209 sang, a frequent metonymy for _race_, as in English. 211 Book of Esther, iv. 14: "and who knoweth whether thou art not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" 214 vain--"idle," "useless." Cf. "in vain." 216 ses saints = "his holy ones." 218 d'un enfant, and not _d'une enfant_, because the statement is general. The next line appeals to Esther directly, hence the fem. heureuse. 221 peuvent = "can avail." 226 Cf. Isaiah, xl. 17. "All the nations are as nothing before him; they are counted to him less than nothing." 227 trépas (from _trans_ and low Latin _passare_) is the passing across the boundary of life. Cf. our two uses of "trespass." 230 que is here a survival from the very frequent construction which begins with _c'est: c'est, sans doute, que_. . .-_Éprouver_ has either an active sense, "to put to the test," or a passive, "to experience." 232 The addition of _bien_ to _vouloir_ weakens the meaning from strong volition to condescension. Here: "has deigned." Cf. l. 357. Similarly _aimer_ = "to love," but _aimer bien_ = "to like." 234 en. See App. V, ii. C. 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. 263 Note that adjectives at the end of the line are strongly emphatic. 266 Foi means: 1. "faith," l. 256; 2. "loyalty," l. 375; 3. "truth," as here; 4. "promise," l. 1152. If the Jews were annihilated, the Saviour promised by God to the seed of Abraham could not be born to them.