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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/34071-8.txt b/34071-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..00d98e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/34071-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2455 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of an Empire, by Mary Parmele + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Evolution of an Empire + A Brief Historical Sketch of France + +Author: Mary Parmele + +Release Date: October 15, 2010 [EBook #34071] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +THE + +EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE + + + +A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF + +FRANCE + + + +BY + +MARY PARMELE + + +_Author of "Evolution of Empire Series, Germany;" + "Who? When? What? Literature Chart."_ + + + +NEW YORK + +WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, + +59 FIFTH AVENUE + +1894 + + + + +PUBLISHED AND COPYRIGHTED, 1894, + +BY + +WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, + +59 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK CITY. + + + +ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY + +THE PUBLISHERS' PRINTING COMPANY + +182-186 WEST 14TH STREET + +NEW YORK + + + + +PREFACE. + +In an attempt to tell the story of a great nation in about 100 pages, +it is needless to say there must be a rigid exclusion of all save +essential facts. To those already familiar with the subject, this +sketch is offered merely as a reminder of the sequence of conditions +and events in the evolution of France; while to the student it is +presented as a framework upon which may be placed, in orderly and +comprehensible fashion, the results of future reading and research. + +To the latter class I would suggest that a series of papers, written +upon the most prominent themes found in the Table of Contents, will +bear fruit in knowledge more real and vital than may be obtained from +the writings of others, however eloquent and vivid the presentation. + +M. P. + +NEW YORK, July 23d, 1894. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +The Aryan Family of Nations--Keltic Race--Ancient Gaul--Gauls in +Rome--Gauls in Greece and in Asia Minor + + +CHAPTER II. + +Roman Conquest of Gaul--Julius Cæsar + + +CHAPTER III. + +Birth of Christianity--Its Dissemination--Persecution at Lyons by order +of Marcus Aurelius--The Roman Empire Espouses Christianity under +Constantine + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Gaul Overrun and Subjugated by Franks--Clovis King--Decay of the +Merovingian Line--_Maire du Palais_ King _de facto_--Charles +Martel--Birth of Mohammedanism--Its Triumphs--Christendom +Threatened--Pepin King--Charlemagne--Alliance with Pope--France, Italy, +and Germany Emerge as Separate Nationalities + + +CHAPTER V. + +The Northmen--Beginnings of Feudalism in France--Normandy Bestowed upon +the Northmen--Conquest of England by William, Duke of +Normandy--Albigenses--Inquisition at Toulouse--The Crusades + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Decline of Feudalism--Creation of the Commune--Charles VII.--Henry V. +in France--Joan of Arc + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Francis I.--Huguenots--Catharine de Medici--Francis II. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Massacre of St. Bartholomew--Henry III.--Henry IV. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Edict of Nantes--Louis XIII.--Richelieu + + +CHAPTER X. + +Louis XIV.--Revocation of the Edict of Nantes--Louis XV.--Age of +Voltaire and Rousseau--The Gathering Storm + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette--American Colonies Arrayed Against +England--French Aid to America--Smouldering Fires of Discontent--Louis +Convokes States-General--National Assembly Created by Commons--Bastille +Attacked--Revolution--Execution of King + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Napoleon Bonaparte--Toulon--Campaign in Italy--Empire +Established--Europe Under the Feet of the Great Corsican--Marie +Louise--Waterloo--Louis XVIII.--Charles X.--Louis Philippe--Second +Republic--Louis Napoleon President--Second Empire--Napoleon +III.--Franco-Prussian War--Sedan--Third Republic--Review of Present +Conditions + + + + +EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. + + +CHAPTER I. + +One of the greatest achievements of modern research is the discovery of +a key by which we may determine the kinship of nations. What we used +to conjecture, we now know. An identity in the structural form of +language establishes with scientific certitude that however diverse +their character and civilizations, Russian, German, English, French, +Spaniard, are all but branches from the same parent stem, are all alike +children of the Asiatic Aryan. + +So skilful are modern methods of questioning the past, and so +determined the effort to find out its secrets, we may yet know the +origin and history of this wonderful Asiatic people, and when and why +they left their native continent and colonized upon the northern shores +of the Mediterranean. Certain it is, however, that, more centuries +before the Christian era than there have been since, they had peopled +Western Europe. + +This branch of the Aryan family is known as the Keltic, and was older +brother to the Teuton and Slav, which at a much later period followed +them from the ancestral home, and appropriated the middle and eastern +portions of the European Continent. + +The name of Gaul was given to the territory lying between the Ocean and +the Mediterranean, and the Pyrenees and the Alps. And at a later +period a portion of Northern Gaul, and the islands lying north of it, +received from an invading chieftain and his tribe the name _Brit_ or +_Britain_ (or Pryd or Prydain). + +If the mind could be carried back on the track of time, and we could +see what we now call France as it existed twenty centuries before the +Christian era, we should behold the same natural features: the same +mountains rearing their heads; the same rivers flowing to the sea; the +same plains stretching out in the sunlight. But instead of vines and +flowers and cultivated fields we should behold great herds of wild ox +and elk, and of swine as fierce as wolves, ranging in a climate as cold +as Norway; and vast inaccessible forests, the home of beasts of prey, +which contended with man for food and shelter. + +Let us read Guizot's description of life in Gaul five centuries before +Christ: + +"Here lived six or seven millions of men a bestial life, in dwellings +dark and low, built of wood and clay and covered with branches or +straw, open to daylight by the door alone and confusedly heaped +together behind a rampart of timber, earth, and stone, which enclosed +and protected what they were pleased to call--a _town_." + +Such was the Paris, and such the Frenchmen of the age of Pericles! And +the same tides that washed the sands of Southern Gaul, a few hours +later ebbed and flowed upon the shores of Greece--rich in culture, with +refinements and subtleties in art which are the despair of the world +to-day--with an intellectual endowment never since attained by any +people. + +The same sun which rose upon temples and palaces and life serene and +beautiful in Greece, an hour later lighted sacrificial altars and +hideous orgies in the forests of Gaul. While the Gaul was nailing the +heads of human victims to his door, or hanging them from the bridle of +his horse, or burning or flogging his prisoners to death, the Greek, +with a literature, an art, and a civilization in ripest perfection, +discussed with his friends the deepest problems of life and destiny, +which were then baffling human intelligence, even as they are with us +to-day. Truly we of Keltic and Teuton descent are late-comers upon the +stage of national life. + +There was no promise of greatness in ancient Gaul. It was a great +unregulated force, rushing hither and thither. Impelled by insatiate +greed for the possessions of their neighbors, there was no permanence +in their loves or their hatreds. The enemies of to-day were the allies +of to-morrow. Guided entirely by the fleeting desires and passions of +the moment, with no far-reaching plans to restrain, the sixty or more +tribes composing the Gallic people were in perpetual state of feud and +anarchy, apparently insensible to the ties of brotherhood, which give +concert of action, and stability in form of national life. If they +overran a neighboring country, it seemed not so much for permanent +acquisition, as to make it a camping-ground until its resources were +exhausted. + +We read of one Massillia who came with a colony of Greeks long ages +ago, and after founding the city of Marseilles, created a narrow bright +border of Greek civilization along the Southern edge of the benighted +land. It was a brief illumination, lasting only a century or more, and +leaving few traces; but it may account for the superior intellectual +quality of the southern provinces in future France. + +It requires a vast extent of territory to sustain a people living by +the chase, and upon herds and flocks; hence the area which now amply +maintains thirty-five millions of Frenchmen was all too small for six +or seven million Gauls; and they were in perpetual struggle with their +neighbors for land--more land. + +"Give us land," they said to the Romans, and when land was denied them +and the gates of cities disdainfully closed upon their messengers, not +land, but vengeance, was their cry; and hordes of half-naked barbarians +trampled down the vineyards, and rushed, a tumultuous torrent, upon +Rome. + +The Romans could not stand before this new and strange kind of warfare. +The Gauls streamed over the vanquished legions into the Eternal City, +silent and deserted save only by the Senate and a few who remained +intrenched in the Citadel; and there the barbarians kept them besieged +for seven months, while they made themselves at home amid +uncomprehended luxuries. + +Of course Roman skill and courage at last dislodged and drove them +back. But the fact remained that the Gaul had been there,--master of +Rome; that the ironclad legions had been no match for his naked force, +and a new sensation thrilled through the length and breadth of Gaul. +It was the first throb of national life. The sixty or more fragments +drew closer together into something like Gallic unity--with a common +danger to meet, a common foe to drive back. + +Hereafter there was another hunger to be appeased besides that for food +and land; a hunger for conquest, for vengeance, and for glory for the +Gallic name. National pride was born. + +For years they hovered like wolves about Rome. But skill and superior +intelligence tell in the centuries. It took long--and cost no end of +blood and treasure; but two hundred years from the capture of Rome, the +Gauls were driven out of Italy, and the Alps pronounced a barrier set +by Nature herself against barbarian encroachments. + +Italy was not the only country suffering from the destroying footsteps +of the Western Kelts. There had been long ago an overflow of a tribe +in Northern Gaul (the Kymrians), which had hewed and plundered its way +south and eastward; until at the time of Alexander (340 B.C.) it was +knocking at the gates of Macedonia. + +Stimulated by the success at Rome fifty years earlier, they were, with +fresh insolence, demanding "land," and during the centuries which +followed, the Gallic name acquired no fresh lustre in Greece. +Half-naked, gross, ferocious and ignorant, sometimes allies, but always +a scourge, they finally crossed the Hellespont (278 B.C.), and turned +their attention to Asia Minor. And there, at last, we find them +settled in a province called Gallicia, where they lived without +amalgamating with the people about them; it is said, even as late as +400 years after Christ, speaking the language of their tribal home +(what is now Belgium). And these were the Galatians--the "foolish +Galatians," to whom Paul addressed his epistle; and we have followed up +this Gallic thread simply because it mingles with the larger strand of +ancient and sacred history with which we are all so familiar. + + +It is not strange that Roman courage and endurance became a by-word. +Her fibre was toughened by perpetual strain of conflict. Even while +she was struggling with Gaul and while the echoes of the Hunnish +invasion were still resounding through the Continent, Hannibal, with +his hosts, was pouring through Gaul and gathering accessions from that +people as he swept down into Italy. Then, with the memories of the +Carthagenian wars still fresh at Rome, the Goths were at her +gates,--their blows directed with a solidity superior to that of the +barbarians who had preceded them. Where the Gauls had knocked, the +Goths thundered. + +Again the city was invaded by barbarian feet, and again did superior +training and intelligence drive back the invading torrent and triumph +over native brute force. + +Such, in brief outline, was the condition of the centuries just before +the Christian era. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +The making of a nation is not unlike bread or cake making. One element +is used as the basis, to which are added other component parts, of +varying qualities, and the result we call England, or Germany, or +France. The steps by which it is accomplished, the blending and fusing +of the elements, require centuries, and the process makes what we +call--history. + +It was written in the book of fate that Gaul should become a great +nation; but not until fused and interpenetrated with two other +nationalities. She must first be humanized and civilized by the Roman, +and then energized and made free from the Roman by the Teuton. + +The instrument chosen for the former was Julius Cæsar, and for the +latter--five centuries later--Clovis, the Frankish leader. It is safe +to affirm that no man has ever so changed the course of human events as +did Julius Cæsar. Napoleon, who strove to imitate him 1800 years +later, was a charlatan in comparison; a mere scene-shifter on a great +theatrical stage. Not a trace of his work remains upon humanity to-day. + +Cæsar opened up a pathway for the old civilizations of the world to +flow into Western Europe, and the sodden mass of barbarism was infused +with a life-compelling current. This was not accomplished by placing +before the inferior race a higher ideal of life for imitation, but by a +mingling of the blood of the nations--a transfusion into Gallic veins +of the germs of a higher living and thinking--thus making them heirs to +the great civilizations of antiquity. + +No human event was ever fraught with such consequences to the human +race as the conquest of Gaul by Julius Cæsar. + +The Gallic wars had for centuries drained the treasure and taxed the +resources of Rome. Cæsar conceived the audacious idea of stopping them +at their source--in fact, of making Gaul a Roman province. + +It was a marvellous exhibition, not simply of force, but of force +wielded by supreme intelligence and craft. He had lived four years +among this people and knew their sources of weakness, their internal +jealousies and rivalries, their incohesiveness. When they hurled +themselves against Rome, it was as a mass of sharp fragments. When the +Goths did the same, it was as one solid, indivisible body. Cæsar saw +that by adroit management he could disintegrate this people, even while +conquering them. + +By forcibly maintaining in power those who submitted to him, being by +turns gentle and severe, ingratiating here, terrifying there, he +established a tremendous personal force; and during nine years carried +on eight campaigns, marvels in the art of war, as well as in the +subtler methods of negotiation and intrigue. He had successively dealt +with all the Gallic tribes, even including Great Britain, subjugating +either through their own rivalries, or by his invincible arm. + +Equally able to charm and to terrify, he had all the gifts, all the +means to success and empire, that can be possessed by man. Great in +politics as in war, as full of resource in the forum as on the +battle-field, he was by nature called to dominion. + +It was not as a patriot, simply intent upon freeing Rome of an +harassing enemy, that he endured those nine years in Gaul--not as a +great leader burning with military ardor that he conducted those eight +campaigns. The conquest of Gaul meant the greater conquest of Rome. +The one was accomplished; he now turned his back upon the devastated +country, and prepared to complete his great project of human ascendency. + +Rome was mistress of the world; he--would be master of Rome. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +While the Star of Empire was thus moving toward the West, another and +brighter star was about to arise in the East. So accustomed are we to +the story, that we lose all sense of wonder at its recital. + +Julius Cæsar's brief triumph was over. Marc Antony had recited his +virtues over his bier, Rome had wept, and then forgotten him in the +absorbing splendors of his nephew Augustus. In an obscure village of +an obscure country in Asia Minor, the young wife of a peasant finds +shelter in a stable, and gives birth to a son, who is cradled in the +straw of a manger, from which the cattle are feeding. + +Can the mind conceive of human circumstances more lowly? The child +grew to manhood, and in his thirty-three years of life was never lifted +above the obscure sphere into which he was born; never spoke from the +vantage-ground of worldly elevation,--simply moving among people of his +own station in life, mechanics, fishermen, and peasants, he told of a +religion of love, a gospel of peace, for which he was willing to die. + +Who would have dreamed that this was the germ of the most potent, the +most regenerative force the world had ever known? That thrones, +empires, principalities, and powers would melt and crumble before his +name? Of all miracles, is not this the greatest? + +The passionate ardor with which this religion was propagated in the +first two centuries had no motive but the yearning to make others share +in its benefits and hopes; and to this end to accept the belief that +Jesus Christ had come in fulfilment of a long-promised Saviour,--who +should be sent to this world clothed with divine authority to establish +a spiritual kingdom, in which he was King of Kings, Lord of Lords, +Mediator between us and the Father, of whom he was the "only begotten +Son." + +The religion in its essence was absolutely simple. Its founder summed +it up in two sentences,--expressing the duty of man to man, and of man +to God. That was all the Theology he formulated. + +For two centuries the religion of Christ was an elementary spiritual +force. It appealed only to the highest attributes and longings of the +human soul, and under its sustaining influence frail women, men, and +even children were able to endure tortures, of which we cannot read +even now without shuddering horror. + + +Nature's method of gardening is very beautiful. She carefully guards +the seed until it is ripe, then she bursts the imprisoning walls and +gives it to the winds to distribute. Precisely such method was used in +disseminating Christianity. It was not for one people--it was for the +healing of the nations, and its home was wherever man abides. + +Nearly five decades after Christ's death upon the cross, Jerusalem was +destroyed by Titus. The home of Christianity was effaced. At just the +right moment the enclosing walls had broken, and freed to the winds the +germs in all their primitive purity. + +Imperial favor had not tarnished it, human ambitions had not employed +and degraded it, nor had it been made into complex system by ingenious +casuists. The pure spiritual truth, unsullied as it came from the hand +of its founder, was scattered broadcast, as the band of Christians +dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, naturally forming into +communities here and there, which became the centres of Christian +propagandism. Lyons in Gaul was such a centre. + + +The fires of persecution had been lighted here and there throughout the +Empire, and the Emperor Nero, under whom the Apostles Peter and Paul +are said to have suffered martyrdom, had amused himself by making +torches of the Christians at Rome. But until 177 A.D. Gaul was exempt +from such horrors. + +Marcus Aurelius--that peerless pagan,--large in intelligence, exalted +in character, and guided by a conscientious rectitude which has made +his name shine like a star in the lurid light of Roman history, still +failed utterly to comprehend the significance of this spiritual kingdom +established by Christ on earth. He it was who ordered the first +persecution in Gaul. In pursuance of his command, horrible tortures +were inflicted at Lyons upon those who would not abjure the new faith. + +A letter, written by an eye-witness, pictures with terrible vividness +the scenes which followed. Many cases are described with harrowing +detail, and of one Blandina it is said: "From morn till eve they put +her to all manner of torture, marvelling that she still lived with her +body pierced through and through and torn piecemeal by so many tortures +of which a single one should have sufficed to kill her, to which she +only replied, 'I am a Christian.'" + +The recital goes on to tell how she was then cast into a dungeon,--her +feet compressed and dragged out to the utmost tension of the +muscles,--then left alone in darkness, until new methods of torture +could be devised. + +Finally she was brought, with other Christians, into the amphitheatre, +hanging from a cross to which she was tied, and there thrown to the +beasts. As the beasts refused to touch her she was taken back to the +dungeon to be reserved for another occasion, being brought out daily to +witness the fate and suffering of her friends and fellow-martyrs; still +answering the oft-repeated question--"I am a Christian." + +The writer goes on to say, "After she had undergone fire, the talons of +beasts, and every agony which could be thought of, she was wrapped in a +network and thrown to a bull, who tossed her in the air"--and her +sufferings were ended. + +Truly it cost something to say "I am a Christian" in those days. + +Marcus Aurelius probably gave orders for the persecution at Lyons, with +little knowledge of what would be the nature of those persecutions, or +of the religion he was trying to exterminate. Some of the hours spent +in writing introspective essays would have been well employed in +studying the period in which he lived, and the Empire he ruled. + +Paganism and Druidism, those twin monsters, receded before the +advancing light of Christianity. Neither contained anything which +could nourish the soul of man, and both had become simply badges of +nationality. + +Druidism was the last stronghold of independent Gallic life. It was a +mixture of northern myth and oriental dreams of metempsychosis, coarse, +mystical, and cruel. The Roman paganism which was superimposed by the +conquering race was the mere shell of a once vital religion. Educated +men had long ceased to believe in the gods and divinities of Greece, +and it is said that the Roman augurs, while giving their solemn +prophetic utterances, could not look at each other without laughing. + + +In the year 312, alas for Christianity, it was espoused by imperial +power. When the Emperor Constantine declared himself a Christian, +there was no doubt rejoicing among the saints; but it was the beginning +of the degeneracy of the religion of Christ. The faith of the humble +was to be raised to a throne; its lowly garb to be exchanged for purple +and scarlet, the gospel of peace to be enforced by the sword. + +The Empire was crumbling, and upon its ruins the race of the future and +social conditions of modern times were forming. Paganism and Druidism +would have been an impossibility. Christianity even with its lustre +dimmed, its purity tarnished, its simplicity overlaid with +scholasticism, was better than these. The miracle had been +accomplished. The great Roman Empire had said: "I am Christian." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Gaul had been Latinized and Christianized. Now one more thing was +needed to prepare her for a great future. Her fibre was to be +toughened by the infusion of a stronger race. Julius Cæsar had shaken +her into submission, and Rome had chastised her into decency of +behavior and speech, but as her manners improved her native vigor +declined. She took kindly to Roman luxury and effeminacy, and could no +longer have thundered at the gates of her neighbors demanding "land." + +But at last the great Roman Empire was dying, and even degenerate Gaul +was struggling out of her relaxing grasp. In her extremity she called +upon the Franks, a powerful Germanic race, to aid her. This people had +long looked with covetous eyes at the fair fields stretching beyond the +Rhine, and lost no time in accepting the invitation. They overspread +the land, and Gaul and Roman alike were submerged beneath the Teuton +flood, while the Frankish Conqueror, Clovis (son of the great +Merovaæus), was at Paris (or "Lutetia") wearing the kingly crown. + +Such was the beginning of independent and of dynastic life in France. + +Rome had found a more powerful ally than she hoped; and the desire of +Gaul was accomplished in that she was free from Rome. But the king of +whom she had dreamed was of her own race; not this terrible Frank. Had +she exchanged one servitude for another? Had she been, not set free, +but simply annexed to the realm of the Barbarian across the Rhine? Let +us say rather that it was an espousal. She had brought her dowry of +beauty and "land," that most coveted of possessions, and had pledged +obedience, for which she was to be cherished, honored, and protected, +and to bear the name of her lord. + + * * * * * + +Ancient heroes are said to be seen through a shadowy lens, which +magnifies their stature. Let us hope that the crimes of the three or +four generations immediately succeeding Clovis have been in like manner +expanded; for it is sickening to read of such monstrous prodigality of +wickedness. Whole families butchered, husbands, wives, +children--anything obstructing the path to the throne--with an atrocity +which makes Richard III. seem a mere pigmy in the art of intrigue and +killing. The chapter closes with the daughter and mother of kings +(Brunehilde or Brunhaut) naked and tied by one arm, one leg and her +hair to the tail of an unbroken horse, and amid jeers and shouts dashed +over the stones of Paris (600 A.D.). + +But even the Frank succumbed to the enervating Gallic influence. The +Merovingian line commenced by Clovis faded from ferocity into +imbecility. Its Kings in less than two centuries had become mere +lay-figures, wearing the symbols of an authority which existed nowhere, +unless in the _Maire du Palais_. + +This office from being a sort of royal stewardship had grown to be the +governing power _de facto_. While Theodoric, the Phantom King, was +having his long locks dressed and perfumed, his _Maire du Palais_, +Charles, was moulding and welding his kingdom, and at the same time +staying the Mohammedan flood which was pouring over the Pyrenees; and, +by his final and decisive blow in defence of the Christianity espoused +by Clovis, earning the name _Charles Martel_ (the hammer). + + * * * * * + +Less than one hundred years after the death of Clovis, there had come +out of Asia, that birthplace of religions, a new faith, which was +destined to be for centuries the scourge of Christendom, and which +to-day rules one-third of the human family. Zoroaster, Buddha, Christ, +had successively come with saving message to humanity, and now (600 +A.D.) Mohammed believed himself divinely appointed to drive out of +Arabia the idolatry of ancient Magianism (the religion of Zoroaster). + +Christianity had passed through strange vicissitudes. Kings, Emperors, +Popes, and Bishops had been terrible custodians of its truths, and +while many still held it in its primitive purity, ecclesiastics were +fiercely fighting over the nature of the Trinity, the divinity of the +Virgin Mother, and the Church was shaken to its foundation by furious +factions. + +In this hour of weakness, the Persians (590 A.D.) had conquered Asia +Minor. Bethlehem, Gethsemane, and Calvary were profaned; the Holy +Sepulchre had been burned, and the cross carried off amid shouts of +laughter. Magianism had insulted Christianity, and no miracle had +interposed! The heavens did not roll asunder, nor did the earth open +her abysses to swallow them up. There was consternation and doubt in +Christendom. + +Such was the state of the Church when Mohammedanism came into +existence. "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet." Such +was its battle-cry and its creed, and the moral precepts of the Koran +its gospel. There seems nothing in this to account for the mad +enthusiasm and the passion for worship in its followers. But in less +than a hundred years this lion out of Arabia had subjected Syria, +Mesopotamia, Egypt, Northern Africa, and the Spanish Peninsula. Now, +sword in one hand, and the Koran in the other, the Mohammedan had +crossed the Pyrenees and was in Southern Gaul. + +Under the strange magic of this faith, the largest religious empire the +world had known had sprung into existence, stretching from the Chinese +Wall to the Atlantic; from the Caspian to the Indian Ocean; and +Jerusalem, the metropolis of Christianity-Jerusalem, the Mecca of the +Christian, was lost! The crescent floated over the birthplace of our +Lord, and notwithstanding the temporary successes of the Crusades, it +does to this day. + +If the Pyrenees were passed, the very existence of Christendom was +threatened. Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne, averted +this danger when he stayed the infidel flood at the battle of Tours, +732 A.D. + +Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, who succeeded him as _Maire du +Palais_, does not seem to have had the temper or spirit of an usurper, +but simply to have been an energetic, resolute man who was bored by the +circumlocution of governing through a King who did not exist. He +determined to put an end to the fiction, and to cut the Gordian knot by +first cutting the long curls of the last Merovingian, Childeric; and +then putting the crown upon his own head, he sent the unfortunate +phantom of royalty to a monastery, to reflect upon the uncertainty of +human pleasures and events. By right of manhood and superiority, the +Carlovingian line had succeeded to the Merovingian. + + * * * * * + +Against the dark background of European history, and with the broad +level of obscurity stretching over the ages at its feet, there rises +one shining pinnacle. Considered as man or sovereign, Charlemagne is +one of the most impressive figures in history. His seven feet of +stature clad in shining steel, his masterful grasp of the forces of his +time, his splendid intelligence, instinct even then with the modern +spirit, all combine to elevate him in solitary grandeur. + +Charlemagne found France in disorder measureless, and apparently +insurmountable. Barbarian invasion without, and anarchy within; Saxon +paganism pressing in upon the North, and Asiatic Islamism upon the +South and West; a host of forces struggling for dominion in a nation +brutish, ignorant, and without cohesion. + +It is the attribute of genius to discern opportunity where others see +nothing. Charlemagne saw rising out of this chaos a great resuscitated +Roman empire, which should be at the same time a spiritual and +Christian empire as well. Saxons, Slavs, Huns, Lombards, Arabs, came +under his compelling grasp; these antagonistic races all held together +by the force of one terrible will, in unnatural combination with +France. No political liberties, no popular assemblies discussing +public measures; it is Charlemagne alone who fills the picture; it is +absolutism,--marked by prudence, ability, and grandeur, but still, +absolutism. + +The Pope looked approvingly upon this son of the Church by whose order +4,500 pagan heads could be cut off in one day, and a whole army +compelled to baptism in an afternoon. Here was a champion to be +propitiated! Charlemagne, on the other hand, saw in the Church the +most compliant and effective means to empire. In the loving alliance +formed, he was to be the protector, the Pope the protected. He wore +the Church as a precious jewel in his crown. + +It was a splendid dream, splendidly realized; the most imposing of +human successes, and the most impressive of human failures. It seems +designed as a lesson for the human race in the transitory nature of +power applied from without. + +The vast fabric passed with himself; was gone like a shadow when he was +gone. The unity of the Empire was buried in the grave of its founder. +In twenty-nine years (by the treaty of Verdun) three kingdoms emerged +from the crumbling mass. France, Italy, Germany, already separated by +race repulsions, had taken up each a distinct national existence, the +Imperial crown remaining with Germany. + +And France--France, the centre of this dream of unity, with her native +incohesiveness, and in the irony of fate, had broken into no less than +59 fragments, loosely held together by one Carlovingian King. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +I think that it was Lincoln who said that "the Lord must like common +people, because he had made so many of them." The path for the common +people in France at this time led through heavy shadows. But a darker +time was approaching. A system of oppression was maturing, which was +soon to envelop them in the obscurity of darkest night. + +Those Scandinavian freebooters called Northmen, and later Normans, were +the scourge of the kingdom. Nothing was safe from their insolent +courage and rapacity. + +The rich could intrench themselves in stone fortresses, with moats and +drawbridges, and be in comparative security, but the poor were utterly +defenceless against this perennial destroyer. The result was a compact +between the powerful and the weak, which was the beginning of the +Feudal System. It was in effect an exchange of protection for service +and fealty. You give us absolute control of your persons--your +military service when required, and a portion of your substance and the +fruit of your toil--and we will in exchange give you our fortified +castles as a refuge from the Northmen. Such was the offer. It was a +choice between vassalage, serfdom, or destruction outright. + +Simple enough in its beginnings, this became a ramified system of +oppression, a curious network of authority, ingeniously controlling an +entire people. The conditions upon which was engrafted this compact +were of great antiquity, had indeed been brought across the Rhine by +their German conquerors; but the Northmen were the impelling cause of +the swift development of feudalism in France. + +Charlemagne had felt grave apprehensions of evil from these robber +incursions, but could not have conceived of a result such as this, the +most oppressive system ever fastened upon a nation, and one which would +at the same time sap the foundations of royalty itself. + +The theory was that the King was absolute owner of all the territory; +the great lords holding their titles from him on condition of military +service, their vassals pledging military service and obedience to them +again on similar terms, and sub-vassals again to them repeating the +pledge; and so on in descending chain, until at last the serf, that +wretched being whom none looks up to nor fears, is ground to powder +beneath the superimposed mass. No appeal from the authority, no escape +from the caprice or cruelty of his feudal lord. Could any scales +weigh, could any words measure the suffering which must have been +endured? Is it strange, with every aspiration thwarted, hope stifled, +that Europe sank into the long sleep of the Middle Ages? + + +It is easy to conceive that under such a system, where all the affairs +of the realm were adjusted by individual rulers with unlimited power, +and where the great barons could make war upon each other without +authorization from the King, that by the time this nominal head of the +entire system was reached, there was nothing for him to do. In fact, +there was not left one vestige of kingly authority, and Carlovingian +rulers were almost as insignificant as their Merovingian predecessors. +France had, instead of one great sovereign, 150 petty ones! + + * * * * * + +In 911 A.D. the Northmen were offered the province henceforth known as +Normandy, upon condition of their acceptance of the religion and +submission to the laws of the realm. Rollo, the disreputable +robber-chief, took the oath of fealty to the King of France his +Suzerain, and Christian baptism transformed him into respectable, +law-abiding Robert, Duke of Normandy. + +With marvellous facility this people took on the language and manners +of their neighbors, and in a century and a half were prepared to +instruct the Britons in a higher civilization. + +I think it is one hundred years of respectability that is required by a +certain aristocratic club for admission to its membership. The blood +does not acquire the proper shade of azure until it has flowed in the +full light of day for at least three generations. Decidedly, William +the Conqueror, first Norman King of England, could not have been +admitted to this club. + +A century before his birth, his ancestors had lived by looting their +neighbors. They were highwaymen, robbers, by profession. And, to +increase his ineligibility, his mother, a pretty Norman peasant girl, +daughter of a tanner, had ensnared the affections of that pleasant Duke +of Normandy, known as "Robert the Devil." + +William, the fruit of this unconsecrated union, became in time Duke of +Normandy. With that reversion to ancestral types to which scientists +tell us we are all liable, he seems to have looked across the Channel +toward England, with an awakening of his robber-instincts. In a few +weeks, Harold, the last King of the Saxons, lay dead at his feet, and +William, Duke of Normandy, was William I., King of England. + +Then was presented the curious anomaly of an English sovereign who was +also ruler of a French province; an English king who was vassal to the +King of France. A door was thus opened (1066 A.D.) through which +entered entangling complications and countless woes in the future. + + * * * * * + +If Charlemagne had worn the Church as a precious jewel in his crown in +the ninth century, the Church now in the eleventh century wore all the +European states, a tiara of jewels in her mitre. The centre of +dominion had passed from the Empire of Germany to Rome, when Henry IV. +prostrated himself barefooted before Gregory VII. at Canossa in 1072. + +The Church was at its zenith. As a political system it was unrivalled; +but its triumphs brought little joy to the earnest souls still clinging +to the ideals of primitive Christianity. But what availed it for +Abelard to lead an intellectual revolt against corrupted beliefs in the +North, or the Albigenses a spiritual one in the South? He was silenced +and immured for life, while the unhappy inhabitants of Languedoc were +massacred and almost exterminated, and an inquisition, established at +Toulouse, made sure that heretical germs should not again spread from +that infected centre. + +But however imperfect the religious sentiment of the time, however it +may have departed from the simple precepts of its founder, its power to +sway the hearts and lives of the people may be judged from the +extraordinary movement started in France in the twelfth century. + +How inconceivable, in this practical age, that Europe should three +times have emptied her choicest and best into Asia for a sentiment! +Business suspended, private interests sacrificed or forgotten, life, +treasure, all eagerly given--for what? That a small bit of territory, +a thousand miles away, be torn from profaning infidels, because of its +sacred associations, because it was the birthplace of a religion whose +meaning seems to have escaped them--a religion which they wore on their +battle-flags, but not in their hearts. How would a barefooted, +rope-girdled monk, however inspired and eloquent, fare to-day in New +York, or London, or Paris? + +History has no stranger chapter than that of the Crusades. When Peter +the Hermit pictured the desecration of the Holy Land by Mohammedans, +all classes in France, from King to serf, were for the first time moved +by a common sentiment, and poured life and treasure with passionate +zeal into those streams which three times inundated Palestine. + +The order of Knights Templar had been created, and a splendid ideal of +manhood held up before the French nation, and now the knightly ideal, +side by side with the Christian and the romantic ideal, entered into +the life of the people. Romance, song, poetry, eloquence came into +being from a sort of spiritual baptism, and France began to wear the +mantle of beauty which was to be her chief glory in the future. + +But future France was not clad in coat of mail in the twelfth century. +She was lying helpless, beneath the mass of feudal trappings. Her time +was not yet. