1.--1. un militaire de mes amis. Compare _un de mes amis_,
a friend of mine; _un mien ami_ also occurs in popular style. Mérimée
refers to Henri Beyle (Stendhal), French novelist and soldier under
Napoleon, by whom this story was related to him (1783-1843).
8. après avoir lu. Note the use of the perfect infinitive, not
the present, after _après_.
9. général B * * *. General Berthier, Major-General of Napoleon's
army which invaded Russia; he became Prince and Marshal of France
(1753-1815).--il changea de manières. _De_ is used after
_changer_ when the object is changed for another of the same kind (if
the object is preceded by a modifier, such as a possessive pronoun,
_changer_ alone is used).
15. sa croix. The cross of the Legion of Honor; the cross is not
usually worn, but in its stead a small bow of ribbon.
21. école de Fontainebleau. The reference is not to the present
military school (artillery and engineers) at Fontainebleau, which
was founded in 1871, but to the school which was moved from there to
Saint-Cyr in 1806, and which corresponds to the school at West Point in
the United States.
2.--5. Cheverino. «Le 5 septembre un combat se livra pour
la possession d'une redoute russe sur le tertre de Chévardino, et fit
perdre aux Français 4 ou 5000 hommes, aux Russes 7 ou 8000. Il annonçait
du moins que les Russes avaient pris position et se disposaient, pour
sauver leur capitale, à livrer bataille.» Lavisse et Rambaud, _Histoire
générale du IVe siècle à nos jours_, vol. IX, p. 787. The battle of
Borodino, known also as the battle of the Moscova, was fought two days
later, September 7, 1812, and Napoleon arrived at Moscow on September
14. On account of the other references in the text to Napoleon the
following note may be found convenient.--Born in Corsica in 1769, he
first distinguished himself by driving the English from Toulon (1793).
He became General-in-Chief of the Army of Italy, and won the celebrated
battles of Arcola (1796), Rivoli (1797), etc.; became First Consul in
1799 and Emperor in 1804; victor in the battles of Austerlitz (1805),
Iéna (1806), Eylau (1807), Friedland (1807), Wagram (1809), he became
the ruler of western Europe. He led the Grande-Armée into Russia in
1812-1813, and never recovered from this disastrous campaign. Europe
rose against him; he was deposed in 1814 and sent to the Island of Elba,
whence he escaped to France in 1815 and ruled, during the Hundred Days,
until he was finally defeated at Waterloo, June 18, 1815. Banished to
Saint Helena, he died there in 1821.
12. auprès duquel. _Auprès de_ expresses a relation nearer than
that expressed by _près de_.
14. il en coûtera bon. _En_ is often added to _coûter_ when the
latter is used impersonally.
3.--5. la fatigue l'avait emporté. In this idiom the
pronoun refers to an unexpressed noun (_prix, choix_, etc.).
25. aussitôt que l'ordre...eut été donné. The past anterior is a
literary tense; it is used to express completed action after certain
temporal conjunctions and _à peine...que_, also with _encore, plus tôt,
sitôt_, when they are negative and followed by _que_ and when the period
of time is mentioned (_il eut bientôt fait son devoir_); in all these
cases the pluperfect is used if the action is repeated. The past
anterior is not used in conversation.
30. éprouvasse. The imperfect subjunctive is a literary tense and
is to be avoided in conversation; it may be so avoided by using the
present subjunctive and thus violating the rule for the sequence of
tenses or by using a circumlocution (particularly obnoxious to
a Frenchman's ear are all the forms of this tense in the first
conjugation, except the third person singular).
4. -4. madame de B * * *. Possibly Mérimée was thinking cf
his friend Madame la comtesse de Beaulaincourt, with whom he
corresponded. The _Revue des Deux Mondes_ (August 15, 1879) published a
collection of eleven letters written to her by Mérimée (see also Filon,
_Mérimée et ses Amis_, 2e éd., Paris, 1909). More probably he refers to
Madame de Boigne, who lived in the street mentioned; he used to read his
stories in her Salon.
7. en voir de grises. For the use of a feminine adjective
referring to no expressed noun compare: _j'ai échappé belle_, I had a
narrow escape; _il se remit à courir de plus belle_, he began to run
harder than ever, etc. The feminine adjective in such phrases cannot
always be explained by saying that _manière, occasion, chose_, etc.,
have been omitted. Similar phrases occur in Italian, Spanish, Old French
and Romanian. Meyer-Lübke, _Grammaire des langues romanes_, vol. III, §
88, suggests _res, causa_, or a similar substantive as omitted in the
primitive Latin construction. In certain French phrases the reference
seems to be to _balle_, an expression borrowed from play--_donner la
balle belle_, then _la donner_ (or _bailler_) _belle à quelqu'un_, to
impose on anyone.
30. ajouta-t-il. The letter _t_ which occurs in such
interrogative forms is not introduced for the sake of euphony, nor is
it a survival of the Latin _t_ of the third person. It arose by analogy
with such forms as _est-il, sont-ils, donnent-ils_, where the letter
forms a part of the verb.
6.--7. au travers de. _Au travers_ should always be
followed by _de_, _à travers_ should never be followed by _de_; the
meaning is the same in each case.
18. que je l'entendis prononcer. Although the second verb has an
object, the object of entendre need not be in the indirect form; with
_faire_ in this construction the object of _faire_ must be Indirect.
7.--1. je n'ai presque plus. Notice that _presque_ is
placed between _plus_ (_pas, rien_, etc.) and the verb.
26. le général C * * * va vous faire soutenir. _Vous_ is the
object of soutenir, but in this construction the pronoun object of the
second verb is regularly placed in front of _faire_. General Compans was
in command of two regiments at the assault of the Redoubt, he was one of
Napoleon's distinguished generals; he was made a prisoner at Waterloo
and afterwards became a peer when the Bourbons were restored
(1767-1845).