Sentence:  Thus, when he drew up instructions in lawyer language ... his clerks ... understood him very well. If he had written a love letter, or a farce, or a <WSD>"ballade</WSD>", or a story, no one, either clerks, or friends, or compositors, would have understood anything but a word here and a word there. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Any of various genres of single-movement musical pieces having lyrical and narrative elements.