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Like all oppressive systems, feudalism bore within itself the seeds of +its own destruction. When the King, shorn of prerogative and of +dignity, made alliance with the people lying in helpless misery beneath +the mailed surface, the system was rudely shaken. When artisans +flocked to the free cities enjoying especial immunities and privileges +from the King, and by skill and industry amassed fortunes, the +_commune_ and the _bourgeoisie_ were created, and feudalism was +stricken to its centre. When spendthrift nobles and needy barons +mortgaged their estates, the end was not far off. And when in 1302 the +"_tiers état_" entered the States-General as a legitimate order of the +Government, the very foundations were crumbling, and it needed but the +final _coup de grâce_ given by Charles VII. in the fifteenth century, +when he established a standing army under the control of the King. +When this was done, the feudal system was relegated to the region of +the obsolete. + +It was well for that sovereign that he could do something to save his +name from the obloquy attached to it on account of his base desertion +of Joan of Arc, to whom he owed his throne and his kingdom. + +From the moment when a French province was attached to the crown of +England, the dream of that nation was the conquest of France. +Generations came and went, one dynasty replaced another, and still the +struggle continued; France sometimes seeming near to dominion over +England, and England always believing it was her destiny to bring +France under the rule of an English sovereign. + +A glamour of romance is thrown over history by the royal marriages +which occur in dazzling profusion. It seems to have been the custom, +whenever a peace was concluded in Europe, to cement it with a royal +marriage, and to throw in a princess as a sacrifice,--one of the +conditions of almost every treaty being that a royal daughter, or +sister, or niece, should be tossed across the Channel, or into Germany, +or Italy, or Spain, an unwilling bride thrown into the arms of a +reluctant bridegroom; with the result that in the succeeding generation +there was a plentiful sprinkling of heirs with claims, more or less +shadowy, to the neighboring thrones. This was the source, or rather +pretext, for most of the wars between France and England for four +hundred years. + +In the early part of the fifteenth century the great crisis arrived. +With that lack of unity which seemed a fatal Gallic inheritance, France +broke into civil war, while an invading English army was in the heart +of her kingdom. England's dream was near realization. + +An insane King, a vicious intriguing Queen-Regent, the Duke of Burgundy +madly jealous of the Duke of Orleans, and both ready to sacrifice +France in the rage of disappointed ambition,--such were the elements. +England's opportunity had come. + +The depraved Queen Isabella, acting for her insane husband, held +conference with Henry V., and actually concluded a treaty bestowing the +regency upon the English King. There was the usual douceur of a +princess thrown in, and Katharine, the daughter of Isabella, and sister +to the Dauphin (the future King Charles VII.), was espoused by King +Henry V. of England, who set up a royal court at Vincennes. + +The fortunes of the kingdom had never been so desperate. The people +saw in these insolent traitorous dukes their natural enemy; in the +King, their friend and protector. Had not monarchy given them life and +hope? It was to them sacred next to Heaven. They rose in an outburst +of patriotism. The young Dauphin was hastily and informally crowned, +and thousands flocked to his standard. It was the King and the people +against the great vassals, the last struggle of an expiring feudalism. +Desperation lent fury to the conflict which was, upon both sides, a +fight for existence; the Queen-mother in unnatural alliance with the +Duke of Burgundy, who was resolved to rule or ruin. + +He soon saw that defeat was inevitable, and, preferring infamy, threw +himself into the hands of the English, offering to turn the kingdom +over to the infant King Henry VI. (Henry V. having died). + +Charles abandoned hope; how could he struggle against such a +combination? He was considering whether he should find refuge in Spain +or in Scotland, when the tide of events was turned by the strangest +romance in history. + + +It must ever remain a mystery that a peasant girl, a child in years and +in experience, should have believed herself called to such a mission; +conferring only with her heavenly guides or "voices," that she should +have sought the King, inspired him with faith in her, and in himself +and his cause, reanimated the courage of the army, and led it herself +to victory absolute and complete; and then, compelling the +half-reluctant, half-doubting Charles to go with her to Rheims, where +she had him anointed and consecrated, this simple child in that day +bestowed upon him a kingdom, and upon France a King! + +Was there ever a stranger chapter in history! Alas, if it could have +ended here, and she could have gone back to her mother and her spinning +and her simple pleasures, as she was always longing to do when her work +should be done. But no! we see her falling into the hands of the +defeated and revengeful English--this child, who had wrested from them +a kingdom already in their grasp. She was turned over to the French +ecclesiastical court to be tried. A sorceress and a blasphemer they +pronounce her, and pass her on to the secular authorities, and her +sentence is--death. + +We see the poor defenceless girl, bewildered, terrified, wringing her +hands and declaring her innocence as she rides to execution. God and +man had abandoned her. No heavenly voice spoke, no miracle intervened +as her young limbs were tied to the stake and the fagots and straw +piled up about her. The torch was applied, and her pure soul mounted +heavenward in a column of flames. + +Rugged men wept. A Burgundian general said, as he turned gloomily +away, "We have murdered a saint." + +And Charles, sitting upon the throne she had rescued for him, what was +he doing to save her? Nothing--to his everlasting shame be it said, +nothing. He might not have succeeded; the effort at rescue, or to stay +the event, might have been unavailing. But where was his knighthood, +where his manhood, that he did not try, or utter passionate protest +against her fate? + +Twenty-five years later we see him erecting statues to her memory, and +"rehabilitating" her desecrated name. And to-day, the Church which +condemned her for blasphemy is placing her upon the calendar of saints, +while all political parties alike are using her name as a thing to +conjure with. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +The early part of the sixteenth century must ever be memorable in the +history of Europe. Ferdinand and Isabella had given to the human race +a new world. Luther had hurled his defiance at Rome--had arraigned Leo +X. for blasphemy and corrupt practices. Henry V., grandson of +Ferdinand and Isabella (and nephew of Katharine, wife of Henry VIII.) +was Emperor of Germany. Astute and powerful though he was, he had been +unable to stay the Protestant flood. His empire, apparently hungering +for the new heresy, was divided already into States Protestant and +States Catholic. England was Protestant. The conversion of her King, +because the Pope refused to annul his marriage with Katharine, was not +one of the proudest triumphs of the new faith, but one of the most +important. Had Katharine's charms been fresher, or Anne Boleyn's less +alluring, the course of history might have been strangely changed. +Henry VIII. as persecutor of heretics would have found congenial +occupation for his ferocious instincts, and Protestantism would have +been long delayed. Spain was unchangeably Catholic, while France +offered congenial soil for the new faith. The germs of heresy, long +slumbering, were everywhere stirred into life. + +Francis I. was King; sumptuous in tastes, suave and elegant in manners, +as handsome as an Apollo, gay, pleasure-loving, as vicious as he was +false, and if need be with a cruelty which matched his ambition, such +was the man who held the destinies of France at this time. + +A rival claimant for the throne of Germany, he was destined to spend +his life in fruitless contest with the more able, wily, and astute +Henry V., the possession of that Empire the ignis-fatuus ever luring +him on; an end to which all other ends were simply the means. The +religious question upon which Europe was divided meant nothing to him, +except as he could use it in his duel with the Emperor. He was in turn +the ally of Henry VIII. or the willing tool of Henry V. If he needed +the English King's friendship, the Protestants had protection. If he +desired to placate Henry V., the roastings and torturings commenced +again. + +In 1547 Francis and Henry VIII. each went to his reward, and a few +years later Henry V. had laid down his crown and carried his weary, +unsatisfied heart to St. Yuste. The brilliant pageant was over; but +Protestantism was expanding. + +The question at issue was deeper than any one knew. Neither Luther nor +Leo X. understood the revolution they had precipitated. Protestants +and Papists alike failed to comprehend the true nature of the struggle, +which was not for supremacy of Romanist or Protestant; not whether this +dogma or that was true, and should prevail; but an assertion of the +right of every human soul to choose its own faith and form of worship. +The great battle for human liberty had commenced; the struggle for +religious liberty was but the prelude to what was to follow. There was +abundant proof later that Protestants no less than Papists needed only +opportunity and power to be as cruel and intolerant as their +persecutors had been. Before the Reformation was fifty years old, +Servetus, one of the greatest men of his age, a scholar, philosopher, +and man of irreproachable character, was burned at Geneva for heretical +views concerning the nature of the Trinity, Calvin, the great organizer +of Protestant theology, giving, if not the order for this crime, at +least the nod of approval. + + * * * * * + +Huguenot, that name of tragic association, was a corruption of the +German _Eidgenossen_--meaning associates. By the way of Switzerland it +came into France as _Eguenots_, and the transition to its present form +was simple. The Huguenots were no longer a timorous band hiding in +darkness as in the time of Francis I. A party with such leaders as +Anthony de Bourbon, Prince of Condé (his brother), and Admiral Coligny, +was not to be put down by a few roastings and stranglings here and +there. Anthony de Bourbon (King of Navarre) was next in succession +should the House of Valois become extinct, with a young son valiant as +himself (the future Henry IV.) pressing on toward manhood. + +Catholic France needed plenty of comfort from Rome and Madrid in +dealing with this formidable body of heretics which had fastened upon +her vitals, and which was in turn receiving aid and comfort from the +young Protestant Queen across the Channel. + + +When that fair princess Catharine de Medici became the wife of Henry, +second son of Francis I., no one suspected the tremendous import of the +event. Powerless to win the affection or even confidence of her +husband, she remained during his reign almost unobserved, but, as the +event proved, not unobservant. Her alert faculties were not idle, and +when upon the death of Henry II. she found herself Queen-Regent, with +only a frail boy of sixteen to obstruct her will, she quickly gathered +the threads she already knew so well, and her supple hand closed upon +them with a grasp not to be relinquished while she lived. + +Another young Princess had been tossed across the Channel. This time +it was her most serene little highness, Marie Stuart, Queen of +Scotland, intended for the dauphin, who was to be Francis II. + +In order to be prepared for this high destiny, the little maid was +brought when only six years old to the Court of France to be trained +under the direct supervision of her future mother-in-law, Catharine de +Medici. Poor little Marie Stuart--predestined to sin and to tragedy! +Who could be good, with the blood of the Guises in her veins, and with +Catharine de Medici as preceptress? + +This marriage was planned before Catharine's advent to power, or it +would never have been. Marie was the niece of the Duke of Guise, and +the central thought of Catharine's policy was the exclusion of this +ambitious, intriguing family from every avenue to power in the state. +Now, Marie would be Queen, and who so natural advisers as her uncles of +the house of "Lorraine"? + +The marriage of the two children had taken place--the sickly boy with +only a modest portion of intelligence was Francis II. Marie, his +Queen, whom he adored, controlled him utterly, and was in turn +controlled by her uncles, the Guises. The wily Catharine saw herself +defeated by a beautiful girl of sixteen. + +The family of Guise was the self-appointed head of the Catholic party +in France and represented the most extreme views regarding the +treatment of heretics. So the strange result was, that Catharine, if +she looked for any allies in her fight with the house of Lorraine, of +which the Duke of Guise was the head, must make common cause with the +Protestants, whom she hated a little less than she did the uncles of +Marie Stuart. But events were soon to change the situation. Did she +hasten them? Such a suspicion may never have existed. But may one not +suspect anything of a woman capable of a St. Bartholomew? + +Francis II. was dead. Marie Stuart had passed out of French history. +The fates were fighting on the side of Catharine, who wasted no regrets +upon the death of a son, which made her Queen-Regent during the +minority of her second son Charles. She entered upon her fight with +the Guises with renewed energy, and became to some extent protector of +the Protestants. Realizing that her time was brief, she prepared +Charles for the position he would soon hold. + +What can be said of a mother who seeks to exterminate every germ of +truth or virtue in her son--who immerses him in degrading vices in +order to deaden his too sensitive conscience and make him a willing +tool for her purposes? Inheriting the splendid intelligence as well as +genius for statecraft of the de Medici, nourished from her infancy upon +Machiavellian principles, cold and cruel by nature, this Florentine +woman has written her name in blood across the pages of French history. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +There is not time to tell the story of the events leading up to that +fateful night, August 24, 1572. Impelled always by her fear and dread +of the Guises, Catharine had been vacillating in her policy with the +Huguenots. Charles IX. was now King: impressible, easily influenced, +yet stubborn, intractable, incoherent, passionate, and unreliable; +sometimes inclining to the Guises, sometimes to Coligny and the +Huguenots, and always submitting at last after vain struggle to his +imperious mother's will, in her efforts to free him from both. We see +in him a weak character, not naturally bad, torn to distraction by the +cruel forces about him, who when compelled to yield, as he always did +in the end, to that terrible woman, would give way to fits of impotent +rage against the fate which allowed him no peace. + +A time arrived when Catharine feared the influence of the Protestant +Coligny more than the Guises. Brave, patriotic, magnetic, he had +succeeded in winning Charles' consent to declare war against Spain. +Philip II. of Spain was Catharine's son-in-law and closest ally. Her +entire policy would be undermined. At all hazards Coligny must be +gotten rid of. The young King of Navarre, adored leader of the +Protestants, was a constant menace; he too must in some way be disposed +of. + +There were sinister conferences with Philip of Spain and with his +Minister, that incarnation of cruelty and of the Inquisition, the Duke +of Alva. + +God knows France was not guiltless in what followed; but the +initiative, the inception of the horrid deed, was not French. It was +conceived in the brain of either this Italian woman or her Spanish +adviser and co-conspirator, the Duke of Alva. We will never know the +inside history of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. It must ever remain +a matter of conjecture just how and when it was planned, but the +probabilities point strongly one way. + +Charles was to be gradually prepared for it by his mother, the plot +revealed to him as he was in condition to bear it; by working upon his +fears, his suspicions, by stories of plottings against his life and his +kingdom, to infuriate him, and then--before his rage was exhausted--to +act. The marriage of Charles' sister Margaret with the young +Protestant leader Henry of Navarre, with its promise of future +protection to the Huguenots, was part of the plot. It would lure all +the leaders of the cause to Paris. Coligny, Condé, all the heads of +the party were urgently invited to attend the marriage-feast which was +to inaugurate an era of peace. + +Admiral Coligny was requested by Catharine, simply as a measure of +protection to the Protestants, to have an additional regiment of guards +in Paris, to act in case of any unforeseen violence. + +Two days after the marriage and while the festivities were at their +height, an attempt upon the life of the old Admiral awoke suspicion and +alarm. But Catharine and her son went immediately in person to see the +wounded old man, and to express their grief and horror at the event. +They commanded that a careful list of the names and abode of every +Protestant in Paris be made, in order, as they said, "to take them +under their own immediate protection." "My dear father," said the +King, "the hurt is yours, the grief is mine." + +At that moment, the knives were already sharpened, every man instructed +in his part in the hideous drama, and the signal for its commencement +determined upon. Charles did not know it, but his mother did. She +went to her son's room that night, artfully and eloquently pictured the +danger he was in, confessed to him that she had authorized the attempt +upon Coligny, but that it was done because of the Admiral's plottings +against him, which she had discovered. But the Guises--her enemies and +his--they knew it, and would denounce her and the King! The only thing +now is to finish the work. He must die. + +Charles was in frightful agitation and stubbornly refused. Finally +with an air of offended dignity she bowed coldly and said to her son, +"Sir, will you permit me to withdraw with my daughter, from your +kingdom?" The wretched Charles was conquered. In a sort of insane +fury he exclaimed, "Well, let them kill him, and all the rest of the +Huguenots too. See that not one remains to reproach me." + +This was more than she had hoped. All was easy now. So eager was she +to give the order before a change of mood, that she flew herself to +give the signal, fully two hours earlier than was expected. At +midnight the tocsin rang out upon the night, and the horror began. + +Lulled to a feeling of security by artfully contrived circumstances, +husbands, wives, sons, daughters, peacefully sleeping, were awakened to +see each other hideously slaughtered. + +The stars have looked down upon some terrible scenes in Paris, her +stones are not unacquainted with the taste of human blood, but never +had there been anything like this. The carnage of battle is merciful +compared with it. Shrieking women and children, half-clothed, fleeing +from knives already dripping with human blood; frantic mothers +shielding the bodies of their children, and wives pleading for the +lives of husbands; the living hiding beneath the bodies of the dead. + +The cry that ascended to Heaven from Paris that night was the most +awful and despairing in the world's history. It was centuries of +cruelty crowded into a few hours. + +The number slain can never be accurately stated; but it was thousands. +Human blood is intoxicating. An orgie set in which laughed at orders +to cease. Seven days it continued and then died out for lack of +material. The provinces had caught the contagion, and orders to slay +were received and obeyed in all except two, the Governor of Bayonne, to +his honor be it told, writing to the King in reply: "Your Majesty has +many faithful subjects in Bayonne, but not one executioner." + +And where was "His Majesty" while this work was being done? How was it +with Catharine? She was possibly seeing to the embalming of Coligny's +head, which we learn she sent as a present to the Pope. We hear of no +regrets, no misgivings, that she was calm, collected, suave and +unfathomable as ever, but that Charles in a strange, half-frenzied +state was amusing himself by firing from the windows of the palace at +the fleeing Huguenots. Had he killed himself in remorse, would it not +have been better, instead of lingering two wretched years, a prey to +mental tortures and an inscrutable malady, before he died? + +Europe was shocked. Christendom averted her face in horror. But at +Madrid and Rome there was satisfaction. + +Catharine and the Duke of Alva had done their work skilfully, but the +result surprised and disappointed them. Tens of thousands of Huguenots +were slain, which was well; but many times that number remained, with +spirit unbroken, which was not well. + +They had been too merciful! Why had Henry of Navarre been spared? Had +not Alva said, "Take the big fish and let the small fry go. One salmon +is worth more than a thousand frogs." + +But Charles considered the matter settled when he uttered those +swelling words to Henry of Navarre the day after the massacre: "I mean +in future to have one religion in my kingdom. It is mass or death." + + +Catharine's third son now wore the crown of France. In Henry III. she +had as pliant an instrument for her will as in the two brothers +preceding him; and, like them, his reign was spent in alternating +conflict with the Protestants and the Duke de Guise. At last, wearied +and exasperated, this half-Italian and altogether conscienceless King +quite naturally thought of the stiletto. The old Duke, as he entered +the King's apartment by invitation, was stricken down by assassins +hidden for that purpose. + +Henry had not counted on the rebound from that blow. Catholic France +was excited to such popular fury against him that he threw himself into +the arms of the Protestants, imploring their aid in keeping his crown +and his kingdom; and when himself assassinated, a year later, in the +absence of a son he named Henry, King of Navarre, his successor. A +Protestant and a Huguenot was King of France. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +After long wandering in strange seas, we come in view of familiar +lights and headlands. With the advent of the house of Bourbon, we have +grasped a thread which leads directly down to our own time. + + +The accession of a Protestant King was hailed with delirious joy by the +Huguenots, and with corresponding rage by Catholic France. The one +looked forward to redressing of wrongs and avenging of injuries; and +the other flatly refused submission unless Henry should recant his +heresy, and become a convert to the true faith. + +The new King saw there was no bed of roses preparing for him. After +four years of effort to reconcile the irreconcilable, he decided upon +his course. He was not called to the throne to rule over Protestant +France, nor to be an instrument of vengeance for the Huguenots. He saw +that the highest good of the kingdom required, not that he should +impose upon it either form of belief or worship, but give equal +opportunity and privilege to both. + +To the consternation of the Huguenots he announced himself ready to +listen to the arguments in favor of the religion of Rome; and it took +just five hours of deliberation to convince him of its truth. He +announced himself ready to abjure his old faith. Bitter reproaches on +the one side and rejoicings on the other greeted this decision. It was +not heroic. But many even among the Protestants acknowledged it to be +an act of supreme political wisdom. + +Peace was restored, and the "Edict of Nantes," which quickly followed, +proved to his old friends, the Huguenots, that they were not forgotten. +The Protestants, with every disability removed, shared equal privileges +with the Catholics throughout the kingdom; and the first victory for +religious liberty was splendidly won. + +An era of unexampled prosperity dawned. Never had the kingdom been so +wisely and beneficently governed. Sincerity, simplicity, and sympathy +had taken the place of dissimulation, craft, and cruelty. Uplifting +agencies were everywhere at work, reaching even to the peasantry, that +forgotten element in the nation. + +The reign of the Bourbon dynasty had opened auspiciously. Henry IV. +was the idol of the people. His loveless marriage with Margaret de +Valois had been annulled, and he had espoused Marie de Medici. The +blood from that poisoned stream was again to be intermingled with the +blood of the future Kings of France. + +After a reign of twenty-one years, the sagacious ruler who had done +more than any other to make her great and happy was stricken down by +the hand of an assassin, and a cry of grief arose alike from Catholic +and Protestant throughout the kingdom. + + +Poor France was again at the mercy of a woman with the corrupt +instincts of the de Medici. The widow of Henry IV., who was Regent +during the infancy of her son Louis, was intriguing, vulgar, and +without the ability of the great Catharine. The kingdom was rent by +cabals of aspiring favorites and ambitious nobles, until the reign of +Louis XIII., or rather of Cardinal Richelieu, began. + +The foundations of this man's policy lay deep, out of sight of all save +his own far-reaching intelligence. Pitiless as an iceberg, he crushed +every obstacle to his purpose. Impartial as fate, with no loves, no +hatreds, Catholics, Protestants, nobles, Parliaments, one after another +were borne down before his determination to make the King, what he had +not been since Charlemagne, supreme in France. + +The will of the great minister mowed down like a scythe. The power of +the grandees, that last remnant of feudalism, and a perpetual menace to +monarchy, was swept away. One great noble after another was humiliated +and shorn of his privileges, if not of his head. + +The Huguenots, being first shaken into submission, saw their political +liberties torn from them by the stroke of a pen, and even while the +Catholics were making merry over this discomfiture, the minister was +planning to send Henrietta, sister of the King, across the Channel to +become Queen of Protestant England, as wife of Charles I. But the act +of supreme audacity was to come. This high prelate of the church, this +cardinal minister, formed alliance with Gustavus Adolphus, the great +leader of the Protestants in the war upon the Emperor and the Pope! + +He allowed no religion, no class, to sway or to hold him. He was for +France; and her greatness and glory augmented under his ruthless +dominion. By his extraordinary genius he made the reign of a +commonplace King one of dazzling splendor; and while gratifying his own +colossal ambition he so strengthened the foundations of the monarchy +that princes of the blood themselves could not shake it. + +It was great--it was dazzling, but of all his work there is but one +thing which revolutions and time have not swept away. The "French +Academy" alone survives as his monument. Out of a gathering of +literary friends he created a national institution, its object the +establishing a court of last appeal in all that makes for eloquence in +speaking or writing the French language. In a country where nothing +endures, this has remained unchanged for two hundred and thirty years. + +But this master of statecraft, this creator of despotic monarchy, had +one unsatisfied ambition. He would have exchanged all his honors for +the ability to write one play like those of Corneille. Hungering for +literary distinction, he could not have gotten into his own Academy had +he not created it. And jealous of his laurels, he hated Corneille as +much as he did the enemies of France. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +Again do we recognize the fine Italian hand in French politics. +Cardinal Mazarin was Minister during the regency of Anne of Austria, +directing and controlling the affairs of the Kingdom, less intent upon +the greatness of France than the greatness and magnificence of her +Prime Minister. At last the wily Italian was gone, and Louis XIV. +settled himself upon the throne which Richelieu had rendered so exalted +and immovable. + +Cardinal Mazarin had said of the young Louis that "there was enough in +him to make four Kings, and one honest man." His greatness consisted +more in amplitude than in kind. Nature made him in prodigal mood. He +was an average man of colossal proportions. His ability, courage, +dignity, industry, greed for power and possessions, were all on a +magnificent scale, and so were his vanity, his loves, his cruelties, +his pleasures, his triumphs, and his disappointments. + +No King more wickedly oppressed France, and none made her more +glorious. He made her feared abroad and magnificent at home, but he +desolated her, and drained her resources with ambitious wars. He +crowned her with imperishable laurels in literature, art, and every +manifestation of genius, but he signed the "Revocation of the Edict of +Nantes," and drove out of his kingdom 500,000 of the best of his +subjects. + +If the names of Marlborough and Maintenon could have been stricken out +of his life, the story might have had a different ending. From the +moment the great Duke checked his victorious army, his sun began to go +down; but it was Maintenon who most obscured its setting. + +His unloved Queen, the Spanish Marie Therese, had borne his mad +infatuation for Louise la Vallière; la Vallière had carried her broken +heart to a convent, and been superseded by de Montespan, and de +Montespan had invited her own destruction by bringing into her +household the pious widow of the poet Scarron, Madame de Maintenon, +(grand-daughter of d'Aubigne, the historian of the Reformation). +Grave, austere, ambitious, talented, she was not too much engrossed in +her duties as governess of de Montespan's children to find ways of +establishing an influence over the King. + +This man who had absorbed into himself all the functions of the +Government, who was Ministers, Magistrates, Parliaments, all in one, +this central sun of whom Corneille, Molière, Racine were but single +rays, was destined to be enslaved in his old age by a designing +adventuress; her will his law. The hey-day of youth having passed, he +was beginning to be anxious about his soul. She artfully pricked his +conscience, and de Montespan was sent away, but de Maintenon remained. + +She next convinced him that the only fitting atonement for his sins was +to drive heresy out of his kingdom, and re-establish the true faith. +At her bidding he undid the glorious work of Henry IV., signed the +"Revocation of the Edict of Nantes," and brutally stamped out +Protestantism. + +A part of the scheme of penitence seems to have been that on the death +of poor Marie Therese, he should make her (de Maintenon) his lawful +wife, which he did privately; and his sun went down obscured by +crushing griefs and disappointments. His children swept away, the +prestige of success tarnished, this demigod was taken to pieces by +time's destroying fingers, quite as unceremoniously as are the rest of +us, hiding finally behind the bed-curtains while a kneeling courtier +passed to him his wig on the end of a stick, and at last lying down +like any other old dying sinner, overwhelmed with the vanity of earthly +things and with the vastness of eternity. + +Still more would the dying moments of the Grand Monarque have been +embittered could he have foreseen into what hands his great inheritance +was passing. + + +Upon Louis XV. more than any other rests the responsibility of the +crisis which was approaching. + +A heartless sybarite, depraved in tastes, without sense of +responsibility or comprehension of his times, a brutalized voluptuary +governed by a succession of designing women, regardless of national +poverty, indulging in wildest extravagance,--such was the man in whom +was vested the authority rendered so absolute by Richelieu,--such the +man who opened up a pathway for the storm. + +As for the nobility, their degradation may be imagined when it is said +there was as bitter rivalry between titled and illustrious fathers to +secure for their daughters the coveted position held by Madame de +Pompadour, as for the highest offices of State. + +Could the upper ranks fall lower than this? Had not the kingdom +reached its lowest depths, where its foreign policy was determined by +the amount of consideration shown to Madame de Pompadour? But this +woman, whose friendship was artfully sought by the great Empress Maria +Theresa, was superseded, and the fresher charms of Madame du Barri +enslaved the King. The deposed favorite could not survive her fall, +and died of a broken heart. It is said that as Louis, looking from an +upper window of his palace, saw the coffin borne out in a drenching +rain, he smiled and said: "Ah, the Marquise has a bad day for her +journey." It may be imagined that the man who could be so pitiless to +the woman he had loved would feel little pity for the people whom he +had not loved, but whom he knew only as a remote, obscure something, +which held up the weight of his glory. + +But this "obscure something" was undergoing strange transformation. +The greater light at the surface had sent some glimmering rays down +into the mass below, which began to awaken and to think. Misery, +hopeless and abject, was changing into rage and thirst for vengeance. + +A new class had come into existence which was not noble, but with +highly trained intelligence it looked with contempt and loathing upon +the frivolous, half-educated nobles. Scorn was added to the ferment of +human passions beneath the surface, and when Voltaire had spoken, and +the restraints of religion were loosened, no living hand, not that of a +Richelieu nor a Louis XIV., could have averted the coming doom. +But--no one seems to have suspected what was approaching. + +A wonderful literature had come into existence--not stately and classic +as in the age preceding,--but instinct with a new sort of life. The +highest speculations which can occupy the soul of man were handled with +marvellous lightness of touch and prismatic brilliancy of expression; +but all was negation. None tried to build; all to demolish. The +black-winged angel of Destruction was hovering over the land. + +Then Rousseau tossed his dreamy abstractions into the quivering air, +and the formula, "Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality," was caught up by +the titled aristocracy as a charming idyllic toy, while Princes, Dukes, +and Marquises amused themselves with a dream of Arcadian simplicity, to +be attained in some indefinite way in some remote and equally +indefinite future. It was all a masquerade. No reality, no sincerity, +no convictions, good or evil. The only thing that was real was that an +over-taxed, impoverished people was exasperated and--hungry. + +Did the King need new supplies for his unimaginable luxuries, they were +taxed. Was it necessary to have new accessions to French "glory," in +order to allay popular clamor or discontent, they must supply the men +to fight the glorious battles, and the means with which to pay them. +Every burden fell at last upon this lowest stratum of the State, the +nobility and clergy, while owning two-thirds of the land, being nearly +exempt from taxation. + +And yet the King and nobility of France, in love with Rousseau's +theories, were airily discussing the "rights of man." Wolves and foxes +coming together to talk over the sacredness of the rights of +property--or the occupants of murderers' row growing eloquent over the +sanctity of human life! How incomprehensible that among those +quick-witted Frenchmen there seems not one to have realized that the +logical sequence of the formula, "Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality," +must be, "Down with the Aristocrats!" + +And so the surface which Richelieu had converted into adamant grew +thinner and thinner each day, until King and Court danced upon a mere +gilded crust, unconscious of the abysmal fires beneath. Some of those +powdered heads fell into the executioner's basket twenty-five years +later. Did they recall this time? Did Madame du Barri think of it, +did she exult at her triumph over de Pompadour, when she was dragged +shrieking and struggling to the guillotine? + + +And while France was thus weaving her future, what were the other +nations doing? England, sane, practical, with little time for +abstractions, and little said about "glory," was importing turnips, +converting agriculture into a science, and under the instruction of +exiled Huguenots, establishing marvellous industries. In the new +kingdom of Prussia, a half-savage, half-inspired King had been +importing artisans and skill of all sorts, reclaiming waste lands. +Living like a miser, he had indulged in but one luxury: an army, which +should be the best in the world. There was no powder, no patches at +his Court; where he thrashed with his own royal hands male and female +courtiers, starved, imprisoned, and cudgelled his son and heir to his +throne for playing on the violin; and, it is said, so terrified and +scarified his grenadiers with canes and cats that not one of them would +not have preferred facing the enemy to meeting his enraged sovereign, +had he done wrong. + +Frederick was not a pleasant barbarian. But there is at least a ring +of sincerity about all this, which it is refreshing to recall after the +tinsel and depraved refinements of France under Louis XV., and +something too which gives promise, in spite of its brutality, of a +stalwart future. + +Five years before the close of this miserable reign, an event occurred +seemingly of small importance to Europe. A child was born in an +obscure Italian household. