qu'on me paye, me is the dative, E.H. 144, Obs

Page 27.

1. 2. élu. So Victor Hugo, in the soliloquy cited above, p. 22, 1. 34, speaks of the Pope and the Emperor as

"Deux chefs élus auxquels tout roi né se soumet."

1.5. blanche et brusque. Perhaps 'plump, vigorous hand,' though not literal, would form the best antithesis to décharnée (fleshless, thin) et timide.

1. 8. par un retour secret, 'reclining in thought.' Tvvo lines of Corneille show the meaning of the word :

"Que le moindre retour vers nos belles années Jette alors d'amertume en nos âmes gênées."

1. 15. livide et desséchée, 'wan, withered.' 1. 18. arrachée à, 'wrung from,' E.B. 145.

1. 19. surpris. We also use 'surprise' in the sense of observing n hat one is not meant to observe.

d'un côté, 'on one side,' not 'from one side,' E.B. 132.

1. 27. ses noirceurs de roué, ' his acts of unprincipled malice.1 Noirceur is often used to mean an ill turn, an act of spite, e.g. "Les noirceurs secrètes, tous les petits moyens que l'ignorance et l'envie savent si bien mettre en usage contre ce qui leur nuit ou leu rdéplaît." D'Alembert. Roué properly means ' one broken on the wheel,' a punishment reserved for the worst criminals. At the time of the Regency it was jocularly applied to the unprincipled men by whom the Duke of Orleans was surrounded.

1. 29. tacite. Not a very common word in this sense; more used where we should use 'tacit' with aveu, pacte, &c.

1. 30. s'' étant laissé surprendre à... 'having been betrayed into loss of temper,' literally 'surprised by.' English prefers the simple passive, E.B. 185 a. It is almost impossible to render émotion in this and the next line. For the dative à rémotion see E.B. 116.

1. 31. de faire fléchir.. Mo make his prisoner succumb to fatigue...'

1. 32. amènent tin attendrissement... 'in some unaccountable way bring tears to an old man's eyes.'