TABLEAU VI

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This Tableau shows us Suwarroffs camp, between Altdorf and Fliiclcn, at the hcad of the Lake of Lucerne. The F'rench can be seen encamped near the village of Seedorf on the opposite bank of the Reubs. Suwarroff hère receives the alarming intelligence that Masséna

AZOTES. 167

has attacked Korsakoff and driven him towards Winterthur, that liotze has been killed at Schiinis and liis troops completely routed, that Jellachich, wlio had advanced as far as Mollis, has had to retreat behind the Rhiiie and that Linken, who had crossed by the valley of Sernf and reached as far as Schwanden, has recrossed the mountains and fallen back towards the Grisons. Under thèse circumstances Suwarroff sees himself compelled to retreat towards Glarus. Ogiski who, disguised as a Russian soldier, has overheard the orders given for this movement of the troops, starts off to reveal it to Masséna.

1. 3. lac des Qtiaire-Canlons, ' Lake of Lucerne ', in Germ. Vierivaldstàdtcr See, so called from the Foiir-Woody -Cantons aroiind it, viz. Uri, Schwytz, Unterwalden and Lucerne. The first \.\ï\&^ — Petits Cantons.

1. 7. de longues traînées de pou7-pre, 'long streaks of purple'.

1. 13. au second plan, 'in the background'; botit, 'boils', from bouillir, V. n. ; the transitive form is faire bouillir.

1.16. récurent leur gamelle, 'scour their mess-tins'. Note that /«<r gamelle is sing. in French to show each soldier scouring his own mess-tin.

1.19. 7nange sa pitance, 'eats his provender'. /'/'/««Ci? (pittance), properly the portion given to a monk at each meal, from Lat. pietantia the product of the piety of the faithful. Littré dérives it îtom picta, 'a farthing', whence. pictancîa = 3. picta'' s worth of food (for a monk).

1. 23. du ;v^/,.'..,'apart from this (lit. as to the rest) there is perfect silence'.

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1. 12. en mesure de, 'prepared or in readiness to'. 1. 19. par un coup de tonnerre, 'with a crushing blow' (lit. *a clap of thunder').

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1. 12. qiiils me donneraient la maiji, 'that they would effect a junction with me'.

1. 14. lourdauds, 'dullards'. The suffix aud (originally ald) indicates dépréciation ; lourd (heavy) from Lat. luridus was first dirty, then lazy, finally heavy.

1. 29. peut-être aurons-nous...' 'pçr\\^^5 we shall get a due'. Note the inversion of verb and subject (when a pronoun) •wiùi peut-être ; this inversion which also occurs after en vain, du moins, à peine, aussi ( = accordingly), is due to the influence of the Saxon language on the French. Cp. vielleicht luerdeich, 'perhaps shall 1'.

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