I. pour... compte, ' to settle my account

1. Isigny. Isigny is a seaport in the Department of Calvados. It is situatcd at the mouth of the Vire, just below its confluence with the x\ure.

30. Je mets. ..plume, 'I take up my pen.' Tautin's letter, as might be expected, is not a model of French composition. It abounds

in colloquialisms and obsolète phrases, oddly mixed together, as is often the case in the literary efforts of uncultivated persons. In particular the opening of the letter has some forced and unusual expressions due to the fact that the * pen ' which Tautin has * taken up ' is not the * pen of a ready writer.' Thus the phrase coucher par écrite * to set down in writing,' is no longer employed in modem French ; and ' bourgeoise ' in the sensé of wife is a colloquialism like our use of *my old woman. '

Page 65.

6. que ça, 'so that it.' The consécutive use of the conjunction que y ' so that,' in affirmative sentences, common in old French, is very rare now. On le régale que rien n'y manquait^ ' Ile was entertained in every possible way,' lit. *so that nothing was omitted.' In négative sentences the construction is still quite common: '// n'a jamais rien fait qu'il ne m'ait consulté^ ' He never did anything vi^ithout asking my advice.' Note that the subjunctive is used in thèse sentences, whereas the indicative is the tense found in the affirmative form of sentence now obsolète.

6, 7. qui... tendre, *and yet their hearts are not very tender.'

12. en, 'of it,' i.e. of the voix^ *voice,* which he had used so freely.

19. diable en caoutchouc, *an india-rubber devil,' a thing likely to bound particularly well, since bondir comme un diable^ *to jump about like the devil,' is a proverbial expression for great agility. The phrase reminds one of Mr Rudyard Kipling's description of Fuzzy Wuzzy as *a injia-rubber idiot on the spree.'