on HIC disait bien, 'it is true, (hcy told me

1.18. se sont laissé battre ; Miave allowed themselves to be bealen '. Note that the ace. se is goveined by battre and consequently laissé is invariable. The participle past conjugated with avoir {px être in reflective verbs) agrées with its ace. when this ace. précèdes it, but remains indéclinable if the ace follows it.

1. 19. iiozis ont laissé tomber sitr le dos, 'ha%-e allowed us to be crushed', lit. 'hâve let (our enemies) fall on our backs'; nous is hère dat.

1. 22. que tons ces cadets...^ \\\a.n ail thèse younger sons, thèse ornamcntal officers' ; cadet is from Prov. capdet which was derived from Lat. caftellus, dim. of capiit, head ; the eldest son being regarded as the first head of the family, the second was the capitellus or little head. Hère cadets= 'sprigs of the nobility'.

1. 23. pieds-plats, 'contemptible fellows' ; originally applied to artisans whose shoes had no heels, as distinguished from the gentry, the red heels of whose shoes were preposterously high ; tas de pieds-plats = ' lot of rubbish'.

1. 30. tu as raison, 'you are right'; cp. avoir tort, 'to be wrong', avoir peur, 'to be afraid', avoir f ai tu, 'to be hungry', etc.