize him as a prophet, and who served him with the blindest devotion. He appears in Voltaire's tragedy Mahomet, and it is through that play that his name has become proverbial in F ranee.

1. 27. atteint. Atteindre (attingere) is properly to strike from a distance. Hence, by a metaphor as old as the Iliad, its application to pestilence, and then to suspicion, calumny, and the like.

1. 28. que, E.B. 69, Obs. 2. What is the real subject of the sentence ?