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Louis XV. was dead, and two children, with the light-heartedness of +youth and inexperience, stepped upon the throne which was to be a +scaffold--Louis XVI., only twenty, and Marie Antoinette, his wife, +nineteen. He, amiable, kind, full of generous intentions; she, +beautiful, simple, child-like and lovely. Instead of a debauched old +King with depraved surroundings, here were a Prince and Princess out of +a fairy-tale. The air was filled with indefinite promise of a new era +for mankind to be inaugurated by this amiable young king, whose +kindness of heart shone forth in his first speech, "We will have no +more loans, no credit, no fresh burdens on the people;" then, leaving +his ministers to devise ways of paying the enormous salaries of +officials out of an empty treasury, and to arrange the financial +details of his benevolent scheme of government, he proceeded with his +gay and brilliant young wife to Rheims, there to be crowned with a +magnificence undreamed of by Louis XIV. + +In the midst of these rejoicings over the new reign, and of speculative +dreams of universal freedom, there was wafted across the Atlantic news +of a handful of patriots arrayed against the tyranny of the British +Crown. Here were the theories of the new philosophy translated into +the reality of actual experience. "No taxation without +representation," "No privileged class," "No government without the +consent of the governed." Was this not an embodiment of their dreams? +Nor did it detract from the interest in the conflict that +England--England, the hated rival of France, was defied by an indignant +people of her own race. There was not a young noble in the land who +would not have rushed if he could to the defence of the outraged +colonies. + +The King, half doubting, and vaguely fearing, was swept into the +current, and the armies and the courage of the Americans were +splendidly reinforced by generous, enthusiastic France. + +Why should the simple-hearted Louis see what no one else seemed to see: +that victory or failure were alike full of peril for France? If the +colonies were conquered, France would feel the vengeance of England; if +they were freed and self-governing, the principle of Monarchy had a +staggering blow. + +In the mean time, as the American Revolution moved on toward success, +there was talk in the cabin as well as the _château_ of the "rights of +man." In shops and barns, as well as in clubs and drawing-rooms, there +was a glimmering of the coming day. + +"What is true upon one continent is true upon another," say they. "If +it is cowardly to submit to tyranny in America, what is it in France?" +"If Englishmen may revolt against oppression, why may not Frenchmen?" +"No government without the consent of the governed, eh? When has our +consent been asked, the consent of twenty-five million people? Are we +sheep, that we have let a few thousands govern us for a thousand years, +_without_ our consent?" + +Poverty and hunger gave force and urgency to these questions. The +people began to clamor more boldly for the good time which had been +promised by the kind-hearted King. The murmur swelled to an ominous +roar. Thousands were at his very palace gates, telling him in no +unmistakable terms that they were tired of smooth words and fair +promises. What they wanted was a new constitution and--bread. + +Poor Louis! the one could be made with pen and paper; but by what +miracle could he produce the other? How gladly would he have given +them anything. But what could he do? There was not enough money to +pay the salaries of his officials, nor for his gay young Queen's fêtes +and balls! The old way would have been to impose new taxes. But how +could he tax a people crying at his gates for bread? He made more +promises which he could not keep; yielded, one after another, +concessions of authority and dignity; then vacillated, and tried to +return over the slippery path, only to be dragged on again by an +irresistible fate. + +When Louis XVI. convoked the States-General, he made his last +concession to the demands of his subjects. + +That almost-forgotten body had not been seen since Richelieu effaced +all the auxiliary functions of government. Nobles, ecclesiastics, and +_tiers état_ (or commons) found themselves face to face once more. The +handsome contemptuous nobles, the princely ecclesiastics were +unchanged--but there was a new expression in the pale faces of the +commons. There was a look of calm defiance as they met the disdainful +gaze of the aristocrats across the gulf of two centuries. + +The two superior bodies absolutely refused to sit in the same room with +the commons. They might under the same roof, but in the same +room--never. + +No outburst met this insult. With marvellous self-control and dignity, +and with an ominous calm, the commons constituted themselves into the +"National Assembly." + +Aristocratic France had committed its concluding act of arrogance and +folly. And when poor distracted Louis gave impotent order for the +Assembly to disperse, he committed suicide. Louis the man lived on to +be slain by the people three years later, but Louis the King died at +that moment. + +When the Assembly defied his authority and continued to solemnly act as +if he had not spoken, the power had passed to the people. They were +sovereign. + +Paris was in wild excitement; and a rumor that troops were marching +upon the Assembly to disperse it converted excitement into madness. +The populace marched toward the Bastille, and in another hour the heads +of the Governor and his officials were being carried on pikes through +the streets of Paris. + +The horrible drama had opened, and events developed with the swiftness +of a falling avalanche. Louis might have followed his fleeing nobles. +But always vacillating, and "letting I dare not wait upon I would," the +opportunity was lost. He and his family were prisoners in the +"Temple," while an awful travesty upon a court of justice was sending +out death-warrants for his friends and adherents faster than the +guillotine could devour them. + +More and more furious swept the torrent, gathering to itself all that +was vile and outcast. Where were the pale-faced, determined patriots +who sat in the "National Assembly"? Some of them riding with Dukes and +Marquises to the guillotine. Was this the equality they expected when +they cried "Down with the Aristocrats"? + +Did they think they could guide the whirlwind after raising it? As +well whisper to the cyclone to level only the tall trees, or to the +conflagration to burn only the temples and palaces. + +With restraining agencies removed, religion, government, King, all +swept away, that hideous brood born of vice, poverty, hatred, and +despair came out from dark hiding-places; and what had commenced as a +patriotic revolt had become a wild orgie of bloodthirsty demons, led by +three master-demons, Robespierre, Marat, and Danton, vying with each +other in ferocity. + +Then we see that simple girl thinking by one supreme act of heroism and +sacrifice, like Joan of Arc, to save her country. Foolish child! Did +she think to slay the monster devouring Paris by cutting off one of his +heads? The death of Marat only added to the fury of the tempest; and +the falling of Charlotte Corday's head was not more noticed than the +falling of a leaf in the forest. + +On the 21st of January, 1793, Louis XVI. embraced for the last time his +adored wife and children; then, with every possible indignity, was +strapped to a plank and shoved under the guillotine. + +The kindest-hearted, most inoffensive gentleman in Europe had expiated +the crimes of his ancestors. + +A few months later, Marie Antoinette, daughter of the proud Empress +Maria Theresa, and child of the Cæsars, was borne along the same road. +And how bravely she met her awful fate! We forget her follies, her +reckless grasping after pleasures, in view of her horrible sufferings +and in admiration of her courage as she rides to her death; sitting in +that hideous tumbril, head erect, pale, proud, defiant, as if upon a +throne. + +With the death of the King and Queen the madness had reached its +height, and a revulsion of feeling set in. There was a surfeit of +blood, and an awakening sense of horror, which turned upon the +instigators. Danton fell, and finally, when amid cries of "Death to +the tyrant!" Robespierre was dragged wounded and shivering to the fate +he had brought upon so many thousands, the drama which had opened at +the Bastille was fittingly closed. + +The great battle for human liberty had been fought and won. Religious +freedom and political freedom were identical in principle. The right +of the human conscience proclaimed by Luther in 1517 had in 1793 only +expanded into the large conception of all the inherent rights of the +_individual_. + +It had taken centuries for English persistence to accomplish what +France, with such appalling violence, had done in as many years. It +had been a furious outburst of pent-up force; but the work had been +thorough. Not a germ of tyranny remained. The incrustations of a +thousand years were not alone broken, but pulverized; the privileged +classes were swept away, and their vast estates, two-thirds of the +territory of France, ready to be distributed among the rightful owners +of the soil, those who by toil and industry could win them. France was +as new as if she had no history. There was ample opportunity for her +people now. What would they do with it? + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +It is strange to read that the armies went on fighting battles +automatically, even while there was no central head to direct them. +While the ghastly scenes were enacting in Paris, and while Josephine de +Beauharnais was at the Conciergerie listening with blanched face to the +call of her husband's name on the death roll for the day, a young +lieutenant of artillery, only twenty-four years old, was at Toulon, +winning his first military honors. He would have been thought a +strange prophet who had said that in less than ten years the young +Corsican lieutenant would be Emperor, and the prisoner at the +Conciergerie Empress of the French! Nor did M. de Beauharnais, as he +rode to execution, dream that forty-five years later his grandson would +over the same stones be borne to his coronation. + +In the anarchy which prevailed after the Revolution, the young hero of +Toulon was called upon to quell a riot in Paris. The people realized +they had met a master. For twenty-five years from that day, the +history of France, and indeed of Europe, was that of one man, Napoleon +Bonaparte. Commander-in-chief of the Army, then First Consul of the +Republic, then Emperor--the steps in his ascent were as rapid and as +bewildering as the movements in one of his own campaigns. France, +groping about helplessly among the wreckage of the past, believed what +she most desired was _liberty_ and _self-government_. + +This Italian, who was a French citizen even only by merest accident, +knew her better than she did herself, and that what she really wanted +was a fresh mantle of glory to cover her humiliation, and--a master. + +Leading a broken, unpaid, half-clothed army into Italy, he electrified +France and all Europe. Before the world had really found out who he +was, and whence he had come, he had conquered all of Northern Italy, +part of Austria and Belgium, had created a Cisalpine Republic out of +the fragments, and was making treaties and dictating terms to kings and +princes. + +France, discredited and almost disgraced among the monarchies of +Europe, found herself suddenly feared and glorious. Napoleon had +captured the most imaginative and military people in Europe. The rest +of the way was easy. Prudent, discreet, knowing when to wait, and when +to come down like an avalanche, this marvellous man held France in his +hands, and placed Europe under his feet. + +The people which had exerted such superhuman effort for freedom were +held by a hand more despotic than Richelieu's, more destructive to +popular freedom than that of Louis XIV.; and the more absolute his +rule, the more overpowering his authority, the better pleased they +seemed to be. + +But, was there not equal opportunity for every man in the Empire? +Every soldier's knapsack, might it not hold a Marshal's baton? Was not +the Emperor himself a living illustration of what a man from the people +might become? And then what did it mean to Frenchmen to be suddenly +lifted to dazzling ascendancy in Europe? Who would not willingly serve +a master who could bring Hapsburg, Hohenzollern, Romanoff, Bourbon, +crouching at his feet--who could tear down states, and set them up, and +if an extra throne were needed for a retainer, could carve a new state +from territory of friend and foe alike, and place a diadem upon every +head in his domestic or military household? It was the most stupendous +display of personal power ever beheld, England alone standing upright +in his presence, and in the end accomplishing his ruin. + +When Austria with a reluctant shudder bestowed her princess upon the +invincible parvenu, and when France with regretful pity saw the adored +Josephine set aside for that disdainful royal maiden, Marie Louise, at +that moment Napoleon passed the meridian of his greatness. + +It had taken just fifteen years to make the most astonishing and +dazzling chapter in French history; and then came "Moscow" and "Elba," +to be quickly followed by "Waterloo" and "St. Helena." And then for +France--most incomprehensible of all--a return to the Bourbons! It had +required the greatest tragedy of modern times to get rid of them, and +here they were again, Louis XVIII. and Charles X., as overbearing and +as arrogant as if their brother's head had not dropped into a basket in +1793. When somebody said of the Bourbons "they learn nothing and +forget nothing," he was inaccurate. They had certainly forgotten the +French Revolution. + +But death removed the first, and popular sentiment the second, of these +relics of an obsolete past. And a new experiment was tried. This time +it was the son of _Philippe Egalité_, that wickedest of all the +regicides, who came smiling and bowing before the people as a popular +sovereign, who would beneficently rule under a liberal constitution. +Whatever his father had been, Louis Philippe was far from being a +wicked man. Whether teaching school in Switzerland, or giving French +lessons in America, or wearing the kingly crown in France, he was the +kindest hearted, most inoffensive of gentlemen. + + +When in the pre-revolutionary days we read of France making war, it +means that the King, or his minister, with more or less deference to +the will of a few thousand nobles, did so. They are the France +referred to. The real France was not consulted and had nothing to do +with it, unless it were to fill the ranks with fathers, sons, and +husbands, and then pay the taxes imposed to support them. But times +were changed. Under a constitutional monarchy, the King does not +govern; he reigns. Louis Philippe was King of the French,--not of +France. He was chosen by the people as their ornamental figurehead. +But what if he ceased to be ornamental? What was the use of a King who +in eighteen years had added not a single ray of glory to the national +name, but who was using his high position to increase his enormous +private fortune, and incessantly begging an impoverished country for +benefits and emoluments for five sons? + +An excellent father, truly, though a short-sighted one. His power had +no roots. The cutting from the Orleans tree had never taken hold upon +the soil, and toppled over at the sound of Lamartine's voice +proclaiming a Republic from the balcony of the "Hôtel de Ville." + +When invited to step down from his royal throne, he did so on the +instant. Never did King succumb with such alacrity, and never did +retiring royalty look less imposing, than when Louis Philippe was in +hiding at Havre under the name of "William Smith," waiting for safe +convoy to England, without having struck one blow in defence of his +throne. + +But three terrible words had floated into the open windows of the +Tuileries. With the echoes of 1792 still sounding in his ears, +"Liberty," "Fraternity," and "Equality," shouted in the streets of +Paris, had not a pleasant sound! + + +Republicanism was an abiding sentiment in France, even while two dull +Bourbon Kings were stupidly trying to turn back the hands on the dial +of time, and while an Orleans, with more supple neck, was posing as a +popular sovereign. During all this tiresome interlude, the real fact +was developing. A Republican sentiment which had existed vaguely in +the air was materializing, consolidating, into a more and more tangible +reality in the minds of thinking men and patriots. + +The ablest men in the country stood with plans matured, ready to meet +this crisis. A Republic was proclaimed; M. de Lamartine, Ledru-Rollin, +General Cavaignac, M. Raspail, and Louis Napoleon were rival candidates +for the office of President. + +The nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, and son of Hortense, was only known +as the perpetrator of two very absurd attempts to overthrow the +monarchy under Louis Philippe. But since the remains of the great +Emperor had been returned to France by England, and the splendors of +the past placed in striking contrast with a dull, lustreless present, +there had been a revival of Napoleonic memories and enthusiasm. Here +was an opportunity to unite two powerful sentiments in one man--a +Napoleon at the head of Republican France would express the glory of +the past and the hope of the future. + +The magic of the name was irresistible. Louis Napoleon was elected +President of the second Republic, and history prepared to repeat +itself. What sort of a ruler would he be--this dark, mysterious, +unmagnetic man? Even should he not turn out well, no great harm could +be done. It was only for four years. His hand had not the steely +fineness of touch of his great uncle's, but it was strong, and guided, +they soon found, by a subtle intelligence. + +The overthrow of Monarchy in France had set fire to Republicanism in +Europe, Kossuth with transcendent eloquence leading a revolution in +Hungary, and Garibaldi and Mazzini with pen and sword in Italy. Europe +was in a blaze of revolt. The first great military exploit of Napoleon +Bonaparte had been in Italy, and so was his nephew's, but with this +difference--the object of the one was to build up Republics on the +other side of the Alps, and of the other to pull them down. Garibaldi +and Mazzini were driven out of Italy by French bayonets, which also +propped up the pontifical throne for the fugitive Pope. + +The Assembly soon realized that in this Prince-President it had no +automaton to deal with. A deep antagonism grew, and the cunningly +devised issue could not fail to secure popular support to Louis +Napoleon. When an Assembly is at war with the President because it +desires to restrict the suffrage, and he to make it universal, can any +one doubt the result? He was safe in appealing to the people on such +an issue, and sure of being sustained in his Proclamation dissolving +the Assembly. He was gathering the reins into his hands with the +astute courage of his uncle. Moving on almost identical lines with his +great original, the nephew set his face toward the same goal. + +The French people must have realized they were being betrayed. They +must have seen that this ambitious plotter was slipping the old fetters +of arbitrary power into position. But, under the powerful spell of the +Napoleonic name, lulled to tranquillity by the gift of suffrage, and +fascinated by the growing splendors of an ingenious reproduction of the +most brilliant chapter in French history, they were unresistingly drawn +into the Imperial net. + +France was for the second time an Empire, and Napoleon III. was Emperor +of the French. + +His Mephistophelian face did not look as classic under the laurel +wreath as had his uncle's, nor had his work the blinding splendor nor +the fineness of texture of his great model. But then, an imitation +never has. It was a marble masterpiece, done in plaster! But what a +clever reproduction it was! And how, by sheer audacity, it compelled +recognition and homage, and at last even adulation in Europe!--and what +a clever stroke it was, for this heavy, unsympathetic man to bring up +to his throne from the people a radiant Empress, who would capture +romantic and æsthetic France! + +The distance was great from cheap lodgings in New York to a seat upon +the Imperial throne of France; but human ambition is not easily +satisfied. A Pelion always rises beyond an Ossa. It was not enough to +feel that he had re-established the prosperity and prestige of France, +that fresh glory had been added to the Napoleonic name. Was there not +after all a certain irritating reserve in the homage paid him, was +there not a touch of condescension in the friendship of his royal +neighbors? And had he not always a Mordecai at his gate--while the +"_Faubourg St. Germain_" stood aloof and disdainful, smiling at his +brand-new aristocracy? + +War is the thing to give solidity to empire and to reputation! Neither +France nor Europe can withstand the magic of military renown. And so, +upon a quickly improvised pretext, the French Emperor started, amid the +booming of cannon and the wild acclamations of a delighted people, upon +his errand of conquest. The insolent Germans were to be chastised; +and, incidentally, Europe was to be made to tremble! + +In a few months the bubble was pricked. The glittering French army +proved to be a thing of tinsel and fustian. No reality, no power to +stand before the solid German battalions, it melted like hoar-frost. +Napoleon III. was prisoner of war at Sedan, and King William, Unser +Fritz, and Von Moltke were at Versailles. + +Moved by his colossal misfortunes, and perhaps partly in displeasure at +having a French Republic once more at her door, England offered asylum +to the deposed Emperor. There, from the seclusion of "Chiselhurst," he +and his still beautiful Eugenie watched the Republic weathering the +first days of storm and stress, and coming out at last stable and +triumphant. + +The weary exile felt that not in his day would the reaction come. But +his son would yet wear the Imperial crown which was his birthright. +Futile dream! The boy was destined to cruel fate--to be slain by Zulu +assegai, while fighting the battles of England,--England, the author of +_Waterloo_. Strange ending for the heir to the name and glory of +Napoleon Bonaparte. + +But the reaction Louis Napoleon so confidently hoped for did not come. +With military pride humbled in the dust, national pride wounded by the +loss of two provinces, loaded down with an immense war indemnity, the +people set about the task of rehabilitation; in an incredibly short +time, the galling debt was paid, financial prosperity and political +strength restored, and with military organization second to none in +Europe, France, with revengeful eyes fastened on Germany, waits for the +day of reckoning. + +For twenty-four years the Republic has existed. Communistic fires +always smouldering have again and again burst forth--demagogues, +fanatics, and those creatures for whom there is no place in organized +society, whose element is chaos, standing ready to fan the fires of +revolt; while Orleanist, Bonapartist, Bourbon, are ever on the alert, +watching for opportunity to slip in through the open door of Revolution. + +England in conscious superiority smiles at a nation which has had seven +political revolutions in a hundred years. Republic, then Empire, then +a return to the Bourbons, then Constitutional Monarchy under Louis +Philippe, then Republic, followed by Empire again, and now for the +third time a Republic! + +But France, complex, mobile, changeful as the sea, in riotous enjoyment +of her new-found liberties, casts off a form of government as she would +an ill-fitting garment. She knows the value of tranquillity--she had +it for one thousand years! The _people_, which have only breathed the +upper air for a century--the people, who were stifled under feudalism, +stamped upon by Valois Kings, riveted down by Richelieu, then prodded, +outraged, and starved by Bourbons, have become a great nation. +Many-sided, resourceful, gifted, it matters not whether they have +called the head of their government Consul, Emperor, King, or +President. They are a race of freemen, who can never again be enslaved +by tyrannous system. + +It was a bright day for France when that ambitious young Emperor of +Germany sent his great Chancellor into retirement; and another bright +day when, taking offence at scant courtesy at the hands of the Czar, he +left ajar the back door to his dominions. An alliance between despotic +Russia thirsting for the waters of the Mediterranean, and Republican +France thirsting for revenge, is the darkest cloud on the German +horizon to-day. It is only a matter of months or of years when France +will be at the throat of Germany demanding Alsace and Lorraine. The +French army is not the one which faced Von Moltke in 1871; and when +France knocks at her front door, Germany will have all she can attend +to, without hearing Russian batteries thundering at her rear. A +dramatic reconciliation with the old Chancellor is interesting, but it +will not undo the work of the last four years. + +There is no longer thought of conflict between any two nations of +Europe. The next war is to be one of tremendous combinations. +National alliances are shifting and uncertain. But at the time this is +written (1894) Germany, Austria, and Italy are drawn together in one +hostile camp, while France and Russia, in loving embrace, stand in the +other; and England, aloof and suspicious, holds herself ready to hurl +her weight against whichever one obstructs her path to India. + +There is something in the air which makes one think the name Napoleon +is still a thing to conjure with. But whatever the future may hold for +France, no American can be indifferent to the fate of a nation to whom +we owe so much. Nor can we ever forget that in the hour of our direst +extremity, and regardless of cost to herself, she helped us to +establish our liberties, and to take our place among the great nations +of the earth. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Evolution of an Empire, by Mary Parmele + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 34071-8.txt or 34071-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/0/7/34071/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/34071-8.zip b/34071-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..74e6be4 --- /dev/null +++ b/34071-8.zip diff --git a/34071-h.zip b/34071-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..792f490 --- /dev/null +++ b/34071-h.zip diff --git a/34071-h/34071-h.htm b/34071-h/34071-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..54904ff --- /dev/null +++ b/34071-h/34071-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,3162 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<HTML> +<HEAD> + +<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> + +<TITLE> +The Project Gutenberg E-text of A Brief Historical Sketch of Franch, +by Mary Parmele +</TITLE> + +<STYLE TYPE="text/css"> +BODY { color: Black; + background: White; + margin-right: 10%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; + text-align: justify } + +P {text-indent: 4% } + +P.noindent {text-indent: 0% } + +P.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; } + +P.letter {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.contents {font-size: 90% ; + text-indent: -5% ; + margin-left: 15% ; + margin-right: 10% } + +P.finis { font-size: larger ; + text-align: center ; + text-indent: 0% ; + margin-left: 0% ; + margin-right: 0% } + +</STYLE> + +</HEAD> + +<BODY> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Evolution of an Empire, by Mary Parmele + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Evolution of an Empire + A Brief Historical Sketch of France + +Author: Mary Parmele + +Release Date: October 15, 2010 [EBook #34071] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + +</pre> + + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +THE +</H3> + +<H1 ALIGN="center"> +EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE +</H1> + +<BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF +</H3> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +FRANCE +</H2> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +BY +</H4> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +MARY PARMELE +</H3> + +<BR> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<I>Author of "Evolution of Empire Series, Germany;"<BR> +"Who? When? What? Literature Chart."</I><BR> +</P> + +<BR><BR> + +<H4 ALIGN="center"> +NEW YORK +<BR> +WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, +<BR> +59 FIFTH AVENUE +<BR> +1894 +</H4> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +PUBLISHED AND COPYRIGHTED, 1894, +<BR> +BY +<BR> +WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, +<BR> +59 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK CITY. +</H5> + +<BR><BR> + +<H5 ALIGN="center"> +ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY +<BR> +THE PUBLISHERS' PRINTING COMPANY +<BR> +182-186 WEST 14TH STREET +<BR> +NEW YORK +</H5> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +PREFACE. +</H3> + +<P> +In an attempt to tell the story of a great nation in about 100 pages, +it is needless to say there must be a rigid exclusion of all save +essential facts. To those already familiar with the subject, this +sketch is offered merely as a reminder of the sequence of conditions +and events in the evolution of France; while to the student it is +presented as a framework upon which may be placed, in orderly and +comprehensible fashion, the results of future reading and research. +</P> + +<P> +To the latter class I would suggest that a series of papers, written +upon the most prominent themes found in the Table of Contents, will +bear fruit in knowledge more real and vital than may be obtained from +the writings of others, however eloquent and vivid the presentation. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent"> +M. P. +<BR> +NEW YORK, July 23d, 1894. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +CONTENTS. +</H2> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap01">CHAPTER I.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +The Aryan Family of Nations—Keltic Race—Ancient Gaul—Gauls in +Rome—Gauls in Greece and in Asia Minor +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap02">CHAPTER II.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +Roman Conquest of Gaul—Julius Cæsar +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap03">CHAPTER III.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +Birth of Christianity—Its Dissemination—Persecution at Lyons by order +of Marcus Aurelius—The Roman Empire Espouses Christianity under +Constantine +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap04">CHAPTER IV.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +Gaul Overrun and Subjugated by Franks—Clovis King—Decay of the +Merovingian Line—<I>Maire du Palais</I> King <I>de facto</I>—Charles +Martel—Birth of Mohammedanism—Its Triumphs—Christendom +Threatened—Pepin King—Charlemagne—Alliance with Pope—France, Italy, +and Germany Emerge as Separate Nationalities +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap05">CHAPTER V.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +The Northmen—Beginnings of Feudalism in France—Normandy Bestowed upon +the Northmen—Conquest of England by William, Duke of +Normandy—Albigenses—Inquisition at Toulouse—The Crusades +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap06">CHAPTER VI.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +Decline of Feudalism—Creation of the Commune—Charles VII.—Henry V. +in France—Joan of Arc +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap07">CHAPTER VII.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +Francis I.—Huguenots—Catharine de Medici—Francis II. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap08">CHAPTER VIII.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +Massacre of St. Bartholomew—Henry III.—Henry IV. +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap09">CHAPTER IX.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +Edict of Nantes—Louis XIII.—Richelieu +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap10">CHAPTER X.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +Louis XIV.—Revocation of the Edict of Nantes—Louis XV.