Bataille de dames

fossés, moat, for this was an ancient ancestral castle.

Par exemple, However, here.

donne sur, fronts on, looks out on.

bouquet de bois, clump of trees, here.

galonné, trimmed with gold lace.

Quand je, Didn't I.

là, equivalent to preoccupied with.

châteaux en Espagne, castles in Spain, i.e., air castles, foolish fancies.

j'ai failli me jeter, I almost threw myself. Literally, "I just missed throwing myself."

les jours, the life. Common in exalted and classical styles.

Du tout, Not at all.

guides, reins.

poussé, i.e., into what a self-contradictory position my double nature has forced me. Cp. pp. 17, 18.

ouvrage, fancy work.

donnerez pas le change, put off the scent. A hunting term.

m'en garderais bien, i.e., take good care not to, pretending that his search amuses her because it will certainly fail.

Ah! çà, Really now. Mockingly.

en bourgeois, in citizen's dress. Similarly, en domestique, p.70.

Dieu, etc., Goodness, how afraid I am that I shall be afraid.

à moi, in my service.

en réponds, answer for him, i.e., guarantee his innocence.

grand dieu, great heavens, do you call that wit and tact! Do you suppose, etc.

vous payer de, repay you for. Note the difference between this and vous payer tout, "pay you all."

courrier, despatch, here. Cp. p.4.

passe avant, takes precedence of. The term is from aristocratic etiquette.

j'y pense, it just occurs to me.

prérogatives, consideration. For instance, one might choose to be shot rather than guillotined, to look death in the face with unbandaged eyes, and to give the command to fire, all matters regarded as questions of honor by soldiers sentenced to death.

sans bruit, unostentatiously, but de Grignon takes it literally. The rest of this scene recalls not unsuccessfully Molière's sans dot in "l'Avare," Act I., Scene 5.

de gaieté de coeur, frivolously or wantonly, here.

réellement is meant to hint a pity that foreshadows the dawn of the love suggested in p. 93.

tant y a-t-il que, any way this much is certain that.

j'ai ce qu'il me faut. The phrase has a touch of irony that is not in de Grignon's character.

feu de file, volley fire.

je le voudrais bien, I wish it had been, it would have been so comical. This was of course practically a confession.

vingt-cinq louis. See p. 72.

il is masculine; wherever he may be found.

je le pense, I really think so. He is surprised at the change in his character that his magnanimity has produced in him; a psychological touch as delicate as it is true.

en sentinelle, play the sentinel.

lui en veux, are hurt with him for it. For the ordinary use, cp. p. 20, and p. 85.

promesse, alluding to p.74.

de grâce, for mercy's sake.

Note that to the very end Léonie does not suspect either her aunt's love or her self-sacrifice.

jupes. Fortunately for the possibility of this concealment, neither the skirts of 1817, nor those of 1851, were like those of recent years.

Amnesty to political offenders was the settled policy of Louis XVIII. from the first, though he was often thwarted by his advisers.

y avons donné, have fallen into it, i.e., the trap.

vous avez beau dire, it is vain for you to protest.

chemin faisant, on the way.

Ne parlons pas de cela. This is as far as she can becomingly go; and yet so far she must go. We should be disappointed if de Grignon's devotion were left without hope of reward, and yet the wound must be healed before the new love can declare itself.

les as et les rois, the leading honors at cards. There is a double play on these words in what follows. First, the countess gently reproaches Henri for failing in the traditional loyalty of his family to the restored royal family; then, secondly, she alludes to the rivalry of herself and Léonie as a strife of queens (bataille de dames), to whom Henri is the roi who can make a "marriage" (technical term at cards) with either he will.