[136.]--4. aussi n'avancent-ils. Notice that aussi here means "therefore" and that it causes inversion (this occurs also with à peine, encore, peut-être, ici, là, etc.).
[137.]--5. des robes noires, des robes rouges. The former are worn by the judges in the lower courts, the latter by the judges in the courts of appeal.
6. président. The French Department of Justice is now constituted as follows. The Department has at its head a Cabinet Minister (Ministre de la Justice) and it comprises a civil and a criminal jurisdiction. In each canton is a justice of the peace, in each department a civil court, and in sixteen important cities a court of appeal. Criminals are tried in each department in a court of assize, before a jury of citizens and judges of whom the presiding judge is termed the président and the assistant judges conseillers assesseurs. Above all courts is the Court of Appeal (Cour de Cassation, in the Palais de Justice at Paris); this court is charged with looking after the strict observance of the Laws.
[138.]--24. monsieur le comte. Bismarck was given the higher title of Prince in 1871.
ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN
Émile Erckmann, Phalsbourg, 1822--Lunéville, 1899.
Alexandre Chatrian, Soldatenthal, 1826--Villemombles, 1890
Most of the literary work of these two men was done jointly, hence their hyphenated signature. Erckmann did most of the writing, Chatrian most of the editing and adapting for the stage. Their work consisted of short stories, novels and plays, particularly with scenes laid along the Franco-German (Alsatian) frontier, where they were both born. Their stories usually deal with incidents of the French Revolution, the Empire of Napoleon l and the Franco-Prussian War; they attacked war, and their stories are generally of a fantastic or idyllic type.
Important works: Madame Thérèse (1863), Histoire d'un Conscrit de 1813 (1864), L'Ami Fritz (1864, their best known novel), Le Juif Polonais (1869, their best known play, known in English as The Bells), Les Rantzau (1882, a play), and several collections of Contes. The Montre du Doyen is from the Contes Fantastiques (1860).
Edition: Most of their work has been published by Hetzel.
LA MONTRE DU DOYEN