—Age of +Voltaire and Rousseau—The Gathering Storm +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap11">CHAPTER XI.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette—American Colonies Arrayed Against +England—French Aid to America—Smouldering Fires of Discontent—Louis +Convokes States-General—National Assembly Created by Commons—Bastille +Attacked—Revolution—Execution of King +</P> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +<A HREF="#chap12">CHAPTER XII.</A> +</H3> + +<P CLASS="contents"> +Napoleon Bonaparte—Toulon—Campaign in Italy—Empire +Established—Europe Under the Feet of the Great Corsican—Marie +Louise—Waterloo—Louis XVIII.—Charles X.—Louis Philippe—Second +Republic—Louis Napoleon President—Second Empire—Napoleon +III.—Franco-Prussian War—Sedan—Third Republic—Review of Present +Conditions +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap01"></A> + +<H2 ALIGN="center"> +EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. +</H2> + +<BR> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER I. +</H3> + +<P> +One of the greatest achievements of modern research is the discovery of +a key by which we may determine the kinship of nations. What we used +to conjecture, we now know. An identity in the structural form of +language establishes with scientific certitude that however diverse +their character and civilizations, Russian, German, English, French, +Spaniard, are all but branches from the same parent stem, are all alike +children of the Asiatic Aryan. +</P> + +<P> +So skilful are modern methods of questioning the past, and so +determined the effort to find out its secrets, we may yet know the +origin and history of this wonderful Asiatic people, and when and why +they left their native continent and colonized upon the northern shores +of the Mediterranean. Certain it is, however, that, more centuries +before the Christian era than there have been since, they had peopled +Western Europe. +</P> + +<P> +This branch of the Aryan family is known as the Keltic, and was older +brother to the Teuton and Slav, which at a much later period followed +them from the ancestral home, and appropriated the middle and eastern +portions of the European Continent. +</P> + +<P> +The name of Gaul was given to the territory lying between the Ocean and +the Mediterranean, and the Pyrenees and the Alps. And at a later +period a portion of Northern Gaul, and the islands lying north of it, +received from an invading chieftain and his tribe the name <I>Brit</I> or +<I>Britain</I> (or Pryd or Prydain). +</P> + +<P> +If the mind could be carried back on the track of time, and we could +see what we now call France as it existed twenty centuries before the +Christian era, we should behold the same natural features: the same +mountains rearing their heads; the same rivers flowing to the sea; the +same plains stretching out in the sunlight. But instead of vines and +flowers and cultivated fields we should behold great herds of wild ox +and elk, and of swine as fierce as wolves, ranging in a climate as cold +as Norway; and vast inaccessible forests, the home of beasts of prey, +which contended with man for food and shelter. +</P> + +<P> +Let us read Guizot's description of life in Gaul five centuries before +Christ: +</P> + +<P> +"Here lived six or seven millions of men a bestial life, in dwellings +dark and low, built of wood and clay and covered with branches or +straw, open to daylight by the door alone and confusedly heaped +together behind a rampart of timber, earth, and stone, which enclosed +and protected what they were pleased to call—a <I>town</I>." +</P> + +<P> +Such was the Paris, and such the Frenchmen of the age of Pericles! And +the same tides that washed the sands of Southern Gaul, a few hours +later ebbed and flowed upon the shores of Greece—rich in culture, with +refinements and subtleties in art which are the despair of the world +to-day—with an intellectual endowment never since attained by any +people. +</P> + +<P> +The same sun which rose upon temples and palaces and life serene and +beautiful in Greece, an hour later lighted sacrificial altars and +hideous orgies in the forests of Gaul. While the Gaul was nailing the +heads of human victims to his door, or hanging them from the bridle of +his horse, or burning or flogging his prisoners to death, the Greek, +with a literature, an art, and a civilization in ripest perfection, +discussed with his friends the deepest problems of life and destiny, +which were then baffling human intelligence, even as they are with us +to-day. Truly we of Keltic and Teuton descent are late-comers upon the +stage of national life. +</P> + +<P> +There was no promise of greatness in ancient Gaul. It was a great +unregulated force, rushing hither and thither. Impelled by insatiate +greed for the possessions of their neighbors, there was no permanence +in their loves or their hatreds. The enemies of to-day were the allies +of to-morrow. Guided entirely by the fleeting desires and passions of +the moment, with no far-reaching plans to restrain, the sixty or more +tribes composing the Gallic people were in perpetual state of feud and +anarchy, apparently insensible to the ties of brotherhood, which give +concert of action, and stability in form of national life. If they +overran a neighboring country, it seemed not so much for permanent +acquisition, as to make it a camping-ground until its resources were +exhausted. +</P> + +<P> +We read of one Massillia who came with a colony of Greeks long ages +ago, and after founding the city of Marseilles, created a narrow bright +border of Greek civilization along the Southern edge of the benighted +land. It was a brief illumination, lasting only a century or more, and +leaving few traces; but it may account for the superior intellectual +quality of the southern provinces in future France. +</P> + +<P> +It requires a vast extent of territory to sustain a people living by +the chase, and upon herds and flocks; hence the area which now amply +maintains thirty-five millions of Frenchmen was all too small for six +or seven million Gauls; and they were in perpetual struggle with their +neighbors for land—more land. +</P> + +<P> +"Give us land," they said to the Romans, and when land was denied them +and the gates of cities disdainfully closed upon their messengers, not +land, but vengeance, was their cry; and hordes of half-naked barbarians +trampled down the vineyards, and rushed, a tumultuous torrent, upon +Rome. +</P> + +<P> +The Romans could not stand before this new and strange kind of warfare. +The Gauls streamed over the vanquished legions into the Eternal City, +silent and deserted save only by the Senate and a few who remained +intrenched in the Citadel; and there the barbarians kept them besieged +for seven months, while they made themselves at home amid +uncomprehended luxuries. +</P> + +<P> +Of course Roman skill and courage at last dislodged and drove them +back. But the fact remained that the Gaul had been there,—master of +Rome; that the ironclad legions had been no match for his naked force, +and a new sensation thrilled through the length and breadth of Gaul. +It was the first throb of national life. The sixty or more fragments +drew closer together into something like Gallic unity—with a common +danger to meet, a common foe to drive back. +</P> + +<P> +Hereafter there was another hunger to be appeased besides that for food +and land; a hunger for conquest, for vengeance, and for glory for the +Gallic name. National pride was born. +</P> + +<P> +For years they hovered like wolves about Rome. But skill and superior +intelligence tell in the centuries. It took long—and cost no end of +blood and treasure; but two hundred years from the capture of Rome, the +Gauls were driven out of Italy, and the Alps pronounced a barrier set +by Nature herself against barbarian encroachments. +</P> + +<P> +Italy was not the only country suffering from the destroying footsteps +of the Western Kelts. There had been long ago an overflow of a tribe +in Northern Gaul (the Kymrians), which had hewed and plundered its way +south and eastward; until at the time of Alexander (340 B.C.) it was +knocking at the gates of Macedonia. +</P> + +<P> +Stimulated by the success at Rome fifty years earlier, they were, with +fresh insolence, demanding "land," and during the centuries which +followed, the Gallic name acquired no fresh lustre in Greece. +Half-naked, gross, ferocious and ignorant, sometimes allies, but always +a scourge, they finally crossed the Hellespont (278 B.C.), and turned +their attention to Asia Minor. And there, at last, we find them +settled in a province called Gallicia, where they lived without +amalgamating with the people about them; it is said, even as late as +400 years after Christ, speaking the language of their tribal home +(what is now Belgium). And these were the Galatians—the "foolish +Galatians," to whom Paul addressed his epistle; and we have followed up +this Gallic thread simply because it mingles with the larger strand of +ancient and sacred history with which we are all so familiar. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It is not strange that Roman courage and endurance became a by-word. +Her fibre was toughened by perpetual strain of conflict. Even while +she was struggling with Gaul and while the echoes of the Hunnish +invasion were still resounding through the Continent, Hannibal, with +his hosts, was pouring through Gaul and gathering accessions from that +people as he swept down into Italy. Then, with the memories of the +Carthagenian wars still fresh at Rome, the Goths were at her +gates,—their blows directed with a solidity superior to that of the +barbarians who had preceded them. Where the Gauls had knocked, the +Goths thundered. +</P> + +<P> +Again the city was invaded by barbarian feet, and again did superior +training and intelligence drive back the invading torrent and triumph +over native brute force. +</P> + +<P> +Such, in brief outline, was the condition of the centuries just before +the Christian era. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap02"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER II. +</H3> + +<P> +The making of a nation is not unlike bread or cake making. One element +is used as the basis, to which are added other component parts, of +varying qualities, and the result we call England, or Germany, or +France. The steps by which it is accomplished, the blending and fusing +of the elements, require centuries, and the process makes what we +call—history. +</P> + +<P> +It was written in the book of fate that Gaul should become a great +nation; but not until fused and interpenetrated with two other +nationalities. She must first be humanized and civilized by the Roman, +and then energized and made free from the Roman by the Teuton. +</P> + +<P> +The instrument chosen for the former was Julius Cæsar, and for the +latter—five centuries later—Clovis, the Frankish leader. It is safe +to affirm that no man has ever so changed the course of human events as +did Julius Cæsar. Napoleon, who strove to imitate him 1800 years +later, was a charlatan in comparison; a mere scene-shifter on a great +theatrical stage. Not a trace of his work remains upon humanity to-day. +</P> + +<P> +Cæsar opened up a pathway for the old civilizations of the world to +flow into Western Europe, and the sodden mass of barbarism was infused +with a life-compelling current. This was not accomplished by placing +before the inferior race a higher ideal of life for imitation, but by a +mingling of the blood of the nations—a transfusion into Gallic veins +of the germs of a higher living and thinking—thus making them heirs to +the great civilizations of antiquity. +</P> + +<P> +No human event was ever fraught with such consequences to the human +race as the conquest of Gaul by Julius Cæsar. +</P> + +<P> +The Gallic wars had for centuries drained the treasure and taxed the +resources of Rome. Cæsar conceived the audacious idea of stopping them +at their source—in fact, of making Gaul a Roman province. +</P> + +<P> +It was a marvellous exhibition, not simply of force, but of force +wielded by supreme intelligence and craft. He had lived four years +among this people and knew their sources of weakness, their internal +jealousies and rivalries, their incohesiveness. When they hurled +themselves against Rome, it was as a mass of sharp fragments. When the +Goths did the same, it was as one solid, indivisible body. Cæsar saw +that by adroit management he could disintegrate this people, even while +conquering them. +</P> + +<P> +By forcibly maintaining in power those who submitted to him, being by +turns gentle and severe, ingratiating here, terrifying there, he +established a tremendous personal force; and during nine years carried +on eight campaigns, marvels in the art of war, as well as in the +subtler methods of negotiation and intrigue. He had successively dealt +with all the Gallic tribes, even including Great Britain, subjugating +either through their own rivalries, or by his invincible arm. +</P> + +<P> +Equally able to charm and to terrify, he had all the gifts, all the +means to success and empire, that can be possessed by man. Great in +politics as in war, as full of resource in the forum as on the +battle-field, he was by nature called to dominion. +</P> + +<P> +It was not as a patriot, simply intent upon freeing Rome of an +harassing enemy, that he endured those nine years in Gaul—not as a +great leader burning with military ardor that he conducted those eight +campaigns. The conquest of Gaul meant the greater conquest of Rome. +The one was accomplished; he now turned his back upon the devastated +country, and prepared to complete his great project of human ascendency. +</P> + +<P> +Rome was mistress of the world; he—would be master of Rome. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap03"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER III. +</H3> + +<P> +While the Star of Empire was thus moving toward the West, another and +brighter star was about to arise in the East. So accustomed are we to +the story, that we lose all sense of wonder at its recital. +</P> + +<P> +Julius Cæsar's brief triumph was over. Marc Antony had recited his +virtues over his bier, Rome had wept, and then forgotten him in the +absorbing splendors of his nephew Augustus. In an obscure village of +an obscure country in Asia Minor, the young wife of a peasant finds +shelter in a stable, and gives birth to a son, who is cradled in the +straw of a manger, from which the cattle are feeding. +</P> + +<P> +Can the mind conceive of human circumstances more lowly? The child +grew to manhood, and in his thirty-three years of life was never lifted +above the obscure sphere into which he was born; never spoke from the +vantage-ground of worldly elevation,—simply moving among people of his +own station in life, mechanics, fishermen, and peasants, he told of a +religion of love, a gospel of peace, for which he was willing to die. +</P> + +<P> +Who would have dreamed that this was the germ of the most potent, the +most regenerative force the world had ever known? That thrones, +empires, principalities, and powers would melt and crumble before his +name? Of all miracles, is not this the greatest? +</P> + +<P> +The passionate ardor with which this religion was propagated in the +first two centuries had no motive but the yearning to make others share +in its benefits and hopes; and to this end to accept the belief that +Jesus Christ had come in fulfilment of a long-promised Saviour,—who +should be sent to this world clothed with divine authority to establish +a spiritual kingdom, in which he was King of Kings, Lord of Lords, +Mediator between us and the Father, of whom he was the "only begotten +Son." +</P> + +<P> +The religion in its essence was absolutely simple. Its founder summed +it up in two sentences,—expressing the duty of man to man, and of man +to God. That was all the Theology he formulated. +</P> + +<P> +For two centuries the religion of Christ was an elementary spiritual +force. It appealed only to the highest attributes and longings of the +human soul, and under its sustaining influence frail women, men, and +even children were able to endure tortures, of which we cannot read +even now without shuddering horror. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Nature's method of gardening is very beautiful. She carefully guards +the seed until it is ripe, then she bursts the imprisoning walls and +gives it to the winds to distribute. Precisely such method was used in +disseminating Christianity. It was not for one people—it was for the +healing of the nations, and its home was wherever man abides. +</P> + +<P> +Nearly five decades after Christ's death upon the cross, Jerusalem was +destroyed by Titus. The home of Christianity was effaced. At just the +right moment the enclosing walls had broken, and freed to the winds the +germs in all their primitive purity. +</P> + +<P> +Imperial favor had not tarnished it, human ambitions had not employed +and degraded it, nor had it been made into complex system by ingenious +casuists. The pure spiritual truth, unsullied as it came from the hand +of its founder, was scattered broadcast, as the band of Christians +dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, naturally forming into +communities here and there, which became the centres of Christian +propagandism. Lyons in Gaul was such a centre. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The fires of persecution had been lighted here and there throughout the +Empire, and the Emperor Nero, under whom the Apostles Peter and Paul +are said to have suffered martyrdom, had amused himself by making +torches of the Christians at Rome. But until 177 A.D. Gaul was exempt +from such horrors. +</P> + +<P> +Marcus Aurelius—that peerless pagan,—large in intelligence, exalted +in character, and guided by a conscientious rectitude which has made +his name shine like a star in the lurid light of Roman history, still +failed utterly to comprehend the significance of this spiritual kingdom +established by Christ on earth. He it was who ordered the first +persecution in Gaul. In pursuance of his command, horrible tortures +were inflicted at Lyons upon those who would not abjure the new faith. +</P> + +<P> +A letter, written by an eye-witness, pictures with terrible vividness +the scenes which followed. Many cases are described with harrowing +detail, and of one Blandina it is said: "From morn till eve they put +her to all manner of torture, marvelling that she still lived with her +body pierced through and through and torn piecemeal by so many tortures +of which a single one should have sufficed to kill her, to which she +only replied, 'I am a Christian.'" +</P> + +<P> +The recital goes on to tell how she was then cast into a dungeon,—her +feet compressed and dragged out to the utmost tension of the +muscles,—then left alone in darkness, until new methods of torture +could be devised. +</P> + +<P> +Finally she was brought, with other Christians, into the amphitheatre, +hanging from a cross to which she was tied, and there thrown to the +beasts. As the beasts refused to touch her she was taken back to the +dungeon to be reserved for another occasion, being brought out daily to +witness the fate and suffering of her friends and fellow-martyrs; still +answering the oft-repeated question—"I am a Christian." +</P> + +<P> +The writer goes on to say, "After she had undergone fire, the talons of +beasts, and every agony which could be thought of, she was wrapped in a +network and thrown to a bull, who tossed her in the air"—and her +sufferings were ended. +</P> + +<P> +Truly it cost something to say "I am a Christian" in those days. +</P> + +<P> +Marcus Aurelius probably gave orders for the persecution at Lyons, with +little knowledge of what would be the nature of those persecutions, or +of the religion he was trying to exterminate. Some of the hours spent +in writing introspective essays would have been well employed in +studying the period in which he lived, and the Empire he ruled. +</P> + +<P> +Paganism and Druidism, those twin monsters, receded before the +advancing light of Christianity. Neither contained anything which +could nourish the soul of man, and both had become simply badges of +nationality. +</P> + +<P> +Druidism was the last stronghold of independent Gallic life. It was a +mixture of northern myth and oriental dreams of metempsychosis, coarse, +mystical, and cruel. The Roman paganism which was superimposed by the +conquering race was the mere shell of a once vital religion. Educated +men had long ceased to believe in the gods and divinities of Greece, +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +In the year 312, alas for Christianity, it was espoused by imperial +power. When the Emperor Constantine declared himself a Christian, +there was no doubt rejoicing among the saints; but it was the beginning +of the degeneracy of the religion of Christ. The faith of the humble +was to be raised to a throne; its lowly garb to be exchanged for purple +and scarlet, the gospel of peace to be enforced by the sword. +</P> + +<P> +The Empire was crumbling, and upon its ruins the race of the future and +social conditions of modern times were forming. Paganism and Druidism +would have been an impossibility. Christianity even with its lustre +dimmed, its purity tarnished, its simplicity overlaid with +scholasticism, was better than these. The miracle had been +accomplished. The great Roman Empire had said: "I am Christian." +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap04"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IV. +</H3> + +<P> +Gaul had been Latinized and Christianized. Now one more thing was +needed to prepare her for a great future. Her fibre was to be +toughened by the infusion of a stronger race. Julius Cæsar had shaken +her into submission, and Rome had chastised her into decency of +behavior and speech, but as her manners improved her native vigor +declined. She took kindly to Roman luxury and effeminacy, and could no +longer have thundered at the gates of her neighbors demanding "land." +</P> + +<P> +But at last the great Roman Empire was dying, and even degenerate Gaul +was struggling out of her relaxing grasp. In her extremity she called +upon the Franks, a powerful Germanic race, to aid her. This people had +long looked with covetous eyes at the fair fields stretching beyond the +Rhine, and lost no time in accepting the invitation. They overspread +the land, and Gaul and Roman alike were submerged beneath the Teuton +flood, while the Frankish Conqueror, Clovis (son of the great +Merovaæus), was at Paris (or "Lutetia") wearing the kingly crown. +</P> + +<P> +Such was the beginning of independent and of dynastic life in France. +</P> + +<P> +Rome had found a more powerful ally than she hoped; and the desire of +Gaul was accomplished in that she was free from Rome. But the king of +whom she had dreamed was of her own race; not this terrible Frank. Had +she exchanged one servitude for another? Had she been, not set free, +but simply annexed to the realm of the Barbarian across the Rhine? Let +us say rather that it was an espousal. She had brought her dowry of +beauty and "land," that most coveted of possessions, and had pledged +obedience, for which she was to be cherished, honored, and protected, +and to bear the name of her lord. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +Ancient heroes are said to be seen through a shadowy lens, which +magnifies their stature. Let us hope that the crimes of the three or +four generations immediately succeeding Clovis have been in like manner +expanded; for it is sickening to read of such monstrous prodigality of +wickedness. Whole families butchered, husbands, wives, +children—anything obstructing the path to the throne—with an atrocity +which makes Richard III. seem a mere pigmy in the art of intrigue and +killing. The chapter closes with the daughter and mother of kings +(Brunehilde or Brunhaut) naked and tied by one arm, one leg and her +hair to the tail of an unbroken horse, and amid jeers and shouts dashed +over the stones of Paris (600 A.D.). +</P> + +<P> +But even the Frank succumbed to the enervating Gallic influence. The +Merovingian line commenced by Clovis faded from ferocity into +imbecility. Its Kings in less than two centuries had become mere +lay-figures, wearing the symbols of an authority which existed nowhere, +unless in the <I>Maire du Palais</I>. +</P> + +<P> +This office from being a sort of royal stewardship had grown to be the +governing power <I>de facto</I>. While Theodoric, the Phantom King, was +having his long locks dressed and perfumed, his <I>Maire du Palais</I>, +Charles, was moulding and welding his kingdom, and at the same time +staying the Mohammedan flood which was pouring over the Pyrenees; and, +by his final and decisive blow in defence of the Christianity espoused +by Clovis, earning the name <I>Charles Martel</I> (the hammer). +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +Less than one hundred years after the death of Clovis, there had come +out of Asia, that birthplace of religions, a new faith, which was +destined to be for centuries the scourge of Christendom, and which +to-day rules one-third of the human family. Zoroaster, Buddha, Christ, +had successively come with saving message to humanity, and now (600 +A.D.) Mohammed believed himself divinely appointed to drive out of +Arabia the idolatry of ancient Magianism (the religion of Zoroaster). +</P> + +<P> +Christianity had passed through strange vicissitudes. Kings, Emperors, +Popes, and Bishops had been terrible custodians of its truths, and +while many still held it in its primitive purity, ecclesiastics were +fiercely fighting over the nature of the Trinity, the divinity of the +Virgin Mother, and the Church was shaken to its foundation by furious +factions. +</P> + +<P> +In this hour of weakness, the Persians (590 A.D.) had conquered Asia +Minor. Bethlehem, Gethsemane, and Calvary were profaned; the Holy +Sepulchre had been burned, and the cross carried off amid shouts of +laughter. Magianism had insulted Christianity, and no miracle had +interposed! The heavens did not roll asunder, nor did the earth open +her abysses to swallow them up. There was consternation and doubt in +Christendom. +</P> + +<P> +Such was the state of the Church when Mohammedanism came into +existence. "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet." Such +was its battle-cry and its creed, and the moral precepts of the Koran +its gospel. There seems nothing in this to account for the mad +enthusiasm and the passion for worship in its followers. But in less +than a hundred years this lion out of Arabia had subjected Syria, +Mesopotamia, Egypt, Northern Africa, and the Spanish Peninsula. Now, +sword in one hand, and the Koran in the other, the Mohammedan had +crossed the Pyrenees and was in Southern Gaul. +</P> + +<P> +Under the strange magic of this faith, the largest religious empire the +world had known had sprung into existence, stretching from the Chinese +Wall to the Atlantic; from the Caspian to the Indian Ocean; and +Jerusalem, the metropolis of Christianity-Jerusalem, the Mecca of the +Christian, was lost! The crescent floated over the birthplace of our +Lord, and notwithstanding the temporary successes of the Crusades, it +does to this day. +</P> + +<P> +If the Pyrenees were passed, the very existence of Christendom was +threatened. Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne, averted +this danger when he stayed the infidel flood at the battle of Tours, +732 A.D. +</P> + +<P> +Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, who succeeded him as <I>Maire du +Palais</I>, does not seem to have had the temper or spirit of an usurper, +but simply to have been an energetic, resolute man who was bored by the +circumlocution of governing through a King who did not exist. He +determined to put an end to the fiction, and to cut the Gordian knot by +first cutting the long curls of the last Merovingian, Childeric; and +then putting the crown upon his own head, he sent the unfortunate +phantom of royalty to a monastery, to reflect upon the uncertainty of +human pleasures and events. By right of manhood and superiority, the +Carlovingian line had succeeded to the Merovingian. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +Against the dark background of European history, and with the broad +level of obscurity stretching over the ages at its feet, there rises +one shining pinnacle. Considered as man or sovereign, Charlemagne is +one of the most impressive figures in history. His seven feet of +stature clad in shining steel, his masterful grasp of the forces of his +time, his splendid intelligence, instinct even then with the modern +spirit, all combine to elevate him in solitary grandeur. +</P> + +<P> +Charlemagne found France in disorder measureless, and apparently +insurmountable. Barbarian invasion without, and anarchy within; Saxon +paganism pressing in upon the North, and Asiatic Islamism upon the +South and West; a host of forces struggling for dominion in a nation +brutish, ignorant, and without cohesion. +</P> + +<P> +It is the attribute of genius to discern opportunity where others see +nothing. Charlemagne saw rising out of this chaos a great resuscitated +Roman empire, which should be at the same time a spiritual and +Christian empire as well. Saxons, Slavs, Huns, Lombards, Arabs, came +under his compelling grasp; these antagonistic races all held together +by the force of one terrible will, in unnatural combination with +France. No political liberties, no popular assemblies discussing +public measures; it is Charlemagne alone who fills the picture; it is +absolutism,—marked by prudence, ability, and grandeur, but still, +absolutism. +</P> + +<P> +The Pope looked approvingly upon this son of the Church by whose order +4,500 pagan heads could be cut off in one day, and a whole army +compelled to baptism in an afternoon. Here was a champion to be +propitiated! Charlemagne, on the other hand, saw in the Church the +most compliant and effective means to empire. In the loving alliance +formed, he was to be the protector, the Pope the protected. He wore +the Church as a precious jewel in his crown. +</P> + +<P> +It was a splendid dream, splendidly realized; the most imposing of +human successes, and the most impressive of human failures. It seems +designed as a lesson for the human race in the transitory nature of +power applied from without. +</P> + +<P> +The vast fabric passed with himself; was gone like a shadow when he was +gone. The unity of the Empire was buried in the grave of its founder. +In twenty-nine years (by the treaty of Verdun) three kingdoms emerged +from the crumbling mass. France, Italy, Germany, already separated by +race repulsions, had taken up each a distinct national existence, the +Imperial crown remaining with Germany. +</P> + +<P> +And France—France, the centre of this dream of unity, with her native +incohesiveness, and in the irony of fate, had broken into no less than +59 fragments, loosely held together by one Carlovingian King. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap05"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER V. +</H3> + +<P> +I think that it was Lincoln who said that "the Lord must like common +people, because he had made so many of them." The path for the common +people in France at this time led through heavy shadows. But a darker +time was approaching. A system of oppression was maturing, which was +soon to envelop them in the obscurity of darkest night. +</P> + +<P> +Those Scandinavian freebooters called Northmen, and later Normans, were +the scourge of the kingdom. Nothing was safe from their insolent +courage and rapacity. +</P> + +<P> +The rich could intrench themselves in stone fortresses, with moats and +drawbridges, and be in comparative security, but the poor were utterly +defenceless against this perennial destroyer. The result was a compact +between the powerful and the weak, which was the beginning of the +Feudal System. It was in effect an exchange of protection for service +and fealty. You give us absolute control of your persons—your +military service when required, and a portion of your substance and the +fruit of your toil—and we will in exchange give you our fortified +castles as a refuge from the Northmen. Such was the offer. It was a +choice between vassalage, serfdom, or destruction outright. +</P> + +<P> +Simple enough in its beginnings, this became a ramified system of +oppression, a curious network of authority, ingeniously controlling an +entire people. The conditions upon which was engrafted this compact +were of great antiquity, had indeed been brought across the Rhine by +their German conquerors; but the Northmen were the impelling cause of +the swift development of feudalism in France. +</P> + +<P> +Charlemagne had felt grave apprehensions of evil from these robber +incursions, but could not have conceived of a result such as this, the +most oppressive system ever fastened upon a nation, and one which would +at the same time sap the foundations of royalty itself. +</P> + +<P> +The theory was that the King was absolute owner of all the territory; +the great lords holding their titles from him on condition of military +service, their vassals pledging military service and obedience to them +again on similar terms, and sub-vassals again to them repeating the +pledge; and so on in descending chain, until at last the serf, that +wretched being whom none looks up to nor fears, is ground to powder +beneath the superimposed mass. No appeal from the authority, no escape +from the caprice or cruelty of his feudal lord. Could any scales +weigh, could any words measure the suffering which must have been +endured? Is it strange, with every aspiration thwarted, hope stifled, +that Europe sank into the long sleep of the Middle Ages? +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It is easy to conceive that under such a system, where all the affairs +of the realm were adjusted by individual rulers with unlimited power, +and where the great barons could make war upon each other without +authorization from the King, that by the time this nominal head of the +entire system was reached, there was nothing for him to do. In fact, +there was not left one vestige of kingly authority, and Carlovingian +rulers were almost as insignificant as their Merovingian predecessors. +France had, instead of one great sovereign, 150 petty ones! +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +In 911 A.D. the Northmen were offered the province henceforth known as +Normandy, upon condition of their acceptance of the religion and +submission to the laws of the realm. Rollo, the disreputable +robber-chief, took the oath of fealty to the King of France his +Suzerain, and Christian baptism transformed him into respectable, +law-abiding Robert, Duke of Normandy. +</P> + +<P> +With marvellous facility this people took on the language and manners +of their neighbors, and in a century and a half were prepared to +instruct the Britons in a higher civilization. +</P> + +<P> +I think it is one hundred years of respectability that is required by a +certain aristocratic club for admission to its membership. The blood +does not acquire the proper shade of azure until it has flowed in the +full light of day for at least three generations. Decidedly, William +the Conqueror, first Norman King of England, could not have been +admitted to this club. +</P> + +<P> +A century before his birth, his ancestors had lived by looting their +neighbors. They were highwaymen, robbers, by profession. And, to +increase his ineligibility, his mother, a pretty Norman peasant girl, +daughter of a tanner, had ensnared the affections of that pleasant Duke +of Normandy, known as "Robert the Devil." +</P> + +<P> +William, the fruit of this unconsecrated union, became in time Duke of +Normandy. With that reversion to ancestral types to which scientists +tell us we are all liable, he seems to have looked across the Channel +toward England, with an awakening of his robber-instincts. In a few +weeks, Harold, the last King of the Saxons, lay dead at his feet, and +William, Duke of Normandy, was William I., King of England. +</P> + +<P> +Then was presented the curious anomaly of an English sovereign who was +also ruler of a French province; an English king who was vassal to the +King of France. A door was thus opened (1066 A.D.) through which +entered entangling complications and countless woes in the future. