4 3 tremblement: 'whole lot,' 'noisy throng,' colloquial.
4 6 Si ... que + subjunctive = 'however ', cf. 67 12-13, 78 18-19 --bête: a pun on the word bête, which means as a noun 'animal,' as an adjective 'foolish'--vous pensez bien: 'you can readily imagine', cf. 7 10, 9 7, 12 3, 23 7, 56 17.
4 8 A cinq lieues: 'within a radius of fîve leagues', cf. 48 26.
4 9-10 le moindre: 'the least'--le plus petit: 'the smallest'.
4 14 Rhône 'Rhone,' the great river of southeastern France, in the heart of Provence--diablement: 'deucedly' Diable and Dieu are used very freely in French.
4 16 du poil et de la plume 'of fur and feathers'--est très mal noté 'has a black mark against its name', noter= 'to note,' 'to mark,' 'to make a note of'.
4 19 Camargue a vast marshy delta at the mouth of the Rhone See Daudet's "En Camargue," in "Lettres de mon moulin".
4 23 il ne reste plus ... que: 'there remains nothing now, but' Il is impersonal, cf. 5 23, 8 1, 58 28 Ne plus = 'no longer,' ne que = 'only,' the same ne serving for both plus and que, cf. line 30, 23 3, 27-28, ne ... guère que 5 26, 1 17.
4 24 coquin de lièvre: cf. note to 1 12--échappe ... aux: note the use of à with échapper, cf. 88 22, and s'arracher à 10 14 --septembrisades on September 25, 1792, mobs broke into the Paris prisons and massacred many political prisoners, hence septembrisade 'massacre'.