devant moi, 'in my way

1. 13. grand/aim. A survival of the practice of leaving adjectives derived from Latin adjectives of two terminations uninflected in the singular. See E.B. Ace. § 9, note.

1. 14. Toulon, where Bonaparte first distinguished himself (1793). He pointed out to Salicetti, one of the commissioners sent from Paris to direct the operations, the ineffectiveness of the arrangements, and was at once placed in practical command of the artillery.

1. 16. sur les épaules. Notice the play upon épaules and epaulettes.

Tout cela, i.e. his mother and brothers, E.B. 77, Obs. 1.

1. 17. Joséphine, a lady of Creole extraction and the widow of General Beauharnais. The marriage was arranged by Bonaparte's friend Barras, a member of the Directory. Lanfrey says of Josephine "Elle ne se serait peut-être jamais décidée à ce mariage si Barras n'avait mis dans la corbeille de noces le commandement de l'armée d'Italie." The marriage was dissolved in 1810.

1. 18. à la barbe, 'in defiance of,' 'whatever he might say.' So in Les Femmes Savantes, Chrysale, nerving himself to hold his own against his wife, says,

"Et je m'en vais' être homme à la barbe des gens."

1. 19. la cape et Vépie. An expression used of a soldier of fortune by Regnard :

"Et n'ayant pour bien que la cape et l'épée, Toute mon espérance aurait été trompée." 1. 25. Je ne serai pas assis, ' I shall not have been in my seat.' How does it differ from/<r ne me serai pas assis? 1. 26. à envier, 'to be envied,' E.B. 207.

1. 28. ceux qui ont. In the Journal d'un Poète de Vigny says that he put this maxim in the month of Bonaparte "afin que le prestige de ce nom m'aidât à la consacrer."

1. 30. de bonne heure et à propos. The former means *in good time, betimes,' the latter, 'at the right time.'

J'irai loin; aller loin is often used of marked success in life — 'ce jeune homme ira loin.'

1. 31. arrivés. Arriver, like parvenir, often means to succeed in life, to attain a high position. The shade of difference is shown

by an expression of Talleyrand's, "il y a des hommes qui ne parviennent pas, mais qui arrivent."

1. 32. Jean-Jacques, i.e. J. J. Rousseau (1712 — 1778), author of Le Contrat Social, a political treatise that did much to help on the Revolution, Emile a work on education, and other books. He did perhaps more than any other writer of his time to stimulate the growth of new ideas both in politics and in literature. Men as opposite as Robespierre and Chateaubriand were strongly influenced by him. For Byron's feelings towards him, see the latter part of Childe Harold, canto III. His first important work was published in' 1750, when he was 38 (à quarante ans).

1. 33. une ferme. Probably this refers to Cromwell's first important public appearance (about 1638, when he was 39), as champion of the owners of fen-lands against some unjust aclion of the government in connection with the Bedford Level.

1. 34. sa servante. Rousseau married a maidservant named Thérèse Levasseur, a very common, uneducated woman.

1. 37. dix-huit, i.e. in 1796, Montenotte, Millesimo, Dego, Ceva, Mondovi, Lodi, Castiglione, Roveredo, Bassano, Areola (2); in 1797, Rivoli, the Tagliamento ; 1798, Chebreiss, the Pyramids; 1799, ^ Arish, Jaffa; 1800, Marengo.