se bandait, strained himsélf

4. la campagne ... où les vols de corbeaux mettent des croassements de malheur, the country . . . which flocks of ravens fill with iU-omened croahings.

5. Tel aux champs d'Ilion, an allusion to the battles around Troy, described in Homer*s Iliad.

6. sur sa tranche comme sur sa largeur, in length as in hreadth.