[9.]--18. personne... n'eût fait. The imperfect and the pluperfect subjunctive sometimes occur in conditional sentences contrary to fact, but only in literary style.
22. lui demandait-on s'il s'était battu, il répondait... que oui. Si is avoided in the first clause by means of inversion, otherwise two successive clauses introduced by si would occur; que is used before oui because oui substitutes a clause (il s'était battu); notice that no elision occurs before oui.
31. tous. When tous is used without a following noun, s is Pronounced.
[12.]--14. celui-là. The meaning here is "still another" or "a third."
25. précipitamment. This is not an exception to the rule that -ment is added to the feminine form of the adjective to form the adverb; adjectives having only two terminations in Latin, that is, those that had the same form for the masculine and feminine (grandis, etc.) had the same form for both the masculine and feminine in Old French; précipitant is both masculine and feminine in Old French and becomes with the addition of -ment précipitamment by assimilation (see also note to p.87, l. 17).
[13.]--4. il la fit partager à toute la compagnie. Compagnie is the direct object of fit.
[14.]--1. R... Mérimée uses both this form of abbreviation and the form which occurs on p. 1, l .9 (cf. also p. 17, l. 26). 16.--7. de n'avoir pas. Pas is usually placed before the infinitive.
[18.]--12. dépit... des pires. Mérimée tries to reproduce a Russian pun by means of a play on these words. He gives the following note: «Il y a, dans le russe un jeu de mots impossible à traduire: sdelatsa pianitseiou s'goria, t. c. samym gorkim pia nitseiou.»
[20.]--24. il y a bien quatre ans que je n'ai touché. Note that while pas is omitted in this phrase it is used below (p. 21, l. 27) in voilà cinq ans que je n'en ai pas eu; compare also: il y a cinq ans que je me mariai (p. 22, l. 18), where there is no negative idea.
[21.]--10. prendre son verre d'eau-de-vie avant la soupe. Mérimée gives the following note: «C'est l'usage en Russie de prendre de l'eau-de-vie un peu avant le diner.»