id._ 11. 116-17.)

L'ail voyait sur la plage amie
Briller ses eaux,
Comme une couleuvre endormie
Dans les roseaux.
(_Derniere gerbe._)

Par instants, dans cette profondeur vertigineuse, une lueur
apparaissait et serpentait vaguement, l'eau ayant cette puissance,
dans la nuit la plus complete, de prendre la lumiere
on ne sait ou et de la changer en couleuvre.
(_Les Miserables._)

La, c'est le regiment, ce serpent de batailles
Trainant sur mille pieds ses luisantes ecailles.
(_Les Voix Interieures._)

J'ai vu au loin comme un long serpent de brume avec des
ecailles de soleil ca et la pose sur l'horizon... C'etait l'Angleterre.--
_France et Belgique._

Dans ses flancs tenebreux, nuit et jour, en rampant
Elle (_la terre_) sent se plonger la racine, serpent
Qui s'abreuve aux ruisseaux des seves toujours pretes.
(_Souvenirs d'Enfance._)

_cape_, a cloak with hood, with which women protect their head and
shoulders. Used in Modern French only in a few provinces, except in
certain phrases such as _sous cape_, 'secretly'. The word is the same as
the English 'cape'.

_C'est la marine! Marine_ is often used as a nickname, as we say in
English 'Jack'. On the French coast the word is often familiarly used
in speaking to a man who is or has been a sailor, e.g. _Dis-donc, la
marine! Tiens, voila la marine!_ In this case it means 'Here am I!'

_bonnet de forcat_, 'woollen cap worn by convicts and also by
fishermen.'

_chiffon_: used colloquially for a child, especially for a little girl.

PLEINE MER. (PAGE 118.)

_Analysis._ The vision of a gigantic derelict vessel on a boundless sea.
This is the old world, the past of grandeur and horror.

In the nineteenth century a monster warship was built on the Thames,
type of the spirit of that age. It carried two thousand guns; its
topmast was higher than St. Paul's; now it has become this derelict.

The old world was subject to many plagues and scourges. Its moving
spirit was Hatred, its characteristic, Division. Race strove with race;
vice, ignorance, superstition, cruelty prevailed.

Now the old world has vanished, the ship is deserted. What has become of
man? Look upwards!

_cachalot_. The cachalot or sperm-whale is one of the largest cetaceans,
often attaining a length of more than 80 ft.

_le grand mat_, the mainmast.

_deferle_ (of a wave), 'br