tives, and is
used to suggest a bright vivid red, and almost invariably in
connexion with objects that have pleasurable associations.

The following are a few typical instances of its use:--

'L'aube vermeille.' (_Les Feuilles d'Automne: Madame, autour de vous_.)

'Les cones vermeils' (du palais dans les nuages). (Ibid.: _Soleils
Couchants_.)

'Les beaux rosiers vermeils.' (_Les Quatre Vents: L'Immense Etre_.)

'Les astres vermeils.' (Ibid.: _La Nuit_.)

'Aux soirs d'ete qu'embrase une clarte vermeille.' (_Dieu L'Ange_.)

'Les plats bordes de fleurs sont en vermeil: (_Eviradnus_.)

'Et, vermeille,

Mahaud, en meme temps que l'aurore, s'eveille.' (Ibid.)

The word seems to be used without any definite suggestion of colour
in such phrases as 'des espaces vermeils' (_Plein Ciel_), 'quand le
satyre fut sur la cime vermeille' (_Le Satyre_), 'des arbres
vermeils' (of trees lit up by the setting sun) (_Le Crapaud_).

The word is used with a bold extension of meaning in _Les Voix
Interieures: A Eugene_, where the appetite of boyhood is called
'l'appetit vermeil.'

_dromon_, mediaeval warship, worked by oars and sail, the ancestor
of the galley. The word is also used, as apparently here, for
merchantmen.

_Bearnais_, inhabitant of Bearn, the province in the Pyrenees from
which Henri IV came.

_Turcs_. This is of course a mistake for Saracens or Moors. The word
occurs in the original poem, Jubinal copied it, and Hugo copied
Jubinal. The original, it maybe noted, had 'trente mille Turcs,'
Jubinal cut them down to 'vingt mille.' Hugo's 'vingt mille' is
another detail which shows that his poem is based on Jubinal's
adaptation.

_preux_. The Old French adjective meant 'valiant.' At the present
time the word is only used in the phrase _preux chevalier. Preux_ as
a noun is rare, but de Vigny has 'Charlemagne et ses preux.'

_je ne farde guere_: I speak without affectation. _Farder_ used
absolutely in this way is rare.

_rendus_: knocked up, overdone.

_arbaletes_, crossbows.

L. 80, For the metaphor compare the _Chanson_ in _Les Chatiments_,
Livre VII

Berlin, Vienne etaient ses maitresses;
Il les forcait,
Leste, et prenant les forteresses
Par le corset;
Il triompha de cent bastilles
Qu'il investit.--
Voici pour toi, voici des filles,
Petit, petit.

These two passages are good specimens of what Brunetiere called Hugo's
barbarous and Merovingian humour, a species of humour which suits wel