en 70 = en

5, 8. Défense d’allumer = 11 avait été défendu (forbidden) d’allumer. Défense de ... is the set expression correspondin g to the English, No . . . (allowed). Examples: Défense de fumer (No smoking allowed). Défense d'afficher (Post no bills). Défense d’entrer (No admittance).

6, 18. Que de fois: How many times! The adverbs que de and combien de both mean how much and how many; the former introduces exclamations, and the latter, questions.

7, 15. pas la moindre manifestation: an elliptic sentence for (il ne fit) pas la moindre manifestation.

17. bien: The adverb bien has various meanings according to the context. (See Vocabulary.)

NOTES

9, 22. divisions: Each army corps consista of divisions; each division, of brigades; each brigade, of régiments; each régiment, of battalions or squadrons (cavalry); and each battalion or squadron, of companies or platoons.

26. Jofifre: born in 1852, in a small village near Perpignan (southern France), not far from the Spanish frontier. His father was a cooper. Here are the most important sentences of General Joffre’s famous proclamation, on September 5, 1914: “ Le moment n’est plus de regarder en arrière, . . . Quiconque ne pourra plus avancer à l’ordre de garder le terrain conquis ... il se fera tuer sans reculer d’un pas.” (For new words see Vocabulary.)

12, 1. Le château des Papes: In 1309 Pope Clement V transferred the Holy See from Rome to Avignon to please his protector Philip IV, King of France, and Avignon remained the official résidence of the Popes till 1377. The historié city of Avignon is situated in Southern France on the left bank of the Rhône, a river which rises in Switzerland, forms Lake Geneva, enters France, flows through the city of Lyons, and empties through a delta into the Mediterranean Sea west of Marseilles.

4. quatre mille volontaires étrangers: ‘'The very first month of the war, August,. 1914, was not yet over before men of 52 nationalities had asked for enrollment in the Foreign Légion: 8000 Italians moved by the spirit of Garibaldi; 4500 from the Swiss republic; almost 4000 Russians; 300 Greeks; nay, 1000 Germans and even more Austrians; many, of course, from Alsace- Lorraine, from Belgium and Serbia; Armenians, Syrians, Czechs, etc.; many also came from the United States of America and from Canada. On August 21, 1914, 20,000, already equipped and ready to march, were reviewed in Paris by French générais on the Esplanade of the Invalides.” ( French Literature of the Great War by Albert Schinz, page 173, published by Appleton. )

19. de la soupe = du repas (meal). Soup being considered by French pensants and soldiers the most important part of their meals, the word soujpe is often used instead of dîner (noon meal) or souper (evening meal).

13, 3. À l’alignement: Fall in!