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +If Charlemagne had worn the Church as a precious jewel in his crown in +the ninth century, the Church now in the eleventh century wore all the +European states, a tiara of jewels in her mitre. The centre of +dominion had passed from the Empire of Germany to Rome, when Henry IV. +prostrated himself barefooted before Gregory VII. at Canossa in 1072. +</P> + +<P> +The Church was at its zenith. As a political system it was unrivalled; +but its triumphs brought little joy to the earnest souls still clinging +to the ideals of primitive Christianity. But what availed it for +Abelard to lead an intellectual revolt against corrupted beliefs in the +North, or the Albigenses a spiritual one in the South? He was silenced +and immured for life, while the unhappy inhabitants of Languedoc were +massacred and almost exterminated, and an inquisition, established at +Toulouse, made sure that heretical germs should not again spread from +that infected centre. +</P> + +<P> +But however imperfect the religious sentiment of the time, however it +may have departed from the simple precepts of its founder, its power to +sway the hearts and lives of the people may be judged from the +extraordinary movement started in France in the twelfth century. +</P> + +<P> +How inconceivable, in this practical age, that Europe should three +times have emptied her choicest and best into Asia for a sentiment! +Business suspended, private interests sacrificed or forgotten, life, +treasure, all eagerly given—for what? That a small bit of territory, +a thousand miles away, be torn from profaning infidels, because of its +sacred associations, because it was the birthplace of a religion whose +meaning seems to have escaped them—a religion which they wore on their +battle-flags, but not in their hearts. How would a barefooted, +rope-girdled monk, however inspired and eloquent, fare to-day in New +York, or London, or Paris? +</P> + +<P> +History has no stranger chapter than that of the Crusades. When Peter +the Hermit pictured the desecration of the Holy Land by Mohammedans, +all classes in France, from King to serf, were for the first time moved +by a common sentiment, and poured life and treasure with passionate +zeal into those streams which three times inundated Palestine. +</P> + +<P> +The order of Knights Templar had been created, and a splendid ideal of +manhood held up before the French nation, and now the knightly ideal, +side by side with the Christian and the romantic ideal, entered into +the life of the people. Romance, song, poetry, eloquence came into +being from a sort of spiritual baptism, and France began to wear the +mantle of beauty which was to be her chief glory in the future. +</P> + +<P> +But future France was not clad in coat of mail in the twelfth century. +She was lying helpless, beneath the mass of feudal trappings. Her time +was not yet. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap06"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VI. +</H3> + +<P> +Like all oppressive systems, feudalism bore within itself the seeds of +its own destruction. When the King, shorn of prerogative and of +dignity, made alliance with the people lying in helpless misery beneath +the mailed surface, the system was rudely shaken. When artisans +flocked to the free cities enjoying especial immunities and privileges +from the King, and by skill and industry amassed fortunes, the +<I>commune</I> and the <I>bourgeoisie</I> were created, and feudalism was +stricken to its centre. When spendthrift nobles and needy barons +mortgaged their estates, the end was not far off. And when in 1302 the +"<I>tiers état</I>" entered the States-General as a legitimate order of the +Government, the very foundations were crumbling, and it needed but the +final <I>coup de grâce</I> given by Charles VII. in the fifteenth century, +when he established a standing army under the control of the King. +When this was done, the feudal system was relegated to the region of +the obsolete. +</P> + +<P> +It was well for that sovereign that he could do something to save his +name from the obloquy attached to it on account of his base desertion +of Joan of Arc, to whom he owed his throne and his kingdom. +</P> + +<P> +From the moment when a French province was attached to the crown of +England, the dream of that nation was the conquest of France. +Generations came and went, one dynasty replaced another, and still the +struggle continued; France sometimes seeming near to dominion over +England, and England always believing it was her destiny to bring +France under the rule of an English sovereign. +</P> + +<P> +A glamour of romance is thrown over history by the royal marriages +which occur in dazzling profusion. It seems to have been the custom, +whenever a peace was concluded in Europe, to cement it with a royal +marriage, and to throw in a princess as a sacrifice,—one of the +conditions of almost every treaty being that a royal daughter, or +sister, or niece, should be tossed across the Channel, or into Germany, +or Italy, or Spain, an unwilling bride thrown into the arms of a +reluctant bridegroom; with the result that in the succeeding generation +there was a plentiful sprinkling of heirs with claims, more or less +shadowy, to the neighboring thrones. This was the source, or rather +pretext, for most of the wars between France and England for four +hundred years. +</P> + +<P> +In the early part of the fifteenth century the great crisis arrived. +With that lack of unity which seemed a fatal Gallic inheritance, France +broke into civil war, while an invading English army was in the heart +of her kingdom. England's dream was near realization. +</P> + +<P> +An insane King, a vicious intriguing Queen-Regent, the Duke of Burgundy +madly jealous of the Duke of Orleans, and both ready to sacrifice +France in the rage of disappointed ambition,—such were the elements. +England's opportunity had come. +</P> + +<P> +The depraved Queen Isabella, acting for her insane husband, held +conference with Henry V., and actually concluded a treaty bestowing the +regency upon the English King. There was the usual douceur of a +princess thrown in, and Katharine, the daughter of Isabella, and sister +to the Dauphin (the future King Charles VII.), was espoused by King +Henry V. of England, who set up a royal court at Vincennes. +</P> + +<P> +The fortunes of the kingdom had never been so desperate. The people +saw in these insolent traitorous dukes their natural enemy; in the +King, their friend and protector. Had not monarchy given them life and +hope? It was to them sacred next to Heaven. They rose in an outburst +of patriotism. The young Dauphin was hastily and informally crowned, +and thousands flocked to his standard. It was the King and the people +against the great vassals, the last struggle of an expiring feudalism. +Desperation lent fury to the conflict which was, upon both sides, a +fight for existence; the Queen-mother in unnatural alliance with the +Duke of Burgundy, who was resolved to rule or ruin. +</P> + +<P> +He soon saw that defeat was inevitable, and, preferring infamy, threw +himself into the hands of the English, offering to turn the kingdom +over to the infant King Henry VI. (Henry V. having died). +</P> + +<P> +Charles abandoned hope; how could he struggle against such a +combination? He was considering whether he should find refuge in Spain +or in Scotland, when the tide of events was turned by the strangest +romance in history. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +It must ever remain a mystery that a peasant girl, a child in years and +in experience, should have believed herself called to such a mission; +conferring only with her heavenly guides or "voices," that she should +have sought the King, inspired him with faith in her, and in himself +and his cause, reanimated the courage of the army, and led it herself +to victory absolute and complete; and then, compelling the +half-reluctant, half-doubting Charles to go with her to Rheims, where +she had him anointed and consecrated, this simple child in that day +bestowed upon him a kingdom, and upon France a King! +</P> + +<P> +Was there ever a stranger chapter in history! Alas, if it could have +ended here, and she could have gone back to her mother and her spinning +and her simple pleasures, as she was always longing to do when her work +should be done. But no! we see her falling into the hands of the +defeated and revengeful English—this child, who had wrested from them +a kingdom already in their grasp. She was turned over to the French +ecclesiastical court to be tried. A sorceress and a blasphemer they +pronounce her, and pass her on to the secular authorities, and her +sentence is—death. +</P> + +<P> +We see the poor defenceless girl, bewildered, terrified, wringing her +hands and declaring her innocence as she rides to execution. God and +man had abandoned her. No heavenly voice spoke, no miracle intervened +as her young limbs were tied to the stake and the fagots and straw +piled up about her. The torch was applied, and her pure soul mounted +heavenward in a column of flames. +</P> + +<P> +Rugged men wept. A Burgundian general said, as he turned gloomily +away, "We have murdered a saint." +</P> + +<P> +And Charles, sitting upon the throne she had rescued for him, what was +he doing to save her? Nothing—to his everlasting shame be it said, +nothing. He might not have succeeded; the effort at rescue, or to stay +the event, might have been unavailing. But where was his knighthood, +where his manhood, that he did not try, or utter passionate protest +against her fate? +</P> + +<P> +Twenty-five years later we see him erecting statues to her memory, and +"rehabilitating" her desecrated name. And to-day, the Church which +condemned her for blasphemy is placing her upon the calendar of saints, +while all political parties alike are using her name as a thing to +conjure with. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap07"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VII. +</H3> + +<P> +The early part of the sixteenth century must ever be memorable in the +history of Europe. Ferdinand and Isabella had given to the human race +a new world. Luther had hurled his defiance at Rome—had arraigned Leo +X. for blasphemy and corrupt practices. Henry V., grandson of +Ferdinand and Isabella (and nephew of Katharine, wife of Henry VIII.) +was Emperor of Germany. Astute and powerful though he was, he had been +unable to stay the Protestant flood. His empire, apparently hungering +for the new heresy, was divided already into States Protestant and +States Catholic. England was Protestant. The conversion of her King, +because the Pope refused to annul his marriage with Katharine, was not +one of the proudest triumphs of the new faith, but one of the most +important. Had Katharine's charms been fresher, or Anne Boleyn's less +alluring, the course of history might have been strangely changed. +Henry VIII. as persecutor of heretics would have found congenial +occupation for his ferocious instincts, and Protestantism would have +been long delayed. Spain was unchangeably Catholic, while France +offered congenial soil for the new faith. The germs of heresy, long +slumbering, were everywhere stirred into life. +</P> + +<P> +Francis I. was King; sumptuous in tastes, suave and elegant in manners, +as handsome as an Apollo, gay, pleasure-loving, as vicious as he was +false, and if need be with a cruelty which matched his ambition, such +was the man who held the destinies of France at this time. +</P> + +<P> +A rival claimant for the throne of Germany, he was destined to spend +his life in fruitless contest with the more able, wily, and astute +Henry V., the possession of that Empire the ignis-fatuus ever luring +him on; an end to which all other ends were simply the means. The +religious question upon which Europe was divided meant nothing to him, +except as he could use it in his duel with the Emperor. He was in turn +the ally of Henry VIII. or the willing tool of Henry V. If he needed +the English King's friendship, the Protestants had protection. If he +desired to placate Henry V., the roastings and torturings commenced +again. +</P> + +<P> +In 1547 Francis and Henry VIII. each went to his reward, and a few +years later Henry V. had laid down his crown and carried his weary, +unsatisfied heart to St. Yuste. The brilliant pageant was over; but +Protestantism was expanding. +</P> + +<P> +The question at issue was deeper than any one knew. Neither Luther nor +Leo X. understood the revolution they had precipitated. Protestants +and Papists alike failed to comprehend the true nature of the struggle, +which was not for supremacy of Romanist or Protestant; not whether this +dogma or that was true, and should prevail; but an assertion of the +right of every human soul to choose its own faith and form of worship. +The great battle for human liberty had commenced; the struggle for +religious liberty was but the prelude to what was to follow. There was +abundant proof later that Protestants no less than Papists needed only +opportunity and power to be as cruel and intolerant as their +persecutors had been. Before the Reformation was fifty years old, +Servetus, one of the greatest men of his age, a scholar, philosopher, +and man of irreproachable character, was burned at Geneva for heretical +views concerning the nature of the Trinity, Calvin, the great organizer +of Protestant theology, giving, if not the order for this crime, at +least the nod of approval. +</P> + +<P CLASS="noindent" ALIGN="center"> +<SPAN STYLE="letter-spacing: 4em">*****</SPAN><BR> +</P> + +<P> +Huguenot, that name of tragic association, was a corruption of the +German <I>Eidgenossen</I>—meaning associates. By the way of Switzerland it +came into France as <I>Eguenots</I>, and the transition to its present form +was simple. The Huguenots were no longer a timorous band hiding in +darkness as in the time of Francis I. A party with such leaders as +Anthony de Bourbon, Prince of Condé (his brother), and Admiral Coligny, +was not to be put down by a few roastings and stranglings here and +there. Anthony de Bourbon (King of Navarre) was next in succession +should the House of Valois become extinct, with a young son valiant as +himself (the future Henry IV.) pressing on toward manhood. +</P> + +<P> +Catholic France needed plenty of comfort from Rome and Madrid in +dealing with this formidable body of heretics which had fastened upon +her vitals, and which was in turn receiving aid and comfort from the +young Protestant Queen across the Channel. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +When that fair princess Catharine de Medici became the wife of Henry, +second son of Francis I., no one suspected the tremendous import of the +event. Powerless to win the affection or even confidence of her +husband, she remained during his reign almost unobserved, but, as the +event proved, not unobservant. Her alert faculties were not idle, and +when upon the death of Henry II. she found herself Queen-Regent, with +only a frail boy of sixteen to obstruct her will, she quickly gathered +the threads she already knew so well, and her supple hand closed upon +them with a grasp not to be relinquished while she lived. +</P> + +<P> +Another young Princess had been tossed across the Channel. This time +it was her most serene little highness, Marie Stuart, Queen of +Scotland, intended for the dauphin, who was to be Francis II. +</P> + +<P> +In order to be prepared for this high destiny, the little maid was +brought when only six years old to the Court of France to be trained +under the direct supervision of her future mother-in-law, Catharine de +Medici. Poor little Marie Stuart—predestined to sin and to tragedy! +Who could be good, with the blood of the Guises in her veins, and with +Catharine de Medici as preceptress? +</P> + +<P> +This marriage was planned before Catharine's advent to power, or it +would never have been. Marie was the niece of the Duke of Guise, and +the central thought of Catharine's policy was the exclusion of this +ambitious, intriguing family from every avenue to power in the state. +Now, Marie would be Queen, and who so natural advisers as her uncles of +the house of "Lorraine"? +</P> + +<P> +The marriage of the two children had taken place—the sickly boy with +only a modest portion of intelligence was Francis II. Marie, his +Queen, whom he adored, controlled him utterly, and was in turn +controlled by her uncles, the Guises. The wily Catharine saw herself +defeated by a beautiful girl of sixteen. +</P> + +<P> +The family of Guise was the self-appointed head of the Catholic party +in France and represented the most extreme views regarding the +treatment of heretics. So the strange result was, that Catharine, if +she looked for any allies in her fight with the house of Lorraine, of +which the Duke of Guise was the head, must make common cause with the +Protestants, whom she hated a little less than she did the uncles of +Marie Stuart. But events were soon to change the situation. Did she +hasten them? Such a suspicion may never have existed. But may one not +suspect anything of a woman capable of a St. Bartholomew? +</P> + +<P> +Francis II. was dead. Marie Stuart had passed out of French history. +The fates were fighting on the side of Catharine, who wasted no regrets +upon the death of a son, which made her Queen-Regent during the +minority of her second son Charles. She entered upon her fight with +the Guises with renewed energy, and became to some extent protector of +the Protestants. Realizing that her time was brief, she prepared +Charles for the position he would soon hold. +</P> + +<P> +What can be said of a mother who seeks to exterminate every germ of +truth or virtue in her son—who immerses him in degrading vices in +order to deaden his too sensitive conscience and make him a willing +tool for her purposes? Inheriting the splendid intelligence as well as +genius for statecraft of the de Medici, nourished from her infancy upon +Machiavellian principles, cold and cruel by nature, this Florentine +woman has written her name in blood across the pages of French history. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap08"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER VIII. +</H3> + +<P> +There is not time to tell the story of the events leading up to that +fateful night, August 24, 1572. Impelled always by her fear and dread +of the Guises, Catharine had been vacillating in her policy with the +Huguenots. Charles IX. was now King: impressible, easily influenced, +yet stubborn, intractable, incoherent, passionate, and unreliable; +sometimes inclining to the Guises, sometimes to Coligny and the +Huguenots, and always submitting at last after vain struggle to his +imperious mother's will, in her efforts to free him from both. We see +in him a weak character, not naturally bad, torn to distraction by the +cruel forces about him, who when compelled to yield, as he always did +in the end, to that terrible woman, would give way to fits of impotent +rage against the fate which allowed him no peace. +</P> + +<P> +A time arrived when Catharine feared the influence of the Protestant +Coligny more than the Guises. Brave, patriotic, magnetic, he had +succeeded in winning Charles' consent to declare war against Spain. +Philip II. of Spain was Catharine's son-in-law and closest ally. Her +entire policy would be undermined. At all hazards Coligny must be +gotten rid of. The young King of Navarre, adored leader of the +Protestants, was a constant menace; he too must in some way be disposed +of. +</P> + +<P> +There were sinister conferences with Philip of Spain and with his +Minister, that incarnation of cruelty and of the Inquisition, the Duke +of Alva. +</P> + +<P> +God knows France was not guiltless in what followed; but the +initiative, the inception of the horrid deed, was not French. It was +conceived in the brain of either this Italian woman or her Spanish +adviser and co-conspirator, the Duke of Alva. We will never know the +inside history of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. It must ever remain +a matter of conjecture just how and when it was planned, but the +probabilities point strongly one way. +</P> + +<P> +Charles was to be gradually prepared for it by his mother, the plot +revealed to him as he was in condition to bear it; by working upon his +fears, his suspicions, by stories of plottings against his life and his +kingdom, to infuriate him, and then—before his rage was exhausted—to +act. The marriage of Charles' sister Margaret with the young +Protestant leader Henry of Navarre, with its promise of future +protection to the Huguenots, was part of the plot. It would lure all +the leaders of the cause to Paris. Coligny, Condé, all the heads of +the party were urgently invited to attend the marriage-feast which was +to inaugurate an era of peace. +</P> + +<P> +Admiral Coligny was requested by Catharine, simply as a measure of +protection to the Protestants, to have an additional regiment of guards +in Paris, to act in case of any unforeseen violence. +</P> + +<P> +Two days after the marriage and while the festivities were at their +height, an attempt upon the life of the old Admiral awoke suspicion and +alarm. But Catharine and her son went immediately in person to see the +wounded old man, and to express their grief and horror at the event. +They commanded that a careful list of the names and abode of every +Protestant in Paris be made, in order, as they said, "to take them +under their own immediate protection." "My dear father," said the +King, "the hurt is yours, the grief is mine." +</P> + +<P> +At that moment, the knives were already sharpened, every man instructed +in his part in the hideous drama, and the signal for its commencement +determined upon. Charles did not know it, but his mother did. She +went to her son's room that night, artfully and eloquently pictured the +danger he was in, confessed to him that she had authorized the attempt +upon Coligny, but that it was done because of the Admiral's plottings +against him, which she had discovered. But the Guises—her enemies and +his—they knew it, and would denounce her and the King! The only thing +now is to finish the work. He must die. +</P> + +<P> +Charles was in frightful agitation and stubbornly refused. Finally +with an air of offended dignity she bowed coldly and said to her son, +"Sir, will you permit me to withdraw with my daughter, from your +kingdom?" The wretched Charles was conquered. In a sort of insane +fury he exclaimed, "Well, let them kill him, and all the rest of the +Huguenots too. See that not one remains to reproach me." +</P> + +<P> +This was more than she had hoped. All was easy now. So eager was she +to give the order before a change of mood, that she flew herself to +give the signal, fully two hours earlier than was expected. At +midnight the tocsin rang out upon the night, and the horror began. +</P> + +<P> +Lulled to a feeling of security by artfully contrived circumstances, +husbands, wives, sons, daughters, peacefully sleeping, were awakened to +see each other hideously slaughtered. +</P> + +<P> +The stars have looked down upon some terrible scenes in Paris, her +stones are not unacquainted with the taste of human blood, but never +had there been anything like this. The carnage of battle is merciful +compared with it. Shrieking women and children, half-clothed, fleeing +from knives already dripping with human blood; frantic mothers +shielding the bodies of their children, and wives pleading for the +lives of husbands; the living hiding beneath the bodies of the dead. +</P> + +<P> +The cry that ascended to Heaven from Paris that night was the most +awful and despairing in the world's history. It was centuries of +cruelty crowded into a few hours. +</P> + +<P> +The number slain can never be accurately stated; but it was thousands. +Human blood is intoxicating. An orgie set in which laughed at orders +to cease. Seven days it continued and then died out for lack of +material. The provinces had caught the contagion, and orders to slay +were received and obeyed in all except two, the Governor of Bayonne, to +his honor be it told, writing to the King in reply: "Your Majesty has +many faithful subjects in Bayonne, but not one executioner." +</P> + +<P> +And where was "His Majesty" while this work was being done? How was it +with Catharine? She was possibly seeing to the embalming of Coligny's +head, which we learn she sent as a present to the Pope. We hear of no +regrets, no misgivings, that she was calm, collected, suave and +unfathomable as ever, but that Charles in a strange, half-frenzied +state was amusing himself by firing from the windows of the palace at +the fleeing Huguenots. Had he killed himself in remorse, would it not +have been better, instead of lingering two wretched years, a prey to +mental tortures and an inscrutable malady, before he died? +</P> + +<P> +Europe was shocked. Christendom averted her face in horror. But at +Madrid and Rome there was satisfaction. +</P> + +<P> +Catharine and the Duke of Alva had done their work skilfully, but the +result surprised and disappointed them. Tens of thousands of Huguenots +were slain, which was well; but many times that number remained, with +spirit unbroken, which was not well. +</P> + +<P> +They had been too merciful! Why had Henry of Navarre been spared? Had +not Alva said, "Take the big fish and let the small fry go. One salmon +is worth more than a thousand frogs." +</P> + +<P> +But Charles considered the matter settled when he uttered those +swelling words to Henry of Navarre the day after the massacre: "I mean +in future to have one religion in my kingdom. It is mass or death." +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Catharine's third son now wore the crown of France. In Henry III. she +had as pliant an instrument for her will as in the two brothers +preceding him; and, like them, his reign was spent in alternating +conflict with the Protestants and the Duke de Guise. At last, wearied +and exasperated, this half-Italian and altogether conscienceless King +quite naturally thought of the stiletto. The old Duke, as he entered +the King's apartment by invitation, was stricken down by assassins +hidden for that purpose. +</P> + +<P> +Henry had not counted on the rebound from that blow. Catholic France +was excited to such popular fury against him that he threw himself into +the arms of the Protestants, imploring their aid in keeping his crown +and his kingdom; and when himself assassinated, a year later, in the +absence of a son he named Henry, King of Navarre, his successor. A +Protestant and a Huguenot was King of France. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap09"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER IX. +</H3> + +<P> +After long wandering in strange seas, we come in view of familiar +lights and headlands. With the advent of the house of Bourbon, we have +grasped a thread which leads directly down to our own time. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +The accession of a Protestant King was hailed with delirious joy by the +Huguenots, and with corresponding rage by Catholic France. The one +looked forward to redressing of wrongs and avenging of injuries; and +the other flatly refused submission unless Henry should recant his +heresy, and become a convert to the true faith. +</P> + +<P> +The new King saw there was no bed of roses preparing for him. After +four years of effort to reconcile the irreconcilable, he decided upon +his course. He was not called to the throne to rule over Protestant +France, nor to be an instrument of vengeance for the Huguenots. He saw +that the highest good of the kingdom required, not that he should +impose upon it either form of belief or worship, but give equal +opportunity and privilege to both. +</P> + +<P> +To the consternation of the Huguenots he announced himself ready to +listen to the arguments in favor of the religion of Rome; and it took +just five hours of deliberation to convince him of its truth. He +announced himself ready to abjure his old faith. Bitter reproaches on +the one side and rejoicings on the other greeted this decision. It was +not heroic. But many even among the Protestants acknowledged it to be +an act of supreme political wisdom. +</P> + +<P> +Peace was restored, and the "Edict of Nantes," which quickly followed, +proved to his old friends, the Huguenots, that they were not forgotten. +The Protestants, with every disability removed, shared equal privileges +with the Catholics throughout the kingdom; and the first victory for +religious liberty was splendidly won. +</P> + +<P> +An era of unexampled prosperity dawned. Never had the kingdom been so +wisely and beneficently governed. Sincerity, simplicity, and sympathy +had taken the place of dissimulation, craft, and cruelty. Uplifting +agencies were everywhere at work, reaching even to the peasantry, that +forgotten element in the nation. +</P> + +<P> +The reign of the Bourbon dynasty had opened auspiciously. Henry IV. +was the idol of the people. His loveless marriage with Margaret de +Valois had been annulled, and he had espoused Marie de Medici. The +blood from that poisoned stream was again to be intermingled with the +blood of the future Kings of France. +</P> + +<P> +After a reign of twenty-one years, the sagacious ruler who had done +more than any other to make her great and happy was stricken down by +the hand of an assassin, and a cry of grief arose alike from Catholic +and Protestant throughout the kingdom. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Poor France was again at the mercy of a woman with the corrupt +instincts of the de Medici. The widow of Henry IV., who was Regent +during the infancy of her son Louis, was intriguing, vulgar, and +without the ability of the great Catharine. The kingdom was rent by +cabals of aspiring favorites and ambitious nobles, until the reign of +Louis XIII., or rather of Cardinal Richelieu, began. +</P> + +<P> +The foundations of this man's policy lay deep, out of sight of all save +his own far-reaching intelligence. Pitiless as an iceberg, he crushed +every obstacle to his purpose. Impartial as fate, with no loves, no +hatreds, Catholics, Protestants, nobles, Parliaments, one after another +were borne down before his determination to make the King, what he had +not been since Charlemagne, supreme in France. +</P> + +<P> +The will of the great minister mowed down like a scythe. The power of +the grandees, that last remnant of feudalism, and a perpetual menace to +monarchy, was swept away. One great noble after another was humiliated +and shorn of his privileges, if not of his head. +</P> + +<P> +The Huguenots, being first shaken into submission, saw their political +liberties torn from them by the stroke of a pen, and even while the +Catholics were making merry over this discomfiture, the minister was +planning to send Henrietta, sister of the King, across the Channel to +become Queen of Protestant England, as wife of Charles I. But the act +of supreme audacity was to come. This high prelate of the church, this +cardinal minister, formed alliance with Gustavus Adolphus, the great +leader of the Protestants in the war upon the Emperor and the Pope! +</P> + +<P> +He allowed no religion, no class, to sway or to hold him. He was for +France; and her greatness and glory augmented under his ruthless +dominion. By his extraordinary genius he made the reign of a +commonplace King one of dazzling splendor; and while gratifying his own +colossal ambition he so strengthened the foundations of the monarchy +that princes of the blood themselves could not shake it. +</P> + +<P> +It was great—it was dazzling, but of all his work there is but one +thing which revolutions and time have not swept away. The "French +Academy" alone survives as his monument. Out of a gathering of +literary friends he created a national institution, its object the +establishing a court of last appeal in all that makes for eloquence in +speaking or writing the French language. In a country where nothing +endures, this has remained unchanged for two hundred and thirty years. +</P> + +<P> +But this master of statecraft, this creator of despotic monarchy, had +one unsatisfied ambition. He would have exchanged all his honors for +the ability to write one play like those of Corneille. Hungering for +literary distinction, he could not have gotten into his own Academy had +he not created it. And jealous of his laurels, he hated Corneille as +much as he did the enemies of France. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap10"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER X. +</H3> + +<P> +Again do we recognize the fine Italian hand in French politics. +Cardinal Mazarin was Minister during the regency of Anne of Austria, +directing and controlling the affairs of the Kingdom, less intent upon +the greatness of France than the greatness and magnificence of her +Prime Minister. At last the wily Italian was gone, and Louis XIV. +settled himself upon the throne which Richelieu had rendered so exalted +and immovable. +</P> + +<P> +Cardinal Mazarin had said of the young Louis that "there was enough in +him to make four Kings, and one honest man." His greatness consisted +more in amplitude than in kind. Nature made him in prodigal mood. He +was an average man of colossal proportions. His ability, courage, +dignity, industry, greed for power and possessions, were all on a +magnificent scale, and so were his vanity, his loves, his cruelties, +his pleasures, his triumphs, and his disappointments. +</P> + +<P> +No King more wickedly oppressed France, and none made her more +glorious. He made her feared abroad and magnificent at home, but he +desolated her, and drained her resources with ambitious wars. He +crowned her with imperishable laurels in literature, art, and every +manifestation of genius, but he signed the "Revocation of the Edict of +Nantes," and drove out of his kingdom 500,000 of the best of his +subjects. +</P> + +<P> +If the names of Marlborough and Maintenon could have been stricken out +of his life, the story might have had a different ending. From the +moment the great Duke checked his victorious army, his sun began to go +down; but it was Maintenon who most obscured its setting. +</P> + +<P> +His unloved Queen, the Spanish Marie Therese, had borne his mad +infatuation for Louise la Vallière; la Vallière had carried her broken +heart to a convent, and been superseded by de Montespan, and de +Montespan had invited her own destruction by bringing into her +household the pious widow of the poet Scarron, Madame de Maintenon, +(grand-daughter of d'Aubigne, the historian of the Reformation). +Grave, austere, ambitious, talented, she was not too much engrossed in +her duties as governess of de Montespan's children to find ways of +establishing an influence over the King. +</P> + +<P> +This man who had absorbed into himself all the functions of the +Government, who was Ministers, Magistrates, Parliaments, all in one, +this central sun of whom Corneille, Molière, Racine were but single +rays, was destined to be enslaved in his old age by a designing +adventuress; her will his law. The hey-day of youth having passed, he +was beginning to be anxious about his soul. She artfully pricked his +conscience, and de Montespan was sent away, but de Maintenon remained. +</P> + +<P> +She next convinced him that the only fitting atonement for his sins was +to drive heresy out of his kingdom, and re-establish the true faith. +At her bidding he undid the glorious work of Henry IV., signed the +"Revocation of the Edict of Nantes," and brutally stamped out +Protestantism. +</P> + +<P> +A part of the scheme of penitence seems to have been that on the death +of poor Marie Therese, he should make her (de Maintenon) his lawful +wife, which he did privately; and his sun went down obscured by +crushing griefs and disappointments. His children swept away, the +prestige of success tarnished, this demigod was taken to pieces by +time's destroying fingers, quite as unceremoniously as are the rest of +us, hiding finally behind the bed-curtains while a kneeling courtier +passed to him his wig on the end of a stick, and at last lying down +like any other old dying sinner, overwhelmed with the vanity of earthly +things and with the vastness of eternity. +</P> + +<P> +Still more would the dying moments of the Grand Monarque have been +embittered could he have foreseen into what hands his great inheritance +was passing. