Vous tournez alentour. — You stroll around it
7. Toujours remorqué par. — Still in the wake of, still towed along by.
8. La grille du chœur. — The screen of the choir. Chœur hère means choir in the sensé that word has in architecture ; viz., that part of a church separated from the nave by a railing or screen, and appropriated for the use of the clergy.
9. Splendidement harnaché. — Gorgeously tricked out, or rigged up. Harnacher, literally to harness a horse, means, when used familiarly and figuratively, to dress in a ridiculous manner, in colors which do not harinonize
10. Votre cicérone empanaché et galonné. — Your beplumed and belaced cicérone.
11. Reste le sacristain. — There remains the sacristain, or the sacristain is left. // is often understood before this impersonal verb.
12. Judas. — A small opening made in a floor or ceiling in order to see what passes below ; thus called beeause the one who looks through this peep-hole looks, so to speak, in a treacherous manner.
13. Baragouiner tout a son aise. — Stammer ahead in peace. Baragouiner is derived from the Bas-breton bara, bread, and gwin, wine ; words which the French often heard in the mouth of the Bretons, and of which they made use, in the compound baragouin, to designate an unintelligible language. The verb baragouiner means to murder a language in pronouncing it, to alter its sounds so as to make them difficult to understand. Baragouiner un discours is to pronounce it unintelligibly.
14. Croupe. — Hip-roof. This term is applied, in architecture, to the rounded part of the roof which surmounts the apsis of a church.
15. C'est pour la fabrique. — It is for the church fund. Fabrique means ail that belongs to a parish church : the funds, income, silverware, ornaments, &c. It is also used in the sensé of church wardens.
16. Vous vous gardez bien de demander. — You take very great care not to ask. Se garder de is, literally, to guard one's self from ; hence to be careful not to.
17. Carte a payer. — Bill. Carte alone, as well as note and addition, are used to dénote a restaurant bill. Mémoire, facture, are used for other bills.
18. Copeaux et balayures. — Mère rubbish ; literally, chips and sweepings.
19. Qu'il s'agit de désenfler le plus vite possible. — Which should be emptied as soon as possible. Désenfler means, literally, to reduce the swelling of. Désenfler un ballon is to let the gas out of, to empty, a balloon. Agir is, literally, to act. S'agir is used only in the impersonal form, and governs de : as, l'affaire dont il s'agit, the thing in question ; de quoi s'agit-il ? what is the matter ? what is going on % Il s'agit de votre vie, your life is at stake. Analogous to the German es handelt sich, and to the Latin agitur, in such phrases as : non nunc pecunia sed illud agitur quomodo, &c. — Terence.
20. Chacun s'y acharne de son côté. — Each, in his own way, strives with ail his might, or ernploys every effort, to accomplish this. For this figurative use of acharner, see XXXVI., 21.
xxvin.
1. Il en est une. — There is one. It is a peculiarity of Xavier de Maistre to use il est where most prose-writers would employ il y a. But in poetry, il est is generally used instead of il y a.
2. Le long des maisons d'un village. — Along a village street.
