Cousin Pons
Page 37
by Honoré de Balzac
Pray excuse the copyist’s errors.
Paris,
July 1846 – May 1847
*i.e. illicit unions. There were then only twelve arrondissements (administrative districts) in Paris.
*For convenience, this term is used throughout for juge de paix: a paid magistrate who deals with minor civil and criminal cases.
*In French, fraisier = strawberry-plant.
*These reactionary Ordinances provoked the revolution which sent Charles X into exile. The argument is, of course, a specious one. You might as well say that by starting a fire in your house you help the firemen!
*See note to Chapter 21, p. 215.