autour, 'round and round it

à y rien surprendre, 'in detecting anything in it,' i.e. dans le fond de cette âme déguisée. See note on p. 27, 19.

1. 33. pointes. Both point and pointe have many meanings. The general distinction is that pointe is the sharp point that makes the prick, point the prick that is made. In English we have almost forgotten the latter meaning except in ' point-lace.'

1. 36. plus fort que lui. This ellipsis with a comparative is found only in one or two phrases, e.g. "les alliances avec plus grand que soi" in Molière.

1. 40. Le Pape, Pius VII. (1742 — 1823). He consented to crown Napoleon in hopes of gaining advantages for the Church, especially the restoration to the Holy See of certain parts of Italy known as the Legations, i.e. the district about Bologna, Ferrara and Ravenna. In the latter part of his life, when his dominions were restored by the Congress of Vienna, he introduced many reforms into their government.

Page 18.

h 2. ravait reçu. Napoleon went to Fontainebleau to meet the Pope. For fear of showing undue deference to him, he planned that their meeting should appear accidental. Accordingly he arranged for a great hunting-party at the time the Pope's carriage was to pass through the forest, and came upon it as if by chance. Both alighted, and entered the carriage together in the manner described. The words montant de chaque côté are not strictly grammatical. If they are taken too literally, the feat would have been beyond even Napoleon's powers.

1. 5. ruse italienne. The Bonaparte family was Tuscan and emigrated from Italy to Corsica early in the i6th century, just about the time when most of the country fell under foreign domination. M. Taine points out that Napoleon was thus the lineal descendant of one of those military adventurers and founders of petty tyrannies who nourished in Italy in the 14th and 15th centuries, and of whom the Sforzas are the type. "Ainsi, juste au moment où l'énergie, l'ambition, la forte et libre sève du moyen âge commence à décroître, puis à tarir dans la tige mère qui s'étiole, une petite branche détachée va prendre racine dans une île non moins italienne, mais presque barbare."

1. 10. placets, ' petitions, ' properly the granting of a petition [placet, it pleases). The word is still used at Cambridge; those who vote for a motion saying placet, those who vote against it non placet.

1. 11. subir une étrange épreuve, almost personifying the petitions.

L 15. eût réduit. Subjunctive because there is also a notion of purpose, E.B. 264 a.

1. 19. colère. The adjective colère (used almost exclusively in the singular) differs only a little from colérique. Un homme colérique means a man with a natural tendency to passion, while un homme colère means one who habitually does lose his temper.

1. 22. gémissantes... traînant. See p. 9, line 19, and E.B. 212 a, 212 b.

traînant. Trainer is often used of things not put in their place, 'to lie about, be left about'; so laisser trainer, 'to leave about.'