[Footnote 5:  #Ah bien oui!# Indeed I would, but nowadays one has no time, etc.]

[Footnote 6:  #nee Kermadio#, born a Kermadio, and so, as this name implies to a French ear, a Breton noble, and therefore almost certainly an extreme royalist, and so least likely to be suspected of sheltering a Bonapartist conspirator.]

[Footnote 7:  #timbree#, post-marked.—­#pleine Vendee#, in the heart of Vendee, in Poitou, noted for the fierce civil war between the French Republic and the local royalists (March-December, 1793), and the scene of frequent royalist outbreaks for many years after.]

[Footnote 8:  #maitre des requetes#, referendary, a minor officer of the Council of State.]

[Footnote 9:  #avec humeur#, out of temper, irritated.]

#Page 3.#

[Footnote 10:  #Talleyrand# (1754-1838), a politician whose skill in unprincipled intrigue made him a power under every form of government, from the States-General that inaugurated the First Revolution until his death.  Many epigrams like this testify to his cynicism, which anticipated remarkably the modern blague, as we find it, for instance, in “Le Gendre de monsieur Poirier.”]

ACT I. SCENE 2

[Footnote 11:  See preceding note and, for historical details, any biographical dictionary.]

[Footnote 12:  The use of the imperfect subjunctive is far more restricted in French conversation than our school grammars would imply.  Persons of little education hardly use it at all, and persons of refined culture avoid its ill-sounding forms; while even such classical authors as Voltaire sometimes substitute the present for it.  Cp. my note to “Le Gendre de monsieur Poirier,” p.29, note 2.]

ACT I. SCENE 3.

#Page 13.# [Footnote 13:  #se donner de l’importance#, put on airs.  She affects to attribute Charles’s manner to the democratic tendencies of the age.]

[Footnote 14:  #tout a l’heure#, by and by, but also “just now.”]

[Footnote 15:  #courrier#, mail, here.]

#Page 5.#

[Footnote 16:  #coup de tete#, piece of rashness.]

[Footnote 17:  #Mon dieu#.  Wherever Dieu carries any suggestion of deity, it will be printed with a capital.  Where, as here, it corresponds to “Dear me,” “Oh dear,” and the like, I have thought it more reverent to print with d.]

#Page 6.#

[Footnote 18:  #de qui tenir#, a parent from whom to inherit it.]

[Footnote 19:  See p. 2, note 4.]

[Footnote 20:  #manque chavirer# (capsize), for the more usual manque de chavirer.]

[Footnote 21:  #fete#, not “birthday” as with us, but baptismal day, or day of her patron saint.]

[Footnote 22:  #vous ira#, will become you.]