[114.]--19. je n'ai pas entendu chanter le coq. See Matthew xvi, 34 ff.
[116.]--9. en l'air. En is never used before les; it is rarely used before the singular definite article, when it is so used the article is usually elided. In those cases where en is not used, dans takes its place; en was more frequently used in former times, it is now largely limited to fixed phrases. The following distinctions should also be observed: je ferai cet ouvrage en deux jours (two days will be required), je ferai cet ouvrage dans deux jours (after two days have elapsed).
[117.]--7. rang par rang... quand on danse. As in the dance called the farandole, where a number of people join bands and dance in a long line.
16. le meunier. The French have always ridiculed the millers; cf. the proverb: il n'y a rien de plus hardi que la chemise d'un meunier, parce qu'elle prend, tous les matins, un fripon au collier; also, il s'est fait d'évêque meunier, said when one bas fallen from a good position to a poorer one.
[118.]--4. le. This pronoun does not refer to histoire, but to all that has been told. This paragraph has not been added by Daudet, but occurs in the Provençal version.
LE SOUS-PRÉFET AUX CHAMPS
[121.]--26. de plus belle. See note to p. 4, l. 7.
LE PAPE EST MORT
[123.]--1. une grande ville de province. Daudet was born at Nîmes, his father was a wealthy manufacturer of silk handkerchiefs, the father lost his money and moved to Lyons when Alphonse was nine years old, it was here that the boy went to school and it is this city that is described in the story.
2. très-encombrée. The hyphen is now omitted after très.