‹ Tableaux de la révolution française; an historical French reader ed. with notesChapitre 66 sur 83 · Rebous ser, to send back · texte numérisé non relu

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55. Château, the palaces of St. Cloud, Versailles, etc., are generally termed châteaux.

56. Pourn'enpas tirer meilletir parti, not to turn it to better account.

57. Lettre de cachet, cachet is the small seal used in sealing letters with wax ; a lettre de c. was a letter with the king's seal and containing an order from him. The term is usually applied to a royal order of exile or imprisonment.

58. Le pacte de famine, a spéculation entered into during the later years of the reign of Louis XV. , and that of Louis XVI., by the Court, nobility, clergy, magistrates, and capitalists, to raise the priée of grain in order to profit by the increased price both in the sale and in the increased value of the dîmes, The grain was exported or partly destroyed, and then, when a famine had in this way been created, it was brought back from storehouses in Jersey or Guemsey, for instance, and sold at exorbitant priées. This infamous spéculation lasted sixty years and was one of the chief causes of the hatred of the people for the nobility.

59. Place de Grève, the open square in front of the Paris townhall, so called because it was covered with gravel [old-French gravele, gravelle, dim. of grave, probably of Celtic origin]. It was the scène of exécutions, and from the custom of unemployed laborers waiting for work in the square cornes the meaning of the phrase se mettre en grève, to strike, and grève, a strike.

60. Papiers teniers, a roll or record containing a list of persons dépendent upon a manor or lordship, and their various dues and obligations.

61. Target. An éloquent French advocate, born in Paris in 1733. He was a member of the " Constituante," and favored the popular cause. Louis XVI. selected Target as one of his defenders in his trial, but the latter declined to serve. He died in 1806.

62. Moye?tnant rachat, by means of rédemption — i. e., the feudal dues were to be abolished in considération of the payment of a fixed sum.

63. Mainmortes, mortmain, the tenure of property held by dead hands, or hands that can not alienate, as ecclesiastical or corporate bodies.

64. Servitudes personelles, personal servitudes — i. e., as Webster defines it, a right whereby one thing is subject to another thing or person, for use or convenience, contrary to the common right ; Vinà. Personal servitude is that which arises when the use of a thing is granted as a real right to a particular individual other than the proprietor.

65. Le denier trente. In the old way of reckoning interest le denier cinq, dix, vingt, meant the interest amounting to the fifth, tenth, twentieth of the principal — i. e., twenty, ten, and five per cent. In the above case le denier trente would be the interest amounting to one thirtieth of the principal — i. e., three and one third per-cent. The denier (Lat. denarius) was originally a French gold, silver, or copper coin of varying value.

66. Catîille, Catullus (B. C. 87 — circa 47), the well-known Roman poet. The allusion in the text is to the two famous poems (II. III.) on the sparrow of his niistress Lesbia.

67. Colonibiers, in the Middle Ages the dove-cote was a privilège and distinctive mark of a seigneurial domain. There were three kinds : à pied, round, or square towers with loopholes ; à fuie, with a single opening ; and à quatre piliers, generally built over the entrance to the domain. The second art. of the decree of the 4th of August, 1789, reads : Le droit exclusif de fuie et de colombiers est aboli. Les pigeons seront enfermés aux époques fixées par les communautés, et dans ce temps ils seront regardés comme gibier et chacun aura le droit de les tuer sur son terrain.

68. Le castiel, fées received by the clergy, so called because they did not constitute a fixed income.

69. Médaille, this niedal bore on its face a portrait of the king, with tlie legend : Louis XVI. Restaurateur de la liberté française ; and, on the reverse, the scène in the National Assembly during the vote, and the inscription : Abandon de tous les privile'ges. Assemblée Nationale, IV Août, MDCCLXX- XIX. A picture of the medal may be found in " The Student's France," Harper & Bros., 1881, pp. 528, 534,

70. Hœc nox est, référence to Exodus, XII., 42, which, in the Vulgate, is as follows : Nox ista est observabilis Domini, quando eduxit eos de terra ^gypti ; hanc observare debent omnes filii Israël in generationibus suis.

71. Samedi saint, the Saturday before Easter, which would correspond to the Jewish Passover, the feast commemorating the deliverance from the Eg)'ptian bondage.

72. Les annales, a tax paid the Pope by certain bénéfices, and which usually amounted to the income of one year. Late- Latin, annaia, revenue of a year, annus.

73. Alexandre VI., Rodrigo Borgia, Pope under the name of Alexander VI., 1492-1503, and father of Csesar and Lucrezia Borgia.

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