ise_ (supply _mode_ 'manner'): 'in the English manner,'
i.e. calmly, cf. _a la mode indienne_ _12_ 33.
_12_ 3 _vous pensez:_ cf. note to _4_ 6.
_12_ 6 _fermait la porte a double tour:_ 'double locked the gate', lit.
'with a double turn of the key' In the old lock a single turn of the key
drove the bolt into the socket, a second turn drove it farther.
_12_ 15 _chaussee:_ 'highway,' the middle of a road or street, usually
paved and arched, cf. _88_ 27.
_12_ 21 _cours:_ 'public promenade' "There is all round Tarascon a
promenade (_cours_) lined with trees, which is called in the local
dictionary _le Tour de ville_ Every Sunday afternoon the Tarasconians,
slaves to habit despite their imagination, make their circuit of the town
(_font leur tour de ville_)" "Tartarin sur les Alpes," ch. 11, p 42, cf.
_23_ 10-11.
_12_ 22 _par le plus long:_ supply _chemin_.
_12_ 25 _coupe-gorge_ (plural and singular alike) 'haunts of cutthroats'
_Coupe jarret_ = 'cut throat' (_jarret_ = 'ham string')--_lui tomber sur
le dos_ 'fall upon his back', cf._18_ 33, _20_ 13, _28_ 8, _31_ 6, _65_ 11.
_12_ 27 _jamais, au grand jamais:_ 'never, NEVER'.
_12_ 28 _eut la chance:_ 'had the good luck' Engl. 'chance' = French
Occasion.
_12_ 31 _plante sur place:_ 'rooted to the spot', of _en resta plante_
_44_ 11.
_12_ 32 _prenant le vent:_ 'sniffing the air,' used of hunting dogs, as a
nautical expression = 'sailing near the wind'.
_13_ 1 _Plus de doutes:_ 'no more doubt', cf.1 17 With _plus, pas, jamais,
rien_, and other words of this type _ne_ is omitted when the verb is
omitted, but cf._71_ 8, _88_ 3.
_13_ 3 se ramassait sur lui-meme._ 'gathered himself,' 'crouched'_.
_13_ 7 _Te! ve!_ dialectal for tiens, vois, used as exclamations, 'Well,
well!'--_adieu:_ in Southern France occasionally (as here and _64_4) a
greeting ('hello'), though ordinarily, as in Northern France, a parting
salutation ('good-by'). The Southerner prefixes an exclamation which
Daudet writes sometimes _et_ as here and sometimes _he_, ('hey') as in
_64_ 4.
_13_ 9 _la sienne_ 'his' (ballad), see _6_ 17.
_13_ 13 _de long en large:_ 'up and down'.
_13_ 18_: faire son bezigue:_ 'to play his game of bezique,' a game of
Cards.
_13_ 21_ diable au vert:_ 'far away corners of the globe' The castle of
Vauvert in the suburbs of Paris belonged to King Louis IX. Some
Carthusian monks who desired to gain possession of it pretended that it
was haunted by evil s
|