en l'année : see note, p

23. Henri II. : born in 1519, Henry II. succeeded his father,

Francis I., in 1547 and died in 1559, having been mortally wounded in a tourney by Montgomery, captain of the Scottish Guard. It was during his reign, in 1558, that Calais, the last rehc of the French dominions of the Plantagenets, was retaken by the Dulce of Guise.

26. belles comme le jour : the usual expression in fairy-tales to dénote the height of beauty.