2. Final mute _e_ in the body of the line is not counted as a syllable before a word beginning with a vowel or mute _h_ (elision). 3. Mute _e_ in the termination of the third person plural, imperfect and conditional, of verbs is not counted; nor is it counted in the future and conditional of verbs of the first conjugation whose stem ends in a vowel (_oublieront_, also written in verse _oublîront_; see p. 130, l. 14). 4. When two or more vowel sounds other than mute _e_ come together within a word they are sometimes treated as a diphthong and make but one syllable, sometimes separated and counted as two. Usage is not altogether consistent in this particular; the same combination is in some words pronounced as two syllables (_ni-ais, li-en, pri-ère, pri-ons, jou-et_), in others as one (_biais, rien, bar-rière, ai-mions, fou-et_); and even the same word is sometimes variable (_ancien, hier, duel_). In general such combinations are monosyllabic if they have developed from a single vowel in the Latin parent word. 5. Certain words allow a different spelling according to the demands of the verse (_encore_ or _encor_, _Charles_ or _Charle_). Since the sixteenth century, hiatus has been forbidden by the rules of French versification. But, as we have just seen (under 4 above), two vowels are allowed to come together in the interior of a word. What the rule against hiatus does proscribe then is the use of a word ending in a vowel (except mute _e_, which is elided; cf. 2 above) before a word beginning with a vowel or mute _h_, and the use of words in which mute _e_ not final follows a vowel in the interior of the word; e.g. _tu as, et ont, livrée jolie; louent, allées_. But hiatus is not regarded as existing when two vowels are brought together by the elision of a mute _e_; e.g. in Hugo's lines, the _vie a_ in L'ouragan de leur vie a pris toutes les pages (p. 108, l. 20), and the _joie et_ in Sois ma force et ma joie et mon pilier d'airain (p. 130, l. 8). Cf. also 1 and 3 above. The rhythm of the line comes from the relation of its stressed to its unstressed syllables. All lines have a stress (_lève_) on the rhyme syllable, and if they have more than four syllables they have one or more other stresses. Lines that consist of more than eight syllables are usually broken by a caesural pause, which must follow a stressed syllable. In lines of ten syllables the pause comes generally after the fourth syllable, sometimes after the fifth; in lines of twelve syllables, after the sixth.