ait_. The word is here used transitively (a rare use) in the sense
of 'drove against.'

_soudan_, a word of Arabic origin, was a mediaeval name for certain
Mahometan princes in Egypt and Asia Minor. The word seems here loosely
to designate the Turkish sultans.

_turbe_, a kind of small round chapel, usually attached to a mosque, in
which the tombs of Sultans and other great persons are placed.

LA CONFIANCE DU MARQUIS FABRICE. (PAGE 71.)

This is the third section of a poem called _L'Italie: Ratbert_. The
story is of Hugo's own invention, and is intended to delineate on the
one hand the savagery, and on the other the knight-errantry, of the
Middle Ages.

_Pharamond_, a somewhat legendary Frankish chieftain of the fifth
century A.D.

_Final_. The name, alone or in composition, is borne by three small
towns or villages on or near the Genoese coast. There was a marquisate
of Final in the Middle Ages.

_Witikind_. Hugo possibly had in mind the Saxon chief of this name
(A.D. 750-807) who for five years successfully resisted the power of
Charlemagne, and finally made an honourable peace with him. It does not
appear that he ever bore the title of king. His country was the ancient
Saxony, that is the country between the lower Rhine and the lower Elbe.
He had no connexion with Genoa, whither Hugo has dragged the Saxons
without justification.

_Albenga_: the name is taken from a small town on the Genoese coast, not
far from Final.

_abbe du peuple_, a name of a popularly elected magistrate at Genoa. The
office was in existence from 1270 to 1339.

_tribun militaire de Rome_: Latin, _tribunus militaris_; the officers of
the legion, six in number, who in republican times commanded in turn,
six months at a time.

_architrave_, the lower part of the entablature, that which rests
immediately on the column. To understand the line, it must be remembered
that the tower is conceived as a ruin.

_alleux_, a feudal term, signifying hereditary property. The word is
misused here in the sense of feudal dues.

_censive_. Another feudal term, meaning the dues owed by an estate to
the lord of whom it was held.

_balistes_ (from Latin _ballista_), mediaeval machines for hurling
stones and darts.

_le puits d'une sachette_, a hole in which a recluse lived. _Sachette_
(masc. _sachet_) was the name given to certain nuns of the Augustinian
order who wore a loose woollen garment (_sac_), whence the name was
derived. It afterwards