_the Carrousel_, or 'tilting-ground,' was an open space in front of the Tuileries.
130 _Trial of the Seven Bishops_: James II, in 1687, issued a 'declaration of indulgence,' promising to suspend certain laws against Roman Catholics. His command that this declaration should be read in all parish churches was resisted by seven bishops, who were accordingly brought to trial for sedition. The declaration was very unpopular in the country, so that the result of the trial was anxiously awaited.
135 _Cimon_ was one of the Athenian commanders in the Persian war. He died in 449 B.C.
140 The scene of Hawthorne's novel, _The House of the Seven Gables_, is laid in a small town in New England.
148 Mr Weston was in the plot with the highwayman to rob Dr Barnard. He had himself tampered with his own pistols (in the stable at Maidstone) so that they should miss fire. Hence his peevishness with Denis Duval, for so unexpectedly routing the thief.
153 Jane Eyre is governess to Mr Rochester's daughter, Adèle. She describes how he cross-questioned her with regard to her accomplishments.
157 Thoreau lived for two years in a small hut which he built for himself in a wood near Concord, in New England. This extract is from the account he wrote of his life there.
171 Stevenson came of a family of engineers, and he himself was supposed to be preparing for the same profession. But he already wished to be a writer, and his interest in the harbour-works at Wick, in Caithness, which he had been sent to study, was romantic rather than practical.
End of Project Gutenberg's A Book of English Prose, by Percy Lubbock