[15] The title rôle in a comedy by Henri Mounier, entitled _Grandeur et décadence de M. Joseph Prudhomme_ (1852). He is a writing-master, very vain, given (like Mr. Micawber) to tall talk and long-winded periods. He has become typical of "much cry and little wool." As an officer of the National Guard he says, "This sabre constitutes the finest day in my life! I accept it, and if ever I find myself at the head of your phalanxes, I shall know how to use it in defence of our institutions--and, if need arise, to fight for them!"--T. [16] In the early days of the Revolution, Paris was divided into sections or wards, and as the _pike_ had played a great part in the recent disturbances, one of the wards was known as the "Pike" section.--T. [17] A disciple of the Marquis de Sade (see p. 35), a notorious debauchee, whose book _Justine_ was a disgusting mixture of brutality and obscenity.--T. [18] The pseudonym of Beffroy de Reigny (1757-1811), author of farces, and of a _Précis historique de la prise de la Bastille_.--T. [19] The name given to the constitutional struggles of the nobles and the Parlement of Paris against Mazarin and the royal power (1648-1654). The name is derived from _fronde_, a sling. A wit of the Parlement, one Bachaumont, "told the lawyers of that august body that they were like schoolboys playing in the town ditches with their slings, who run away directly the watchman appears, and begin again when his back is turned." See Kitchin, iii. pp. 102-128.--T. [20] See _Monte-Cristo_.--T. [21] Delivered to the French Association for the Advancement of Science in 1893. [22] The battle fought on August 10, 1557, in which Egmont with a combined force of Spaniards, Flemish, and English (sent by Queen Mary) routed Constable Montmorency and the finest chivalry of France. It was in commemoration of this victory that Philip II. built the palace of the Escurial, shaped like a gridiron because the battle was fought on St. Lawrence's day.--T. [23] The following unpublished letter from Pontchartrain to Bernaville, intimating his probable nomination as governor of the Bastille, shows exactly what Louis XIV.'s government demanded of the head of the great state prison:- "Versailles, September 28, 1707.