Chapter X: Act II: Scene 8

[Footnote 116: #Que de#, _How many_.--#à#, i.e., _I ought to_.--#me valoir#, _gain for me_.]

[Footnote 117: #de plus longue date#, _for longer_, since a longer time.]

[Footnote 118: #à titre d'#, _because you were an_, here.]

#Page 44.#

[Footnote 119: The countess says that she will place him under such obligations as to make any adequate return difficult, but she means to convey to the audience the malicious implication that she will make it hard (#difficile#) for him to feel any gratitude to her at all.]

[Footnote 120: #Sa Majesté#, i.e., Louis XVIII. Note the gender.]

#Page 45.#

[Footnote 121: #c'en est fait#, _it's all over with that_.]

[Footnote 122: #Horace#, _Horatius_, the hero of Corneille's tragedy _Horace_, one of three brothers who fought for Rome against the Alban brothers Curiatii, who were their relatives by marriage. In speaking to his brother-in-law of the approaching fight Horace uses the words (Act II., Scene 3):

_Albe vous a nommé, je ne vous connais plus,_

a verse which is here parodied. For the story of the Horatii, see any classical dictionary.]

[Footnote 123: #un peu long# because its former half has, when pronounced according to the rules of French prosody, seven syllables, while an alexandrine hemistich should have but six, as this will have if _bonapartiste_ is spoken without the final _e_.]

[Footnote 124: #Corneille# (1606-1684) was the first of the great French classical dramatists, and in the opinion of many the greatest French tragic poet.]

[Footnote 125: #Ah! çà#, _By the way_. Cp. p. 16, note 2.]

#Page 46.#

[Footnote 126: #inqualifiable#, _unspeakable_.--#sanglante#, _outrageous_. Both adjectives are too strong to accord with the rest of the scene.]

[Footnote 127: _Attend to your duties_ and go.]

[Footnote 128: The year indicated is 1799, when the Vendéeans had been excited by English emissaries to a revolt from their temporary submission to General Hoche in 1795. But this does not agree with the statement of p. 47, line 32.]

[Footnote 129: #procureur#, _prosecuting officer_, who combined the functions of the modern _procureur_ and the _juge d'instruction_,--functions that have nothing corresponding to them in English justice or in American procedure.]

#Page 47.#

[Footnote 130: #à ma barbe#, "_under my nose,_" "_before my very eyes._"]

[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 après_ (p. 47, line 6) either #1798# or #1799#. Then, too, '98 was a comparatively quiet year in Vendée. 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: #défiance#, _mistrust_.]

[Footnote 135: #Prenez des forces#, _recruit your strength_.]

ACT II. SCENE 9.

#Page 50.#

[Footnote 136: #Où veut-il en venir#, _What is he "driving at?"_]

[Footnote 137: #surcroît 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 gagné#. 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.]