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Upon Louis XV. more than any other rests the responsibility of the +crisis which was approaching. +</P> + +<P> +A heartless sybarite, depraved in tastes, without sense of +responsibility or comprehension of his times, a brutalized voluptuary +governed by a succession of designing women, regardless of national +poverty, indulging in wildest extravagance,—such was the man in whom +was vested the authority rendered so absolute by Richelieu,—such the +man who opened up a pathway for the storm. +</P> + +<P> +As for the nobility, their degradation may be imagined when it is said +there was as bitter rivalry between titled and illustrious fathers to +secure for their daughters the coveted position held by Madame de +Pompadour, as for the highest offices of State. +</P> + +<P> +Could the upper ranks fall lower than this? Had not the kingdom +reached its lowest depths, where its foreign policy was determined by +the amount of consideration shown to Madame de Pompadour? But this +woman, whose friendship was artfully sought by the great Empress Maria +Theresa, was superseded, and the fresher charms of Madame du Barri +enslaved the King. The deposed favorite could not survive her fall, +and died of a broken heart. It is said that as Louis, looking from an +upper window of his palace, saw the coffin borne out in a drenching +rain, he smiled and said: "Ah, the Marquise has a bad day for her +journey." It may be imagined that the man who could be so pitiless to +the woman he had loved would feel little pity for the people whom he +had not loved, but whom he knew only as a remote, obscure something, +which held up the weight of his glory. +</P> + +<P> +But this "obscure something" was undergoing strange transformation. +The greater light at the surface had sent some glimmering rays down +into the mass below, which began to awaken and to think. Misery, +hopeless and abject, was changing into rage and thirst for vengeance. +</P> + +<P> +A new class had come into existence which was not noble, but with +highly trained intelligence it looked with contempt and loathing upon +the frivolous, half-educated nobles. Scorn was added to the ferment of +human passions beneath the surface, and when Voltaire had spoken, and +the restraints of religion were loosened, no living hand, not that of a +Richelieu nor a Louis XIV., could have averted the coming doom. +But—no one seems to have suspected what was approaching. +</P> + +<P> +A wonderful literature had come into existence—not stately and classic +as in the age preceding,—but instinct with a new sort of life. The +highest speculations which can occupy the soul of man were handled with +marvellous lightness of touch and prismatic brilliancy of expression; +but all was negation. None tried to build; all to demolish. The +black-winged angel of Destruction was hovering over the land. +</P> + +<P> +Then Rousseau tossed his dreamy abstractions into the quivering air, +and the formula, "Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality," was caught up by +the titled aristocracy as a charming idyllic toy, while Princes, Dukes, +and Marquises amused themselves with a dream of Arcadian simplicity, to +be attained in some indefinite way in some remote and equally +indefinite future. It was all a masquerade. No reality, no sincerity, +no convictions, good or evil. The only thing that was real was that an +over-taxed, impoverished people was exasperated and—hungry. +</P> + +<P> +Did the King need new supplies for his unimaginable luxuries, they were +taxed. Was it necessary to have new accessions to French "glory," in +order to allay popular clamor or discontent, they must supply the men +to fight the glorious battles, and the means with which to pay them. +Every burden fell at last upon this lowest stratum of the State, the +nobility and clergy, while owning two-thirds of the land, being nearly +exempt from taxation. +</P> + +<P> +And yet the King and nobility of France, in love with Rousseau's +theories, were airily discussing the "rights of man." Wolves and foxes +coming together to talk over the sacredness of the rights of +property—or the occupants of murderers' row growing eloquent over the +sanctity of human life! How incomprehensible that among those +quick-witted Frenchmen there seems not one to have realized that the +logical sequence of the formula, "Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality," +must be, "Down with the Aristocrats!" +</P> + +<P> +And so the surface which Richelieu had converted into adamant grew +thinner and thinner each day, until King and Court danced upon a mere +gilded crust, unconscious of the abysmal fires beneath. Some of those +powdered heads fell into the executioner's basket twenty-five years +later. Did they recall this time? Did Madame du Barri think of it, +did she exult at her triumph over de Pompadour, when she was dragged +shrieking and struggling to the guillotine? +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +And while France was thus weaving her future, what were the other +nations doing? England, sane, practical, with little time for +abstractions, and little said about "glory," was importing turnips, +converting agriculture into a science, and under the instruction of +exiled Huguenots, establishing marvellous industries. In the new +kingdom of Prussia, a half-savage, half-inspired King had been +importing artisans and skill of all sorts, reclaiming waste lands. +Living like a miser, he had indulged in but one luxury: an army, which +should be the best in the world. There was no powder, no patches at +his Court; where he thrashed with his own royal hands male and female +courtiers, starved, imprisoned, and cudgelled his son and heir to his +throne for playing on the violin; and, it is said, so terrified and +scarified his grenadiers with canes and cats that not one of them would +not have preferred facing the enemy to meeting his enraged sovereign, +had he done wrong. +</P> + +<P> +Frederick was not a pleasant barbarian. But there is at least a ring +of sincerity about all this, which it is refreshing to recall after the +tinsel and depraved refinements of France under Louis XV., and +something too which gives promise, in spite of its brutality, of a +stalwart future. +</P> + +<P> +Five years before the close of this miserable reign, an event occurred +seemingly of small importance to Europe. A child was born in an +obscure Italian household. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap11"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XI. +</H3> + +<P> +Louis XV. was dead, and two children, with the light-heartedness of +youth and inexperience, stepped upon the throne which was to be a +scaffold—Louis XVI., only twenty, and Marie Antoinette, his wife, +nineteen. He, amiable, kind, full of generous intentions; she, +beautiful, simple, child-like and lovely. Instead of a debauched old +King with depraved surroundings, here were a Prince and Princess out of +a fairy-tale. The air was filled with indefinite promise of a new era +for mankind to be inaugurated by this amiable young king, whose +kindness of heart shone forth in his first speech, "We will have no +more loans, no credit, no fresh burdens on the people;" then, leaving +his ministers to devise ways of paying the enormous salaries of +officials out of an empty treasury, and to arrange the financial +details of his benevolent scheme of government, he proceeded with his +gay and brilliant young wife to Rheims, there to be crowned with a +magnificence undreamed of by Louis XIV. +</P> + +<P> +In the midst of these rejoicings over the new reign, and of speculative +dreams of universal freedom, there was wafted across the Atlantic news +of a handful of patriots arrayed against the tyranny of the British +Crown. Here were the theories of the new philosophy translated into +the reality of actual experience. "No taxation without +representation," "No privileged class," "No government without the +consent of the governed." Was this not an embodiment of their dreams? +Nor did it detract from the interest in the conflict that +England—England, the hated rival of France, was defied by an indignant +people of her own race. There was not a young noble in the land who +would not have rushed if he could to the defence of the outraged +colonies. +</P> + +<P> +The King, half doubting, and vaguely fearing, was swept into the +current, and the armies and the courage of the Americans were +splendidly reinforced by generous, enthusiastic France. +</P> + +<P> +Why should the simple-hearted Louis see what no one else seemed to see: +that victory or failure were alike full of peril for France? If the +colonies were conquered, France would feel the vengeance of England; if +they were freed and self-governing, the principle of Monarchy had a +staggering blow. +</P> + +<P> +In the mean time, as the American Revolution moved on toward success, +there was talk in the cabin as well as the <I>château</I> of the "rights of +man." In shops and barns, as well as in clubs and drawing-rooms, there +was a glimmering of the coming day. +</P> + +<P> +"What is true upon one continent is true upon another," say they. "If +it is cowardly to submit to tyranny in America, what is it in France?" +"If Englishmen may revolt against oppression, why may not Frenchmen?" +"No government without the consent of the governed, eh? When has our +consent been asked, the consent of twenty-five million people? Are we +sheep, that we have let a few thousands govern us for a thousand years, +<I>without</I> our consent?" +</P> + +<P> +Poverty and hunger gave force and urgency to these questions. The +people began to clamor more boldly for the good time which had been +promised by the kind-hearted King. The murmur swelled to an ominous +roar. Thousands were at his very palace gates, telling him in no +unmistakable terms that they were tired of smooth words and fair +promises. What they wanted was a new constitution and—bread. +</P> + +<P> +Poor Louis! the one could be made with pen and paper; but by what +miracle could he produce the other? How gladly would he have given +them anything. But what could he do? There was not enough money to +pay the salaries of his officials, nor for his gay young Queen's fêtes +and balls! The old way would have been to impose new taxes. But how +could he tax a people crying at his gates for bread? He made more +promises which he could not keep; yielded, one after another, +concessions of authority and dignity; then vacillated, and tried to +return over the slippery path, only to be dragged on again by an +irresistible fate. +</P> + +<P> +When Louis XVI. convoked the States-General, he made his last +concession to the demands of his subjects. +</P> + +<P> +That almost-forgotten body had not been seen since Richelieu effaced +all the auxiliary functions of government. Nobles, ecclesiastics, and +<I>tiers état</I> (or commons) found themselves face to face once more. The +handsome contemptuous nobles, the princely ecclesiastics were +unchanged—but there was a new expression in the pale faces of the +commons. There was a look of calm defiance as they met the disdainful +gaze of the aristocrats across the gulf of two centuries. +</P> + +<P> +The two superior bodies absolutely refused to sit in the same room with +the commons. They might under the same roof, but in the same +room—never. +</P> + +<P> +No outburst met this insult. With marvellous self-control and dignity, +and with an ominous calm, the commons constituted themselves into the +"National Assembly." +</P> + +<P> +Aristocratic France had committed its concluding act of arrogance and +folly. And when poor distracted Louis gave impotent order for the +Assembly to disperse, he committed suicide. Louis the man lived on to +be slain by the people three years later, but Louis the King died at +that moment. +</P> + +<P> +When the Assembly defied his authority and continued to solemnly act as +if he had not spoken, the power had passed to the people. They were +sovereign. +</P> + +<P> +Paris was in wild excitement; and a rumor that troops were marching +upon the Assembly to disperse it converted excitement into madness. +The populace marched toward the Bastille, and in another hour the heads +of the Governor and his officials were being carried on pikes through +the streets of Paris. +</P> + +<P> +The horrible drama had opened, and events developed with the swiftness +of a falling avalanche. Louis might have followed his fleeing nobles. +But always vacillating, and "letting I dare not wait upon I would," the +opportunity was lost. He and his family were prisoners in the +"Temple," while an awful travesty upon a court of justice was sending +out death-warrants for his friends and adherents faster than the +guillotine could devour them. +</P> + +<P> +More and more furious swept the torrent, gathering to itself all that +was vile and outcast. Where were the pale-faced, determined patriots +who sat in the "National Assembly"? Some of them riding with Dukes and +Marquises to the guillotine. Was this the equality they expected when +they cried "Down with the Aristocrats"? +</P> + +<P> +Did they think they could guide the whirlwind after raising it? As +well whisper to the cyclone to level only the tall trees, or to the +conflagration to burn only the temples and palaces. +</P> + +<P> +With restraining agencies removed, religion, government, King, all +swept away, that hideous brood born of vice, poverty, hatred, and +despair came out from dark hiding-places; and what had commenced as a +patriotic revolt had become a wild orgie of bloodthirsty demons, led by +three master-demons, Robespierre, Marat, and Danton, vying with each +other in ferocity. +</P> + +<P> +Then we see that simple girl thinking by one supreme act of heroism and +sacrifice, like Joan of Arc, to save her country. Foolish child! Did +she think to slay the monster devouring Paris by cutting off one of his +heads? The death of Marat only added to the fury of the tempest; and +the falling of Charlotte Corday's head was not more noticed than the +falling of a leaf in the forest. +</P> + +<P> +On the 21st of January, 1793, Louis XVI. embraced for the last time his +adored wife and children; then, with every possible indignity, was +strapped to a plank and shoved under the guillotine. +</P> + +<P> +The kindest-hearted, most inoffensive gentleman in Europe had expiated +the crimes of his ancestors. +</P> + +<P> +A few months later, Marie Antoinette, daughter of the proud Empress +Maria Theresa, and child of the Cæsars, was borne along the same road. +And how bravely she met her awful fate! We forget her follies, her +reckless grasping after pleasures, in view of her horrible sufferings +and in admiration of her courage as she rides to her death; sitting in +that hideous tumbril, head erect, pale, proud, defiant, as if upon a +throne. +</P> + +<P> +With the death of the King and Queen the madness had reached its +height, and a revulsion of feeling set in. There was a surfeit of +blood, and an awakening sense of horror, which turned upon the +instigators. Danton fell, and finally, when amid cries of "Death to +the tyrant!" Robespierre was dragged wounded and shivering to the fate +he had brought upon so many thousands, the drama which had opened at +the Bastille was fittingly closed. +</P> + +<P> +The great battle for human liberty had been fought and won. Religious +freedom and political freedom were identical in principle. The right +of the human conscience proclaimed by Luther in 1517 had in 1793 only +expanded into the large conception of all the inherent rights of the +<I>individual</I>. +</P> + +<P> +It had taken centuries for English persistence to accomplish what +France, with such appalling violence, had done in as many years. It +had been a furious outburst of pent-up force; but the work had been +thorough. Not a germ of tyranny remained. The incrustations of a +thousand years were not alone broken, but pulverized; the privileged +classes were swept away, and their vast estates, two-thirds of the +territory of France, ready to be distributed among the rightful owners +of the soil, those who by toil and industry could win them. France was +as new as if she had no history. There was ample opportunity for her +people now. What would they do with it? +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR> + +<A NAME="chap12"></A> + +<H3 ALIGN="center"> +CHAPTER XII. +</H3> + +<P> +It is strange to read that the armies went on fighting battles +automatically, even while there was no central head to direct them. +While the ghastly scenes were enacting in Paris, and while Josephine de +Beauharnais was at the Conciergerie listening with blanched face to the +call of her husband's name on the death roll for the day, a young +lieutenant of artillery, only twenty-four years old, was at Toulon, +winning his first military honors. He would have been thought a +strange prophet who had said that in less than ten years the young +Corsican lieutenant would be Emperor, and the prisoner at the +Conciergerie Empress of the French! Nor did M. de Beauharnais, as he +rode to execution, dream that forty-five years later his grandson would +over the same stones be borne to his coronation. +</P> + +<P> +In the anarchy which prevailed after the Revolution, the young hero of +Toulon was called upon to quell a riot in Paris. The people realized +they had met a master. For twenty-five years from that day, the +history of France, and indeed of Europe, was that of one man, Napoleon +Bonaparte. Commander-in-chief of the Army, then First Consul of the +Republic, then Emperor—the steps in his ascent were as rapid and as +bewildering as the movements in one of his own campaigns. France, +groping about helplessly among the wreckage of the past, believed what +she most desired was <I>liberty</I> and <I>self-government</I>. +</P> + +<P> +This Italian, who was a French citizen even only by merest accident, +knew her better than she did herself, and that what she really wanted +was a fresh mantle of glory to cover her humiliation, and—a master. +</P> + +<P> +Leading a broken, unpaid, half-clothed army into Italy, he electrified +France and all Europe. Before the world had really found out who he +was, and whence he had come, he had conquered all of Northern Italy, +part of Austria and Belgium, had created a Cisalpine Republic out of +the fragments, and was making treaties and dictating terms to kings and +princes. +</P> + +<P> +France, discredited and almost disgraced among the monarchies of +Europe, found herself suddenly feared and glorious. Napoleon had +captured the most imaginative and military people in Europe. The rest +of the way was easy. Prudent, discreet, knowing when to wait, and when +to come down like an avalanche, this marvellous man held France in his +hands, and placed Europe under his feet. +</P> + +<P> +The people which had exerted such superhuman effort for freedom were +held by a hand more despotic than Richelieu's, more destructive to +popular freedom than that of Louis XIV.; and the more absolute his +rule, the more overpowering his authority, the better pleased they +seemed to be. +</P> + +<P> +But, was there not equal opportunity for every man in the Empire? +Every soldier's knapsack, might it not hold a Marshal's baton? Was not +the Emperor himself a living illustration of what a man from the people +might become? And then what did it mean to Frenchmen to be suddenly +lifted to dazzling ascendancy in Europe? Who would not willingly serve +a master who could bring Hapsburg, Hohenzollern, Romanoff, Bourbon, +crouching at his feet—who could tear down states, and set them up, and +if an extra throne were needed for a retainer, could carve a new state +from territory of friend and foe alike, and place a diadem upon every +head in his domestic or military household? It was the most stupendous +display of personal power ever beheld, England alone standing upright +in his presence, and in the end accomplishing his ruin. +</P> + +<P> +When Austria with a reluctant shudder bestowed her princess upon the +invincible parvenu, and when France with regretful pity saw the adored +Josephine set aside for that disdainful royal maiden, Marie Louise, at +that moment Napoleon passed the meridian of his greatness. +</P> + +<P> +It had taken just fifteen years to make the most astonishing and +dazzling chapter in French history; and then came "Moscow" and "Elba," +to be quickly followed by "Waterloo" and "St. Helena." And then for +France—most incomprehensible of all—a return to the Bourbons! It had +required the greatest tragedy of modern times to get rid of them, and +here they were again, Louis XVIII. and Charles X., as overbearing and +as arrogant as if their brother's head had not dropped into a basket in +1793. When somebody said of the Bourbons "they learn nothing and +forget nothing," he was inaccurate. They had certainly forgotten the +French Revolution. +</P> + +<P> +But death removed the first, and popular sentiment the second, of these +relics of an obsolete past. And a new experiment was tried. This time +it was the son of <I>Philippe Egalité</I>, that wickedest of all the +regicides, who came smiling and bowing before the people as a popular +sovereign, who would beneficently rule under a liberal constitution. +Whatever his father had been, Louis Philippe was far from being a +wicked man. Whether teaching school in Switzerland, or giving French +lessons in America, or wearing the kingly crown in France, he was the +kindest hearted, most inoffensive of gentlemen. +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +When in the pre-revolutionary days we read of France making war, it +means that the King, or his minister, with more or less deference to +the will of a few thousand nobles, did so. They are the France +referred to. The real France was not consulted and had nothing to do +with it, unless it were to fill the ranks with fathers, sons, and +husbands, and then pay the taxes imposed to support them. But times +were changed. Under a constitutional monarchy, the King does not +govern; he reigns. Louis Philippe was King of the French,—not of +France. He was chosen by the people as their ornamental figurehead. +But what if he ceased to be ornamental? What was the use of a King who +in eighteen years had added not a single ray of glory to the national +name, but who was using his high position to increase his enormous +private fortune, and incessantly begging an impoverished country for +benefits and emoluments for five sons? +</P> + +<P> +An excellent father, truly, though a short-sighted one. His power had +no roots. The cutting from the Orleans tree had never taken hold upon +the soil, and toppled over at the sound of Lamartine's voice +proclaiming a Republic from the balcony of the "Hôtel de Ville." +</P> + +<P> +When invited to step down from his royal throne, he did so on the +instant. Never did King succumb with such alacrity, and never did +retiring royalty look less imposing, than when Louis Philippe was in +hiding at Havre under the name of "William Smith," waiting for safe +convoy to England, without having struck one blow in defence of his +throne. +</P> + +<P> +But three terrible words had floated into the open windows of the +Tuileries. With the echoes of 1792 still sounding in his ears, +"Liberty," "Fraternity," and "Equality," shouted in the streets of +Paris, had not a pleasant sound! +</P> + +<BR> + +<P> +Republicanism was an abiding sentiment in France, even while two dull +Bourbon Kings were stupidly trying to turn back the hands on the dial +of time, and while an Orleans, with more supple neck, was posing as a +popular sovereign. During all this tiresome interlude, the real fact +was developing. A Republican sentiment which had existed vaguely in +the air was materializing, consolidating, into a more and more tangible +reality in the minds of thinking men and patriots. +</P> + +<P> +The ablest men in the country stood with plans matured, ready to meet +this crisis. A Republic was proclaimed; M. de Lamartine, Ledru-Rollin, +General Cavaignac, M. Raspail, and Louis Napoleon were rival candidates +for the office of President. +</P> + +<P> +The nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, and son of Hortense, was only known +as the perpetrator of two very absurd attempts to overthrow the +monarchy under Louis Philippe. But since the remains of the great +Emperor had been returned to France by England, and the splendors of +the past placed in striking contrast with a dull, lustreless present, +there had been a revival of Napoleonic memories and enthusiasm. Here +was an opportunity to unite two powerful sentiments in one man—a +Napoleon at the head of Republican France would express the glory of +the past and the hope of the future. +</P> + +<P> +The magic of the name was irresistible. Louis Napoleon was elected +President of the second Republic, and history prepared to repeat +itself. What sort of a ruler would he be—this dark, mysterious, +unmagnetic man? Even should he not turn out well, no great harm could +be done. It was only for four years. His hand had not the steely +fineness of touch of his great uncle's, but it was strong, and guided, +they soon found, by a subtle intelligence. +</P> + +<P> +The overthrow of Monarchy in France had set fire to Republicanism in +Europe, Kossuth with transcendent eloquence leading a revolution in +Hungary, and Garibaldi and Mazzini with pen and sword in Italy. Europe +was in a blaze of revolt. The first great military exploit of Napoleon +Bonaparte had been in Italy, and so was his nephew's, but with this +difference—the object of the one was to build up Republics on the +other side of the Alps, and of the other to pull them down. Garibaldi +and Mazzini were driven out of Italy by French bayonets, which also +propped up the pontifical throne for the fugitive Pope. +</P> + +<P> +The Assembly soon realized that in this Prince-President it had no +automaton to deal with. A deep antagonism grew, and the cunningly +devised issue could not fail to secure popular support to Louis +Napoleon. When an Assembly is at war with the President because it +desires to restrict the suffrage, and he to make it universal, can any +one doubt the result? He was safe in appealing to the people on such +an issue, and sure of being sustained in his Proclamation dissolving +the Assembly. He was gathering the reins into his hands with the +astute courage of his uncle. Moving on almost identical lines with his +great original, the nephew set his face toward the same goal. +</P> + +<P> +The French people must have realized they were being betrayed. They +must have seen that this ambitious plotter was slipping the old fetters +of arbitrary power into position. But, under the powerful spell of the +Napoleonic name, lulled to tranquillity by the gift of suffrage, and +fascinated by the growing splendors of an ingenious reproduction of the +most brilliant chapter in French history, they were unresistingly drawn +into the Imperial net. +</P> + +<P> +France was for the second time an Empire, and Napoleon III. was Emperor +of the French. +</P> + +<P> +His Mephistophelian face did not look as classic under the laurel +wreath as had his uncle's, nor had his work the blinding splendor nor +the fineness of texture of his great model. But then, an imitation +never has. It was a marble masterpiece, done in plaster! But what a +clever reproduction it was! And how, by sheer audacity, it compelled +recognition and homage, and at last even adulation in Europe!—and what +a clever stroke it was, for this heavy, unsympathetic man to bring up +to his throne from the people a radiant Empress, who would capture +romantic and æsthetic France! +</P> + +<P> +The distance was great from cheap lodgings in New York to a seat upon +the Imperial throne of France; but human ambition is not easily +satisfied. A Pelion always rises beyond an Ossa. It was not enough to +feel that he had re-established the prosperity and prestige of France, +that fresh glory had been added to the Napoleonic name. Was there not +after all a certain irritating reserve in the homage paid him, was +there not a touch of condescension in the friendship of his royal +neighbors? And had he not always a Mordecai at his gate—while the +"<I>Faubourg St. Germain</I>" stood aloof and disdainful, smiling at his +brand-new aristocracy? +</P> + +<P> +War is the thing to give solidity to empire and to reputation! Neither +France nor Europe can withstand the magic of military renown. And so, +upon a quickly improvised pretext, the French Emperor started, amid the +booming of cannon and the wild acclamations of a delighted people, upon +his errand of conquest. The insolent Germans were to be chastised; +and, incidentally, Europe was to be made to tremble! +</P> + +<P> +In a few months the bubble was pricked. The glittering French army +proved to be a thing of tinsel and fustian. No reality, no power to +stand before the solid German battalions, it melted like hoar-frost. +Napoleon III. was prisoner of war at Sedan, and King William, Unser +Fritz, and Von Moltke were at Versailles. +</P> + +<P> +Moved by his colossal misfortunes, and perhaps partly in displeasure at +having a French Republic once more at her door, England offered asylum +to the deposed Emperor. There, from the seclusion of "Chiselhurst," he +and his still beautiful Eugenie watched the Republic weathering the +first days of storm and stress, and coming out at last stable and +triumphant. +</P> + +<P> +The weary exile felt that not in his day would the reaction come. But +his son would yet wear the Imperial crown which was his birthright. +Futile dream! The boy was destined to cruel fate—to be slain by Zulu +assegai, while fighting the battles of England,—England, the author of +<I>Waterloo</I>. Strange ending for the heir to the name and glory of +Napoleon Bonaparte. +</P> + +<P> +But the reaction Louis Napoleon so confidently hoped for did not come. +With military pride humbled in the dust, national pride wounded by the +loss of two provinces, loaded down with an immense war indemnity, the +people set about the task of rehabilitation; in an incredibly short +time, the galling debt was paid, financial prosperity and political +strength restored, and with military organization second to none in +Europe, France, with revengeful eyes fastened on Germany, waits for the +day of reckoning. +</P> + +<P> +For twenty-four years the Republic has existed. Communistic fires +always smouldering have again and again burst forth—demagogues, +fanatics, and those creatures for whom there is no place in organized +society, whose element is chaos, standing ready to fan the fires of +revolt; while Orleanist, Bonapartist, Bourbon, are ever on the alert, +watching for opportunity to slip in through the open door of Revolution. +</P> + +<P> +England in conscious superiority smiles at a nation which has had seven +political revolutions in a hundred years. Republic, then Empire, then +a return to the Bourbons, then Constitutional Monarchy under Louis +Philippe, then Republic, followed by Empire again, and now for the +third time a Republic! +</P> + +<P> +But France, complex, mobile, changeful as the sea, in riotous enjoyment +of her new-found liberties, casts off a form of government as she would +an ill-fitting garment. She knows the value of tranquillity—she had +it for one thousand years! The <I>people</I>, which have only breathed the +upper air for a century—the people, who were stifled under feudalism, +stamped upon by Valois Kings, riveted down by Richelieu, then prodded, +outraged, and starved by Bourbons, have become a great nation. +Many-sided, resourceful, gifted, it matters not whether they have +called the head of their government Consul, Emperor, King, or +President. They are a race of freemen, who can never again be enslaved +by tyrannous system. +</P> + +<P> +It was a bright day for France when that ambitious young Emperor of +Germany sent his great Chancellor into retirement; and another bright +day when, taking offence at scant courtesy at the hands of the Czar, he +left ajar the back door to his dominions. An alliance between despotic +Russia thirsting for the waters of the Mediterranean, and Republican +France thirsting for revenge, is the darkest cloud on the German +horizon to-day. It is only a matter of months or of years when France +will be at the throat of Germany demanding Alsace and Lorraine. The +French army is not the one which faced Von Moltke in 1871; and when +France knocks at her front door, Germany will have all she can attend +to, without hearing Russian batteries thundering at her rear. A +dramatic reconciliation with the old Chancellor is interesting, but it +will not undo the work of the last four years. +</P> + +<P> +There is no longer thought of conflict between any two nations of +Europe. The next war is to be one of tremendous combinations. +National alliances are shifting and uncertain. But at the time this is +written (1894) Germany, Austria, and Italy are drawn together in one +hostile camp, while France and Russia, in loving embrace, stand in the +other; and England, aloof and suspicious, holds herself ready to hurl +her weight against whichever one obstructs her path to India. +</P> + +<P> +There is something in the air which makes one think the name Napoleon +is still a thing to conjure with. But whatever the future may hold for +France, no American can be indifferent to the fate of a nation to whom +we owe so much. Nor can we ever forget that in the hour of our direst +extremity, and regardless of cost to herself, she helped us to +establish our liberties, and to take our place among the great nations +of the earth. +</P> + +<BR><BR><BR><BR> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Evolution of an Empire, by Mary Parmele + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 34071-h.htm or 34071-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/0/7/34071/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Evolution of an Empire + A Brief Historical Sketch of France + +Author: Mary Parmele + +Release Date: October 15, 2010 [EBook #34071] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + +THE + +EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE + + + +A BRIEF HISTORICAL SKETCH OF + +FRANCE + + + +BY + +MARY PARMELE + + +_Author of "Evolution of Empire Series, Germany;" + "Who? When? What? Literature Chart."_ + + + +NEW YORK + +WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, + +59 FIFTH AVENUE + +1894 + + + + +PUBLISHED AND COPYRIGHTED, 1894, + +BY + +WILLIAM BEVERLEY HARISON, + +59 FIFTH AVE., NEW YORK CITY. + + + +ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY + +THE PUBLISHERS' PRINTING COMPANY + +182-186 WEST 14TH STREET + +NEW YORK + + + + +PREFACE. + +In an attempt to tell the story of a great nation in about 100 pages, +it is needless to say there must be a rigid exclusion of all save +essential facts. To those already familiar with the subject, this +sketch is offered merely as a reminder of the sequence of conditions +and events in the evolution of France; while to the student it is +presented as a framework upon which may be placed, in orderly and +comprehensible fashion, the results of future reading and research. + +To the latter class I would suggest that a series of papers, written +upon the most prominent themes found in the Table of Contents, will +bear fruit in knowledge more real and vital than may be obtained from +the writings of others, however eloquent and vivid the presentation. + +M. P. + +NEW YORK, July 23d, 1894. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + +CHAPTER I. + +The Aryan Family of Nations--Keltic Race--Ancient Gaul--Gauls in +Rome--Gauls in Greece and in Asia Minor + + +CHAPTER II. + +Roman Conquest of Gaul--Julius Caesar + + +CHAPTER III. + +Birth of Christianity--Its Dissemination--Persecution at Lyons by order +of Marcus Aurelius--The Roman Empire Espouses Christianity under +Constantine + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Gaul Overrun and Subjugated by Franks--Clovis King--Decay of the +Merovingian Line--_Maire du Palais_ King _de facto_--Charles +Martel--Birth of Mohammedanism--Its Triumphs--Christendom +Threatened--Pepin King--Charlemagne--Alliance with Pope--France, Italy, +and Germany Emerge as Separate Nationalities + + +CHAPTER V. + +The Northmen--Beginnings of Feudalism in France--Normandy Bestowed upon +the Northmen--Conquest of England by William, Duke of +Normandy--Albigenses--Inquisition at Toulouse--The Crusades + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Decline of Feudalism--Creation of the Commune--Charles VII.--Henry V. +in France--Joan of Arc + + +CHAPTER VII. + +Francis I.--Huguenots--Catharine de Medici--Francis II. + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +Massacre of St. Bartholomew--Henry III.--Henry IV. + + +CHAPTER IX. + +Edict of Nantes--Louis XIII.--Richelieu + + +CHAPTER X. + +Louis XIV.--Revocation of the Edict of Nantes--Louis XV.--Age of +Voltaire and Rousseau--The Gathering Storm + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette--American Colonies Arrayed Against +England--French Aid to America--Smouldering Fires of Discontent--Louis +Convokes States-General--National Assembly Created by Commons--Bastille +Attacked--Revolution--Execution of King + + +CHAPTER XII. + +Napoleon Bonaparte--Toulon--Campaign in Italy--Empire +Established--Europe Under the Feet of the Great Corsican--Marie +Louise--Waterloo--Louis XVIII.--Charles X.--Louis Philippe--Second +Republic--Louis Napoleon President--Second Empire--Napoleon +III.