[40] The Gregorian calendar was abolished by the National Convention in 1793, who decreed that September 22, 1792, should be regarded as the first day of a new era. The year was divided into twelve months, with names derived from natural phenomena. Nivose (snowy) was the fourth of these months. Thus, the period mentioned in the text includes from December 21, 1800, to January 19, 1801.--T. [41] Since M. Funck-Brentano's book was published, his conclusions have been corroborated by Vicomte Maurice Boutry in a study published in the _Revue des Etudes historiques_ (1899, p. 172). The Vicomte furnishes an additional proof. He says that the Duchess de Créquy, in the third book of her _Souvenirs_, gives a _résumé_ of a conversation on the Iron Mask between Marshal de Noailles, the Duchess de Luynes, and others, and adds: "The most considerable and best informed persons of my time always thought that the famous story had no other foundation than the capture and captivity of the Piedmontese Mattioli."--T. [42] "I have seen these ills, and I am not twenty yet." [43] These verses were, of course, in Latin.--T. [44] Palissot was a dramatist and critic who in his comedy _Les Philosophes_ had bitterly attacked Rousseau, Diderot, and the Encyclopædists generally.--T. [45] The old prison of Paris. It was the debtors' prison, famous also for the number of actors who were imprisoned there under the _ancien régime_. It was demolished in 1780.--T. [46] "Not unto us, O Lord, but unto Thy name give glory! "Know our heart and search out our ways." [47] "The victory is won!"--T. [48] Charenton was under the direction of a religious order known as the _Frères de la Charité_, who undertook the care of sick and weak-minded poor.--T. [49] This was Elizabeth Chudleigh (1720-1788), the notorious beauty who privately married the Hon. Augustus Hervey, afterwards Earl of Bristol, separated from him after three years, and became the mistress of the second Duke of Kingston, whom she bigamously married. After his death she was tried by the House of Lords for bigamy, and fled to France to escape punishment. Her gallantries and eccentricities were the talk of Europe.--T. [50] Instructed by his misfortunes and his captivity how to vanquish the efforts and the rage of tyrants, he taught the French how true courage can win liberty. [51] Jocrisse is the stock French type of the booby, and as such is a character in many comedies. He breaks a plate, for instance; his master asks him how he managed to be so clumsy, and he instantly smashes another, saying, "_Just like that!_" His master asks him to be sure and wake him early in the morning; Jocrisse answers: "Right, sir, depend on me; _but of course you'll ring_!"--T.