sautereaux, 'hopefuls

1. 21. au ravelin, 'with the ravelin.' A ravelin in fortification is a detached work with two embankments.

1. 34. il ri a manqué à sa gloire que Rome et Tite-Live. Livy, the Roman historian, relates the well-known anecdote of the heroism of Regulus, who chose to return to Carthage and a certain death rather than advise his country to make an ignominious peace.

1. 36. V affaire de Quiberon. In 1795 a body of French Royalists protected by English cannon landed at Quiberon and captured the fort of Penthièvre. They were, however, overpowered by the Republican gênerai Hoche. The prisoners were shot by the order of the Republican authorities, and among them Chateaubriand's ill-fated play-fellow.

Page 24. 1. 12. V éventail, the fan-like open space in front of the Porte Saint-Thomas.

Page 25. 1.24. nous mènent battant, 'drive us pell-mell.' The full expression is mener quelqu'un tambour battant.

1. 26. comme Horatius. Horatius, surnamed Cocles, or oneeyed, from the fact that he had lost an eye in battle, was the defender of the Sublician bridge in the early days of the Roman Republic.