8
This is the inscription: —
D. O. M.
CY A ETE ÉCRASÉ
PAR MALHEUR
SOUS UN CHARIOT,
MONSIEUR BERNARD
DE BRYE MARCHAND
A BRUXELLE LE [illegible]
FEVRIER 1637.
9
A heavy rifled gun.
10
“A battle terminated, a day finished, false measures repaired, greater successes assured for the morrow, – all was lost by a moment of panic, terror.” – Napoleon, Dictées de Sainte Hélène.
11
Five winning numbers in a lottery
12
Literally “made cuirs”; i. e., pronounced a t or an s at the end of words where the opposite letter should occur, or used either one of them where neither exists.
13
Lawyer Corbeau, perched on a docket, held in his beak a writ of execution; Lawyer Renard, attracted by the smell, addressed him nearly as follows, etc.
14
This is the factory of Goblet Junior: Come choose your jugs and crocks, Flower-pots, pipes, bricks. The Heart sells Diamonds to every comer.
15
On the boughs hang three bodies of unequal merits: Dismas and Gesmas, between is the divine power. Dismas seeks the heights, Gesmas, unhappy man, the lowest regions; the highest power will preserve us and our effects. If you repeat this verse, you will not lose your things by theft.
16
Instead of porte cochère and porte bàtarde.
17
Jesus-my-God-bandy-leg – down with the moon!
18
Chicken: slang allusion to the noise made in calling poultry.
19
Louis XVIII. is represented in comic pictures of that day as having a pear-shaped head.
20
Tuck into your trousers the shirt-tail that is hanging out. Let it not be said that patriots have hoisted the white flag.
21
In order to re-establish the shaken throne firmly on its base, soil (Des solles), greenhouse and house (Decazes) must be changed.
22
Suspendu, suspended; pendu, hung.
23
L’Aile, wing.
24
The slang term for a painter’s assistant.
25
If Cæsar had given me glory and war, and I were obliged to quit my mother’s love, I would say to great Cæsar, “Take back thy sceptre and thy chariot; I prefer the love of my mother.”
26
Whether the sun shines brightly or dim, the bear returns to his cave.
27
The peep-hole is a Judas in French. Hence the half-punning allusion.
28
Our love has lasted a whole week, but how short are the instants of happiness! To adore each other for eight days was hardly worth the while! The time of love should last forever.