II. quarante années, probably from 1648 to

1. 13. il n'est point de période, there is no period. // corresponds hère to illud. Note that the use of the personal pronoun as a nominative, and especially as a second nominative {période is hère the real one) is of comparatively modem origin.

1.' 16. les nèg)'es à Saint-Domingue. The insurrection of the negro population of Haïti, caused by the decree of the National Assembly of March 18, 1790, lasted several years. Toussaint Louverture was the most celebrated leader of the rebels. See notes on Dix Années d'exil, p. 95.

1. 17. bien plus d"" atrocités — beaucoup plus..., xi\7iXi-^m.oxQ. Bienhas constantly been used as a superlative adverb, and we find it thus employed "as far back as the eleventh century. Thus : *' Li arche vesque est bien bon chevalier." {Chanson de Roland.)

l. 19. // ne s' ensuit... pas, it does not follow. S'ensuivre is hère derived from the Latin indè sequi ; the student must not suppose that il

98 CONSIDÉRATIONS, &^c. [chap. i.

ne s'ensîiit pas de ces réflexions is pleonastic. S'ensuivre is formed exactly as s^ enfuir^ and just as we say, si vous ouvrez la cage, V oiseau s'en enfuira^ so the above expression of Madame de Staël is strictly correct.

1. 20. après plus de vingt années. Plus and moins always take the préposition de before numerals.

1. 11. qui doit servir de guide, wliich must serve as a guide. Hère de— comme un.

1. 23. Les querelles religieuses, etc. This is quite right. It was the ecclesiastical policy of the Court which first irritated the Puritan party, and this irritation led to the disputes on pohtical matters which brought on the rebelHon.

1. 24. Pamour de tégalité, shown, for instance, by the sect of the Levellers.

1. 3Q. le règne des Jacobins. The triumph of the Jacobin faction, strengthened by the destruction of the Dantonists and the Girondists, lasted for a little more than a year (October 1793 — November 1794). The Jacobins derived their name from the fact that their club used to meet in a convent of Jacobin friars situated in Paris, rue Saint-Honoré.

Page 3.

1. 2. ce n'est pas au gouvernement... qu' il faut s'en prendre, it is not the go ver nment... which we should call to account; en is pleonastic. Se prendre à..,literally, to fasten one's self upon. Thus:

" Il faut se prendre à l'arbre, et non pas aux rameaux."

(Tristan, La mort de Chrispe, i v. i .)

1. 10. en 1793. Louis XVI beheaded (Jan. 21) — Holland invaded (Feb. i) — Marie -Antoinette beheaded (October i6) — Battle of Hondschoote (Sept. 6 — 9) — Battle of Wattignies (October 15 — 16) — Toulon taken (October 19).

1. 14. le danger est passé = the danger is quite over; le danger a passé would mean the danger is not over, but has gone somewhere else.

1. 20. des lois quelconques, laws of any kind. Quelconque always cornes after the substantive now, but we find old writers using it in the sensé of quelque, and accordingly placing it before the substantive, thus •.'■'■et quelconques choses sont faites, ou pour paour de plus granz malx éviter, ou pour aucun grant bien obtenir." (Oresme.)

1. 22. les repoussait toutes, rejected thera ail (i.e. ail the laws).

Hérault de Séchelles (Marie-Jean) [1760 — 1794] was arrested and sent to the guillotine with the Dantonists ; had been the principal author of