237 cette grâce, i.e., of being the instrument of our delivery. The statement is of course hypothetical, and the future is used, instead of the conditional, only for greater directness and force.
238 toute votre race, obviously "thou and thy father's house," Book of Esther, iv. 14.
240 assidus à prier is the order.
242 jeûne, from jejunum. Cf. our "jejune."
245 "And if I perish, I perish," Book of Esther, iv. 16. Contente, now colloquially = our "glad," has here its truest sense of "satisfied."
247 Qu'on s'éloigne. The touch of dignity added to the command by the use of the indefinite pronoun, can hardly be translated. For the following prayer, see Introd. section IV.
259 sert has here its full etymological meaning of "being a slave." Its other meanings are: 2. with de, "to serve as," "to be used for," l. 843; 3. with accus. "to serve" a person, a cause, etc., l. 336; 4. with dative, "to be of use" to a person or for a purpose, l. 333.
200 veut, as often, = "seek to." Note that the de before être is not dependent on peu, but is the regular preposition introducing an infinitive not at the beginning of a sentence.—For vouloir, used as a pseudo-auxiliary, see l. 155, N.
261 Insulter, like applaudir, is used with the accus. in a literal, with the dat. in a figurative, sense.
262 Imputer always implies that you charge a person with an offence. Here there is a slight hypallage: the offence lies in the fact that the conqueror dares to credit his false gods with his triumph, and not, as the words would literally signify, in that with which he credits them.