--Franco-Prussian War--Sedan--Third Republic--Review of Present +Conditions + + + + +EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE. + + +CHAPTER I. + +One of the greatest achievements of modern research is the discovery of +a key by which we may determine the kinship of nations. What we used +to conjecture, we now know. An identity in the structural form of +language establishes with scientific certitude that however diverse +their character and civilizations, Russian, German, English, French, +Spaniard, are all but branches from the same parent stem, are all alike +children of the Asiatic Aryan. + +So skilful are modern methods of questioning the past, and so +determined the effort to find out its secrets, we may yet know the +origin and history of this wonderful Asiatic people, and when and why +they left their native continent and colonized upon the northern shores +of the Mediterranean. Certain it is, however, that, more centuries +before the Christian era than there have been since, they had peopled +Western Europe. + +This branch of the Aryan family is known as the Keltic, and was older +brother to the Teuton and Slav, which at a much later period followed +them from the ancestral home, and appropriated the middle and eastern +portions of the European Continent. + +The name of Gaul was given to the territory lying between the Ocean and +the Mediterranean, and the Pyrenees and the Alps. And at a later +period a portion of Northern Gaul, and the islands lying north of it, +received from an invading chieftain and his tribe the name _Brit_ or +_Britain_ (or Pryd or Prydain). + +If the mind could be carried back on the track of time, and we could +see what we now call France as it existed twenty centuries before the +Christian era, we should behold the same natural features: the same +mountains rearing their heads; the same rivers flowing to the sea; the +same plains stretching out in the sunlight. But instead of vines and +flowers and cultivated fields we should behold great herds of wild ox +and elk, and of swine as fierce as wolves, ranging in a climate as cold +as Norway; and vast inaccessible forests, the home of beasts of prey, +which contended with man for food and shelter. + +Let us read Guizot's description of life in Gaul five centuries before +Christ: + +"Here lived six or seven millions of men a bestial life, in dwellings +dark and low, built of wood and clay and covered with branches or +straw, open to daylight by the door alone and confusedly heaped +together behind a rampart of timber, earth, and stone, which enclosed +and protected what they were pleased to call--a _town_." + +Such was the Paris, and such the Frenchmen of the age of Pericles! And +the same tides that washed the sands of Southern Gaul, a few hours +later ebbed and flowed upon the shores of Greece--rich in culture, with +refinements and subtleties in art which are the despair of the world +to-day--with an intellectual endowment never since attained by any +people. + +The same sun which rose upon temples and palaces and life serene and +beautiful in Greece, an hour later lighted sacrificial altars and +hideous orgies in the forests of Gaul. While the Gaul was nailing the +heads of human victims to his door, or hanging them from the bridle of +his horse, or burning or flogging his prisoners to death, the Greek, +with a literature, an art, and a civilization in ripest perfection, +discussed with his friends the deepest problems of life and destiny, +which were then baffling human intelligence, even as they are with us +to-day. Truly we of Keltic and Teuton descent are late-comers upon the +stage of national life. + +There was no promise of greatness in ancient Gaul. It was a great +unregulated force, rushing hither and thither. Impelled by insatiate +greed for the possessions of their neighbors, there was no permanence +in their loves or their hatreds. The enemies of to-day were the allies +of to-morrow. Guided entirely by the fleeting desires and passions of +the moment, with no far-reaching plans to restrain, the sixty or more +tribes composing the Gallic people were in perpetual state of feud and +anarchy, apparently insensible to the ties of brotherhood, which give +concert of action, and stability in form of national life. If they +overran a neighboring country, it seemed not so much for permanent +acquisition, as to make it a camping-ground until its resources were +exhausted. + +We read of one Massillia who came with a colony of Greeks long ages +ago, and after founding the city of Marseilles, created a narrow bright +border of Greek civilization along the Southern edge of the benighted +land. It was a brief illumination, lasting only a century or more, and +leaving few traces; but it may account for the superior intellectual +quality of the southern provinces in future France. + +It requires a vast extent of territory to sustain a people living by +the chase, and upon herds and flocks; hence the area which now amply +maintains thirty-five millions of Frenchmen was all too small for six +or seven million Gauls; and they were in perpetual struggle with their +neighbors for land--more land. + +"Give us land," they said to the Romans, and when land was denied them +and the gates of cities disdainfully closed upon their messengers, not +land, but vengeance, was their cry; and hordes of half-naked barbarians +trampled down the vineyards, and rushed, a tumultuous torrent, upon +Rome. + +The Romans could not stand before this new and strange kind of warfare. +The Gauls streamed over the vanquished legions into the Eternal City, +silent and deserted save only by the Senate and a few who remained +intrenched in the Citadel; and there the barbarians kept them besieged +for seven months, while they made themselves at home amid +uncomprehended luxuries. + +Of course Roman skill and courage at last dislodged and drove them +back. But the fact remained that the Gaul had been there,--master of +Rome; that the ironclad legions had been no match for his naked force, +and a new sensation thrilled through the length and breadth of Gaul. +It was the first throb of national life. The sixty or more fragments +drew closer together into something like Gallic unity--with a common +danger to meet, a common foe to drive back. + +Hereafter there was another hunger to be appeased besides that for food +and land; a hunger for conquest, for vengeance, and for glory for the +Gallic name. National pride was born. + +For years they hovered like wolves about Rome. But skill and superior +intelligence tell in the centuries. It took long--and cost no end of +blood and treasure; but two hundred years from the capture of Rome, the +Gauls were driven out of Italy, and the Alps pronounced a barrier set +by Nature herself against barbarian encroachments. + +Italy was not the only country suffering from the destroying footsteps +of the Western Kelts. There had been long ago an overflow of a tribe +in Northern Gaul (the Kymrians), which had hewed and plundered its way +south and eastward; until at the time of Alexander (340 B.C.) it was +knocking at the gates of Macedonia. + +Stimulated by the success at Rome fifty years earlier, they were, with +fresh insolence, demanding "land," and during the centuries which +followed, the Gallic name acquired no fresh lustre in Greece. +Half-naked, gross, ferocious and ignorant, sometimes allies, but always +a scourge, they finally crossed the Hellespont (278 B.C.), and turned +their attention to Asia Minor. And there, at last, we find them +settled in a province called Gallicia, where they lived without +amalgamating with the people about them; it is said, even as late as +400 years after Christ, speaking the language of their tribal home +(what is now Belgium). And these were the Galatians--the "foolish +Galatians," to whom Paul addressed his epistle; and we have followed up +this Gallic thread simply because it mingles with the larger strand of +ancient and sacred history with which we are all so familiar. + + +It is not strange that Roman courage and endurance became a by-word. +Her fibre was toughened by perpetual strain of conflict. Even while +she was struggling with Gaul and while the echoes of the Hunnish +invasion were still resounding through the Continent, Hannibal, with +his hosts, was pouring through Gaul and gathering accessions from that +people as he swept down into Italy. Then, with the memories of the +Carthagenian wars still fresh at Rome, the Goths were at her +gates,--their blows directed with a solidity superior to that of the +barbarians who had preceded them. Where the Gauls had knocked, the +Goths thundered. + +Again the city was invaded by barbarian feet, and again did superior +training and intelligence drive back the invading torrent and triumph +over native brute force. + +Such, in brief outline, was the condition of the centuries just before +the Christian era. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +The making of a nation is not unlike bread or cake making. One element +is used as the basis, to which are added other component parts, of +varying qualities, and the result we call England, or Germany, or +France. The steps by which it is accomplished, the blending and fusing +of the elements, require centuries, and the process makes what we +call--history. + +It was written in the book of fate that Gaul should become a great +nation; but not until fused and interpenetrated with two other +nationalities. She must first be humanized and civilized by the Roman, +and then energized and made free from the Roman by the Teuton. + +The instrument chosen for the former was Julius Caesar, and for the +latter--five centuries later--Clovis, the Frankish leader. It is safe +to affirm that no man has ever so changed the course of human events as +did Julius Caesar. Napoleon, who strove to imitate him 1800 years +later, was a charlatan in comparison; a mere scene-shifter on a great +theatrical stage. Not a trace of his work remains upon humanity to-day. + +Caesar opened up a pathway for the old civilizations of the world to +flow into Western Europe, and the sodden mass of barbarism was infused +with a life-compelling current. This was not accomplished by placing +before the inferior race a higher ideal of life for imitation, but by a +mingling of the blood of the nations--a transfusion into Gallic veins +of the germs of a higher living and thinking--thus making them heirs to +the great civilizations of antiquity. + +No human event was ever fraught with such consequences to the human +race as the conquest of Gaul by Julius Caesar. + +The Gallic wars had for centuries drained the treasure and taxed the +resources of Rome. Caesar conceived the audacious idea of stopping them +at their source--in fact, of making Gaul a Roman province. + +It was a marvellous exhibition, not simply of force, but of force +wielded by supreme intelligence and craft. He had lived four years +among this people and knew their sources of weakness, their internal +jealousies and rivalries, their incohesiveness. When they hurled +themselves against Rome, it was as a mass of sharp fragments. When the +Goths did the same, it was as one solid, indivisible body. Caesar saw +that by adroit management he could disintegrate this people, even while +conquering them. + +By forcibly maintaining in power those who submitted to him, being by +turns gentle and severe, ingratiating here, terrifying there, he +established a tremendous personal force; and during nine years carried +on eight campaigns, marvels in the art of war, as well as in the +subtler methods of negotiation and intrigue. He had successively dealt +with all the Gallic tribes, even including Great Britain, subjugating +either through their own rivalries, or by his invincible arm. + +Equally able to charm and to terrify, he had all the gifts, all the +means to success and empire, that can be possessed by man. Great in +politics as in war, as full of resource in the forum as on the +battle-field, he was by nature called to dominion. + +It was not as a patriot, simply intent upon freeing Rome of an +harassing enemy, that he endured those nine years in Gaul--not as a +great leader burning with military ardor that he conducted those eight +campaigns. The conquest of Gaul meant the greater conquest of Rome. +The one was accomplished; he now turned his back upon the devastated +country, and prepared to complete his great project of human ascendency. + +Rome was mistress of the world; he--would be master of Rome. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +While the Star of Empire was thus moving toward the West, another and +brighter star was about to arise in the East. So accustomed are we to +the story, that we lose all sense of wonder at its recital. + +Julius Caesar's brief triumph was over. Marc Antony had recited his +virtues over his bier, Rome had wept, and then forgotten him in the +absorbing splendors of his nephew Augustus. In an obscure village of +an obscure country in Asia Minor, the young wife of a peasant finds +shelter in a stable, and gives birth to a son, who is cradled in the +straw of a manger, from which the cattle are feeding. + +Can the mind conceive of human circumstances more lowly? The child +grew to manhood, and in his thirty-three years of life was never lifted +above the obscure sphere into which he was born; never spoke from the +vantage-ground of worldly elevation,--simply moving among people of his +own station in life, mechanics, fishermen, and peasants, he told of a +religion of love, a gospel of peace, for which he was willing to die. + +Who would have dreamed that this was the germ of the most potent, the +most regenerative force the world had ever known? That thrones, +empires, principalities, and powers would melt and crumble before his +name? Of all miracles, is not this the greatest? + +The passionate ardor with which this religion was propagated in the +first two centuries had no motive but the yearning to make others share +in its benefits and hopes; and to this end to accept the belief that +Jesus Christ had come in fulfilment of a long-promised Saviour,--who +should be sent to this world clothed with divine authority to establish +a spiritual kingdom, in which he was King of Kings, Lord of Lords, +Mediator between us and the Father, of whom he was the "only begotten +Son." + +The religion in its essence was absolutely simple. Its founder summed +it up in two sentences,--expressing the duty of man to man, and of man +to God. That was all the Theology he formulated. + +For two centuries the religion of Christ was an elementary spiritual +force. It appealed only to the highest attributes and longings of the +human soul, and under its sustaining influence frail women, men, and +even children were able to endure tortures, of which we cannot read +even now without shuddering horror. + + +Nature's method of gardening is very beautiful. She carefully guards +the seed until it is ripe, then she bursts the imprisoning walls and +gives it to the winds to distribute. Precisely such method was used in +disseminating Christianity. It was not for one people--it was for the +healing of the nations, and its home was wherever man abides. + +Nearly five decades after Christ's death upon the cross, Jerusalem was +destroyed by Titus. The home of Christianity was effaced. At just the +right moment the enclosing walls had broken, and freed to the winds the +germs in all their primitive purity. + +Imperial favor had not tarnished it, human ambitions had not employed +and degraded it, nor had it been made into complex system by ingenious +casuists. The pure spiritual truth, unsullied as it came from the hand +of its founder, was scattered broadcast, as the band of Christians +dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, naturally forming into +communities here and there, which became the centres of Christian +propagandism. Lyons in Gaul was such a centre. + + +The fires of persecution had been lighted here and there throughout the +Empire, and the Emperor Nero, under whom the Apostles Peter and Paul +are said to have suffered martyrdom, had amused himself by making +torches of the Christians at Rome. But until 177 A.D. Gaul was exempt +from such horrors. + +Marcus Aurelius--that peerless pagan,--large in intelligence, exalted +in character, and guided by a conscientious rectitude which has made +his name shine like a star in the lurid light of Roman history, still +failed utterly to comprehend the significance of this spiritual kingdom +established by Christ on earth. He it was who ordered the first +persecution in Gaul. In pursuance of his command, horrible tortures +were inflicted at Lyons upon those who would not abjure the new faith. + +A letter, written by an eye-witness, pictures with terrible vividness +the scenes which followed. Many cases are described with harrowing +detail, and of one Blandina it is said: "From morn till eve they put +her to all manner of torture, marvelling that she still lived with her +body pierced through and through and torn piecemeal by so many tortures +of which a single one should have sufficed to kill her, to which she +only replied, 'I am a Christian.'" + +The recital goes on to tell how she was then cast into a dungeon,--her +feet compressed and dragged out to the utmost tension of the +muscles,--then left alone in darkness, until new methods of torture +could be devised. + +Finally she was brought, with other Christians, into the amphitheatre, +hanging from a cross to which she was tied, and there thrown to the +beasts. As the beasts refused to touch her she was taken back to the +dungeon to be reserved for another occasion, being brought out daily to +witness the fate and suffering of her friends and fellow-martyrs; still +answering the oft-repeated question--"I am a Christian." + +The writer goes on to say, "After she had undergone fire, the talons of +beasts, and every agony which could be thought of, she was wrapped in a +network and thrown to a bull, who tossed her in the air"--and her +sufferings were ended. + +Truly it cost something to say "I am a Christian" in those days. + +Marcus Aurelius probably gave orders for the persecution at Lyons, with +little knowledge of what would be the nature of those persecutions, or +of the religion he was trying to exterminate. Some of the hours spent +in writing introspective essays would have been well employed in +studying the period in which he lived, and the Empire he ruled. + +Paganism and Druidism, those twin monsters, receded before the +advancing light of Christianity. Neither contained anything which +could nourish the soul of man, and both had become simply badges of +nationality. + +Druidism was the last stronghold of independent Gallic life. It was a +mixture of northern myth and oriental dreams of metempsychosis, coarse, +mystical, and cruel. The Roman paganism which was superimposed by the +conquering race was the mere shell of a once vital religion. Educated +men had long ceased to believe in the gods and divinities of Greece, +and it is said that the Roman augurs, while giving their solemn +prophetic utterances, could not look at each other without laughing. + + +In the year 312, alas for Christianity, it was espoused by imperial +power. When the Emperor Constantine declared himself a Christian, +there was no doubt rejoicing among the saints; but it was the beginning +of the degeneracy of the religion of Christ. The faith of the humble +was to be raised to a throne; its lowly garb to be exchanged for purple +and scarlet, the gospel of peace to be enforced by the sword. + +The Empire was crumbling, and upon its ruins the race of the future and +social conditions of modern times were forming. Paganism and Druidism +would have been an impossibility. Christianity even with its lustre +dimmed, its purity tarnished, its simplicity overlaid with +scholasticism, was better than these. The miracle had been +accomplished. The great Roman Empire had said: "I am Christian." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +Gaul had been Latinized and Christianized. Now one more thing was +needed to prepare her for a great future. Her fibre was to be +toughened by the infusion of a stronger race. Julius Caesar had shaken +her into submission, and Rome had chastised her into decency of +behavior and speech, but as her manners improved her native vigor +declined. She took kindly to Roman luxury and effeminacy, and could no +longer have thundered at the gates of her neighbors demanding "land." + +But at last the great Roman Empire was dying, and even degenerate Gaul +was struggling out of her relaxing grasp. In her extremity she called +upon the Franks, a powerful Germanic race, to aid her. This people had +long looked with covetous eyes at the fair fields stretching beyond the +Rhine, and lost no time in accepting the invitation. They overspread +the land, and Gaul and Roman alike were submerged beneath the Teuton +flood, while the Frankish Conqueror, Clovis (son of the great +Merovaaeus), was at Paris (or "Lutetia") wearing the kingly crown. + +Such was the beginning of independent and of dynastic life in France. + +Rome had found a more powerful ally than she hoped; and the desire of +Gaul was accomplished in that she was free from Rome. But the king of +whom she had dreamed was of her own race; not this terrible Frank. Had +she exchanged one servitude for another? Had she been, not set free, +but simply annexed to the realm of the Barbarian across the Rhine? Let +us say rather that it was an espousal. She had brought her dowry of +beauty and "land," that most coveted of possessions, and had pledged +obedience, for which she was to be cherished, honored, and protected, +and to bear the name of her lord. + + * * * * * + +Ancient heroes are said to be seen through a shadowy lens, which +magnifies their stature. Let us hope that the crimes of the three or +four generations immediately succeeding Clovis have been in like manner +expanded; for it is sickening to read of such monstrous prodigality of +wickedness. Whole families butchered, husbands, wives, +children--anything obstructing the path to the throne--with an atrocity +which makes Richard III. seem a mere pigmy in the art of intrigue and +killing. The chapter closes with the daughter and mother of kings +(Brunehilde or Brunhaut) naked and tied by one arm, one leg and her +hair to the tail of an unbroken horse, and amid jeers and shouts dashed +over the stones of Paris (600 A.D.). + +But even the Frank succumbed to the enervating Gallic influence. The +Merovingian line commenced by Clovis faded from ferocity into +imbecility. Its Kings in less than two centuries had become mere +lay-figures, wearing the symbols of an authority which existed nowhere, +unless in the _Maire du Palais_. + +This office from being a sort of royal stewardship had grown to be the +governing power _de facto_. While Theodoric, the Phantom King, was +having his long locks dressed and perfumed, his _Maire du Palais_, +Charles, was moulding and welding his kingdom, and at the same time +staying the Mohammedan flood which was pouring over the Pyrenees; and, +by his final and decisive blow in defence of the Christianity espoused +by Clovis, earning the name _Charles Martel_ (the hammer). + + * * * * * + +Less than one hundred years after the death of Clovis, there had come +out of Asia, that birthplace of religions, a new faith, which was +destined to be for centuries the scourge of Christendom, and which +to-day rules one-third of the human family. Zoroaster, Buddha, Christ, +had successively come with saving message to humanity, and now (600 +A.D.) Mohammed believed himself divinely appointed to drive out of +Arabia the idolatry of ancient Magianism (the religion of Zoroaster). + +Christianity had passed through strange vicissitudes. Kings, Emperors, +Popes, and Bishops had been terrible custodians of its truths, and +while many still held it in its primitive purity, ecclesiastics were +fiercely fighting over the nature of the Trinity, the divinity of the +Virgin Mother, and the Church was shaken to its foundation by furious +factions. + +In this hour of weakness, the Persians (590 A.D.) had conquered Asia +Minor. Bethlehem, Gethsemane, and Calvary were profaned; the Holy +Sepulchre had been burned, and the cross carried off amid shouts of +laughter. Magianism had insulted Christianity, and no miracle had +interposed! The heavens did not roll asunder, nor did the earth open +her abysses to swallow them up. There was consternation and doubt in +Christendom. + +Such was the state of the Church when Mohammedanism came into +existence. "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his Prophet." Such +was its battle-cry and its creed, and the moral precepts of the Koran +its gospel. There seems nothing in this to account for the mad +enthusiasm and the passion for worship in its followers. But in less +than a hundred years this lion out of Arabia had subjected Syria, +Mesopotamia, Egypt, Northern Africa, and the Spanish Peninsula. Now, +sword in one hand, and the Koran in the other, the Mohammedan had +crossed the Pyrenees and was in Southern Gaul. + +Under the strange magic of this faith, the largest religious empire the +world had known had sprung into existence, stretching from the Chinese +Wall to the Atlantic; from the Caspian to the Indian Ocean; and +Jerusalem, the metropolis of Christianity-Jerusalem, the Mecca of the +Christian, was lost! The crescent floated over the birthplace of our +Lord, and notwithstanding the temporary successes of the Crusades, it +does to this day. + +If the Pyrenees were passed, the very existence of Christendom was +threatened. Charles Martel, the grandfather of Charlemagne, averted +this danger when he stayed the infidel flood at the battle of Tours, +732 A.D. + +Pepin, the son of Charles Martel, who succeeded him as _Maire du +Palais_, does not seem to have had the temper or spirit of an usurper, +but simply to have been an energetic, resolute man who was bored by the +circumlocution of governing through a King who did not exist. He +determined to put an end to the fiction, and to cut the Gordian knot by +first cutting the long curls of the last Merovingian, Childeric; and +then putting the crown upon his own head, he sent the unfortunate +phantom of royalty to a monastery, to reflect upon the uncertainty of +human pleasures and events. By right of manhood and superiority, the +Carlovingian line had succeeded to the Merovingian. + + * * * * * + +Against the dark background of European history, and with the broad +level of obscurity stretching over the ages at its feet, there rises +one shining pinnacle. Considered as man or sovereign, Charlemagne is +one of the most impressive figures in history. His seven feet of +stature clad in shining steel, his masterful grasp of the forces of his +time, his splendid intelligence, instinct even then with the modern +spirit, all combine to elevate him in solitary grandeur. + +Charlemagne found France in disorder measureless, and apparently +insurmountable. Barbarian invasion without, and anarchy within; Saxon +paganism pressing in upon the North, and Asiatic Islamism upon the +South and West; a host of forces struggling for dominion in a nation +brutish, ignorant, and without cohesion. + +It is the attribute of genius to discern opportunity where others see +nothing. Charlemagne saw rising out of this chaos a great resuscitated +Roman empire, which should be at the same time a spiritual and +Christian empire as well. Saxons, Slavs, Huns, Lombards, Arabs, came +under his compelling grasp; these antagonistic races all held together +by the force of one terrible will, in unnatural combination with +France. No political liberties, no popular assemblies discussing +public measures; it is Charlemagne alone who fills the picture; it is +absolutism,--marked by prudence, ability, and grandeur, but still, +absolutism. + +The Pope looked approvingly upon this son of the Church by whose order +4,500 pagan heads could be cut off in one day, and a whole army +compelled to baptism in an afternoon. Here was a champion to be +propitiated! Charlemagne, on the other hand, saw in the Church the +most compliant and effective means to empire. In the loving alliance +formed, he was to be the protector, the Pope the protected. He wore +the Church as a precious jewel in his crown. + +It was a splendid dream, splendidly realized; the most imposing of +human successes, and the most impressive of human failures. It seems +designed as a lesson for the human race in the transitory nature of +power applied from without. + +The vast fabric passed with himself; was gone like a shadow when he was +gone. The unity of the Empire was buried in the grave of its founder. +In twenty-nine years (by the treaty of Verdun) three kingdoms emerged +from the crumbling mass. France, Italy, Germany, already separated by +race repulsions, had taken up each a distinct national existence, the +Imperial crown remaining with Germany. + +And France--France, the centre of this dream of unity, with her native +incohesiveness, and in the irony of fate, had broken into no less than +59 fragments, loosely held together by one Carlovingian King. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +I think that it was Lincoln who said that "the Lord must like common +people, because he had made so many of them." The path for the common +people in France at this time led through heavy shadows. But a darker +time was approaching. A system of oppression was maturing, which was +soon to envelop them in the obscurity of darkest night. + +Those Scandinavian freebooters called Northmen, and later Normans, were +the scourge of the kingdom. Nothing was safe from their insolent +courage and rapacity. + +The rich could intrench themselves in stone fortresses, with moats and +drawbridges, and be in comparative security, but the poor were utterly +defenceless against this perennial destroyer. The result was a compact +between the powerful and the weak, which was the beginning of the +Feudal System. It was in effect an exchange of protection for service +and fealty. You give us absolute control of your persons--your +military service when required, and a portion of your substance and the +fruit of your toil--and we will in exchange give you our fortified +castles as a refuge from the Northmen. Such was the offer. It was a +choice between vassalage, serfdom, or destruction outright. + +Simple enough in its beginnings, this became a ramified system of +oppression, a curious network of authority, ingeniously controlling an +entire people. The conditions upon which was engrafted this compact +were of great antiquity, had indeed been brought across the Rhine by +their German conquerors; but the Northmen were the impelling cause of +the swift development of feudalism in France. + +Charlemagne had felt grave apprehensions of evil from these robber +incursions, but could not have conceived of a result such as this, the +most oppressive system ever fastened upon a nation, and one which would +at the same time sap the foundations of royalty itself. + +The theory was that the King was absolute owner of all the territory; +the great lords holding their titles from him on condition of military +service, their vassals pledging military service and obedience to them +again on similar terms, and sub-vassals again to them repeating the +pledge; and so on in descending chain, until at last the serf, that +wretched being whom none looks up to nor fears, is ground to powder +beneath the superimposed mass. No appeal from the authority, no escape +from the caprice or cruelty of his feudal lord. Could any scales +weigh, could any words measure the suffering which must have been +endured? Is it strange, with every aspiration thwarted, hope stifled, +that Europe sank into the long sleep of the Middle Ages? + + +It is easy to conceive that under such a system, where all the affairs +of the realm were adjusted by individual rulers with unlimited power, +and where the great barons could make war upon each other without +authorization from the King, that by the time this nominal head of the +entire system was reached, there was nothing for him to do. In fact, +there was not left one vestige of kingly authority, and Carlovingian +rulers were almost as insignificant as their Merovingian predecessors. +France had, instead of one great sovereign, 150 petty ones! + + * * * * * + +In 911 A.D. the Northmen were offered the province henceforth known as +Normandy, upon condition of their acceptance of the religion and +submission to the laws of the realm. Rollo, the disreputable +robber-chief, took the oath of fealty to the King of France his +Suzerain, and Christian baptism transformed him into respectable, +law-abiding Robert, Duke of Normandy. + +With marvellous facility this people took on the language and manners +of their neighbors, and in a century and a half were prepared to +instruct the Britons in a higher civilization. + +I think it is one hundred years of respectability that is required by a +certain aristocratic club for admission to its membership. The blood +does not acquire the proper shade of azure until it has flowed in the +full light of day for at least three generations. Decidedly, William +the Conqueror, first Norman King of England, could not have been +admitted to this club. + +A century before his birth, his ancestors had lived by looting their +neighbors. They were highwaymen, robbers, by profession. And, to +increase his ineligibility, his mother, a pretty Norman peasant girl, +daughter of a tanner, had ensnared the affections of that pleasant Duke +of Normandy, known as "Robert the Devil." + +William, the fruit of this unconsecrated union, became in time Duke of +Normandy. With that reversion to ancestral types to which scientists +tell us we are all liable, he seems to have looked across the Channel +toward England, with an awakening of his robber-instincts. In a few +weeks, Harold, the last King of the Saxons, lay dead at his feet, and +William, Duke of Normandy, was William I., King of England. + +Then was presented the curious anomaly of an English sovereign who was +also ruler of a French province; an English king who was vassal to the +King of France. A door was thus opened (1066 A.D.) through which +entered entangling complications and countless woes in the future. + + * * * * * + +If Charlemagne had worn the Church as a precious jewel in his crown in +the ninth century, the Church now in the eleventh century wore all the +European states, a tiara of jewels in her mitre. The centre of +dominion had passed from the Empire of Germany to Rome, when Henry IV. +prostrated himself barefooted before Gregory VII. at Canossa in 1072. + +The Church was at its zenith. As a political system it was unrivalled; +but its triumphs brought little joy to the earnest souls still clinging +to the ideals of primitive Christianity. But what availed it for +Abelard to lead an intellectual revolt against corrupted beliefs in the +North, or the Albigenses a spiritual one in the South? He was silenced +and immured for life, while the unhappy inhabitants of Languedoc were +massacred and almost exterminated, and an inquisition, established at +Toulouse, made sure that heretical germs should not again spread from +that infected centre. + +But however imperfect the religious sentiment of the time, however it +may have departed from the simple precepts of its founder, its power to +sway the hearts and lives of the people may be judged from the +extraordinary movement started in France in the twelfth century. + +How inconceivable, in this practical age, that Europe should three +times have emptied her choicest and best into Asia for a sentiment! +Business suspended, private interests sacrificed or forgotten, life, +treasure, all eagerly given--for what? That a small bit of territory, +a thousand miles away, be torn from profaning infidels, because of its +sacred associations, because it was the birthplace of a religion whose +meaning seems to have escaped them--a religion which they wore on their +battle-flags, but not in their hearts. How would a barefooted, +rope-girdled monk, however inspired and eloquent, fare to-day in New +York, or London, or Paris? + +History has no stranger chapter than that of the Crusades. When Peter +the Hermit pictured the desecration of the Holy Land by Mohammedans, +all classes in France, from King to serf, were for the first time moved +by a common sentiment, and poured life and treasure with passionate +zeal into those streams which three times inundated Palestine. + +The order of Knights Templar had been created, and a splendid ideal of +manhood held up before the French nation, and now the knightly ideal, +side by side with the Christian and the romantic ideal, entered into +the life of the people. Romance, song, poetry, eloquence came into +being from a sort of spiritual baptism, and France began to wear the +mantle of beauty which was to be her chief glory in the future. + +But future France was not clad in coat of mail in the twelfth century. +She was lying helpless, beneath the mass of feudal trappings. Her time +was not yet. