la légende des siecles

échouait. The word is here used transitively (a rare use) in the sense of 'drove against.'
soudan, a word of Arabic origin, was a mediaeval name for certain Mahometan princes
in Egypt and Asia Minor. The word seems here loosely to designate the Turkish sultans.
turbé, a kind of small round chapel, usually attached to a mosque, in which the tombs of
Sultans and other great persons are placed.
LA CONFIANCE DU MARQUIS FABRICE.
This is the third section of a poem called L'Italie: Ratbert. The story is of Hugo's own
invention, and is intended to delineate on the one hand the savagery, and on the other
the knight-errantry, of the Middle Ages.
Pharamond, a somewhat legendary Frankish chieftain of the fifth century A.D.
Final. The name, alone or in composition, is borne by three small towns or villages on
or near the Genoese coast. There was a marquisate of Final in the Middle Ages.
Witikind. Hugo possibly had in mind the Saxon chief of this name (A.D. 750-807) who
for five years successfully resisted the power of Charlemagne, and finally made an
honourable peace with him. It does not appear that he ever bore the title of king. His
country was the ancient Saxony, that is the country between the lower Rhine and the
lower Elbe. He had no connexion with Genoa, whither Hugo has dragged the Saxons
without justification.
Albenga: the name is taken from a small town on the Genoese coast, not far from Final.
abbé du peuple, a name of a popularly elected magistrate at Genoa. The office was in
existence from 1270 to 1339.
tribun militaire de Rome: Latin, tribunus militaris; the officers of the legion, six in
number, who in republican times commanded in turn, six months at a time.
architrave, the lower part of the entablature, that which rests immediately on the
column. To understand the line, it must be remembered that the tower is conceived as a
ruin.
alleux, a feudal term, signifying hereditary property. The word is misused here in the
sense of feudal dues.
censive. Another feudal term, meaning the dues owed by an estate to the lord of whom
it was held.
balistes (from Latin ballista), mediaeval machines for hurling stones and darts.
le puits d'une sachette, a hole in which a recluse lived. Sachette (masc. sachet) was the
name given to certain nuns of the Augustinian order who wore a loose woollen garment