_prames_, big flat-bottomed boats, capable of carrying cannon, and used
for coast defence.

_Notre-Dame de la Garde_, a sanctuary at Marseilles.

_Palma_, a town in Majorca.

APRES LA BATAILLE.

Victor Hugo's father was an officer in the army of the great Napoleon
and fought in Spain as a general, but nothing is known of this incident
except what is here told.

_Caramba_ (Spanish), a colloquial interjection, implying surprise and
astonishment.

LE CRAPAUD.

To Hugo ugliness was as much a subject for pity as degradation or
misery. Compare the following passage from _Les Contemplations: Ce que
dit la Bouche d'Ombre_:--

Pleurez sur les laideurs et les ignominies.
Pleurez sur l'araignee immonde, sur le ver,
Sur la limace au dos mouille comme l'hiver,
Sur le vil puceron qu'on voit aux feuilles pendre,
Sur le crabe hideux, sur l'affreux scolopendre,
Sur l'effrayant crapaud, pauvre monstre aux doux yeux,
Qui regarde toujours le ciel mysterieux.

For Hugo's feeling for the brute creation, see _Dieu: L'Ange._

_Augustules_. The last Emperor of Rome, Romulus, was given by the people
the derisive nickname of Augustulus, or 'the little Augustus'. The
capture of Ravenna in his reign by Odoacer marks the end of the Western
Empire.

_vermeils_. See note on AYMERILLOT, 1. 35.

_miroitait_, glittered with light.

_farouche_, hard, cruel.

_fauve_, wild, shy. See note on EVIRADNUS, 1. 529.

1. 103. A difficult expression. Apparently it refers to the harsh
grating of the wheel against the side of the rut.

_connivence_: the complicity of the burden upon his back with his master
in keeping the ass in a straight course.

I. 134. i.e. the sad and melancholy, such as the ass, are equal to the
angels, if they feel pity.

LES PAUVRES GENS. (PAGE 110.)

_musoir_, the head of a pier or jetty.

_vertes couleuvres._ The serpent appealed to Hugo's poetic instinct, and
he saw its shape and its glitter in many natural objects. Compare the
following passages, for most of which I am indebted to Edmond Huguet's
_Metaphores et comparaisons dans l'oeuvre de Victor Hugo_:

La ronce, le serpent, tord sur lui ses anneaux. (_Eviradnus_, 1. 98.)

On voyait sur ses ponts des rouleaux de cordages
Monstrueux, qui semblaient des boas endormis.
(_Pleine Mer_, ll. 125-6.)

Ce sinistre vaisseau les aidait dans leur oeuvre.
Lourd comme le dragon, prompt comme la couleuvre.
(_Ib