tract from a letter of Keats to a friend, written in
1818.

124 _The Flight to Varennes_: by the middle of 1791 the French
Revolution had gone so far that the king and queen were practically
prisoners in the palace of the Tuileries at Paris. They at last
determined to try to escape, and the arrangements for their flight were
carried out, in all possible secrecy, by Choiseul, an officer of the
French army, and Fersen, a young Swedish count. Carlyle's vivid
account tells how the start was made; but the royal party were stopped
at Varennes, not far from the frontier, and brought back to Paris.

_the Carrousel_, or 'tilting-ground,' was an open space in front of the
Tuileries.

130 _Trial of the Seven Bishops_: James II, in 1687, issued a
'declaration of indulgence,' promising to suspend certain laws against
Roman Catholics. His command that this declaration should be read in
all parish churches was resisted by seven bishops, who were accordingly
brought to trial for sedition. The declaration was very unpopular in
the country, so that the result of the trial was anxiously awaited.

135 _Cimon_ was one of the Athenian commanders in the Persian war. He
died in 449 B.C.

140 The scene of Hawthorne's novel, _The House of the Seven Gables_,
is laid in a small town in New England.

148 Mr Weston was in the plot with the highwayman to rob Dr Barnard.
He had himself tampered with his own pistols (in the stable at
Maidstone) so that they should miss fire. Hence his peevishness with
Denis Duval, for so unexpectedly routing the thief.

153 Jane Eyre is governess to Mr Rochester's daughter, Adele. She
describes how he cross-questioned her with regard to her
accomplishments.

157 Thoreau lived for two years in a small hut which he built for
himself in a wood near Concord, in New England. This extract is from
the account he wrote of his life there.

171 Stevenson came of a family of engineers, and he himself was
supposed to be preparing for the same profession. But he already
wished to be a writer, and his interest in the harbour-works at Wick,
in Caithness, which he had been sent to study, was romantic rather than
practical.

End of Project Gutenberg's A Book of English Prose, by Percy Lubbock

*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A BOOK OF ENGLISH PROSE ***

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