German composition

Section 104 The Drama of the French Revolution of 1848 — IV

At one in the morning they are joined⁠1 by (von) one of the King’s sons, who informs the unhappy pair that the claims⁠2 of the grandson had⁠3 been disregarded, and that the republic had been declared by the people of Paris. It is enough. The King shaves off his whiskers, puts on green spectacles, buries⁠4 his face in a handkerchief, speaks English, and calls himself Smith. The wind is⁠5 high, the coast⁠6 dangerous, embarkation⁠7 is out of question at the moment, and before an opportunity offers, the rank of the runaways⁠8 is discovered. Fortune (S. 3, N. 2), however, is⁠9 with them: they escape⁠10 capture and put to sea. Protected by Heaven, they reach in safety⁠11 the hospitable shores of England.

Meanwhile⁠12, what has happened in Paris? The whole city has given way⁠13 to a handful of rioters—men (S. 53, N. 9) who meditated an “emeute⁠14”, and effected, to their astonishment, an actual revolution. But⁠15 two individuals upon the side of the King evinced a⁠16 particle of courage, and these were women—his wife and his daughter-in-law already⁠17 mentioned. The⁠18 rest of the city were⁠19 faithless to themselves as well as to the King.

Notes

1 ‘to be joined’, here eingeholt werden (to be overtaken).

2 Here Thronansprüche.

3 According to the two rules in §§ 28 and 30 of the Appendix, the Perfect of the Subjunctive Mood is to be used in this and the following clause. The two clauses, however, can be joined by omitting the second conjunction ‘that’ and the copula ‘had been’ of the first clause. Turn ‘to disregard’ by nicht anerkennen; the words ‘by — Paris’ may be briefly rendered by von den Parisern, which place immediately after the conjunction ‘and’.

4 ‘to bury’, here = to veil, umhüllen; the prep. ‘in’ must then be rendered by mit.

5 is high = blows violently.

6 since the copula ‘is’ was changed into another verb in the previous clause, it must be inserted here.

7 The literal version of this clause would not read well. I propose to use the following construction: it is (Comp. N. 19) for the moment impossible to embark.

8 runaways = fugitives.

9 is with them, ist ihnen hold (propitious).

10 to escape capture, der Verhaftung entgehen; to put to sea, in die See stechen.

11 glücklich; ‘shores’, here Gestade.

12 Inzwischen, which place after the copula ‘has’. The verb ‘to happen’ is conjugated with sein.

13 to give way = to yield, conj. with sein; handful, Häuflein.

14 Aufruhr m.; rioter, Aufrührer.

15 but = only; individuals = persons.

16 a particle of = a little.

17 deren wir schon erwähnten.

18 All the others in the city.

19 were — King = ‘were just as faithless towards themselves as they were towards the King’, and insert the grammatical subject es after the pronoun ‘they’.—The grammatical subject es is frequently employed for emphasizing the real subject or to give more tone and like to the construction; as—Es sprach die Leidenschaft aus seinen Zügen. It is, moreover, used with all impersonal verbs; as—es friert, es donnert, es giebt, es ist.