Bataille de dames eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 130 pages of information about Bataille de dames.

Bataille de dames eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 130 pages of information about Bataille de dames.

[Footnote 131:  #Moreau# (1763-1813), “the greatest general of the French republic after Napoleon and Hoche,” after winning the great victory of Hohenlinden, December, 1800, intrigued against Napoleon, and was forced to leave France in 1804.  He continued his scheming while in exile, and in 1813, while serving in the Russian army, he was mortally wounded at the Battle of Dresden.  But before leaving France he, or more probably his ambitious wife, had gathered all the elements of discontent with the self-seeking of Napoleon into a cabal called the club Moreau, of which these fugitive #compagnons# may be supposed to be members, for the club was relentlessly suppressed by Napoleon.]

[Footnote 132:  #98# (quatre-vingt-dix-huit). #1804# (mil huit cent quatre).  These are not the dates indicated, p. 46, line 20, or p. 47, line 6. #1804# is not douze ans apres (p. 47, line 6) either #1798# or #1799#.  Then, too, ’98 was a comparatively quiet year in Vendee.  On the other hand the countess would have been, as she says (p. 46, line 33), then fourteen if she was thirty-three (p. 7, line 25) in 1817.]

#Page 48.#

[Footnote 133:  #mansarde#, attic or garret.  Properly a sort of gambrel-roof introduced into France by the architect Mansard (d. 1666).]

[Footnote 134:  #defiance#, mistrust.]

[Footnote 135:  #Prenez des forces#, recruit your strength.]

ACT II.  SCENE 9.

#Page 50.#

[Footnote 136:  #Ou veut-il en venir#, What is he “driving at?"]

[Footnote 137:  #surcroit de gages#, in addition to your wages.]

[Footnote 138:  #Le voici#, He’s caught, i.e., he has yielded to the temptation of Montrichard’s bribe.]

[Footnote 139:  #de l’argent gagne#.  There is a double entente here.  Montrichard understands “money as good as earned,” because Henri feels sure of success.  Henri means that the audience shall understand him to say “money already earned,” because he has already shown the outlaw to Montrichard.]

ACT II.  SCENE 10.

#Page 51.#

[Footnote 140:  #Et d’un#, There’s one.]

[Footnote 141:  #personnage muet#, man who doesn’t count.  Technically one who appears on the stage but does not speak.]

[Footnote 142:  #cour prevotale#, provost court, or “court martial,” “a criminal tribunal temporarily established, and judging without appeal” (Littre).]

[Footnote 143:  #bord#, party, side, or way of thinking.  See also dictionary.]

[Footnote 144:  #notre classe#.  This is a delightful touch.  Montrichard, having been republican and bonapartist, now chooses to regard himself as one of the original aristocracy.]

#Page 52.#

[Footnote 145:  #signalement#, description issued by the police for the identification of fugitives from justice.]

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Bataille de dames from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.