'or) lend emphasis to the
Expression.

_23_ 27 _ne battait plus que d'une aile:_ 'was almost dead', lit 'could no
longer flap more than one wing' (like a wounded bird), cf. note to _4_ 23.

_24_ 1 _mouches cantharides:_ 'Spanish flies' These insects, which are
found in southern Europe, are used (crushed) as the chief element in
blistering plasters--_dessus_ adverb, 'on top of it', cf. note to _1_ 6.

_24_ 3 _Il fallait voir:_ 'you should have seen', cf._69_ 4.

_24_ 4 _se l'arrachait:_ for _se_ cf. note to _7_ 2 _Se_ is dative, cf. _4_
24.

_24_ 6 _se faire expliquer:_ cf. note to _7_ 25.

_24_ 7 _comment on s'y prenait:_ 'how you go at it' On y cf. note to _2_
29.

_24_ 8 _a combien de pas:_ cf. note to _18_ 25.

_24_ 11 _Jules Gerard_ (1817-1864) called _le Tueur de lions_, an officer
of spahis (cf. note to _43_ 8) and celebrated lion hunter.

_24_ 12 _Aussi:_ cf. note to _5_ 32.

_24_ 16 _que_ = _quand_ cf. note to _5_ 1.

_24_ 21 _disait:_ cf. note to _7_ 26.

_24_ 22 _laurier-rose:_ 'oleander', all parts of this shrub are poisonous.

_24_ 23 _pluies de sauterelles:_ particularly in Africa and Asia migratory
locusts collect in countless numbers, forming a cloud so dense as to
obscure the sun, and consume every green thing, cf._81_ 25 and note to
_86_ 20 See the pages on "Les Sauterelles" in "Lettres de mon moulin,"
where Daudet describes an invasion of these terrible insects.

_24_ 29 _balle explosible:_ a bullet which explodes on striking an object.

_24_ 30 _pfft!_ the sound of the bullet passing through the air.

_25_ 2 _garconnets:_ 'urchins,' diminutive of _garcon_, cf. note to _33_
27.

_25_ 3 _grand'peur:_ cf._grand'mere, grand'peine_, etc The Latin
adjectives of two terminations (_grandis, e_) had regularly in French one
form (_grand_) for masculine and feminine An _e_ was added in the feminine
through the influence of other feminine adjectives (_bonne_, from _bona_),
but the old form is retained, with the addition of the apostrophe, in
certain phrases Pronounce as if _grand'_ were masculine.

_25_ _chapter heading_ _pas de_ on the absence of _ne_ cf. note to _13_ 1.

_25_ 9 _Toujours est-il que:_ 'at any rate' On the inversion after
_toujours_ (still ') cf. note to _5_ 32.

_25_ 11 _peut-etre ... se figurait-il_ the same inversion as that referred
to in the preceding note. Compare in the next sentence _Peut etre qu(e) il
s'imaginait_.

_25_ 18 _le:_ 'it,' that is, _victime,_ omit in