ils ouvrent à Abdérame, ils ferment à Roland

Abd-er-Rahman entered France by way of the eastern Pyrenees. The second clause refers to the death of Roland at Roncevaux.

31. — 2. vert d'eau. Note the non-agreement of the adjective. Such phrases of color are really invariable, appositional substantives (compare gris de perle, cerise, etc.).

10. le prodigieux Cirque. The Cirque de Gavarnie, one of the finest parts of the Pyrenees.

21. cette embrasure. The brèche de Roland, a cleft in the summit of the Pyrenees, southwest of Gavarnie.

30. bestiaux. This word is now used as the plural of bétail; it is, however, etymologically not the plural of bétail, but of the adjective bestial; the latter singular form is not now used as a substantive in the literary language, although it

ô88 NOTÉS

occurs in works of the seventeenth century and is still used in Normandy, meaning all the cattle (compare Nyrop, Grammaire historique de la langue française, vol. II, § 292, 2, Remark).

33. — 4- le nom de Gascogne. The Latin etymon is Vasconia, 'the land of the Basques.'

18. Roland brisant sa Durandal. One of the celebrated episodes of the Old French epic /a Chanson de Roland. Roland attempts to break his sword in order to keep it from falling into the hands of the Saracens. A very good translation of this poem into Modern French is given by Léon Gautier in his edition of the Roland.

22. Bourbons qui perdirent la Navarre pour gagner la France. Henri IV was the first of the Bourbon kings. He had been king of Navarre before ascending the French throne. His mother was Jeanne d'Albret.

23. un petit-fils de Louis XIV. Philippe, duc d'Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV, was called to the Spanish throne at the death of Charles II in 1700. This event marks the end of the Austrian line and the beginning of the French dynasty in Spain.