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +Like all oppressive systems, feudalism bore within itself the seeds of +its own destruction. When the King, shorn of prerogative and of +dignity, made alliance with the people lying in helpless misery beneath +the mailed surface, the system was rudely shaken. When artisans +flocked to the free cities enjoying especial immunities and privileges +from the King, and by skill and industry amassed fortunes, the +_commune_ and the _bourgeoisie_ were created, and feudalism was +stricken to its centre. When spendthrift nobles and needy barons +mortgaged their estates, the end was not far off. And when in 1302 the +"_tiers etat_" entered the States-General as a legitimate order of the +Government, the very foundations were crumbling, and it needed but the +final _coup de grace_ given by Charles VII. in the fifteenth century, +when he established a standing army under the control of the King. +When this was done, the feudal system was relegated to the region of +the obsolete. + +It was well for that sovereign that he could do something to save his +name from the obloquy attached to it on account of his base desertion +of Joan of Arc, to whom he owed his throne and his kingdom. + +From the moment when a French province was attached to the crown of +England, the dream of that nation was the conquest of France. +Generations came and went, one dynasty replaced another, and still the +struggle continued; France sometimes seeming near to dominion over +England, and England always believing it was her destiny to bring +France under the rule of an English sovereign. + +A glamour of romance is thrown over history by the royal marriages +which occur in dazzling profusion. It seems to have been the custom, +whenever a peace was concluded in Europe, to cement it with a royal +marriage, and to throw in a princess as a sacrifice,--one of the +conditions of almost every treaty being that a royal daughter, or +sister, or niece, should be tossed across the Channel, or into Germany, +or Italy, or Spain, an unwilling bride thrown into the arms of a +reluctant bridegroom; with the result that in the succeeding generation +there was a plentiful sprinkling of heirs with claims, more or less +shadowy, to the neighboring thrones. This was the source, or rather +pretext, for most of the wars between France and England for four +hundred years. + +In the early part of the fifteenth century the great crisis arrived. +With that lack of unity which seemed a fatal Gallic inheritance, France +broke into civil war, while an invading English army was in the heart +of her kingdom. England's dream was near realization. + +An insane King, a vicious intriguing Queen-Regent, the Duke of Burgundy +madly jealous of the Duke of Orleans, and both ready to sacrifice +France in the rage of disappointed ambition,--such were the elements. +England's opportunity had come. + +The depraved Queen Isabella, acting for her insane husband, held +conference with Henry V., and actually concluded a treaty bestowing the +regency upon the English King. There was the usual douceur of a +princess thrown in, and Katharine, the daughter of Isabella, and sister +to the Dauphin (the future King Charles VII.), was espoused by King +Henry V. of England, who set up a royal court at Vincennes. + +The fortunes of the kingdom had never been so desperate. The people +saw in these insolent traitorous dukes their natural enemy; in the +King, their friend and protector. Had not monarchy given them life and +hope? It was to them sacred next to Heaven. They rose in an outburst +of patriotism. The young Dauphin was hastily and informally crowned, +and thousands flocked to his standard. It was the King and the people +against the great vassals, the last struggle of an expiring feudalism. +Desperation lent fury to the conflict which was, upon both sides, a +fight for existence; the Queen-mother in unnatural alliance with the +Duke of Burgundy, who was resolved to rule or ruin. + +He soon saw that defeat was inevitable, and, preferring infamy, threw +himself into the hands of the English, offering to turn the kingdom +over to the infant King Henry VI. (Henry V. having died). + +Charles abandoned hope; how could he struggle against such a +combination? He was considering whether he should find refuge in Spain +or in Scotland, when the tide of events was turned by the strangest +romance in history. + + +It must ever remain a mystery that a peasant girl, a child in years and +in experience, should have believed herself called to such a mission; +conferring only with her heavenly guides or "voices," that she should +have sought the King, inspired him with faith in her, and in himself +and his cause, reanimated the courage of the army, and led it herself +to victory absolute and complete; and then, compelling the +half-reluctant, half-doubting Charles to go with her to Rheims, where +she had him anointed and consecrated, this simple child in that day +bestowed upon him a kingdom, and upon France a King! + +Was there ever a stranger chapter in history! Alas, if it could have +ended here, and she could have gone back to her mother and her spinning +and her simple pleasures, as she was always longing to do when her work +should be done. But no! we see her falling into the hands of the +defeated and revengeful English--this child, who had wrested from them +a kingdom already in their grasp. She was turned over to the French +ecclesiastical court to be tried. A sorceress and a blasphemer they +pronounce her, and pass her on to the secular authorities, and her +sentence is--death. + +We see the poor defenceless girl, bewildered, terrified, wringing her +hands and declaring her innocence as she rides to execution. God and +man had abandoned her. No heavenly voice spoke, no miracle intervened +as her young limbs were tied to the stake and the fagots and straw +piled up about her. The torch was applied, and her pure soul mounted +heavenward in a column of flames. + +Rugged men wept. A Burgundian general said, as he turned gloomily +away, "We have murdered a saint." + +And Charles, sitting upon the throne she had rescued for him, what was +he doing to save her? Nothing--to his everlasting shame be it said, +nothing. He might not have succeeded; the effort at rescue, or to stay +the event, might have been unavailing. But where was his knighthood, +where his manhood, that he did not try, or utter passionate protest +against her fate? + +Twenty-five years later we see him erecting statues to her memory, and +"rehabilitating" her desecrated name. And to-day, the Church which +condemned her for blasphemy is placing her upon the calendar of saints, +while all political parties alike are using her name as a thing to +conjure with. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +The early part of the sixteenth century must ever be memorable in the +history of Europe. Ferdinand and Isabella had given to the human race +a new world. Luther had hurled his defiance at Rome--had arraigned Leo +X. for blasphemy and corrupt practices. Henry V., grandson of +Ferdinand and Isabella (and nephew of Katharine, wife of Henry VIII.) +was Emperor of Germany. Astute and powerful though he was, he had been +unable to stay the Protestant flood. His empire, apparently hungering +for the new heresy, was divided already into States Protestant and +States Catholic. England was Protestant. The conversion of her King, +because the Pope refused to annul his marriage with Katharine, was not +one of the proudest triumphs of the new faith, but one of the most +important. Had Katharine's charms been fresher, or Anne Boleyn's less +alluring, the course of history might have been strangely changed. +Henry VIII. as persecutor of heretics would have found congenial +occupation for his ferocious instincts, and Protestantism would have +been long delayed. Spain was unchangeably Catholic, while France +offered congenial soil for the new faith. The germs of heresy, long +slumbering, were everywhere stirred into life. + +Francis I. was King; sumptuous in tastes, suave and elegant in manners, +as handsome as an Apollo, gay, pleasure-loving, as vicious as he was +false, and if need be with a cruelty which matched his ambition, such +was the man who held the destinies of France at this time. + +A rival claimant for the throne of Germany, he was destined to spend +his life in fruitless contest with the more able, wily, and astute +Henry V., the possession of that Empire the ignis-fatuus ever luring +him on; an end to which all other ends were simply the means. The +religious question upon which Europe was divided meant nothing to him, +except as he could use it in his duel with the Emperor. He was in turn +the ally of Henry VIII. or the willing tool of Henry V. If he needed +the English King's friendship, the Protestants had protection. If he +desired to placate Henry V., the roastings and torturings commenced +again. + +In 1547 Francis and Henry VIII. each went to his reward, and a few +years later Henry V. had laid down his crown and carried his weary, +unsatisfied heart to St. Yuste. The brilliant pageant was over; but +Protestantism was expanding. + +The question at issue was deeper than any one knew. Neither Luther nor +Leo X. understood the revolution they had precipitated. Protestants +and Papists alike failed to comprehend the true nature of the struggle, +which was not for supremacy of Romanist or Protestant; not whether this +dogma or that was true, and should prevail; but an assertion of the +right of every human soul to choose its own faith and form of worship. +The great battle for human liberty had commenced; the struggle for +religious liberty was but the prelude to what was to follow. There was +abundant proof later that Protestants no less than Papists needed only +opportunity and power to be as cruel and intolerant as their +persecutors had been. Before the Reformation was fifty years old, +Servetus, one of the greatest men of his age, a scholar, philosopher, +and man of irreproachable character, was burned at Geneva for heretical +views concerning the nature of the Trinity, Calvin, the great organizer +of Protestant theology, giving, if not the order for this crime, at +least the nod of approval. + + * * * * * + +Huguenot, that name of tragic association, was a corruption of the +German _Eidgenossen_--meaning associates. By the way of Switzerland it +came into France as _Eguenots_, and the transition to its present form +was simple. The Huguenots were no longer a timorous band hiding in +darkness as in the time of Francis I. A party with such leaders as +Anthony de Bourbon, Prince of Conde (his brother), and Admiral Coligny, +was not to be put down by a few roastings and stranglings here and +there. Anthony de Bourbon (King of Navarre) was next in succession +should the House of Valois become extinct, with a young son valiant as +himself (the future Henry IV.) pressing on toward manhood. + +Catholic France needed plenty of comfort from Rome and Madrid in +dealing with this formidable body of heretics which had fastened upon +her vitals, and which was in turn receiving aid and comfort from the +young Protestant Queen across the Channel. + + +When that fair princess Catharine de Medici became the wife of Henry, +second son of Francis I., no one suspected the tremendous import of the +event. Powerless to win the affection or even confidence of her +husband, she remained during his reign almost unobserved, but, as the +event proved, not unobservant. Her alert faculties were not idle, and +when upon the death of Henry II. she found herself Queen-Regent, with +only a frail boy of sixteen to obstruct her will, she quickly gathered +the threads she already knew so well, and her supple hand closed upon +them with a grasp not to be relinquished while she lived. + +Another young Princess had been tossed across the Channel. This time +it was her most serene little highness, Marie Stuart, Queen of +Scotland, intended for the dauphin, who was to be Francis II. + +In order to be prepared for this high destiny, the little maid was +brought when only six years old to the Court of France to be trained +under the direct supervision of her future mother-in-law, Catharine de +Medici. Poor little Marie Stuart--predestined to sin and to tragedy! +Who could be good, with the blood of the Guises in her veins, and with +Catharine de Medici as preceptress? + +This marriage was planned before Catharine's advent to power, or it +would never have been. Marie was the niece of the Duke of Guise, and +the central thought of Catharine's policy was the exclusion of this +ambitious, intriguing family from every avenue to power in the state. +Now, Marie would be Queen, and who so natural advisers as her uncles of +the house of "Lorraine"? + +The marriage of the two children had taken place--the sickly boy with +only a modest portion of intelligence was Francis II. Marie, his +Queen, whom he adored, controlled him utterly, and was in turn +controlled by her uncles, the Guises. The wily Catharine saw herself +defeated by a beautiful girl of sixteen. + +The family of Guise was the self-appointed head of the Catholic party +in France and represented the most extreme views regarding the +treatment of heretics. So the strange result was, that Catharine, if +she looked for any allies in her fight with the house of Lorraine, of +which the Duke of Guise was the head, must make common cause with the +Protestants, whom she hated a little less than she did the uncles of +Marie Stuart. But events were soon to change the situation. Did she +hasten them? Such a suspicion may never have existed. But may one not +suspect anything of a woman capable of a St. Bartholomew? + +Francis II. was dead. Marie Stuart had passed out of French history. +The fates were fighting on the side of Catharine, who wasted no regrets +upon the death of a son, which made her Queen-Regent during the +minority of her second son Charles. She entered upon her fight with +the Guises with renewed energy, and became to some extent protector of +the Protestants. Realizing that her time was brief, she prepared +Charles for the position he would soon hold. + +What can be said of a mother who seeks to exterminate every germ of +truth or virtue in her son--who immerses him in degrading vices in +order to deaden his too sensitive conscience and make him a willing +tool for her purposes? Inheriting the splendid intelligence as well as +genius for statecraft of the de Medici, nourished from her infancy upon +Machiavellian principles, cold and cruel by nature, this Florentine +woman has written her name in blood across the pages of French history. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +There is not time to tell the story of the events leading up to that +fateful night, August 24, 1572. Impelled always by her fear and dread +of the Guises, Catharine had been vacillating in her policy with the +Huguenots. Charles IX. was now King: impressible, easily influenced, +yet stubborn, intractable, incoherent, passionate, and unreliable; +sometimes inclining to the Guises, sometimes to Coligny and the +Huguenots, and always submitting at last after vain struggle to his +imperious mother's will, in her efforts to free him from both. We see +in him a weak character, not naturally bad, torn to distraction by the +cruel forces about him, who when compelled to yield, as he always did +in the end, to that terrible woman, would give way to fits of impotent +rage against the fate which allowed him no peace. + +A time arrived when Catharine feared the influence of the Protestant +Coligny more than the Guises. Brave, patriotic, magnetic, he had +succeeded in winning Charles' consent to declare war against Spain. +Philip II. of Spain was Catharine's son-in-law and closest ally. Her +entire policy would be undermined. At all hazards Coligny must be +gotten rid of. The young King of Navarre, adored leader of the +Protestants, was a constant menace; he too must in some way be disposed +of. + +There were sinister conferences with Philip of Spain and with his +Minister, that incarnation of cruelty and of the Inquisition, the Duke +of Alva. + +God knows France was not guiltless in what followed; but the +initiative, the inception of the horrid deed, was not French. It was +conceived in the brain of either this Italian woman or her Spanish +adviser and co-conspirator, the Duke of Alva. We will never know the +inside history of the massacre of St. Bartholomew. It must ever remain +a matter of conjecture just how and when it was planned, but the +probabilities point strongly one way. + +Charles was to be gradually prepared for it by his mother, the plot +revealed to him as he was in condition to bear it; by working upon his +fears, his suspicions, by stories of plottings against his life and his +kingdom, to infuriate him, and then--before his rage was exhausted--to +act. The marriage of Charles' sister Margaret with the young +Protestant leader Henry of Navarre, with its promise of future +protection to the Huguenots, was part of the plot. It would lure all +the leaders of the cause to Paris. Coligny, Conde, all the heads of +the party were urgently invited to attend the marriage-feast which was +to inaugurate an era of peace. + +Admiral Coligny was requested by Catharine, simply as a measure of +protection to the Protestants, to have an additional regiment of guards +in Paris, to act in case of any unforeseen violence. + +Two days after the marriage and while the festivities were at their +height, an attempt upon the life of the old Admiral awoke suspicion and +alarm. But Catharine and her son went immediately in person to see the +wounded old man, and to express their grief and horror at the event. +They commanded that a careful list of the names and abode of every +Protestant in Paris be made, in order, as they said, "to take them +under their own immediate protection." "My dear father," said the +King, "the hurt is yours, the grief is mine." + +At that moment, the knives were already sharpened, every man instructed +in his part in the hideous drama, and the signal for its commencement +determined upon. Charles did not know it, but his mother did. She +went to her son's room that night, artfully and eloquently pictured the +danger he was in, confessed to him that she had authorized the attempt +upon Coligny, but that it was done because of the Admiral's plottings +against him, which she had discovered. But the Guises--her enemies and +his--they knew it, and would denounce her and the King! The only thing +now is to finish the work. He must die. + +Charles was in frightful agitation and stubbornly refused. Finally +with an air of offended dignity she bowed coldly and said to her son, +"Sir, will you permit me to withdraw with my daughter, from your +kingdom?" The wretched Charles was conquered. In a sort of insane +fury he exclaimed, "Well, let them kill him, and all the rest of the +Huguenots too. See that not one remains to reproach me." + +This was more than she had hoped. All was easy now. So eager was she +to give the order before a change of mood, that she flew herself to +give the signal, fully two hours earlier than was expected. At +midnight the tocsin rang out upon the night, and the horror began. + +Lulled to a feeling of security by artfully contrived circumstances, +husbands, wives, sons, daughters, peacefully sleeping, were awakened to +see each other hideously slaughtered. + +The stars have looked down upon some terrible scenes in Paris, her +stones are not unacquainted with the taste of human blood, but never +had there been anything like this. The carnage of battle is merciful +compared with it. Shrieking women and children, half-clothed, fleeing +from knives already dripping with human blood; frantic mothers +shielding the bodies of their children, and wives pleading for the +lives of husbands; the living hiding beneath the bodies of the dead. + +The cry that ascended to Heaven from Paris that night was the most +awful and despairing in the world's history. It was centuries of +cruelty crowded into a few hours. + +The number slain can never be accurately stated; but it was thousands. +Human blood is intoxicating. An orgie set in which laughed at orders +to cease. Seven days it continued and then died out for lack of +material. The provinces had caught the contagion, and orders to slay +were received and obeyed in all except two, the Governor of Bayonne, to +his honor be it told, writing to the King in reply: "Your Majesty has +many faithful subjects in Bayonne, but not one executioner." + +And where was "His Majesty" while this work was being done? How was it +with Catharine? She was possibly seeing to the embalming of Coligny's +head, which we learn she sent as a present to the Pope. We hear of no +regrets, no misgivings, that she was calm, collected, suave and +unfathomable as ever, but that Charles in a strange, half-frenzied +state was amusing himself by firing from the windows of the palace at +the fleeing Huguenots. Had he killed himself in remorse, would it not +have been better, instead of lingering two wretched years, a prey to +mental tortures and an inscrutable malady, before he died? + +Europe was shocked. Christendom averted her face in horror. But at +Madrid and Rome there was satisfaction. + +Catharine and the Duke of Alva had done their work skilfully, but the +result surprised and disappointed them. Tens of thousands of Huguenots +were slain, which was well; but many times that number remained, with +spirit unbroken, which was not well. + +They had been too merciful! Why had Henry of Navarre been spared? Had +not Alva said, "Take the big fish and let the small fry go. One salmon +is worth more than a thousand frogs." + +But Charles considered the matter settled when he uttered those +swelling words to Henry of Navarre the day after the massacre: "I mean +in future to have one religion in my kingdom. It is mass or death." + + +Catharine's third son now wore the crown of France. In Henry III. she +had as pliant an instrument for her will as in the two brothers +preceding him; and, like them, his reign was spent in alternating +conflict with the Protestants and the Duke de Guise. At last, wearied +and exasperated, this half-Italian and altogether conscienceless King +quite naturally thought of the stiletto. The old Duke, as he entered +the King's apartment by invitation, was stricken down by assassins +hidden for that purpose. + +Henry had not counted on the rebound from that blow. Catholic France +was excited to such popular fury against him that he threw himself into +the arms of the Protestants, imploring their aid in keeping his crown +and his kingdom; and when himself assassinated, a year later, in the +absence of a son he named Henry, King of Navarre, his successor. A +Protestant and a Huguenot was King of France. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +After long wandering in strange seas, we come in view of familiar +lights and headlands. With the advent of the house of Bourbon, we have +grasped a thread which leads directly down to our own time. + + +The accession of a Protestant King was hailed with delirious joy by the +Huguenots, and with corresponding rage by Catholic France. The one +looked forward to redressing of wrongs and avenging of injuries; and +the other flatly refused submission unless Henry should recant his +heresy, and become a convert to the true faith. + +The new King saw there was no bed of roses preparing for him. After +four years of effort to reconcile the irreconcilable, he decided upon +his course. He was not called to the throne to rule over Protestant +France, nor to be an instrument of vengeance for the Huguenots. He saw +that the highest good of the kingdom required, not that he should +impose upon it either form of belief or worship, but give equal +opportunity and privilege to both. + +To the consternation of the Huguenots he announced himself ready to +listen to the arguments in favor of the religion of Rome; and it took +just five hours of deliberation to convince him of its truth. He +announced himself ready to abjure his old faith. Bitter reproaches on +the one side and rejoicings on the other greeted this decision. It was +not heroic. But many even among the Protestants acknowledged it to be +an act of supreme political wisdom. + +Peace was restored, and the "Edict of Nantes," which quickly followed, +proved to his old friends, the Huguenots, that they were not forgotten. +The Protestants, with every disability removed, shared equal privileges +with the Catholics throughout the kingdom; and the first victory for +religious liberty was splendidly won. + +An era of unexampled prosperity dawned. Never had the kingdom been so +wisely and beneficently governed. Sincerity, simplicity, and sympathy +had taken the place of dissimulation, craft, and cruelty. Uplifting +agencies were everywhere at work, reaching even to the peasantry, that +forgotten element in the nation. + +The reign of the Bourbon dynasty had opened auspiciously. Henry IV. +was the idol of the people. His loveless marriage with Margaret de +Valois had been annulled, and he had espoused Marie de Medici. The +blood from that poisoned stream was again to be intermingled with the +blood of the future Kings of France. + +After a reign of twenty-one years, the sagacious ruler who had done +more than any other to make her great and happy was stricken down by +the hand of an assassin, and a cry of grief arose alike from Catholic +and Protestant throughout the kingdom. + + +Poor France was again at the mercy of a woman with the corrupt +instincts of the de Medici. The widow of Henry IV., who was Regent +during the infancy of her son Louis, was intriguing, vulgar, and +without the ability of the great Catharine. The kingdom was rent by +cabals of aspiring favorites and ambitious nobles, until the reign of +Louis XIII., or rather of Cardinal Richelieu, began. + +The foundations of this man's policy lay deep, out of sight of all save +his own far-reaching intelligence. Pitiless as an iceberg, he crushed +every obstacle to his purpose. Impartial as fate, with no loves, no +hatreds, Catholics, Protestants, nobles, Parliaments, one after another +were borne down before his determination to make the King, what he had +not been since Charlemagne, supreme in France. + +The will of the great minister mowed down like a scythe. The power of +the grandees, that last remnant of feudalism, and a perpetual menace to +monarchy, was swept away. One great noble after another was humiliated +and shorn of his privileges, if not of his head. + +The Huguenots, being first shaken into submission, saw their political +liberties torn from them by the stroke of a pen, and even while the +Catholics were making merry over this discomfiture, the minister was +planning to send Henrietta, sister of the King, across the Channel to +become Queen of Protestant England, as wife of Charles I. But the act +of supreme audacity was to come. This high prelate of the church, this +cardinal minister, formed alliance with Gustavus Adolphus, the great +leader of the Protestants in the war upon the Emperor and the Pope! + +He allowed no religion, no class, to sway or to hold him. He was for +France; and her greatness and glory augmented under his ruthless +dominion. By his extraordinary genius he made the reign of a +commonplace King one of dazzling splendor; and while gratifying his own +colossal ambition he so strengthened the foundations of the monarchy +that princes of the blood themselves could not shake it. + +It was great--it was dazzling, but of all his work there is but one +thing which revolutions and time have not swept away. The "French +Academy" alone survives as his monument. Out of a gathering of +literary friends he created a national institution, its object the +establishing a court of last appeal in all that makes for eloquence in +speaking or writing the French language. In a country where nothing +endures, this has remained unchanged for two hundred and thirty years. + +But this master of statecraft, this creator of despotic monarchy, had +one unsatisfied ambition. He would have exchanged all his honors for +the ability to write one play like those of Corneille. Hungering for +literary distinction, he could not have gotten into his own Academy had +he not created it. And jealous of his laurels, he hated Corneille as +much as he did the enemies of France. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +Again do we recognize the fine Italian hand in French politics. +Cardinal Mazarin was Minister during the regency of Anne of Austria, +directing and controlling the affairs of the Kingdom, less intent upon +the greatness of France than the greatness and magnificence of her +Prime Minister. At last the wily Italian was gone, and Louis XIV. +settled himself upon the throne which Richelieu had rendered so exalted +and immovable. + +Cardinal Mazarin had said of the young Louis that "there was enough in +him to make four Kings, and one honest man." His greatness consisted +more in amplitude than in kind. Nature made him in prodigal mood. He +was an average man of colossal proportions. His ability, courage, +dignity, industry, greed for power and possessions, were all on a +magnificent scale, and so were his vanity, his loves, his cruelties, +his pleasures, his triumphs, and his disappointments. + +No King more wickedly oppressed France, and none made her more +glorious. He made her feared abroad and magnificent at home, but he +desolated her, and drained her resources with ambitious wars. He +crowned her with imperishable laurels in literature, art, and every +manifestation of genius, but he signed the "Revocation of the Edict of +Nantes," and drove out of his kingdom 500,000 of the best of his +subjects. + +If the names of Marlborough and Maintenon could have been stricken out +of his life, the story might have had a different ending. From the +moment the great Duke checked his victorious army, his sun began to go +down; but it was Maintenon who most obscured its setting. + +His unloved Queen, the Spanish Marie Therese, had borne his mad +infatuation for Louise la Valliere; la Valliere had carried her broken +heart to a convent, and been superseded by de Montespan, and de +Montespan had invited her own destruction by bringing into her +household the pious widow of the poet Scarron, Madame de Maintenon, +(grand-daughter of d'Aubigne, the historian of the Reformation). +Grave, austere, ambitious, talented, she was not too much engrossed in +her duties as governess of de Montespan's children to find ways of +establishing an influence over the King. + +This man who had absorbed into himself all the functions of the +Government, who was Ministers, Magistrates, Parliaments, all in one, +this central sun of whom Corneille, Moliere, Racine were but single +rays, was destined to be enslaved in his old age by a designing +adventuress; her will his law. The hey-day of youth having passed, he +was beginning to be anxious about his soul. She artfully pricked his +conscience, and de Montespan was sent away, but de Maintenon remained. + +She next convinced him that the only fitting atonement for his sins was +to drive heresy out of his kingdom, and re-establish the true faith. +At her bidding he undid the glorious work of Henry IV., signed the +"Revocation of the Edict of Nantes," and brutally stamped out +Protestantism. + +A part of the scheme of penitence seems to have been that on the death +of poor Marie Therese, he should make her (de Maintenon) his lawful +wife, which he did privately; and his sun went down obscured by +crushing griefs and disappointments. His children swept away, the +prestige of success tarnished, this demigod was taken to pieces by +time's destroying fingers, quite as unceremoniously as are the rest of +us, hiding finally behind the bed-curtains while a kneeling courtier +passed to him his wig on the end of a stick, and at last lying down +like any other old dying sinner, overwhelmed with the vanity of earthly +things and with the vastness of eternity. + +Still more would the dying moments of the Grand Monarque have been +embittered could he have foreseen into what hands his great inheritance +was passing. + + +Upon Louis XV. more than any other rests the responsibility of the +crisis which was approaching. + +A heartless sybarite, depraved in tastes, without sense of +responsibility or comprehension of his times, a brutalized voluptuary +governed by a succession of designing women, regardless of national +poverty, indulging in wildest extravagance,--such was the man in whom +was vested the authority rendered so absolute by Richelieu,--such the +man who opened up a pathway for the storm. + +As for the nobility, their degradation may be imagined when it is said +there was as bitter rivalry between titled and illustrious fathers to +secure for their daughters the coveted position held by Madame de +Pompadour, as for the highest offices of State. + +Could the upper ranks fall lower than this? Had not the kingdom +reached its lowest depths, where its foreign policy was determined by +the amount of consideration shown to Madame de Pompadour? But this +woman, whose friendship was artfully sought by the great Empress Maria +Theresa, was superseded, and the fresher charms of Madame du Barri +enslaved the King. The deposed favorite could not survive her fall, +and died of a broken heart. It is said that as Louis, looking from an +upper window of his palace, saw the coffin borne out in a drenching +rain, he smiled and said: "Ah, the Marquise has a bad day for her +journey." It may be imagined that the man who could be so pitiless to +the woman he had loved would feel little pity for the people whom he +had not loved, but whom he knew only as a remote, obscure something, +which held up the weight of his glory. + +But this "obscure something" was undergoing strange transformation. +The greater light at the surface had sent some glimmering rays down +into the mass below, which began to awaken and to think. Misery, +hopeless and abject, was changing into rage and thirst for vengeance. + +A new class had come into existence which was not noble, but with +highly trained intelligence it looked with contempt and loathing upon +the frivolous, half-educated nobles. Scorn was added to the ferment of +human passions beneath the surface, and when Voltaire had spoken, and +the restraints of religion were loosened, no living hand, not that of a +Richelieu nor a Louis XIV., could have averted the coming doom. +But--no one seems to have suspected what was approaching. + +A wonderful literature had come into existence--not stately and classic +as in the age preceding,--but instinct with a new sort of life. The +highest speculations which can occupy the soul of man were handled with +marvellous lightness of touch and prismatic brilliancy of expression; +but all was negation. None tried to build; all to demolish. The +black-winged angel of Destruction was hovering over the land. + +Then Rousseau tossed his dreamy abstractions into the quivering air, +and the formula, "Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality," was caught up by +the titled aristocracy as a charming idyllic toy, while Princes, Dukes, +and Marquises amused themselves with a dream of Arcadian simplicity, to +be attained in some indefinite way in some remote and equally +indefinite future. It was all a masquerade. No reality, no sincerity, +no convictions, good or evil. The only thing that was real was that an +over-taxed, impoverished people was exasperated and--hungry. + +Did the King need new supplies for his unimaginable luxuries, they were +taxed. Was it necessary to have new accessions to French "glory," in +order to allay popular clamor or discontent, they must supply the men +to fight the glorious battles, and the means with which to pay them. +Every burden fell at last upon this lowest stratum of the State, the +nobility and clergy, while owning two-thirds of the land, being nearly +exempt from taxation. + +And yet the King and nobility of France, in love with Rousseau's +theories, were airily discussing the "rights of man." Wolves and foxes +coming together to talk over the sacredness of the rights of +property--or the occupants of murderers' row growing eloquent over the +sanctity of human life! How incomprehensible that among those +quick-witted Frenchmen there seems not one to have realized that the +logical sequence of the formula, "Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality," +must be, "Down with the Aristocrats!" + +And so the surface which Richelieu had converted into adamant grew +thinner and thinner each day, until King and Court danced upon a mere +gilded crust, unconscious of the abysmal fires beneath. Some of those +powdered heads fell into the executioner's basket twenty-five years +later. Did they recall this time? Did Madame du Barri think of it, +did she exult at her triumph over de Pompadour, when she was dragged +shrieking and struggling to the guillotine? + + +And while France was thus weaving her future, what were the other +nations doing? England, sane, practical, with little time for +abstractions, and little said about "glory," was importing turnips, +converting agriculture into a science, and under the instruction of +exiled Huguenots, establishing marvellous industries. In the new +kingdom of Prussia, a half-savage, half-inspired King had been +importing artisans and skill of all sorts, reclaiming waste lands. +Living like a miser, he had indulged in but one luxury: an army, which +should be the best in the world. There was no powder, no patches at +his Court; where he thrashed with his own royal hands male and female +courtiers, starved, imprisoned, and cudgelled his son and heir to his +throne for playing on the violin; and, it is said, so terrified and +scarified his grenadiers with canes and cats that not one of them would +not have preferred facing the enemy to meeting his enraged sovereign, +had he done wrong. + +Frederick was not a pleasant barbarian. But there is at least a ring +of sincerity about all this, which it is refreshing to recall after the +tinsel and depraved refinements of France under Louis XV., and +something too which gives promise, in spite of its brutality, of a +stalwart future. + +Five years before the close of this miserable reign, an event occurred +seemingly of small importance to Europe. A child was born in an +obscure Italian household. His name was Napoleon Bonaparte. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +Louis XV. was dead, and two children, with the light-heartedness of +youth and inexperience, stepped upon the throne which was to be a +scaffold--Louis XVI., only twenty, and Marie Antoinette, his wife, +nineteen. He, amiable, kind, full of generous intentions; she, +beautiful, simple, child-like and lovely. Instead of a debauched old +King with depraved surroundings, here were a Prince and Princess out of +a fairy-tale. The air was filled with indefinite promise of a new era +for mankind to be inaugurated by this amiable young king, whose +kindness of heart shone forth in his first speech, "We will have no +more loans, no credit, no fresh burdens on the people;" then, leaving +his ministers to devise ways of paying the enormous salaries of +officials out of an empty treasury, and to arrange the financial +details of his benevolent scheme of government, he proceeded with his +gay and brilliant young wife to Rheims, there to be crowned with a +magnificence undreamed of by Louis XIV. + +In the midst of these rejoicings over the new reign, and of speculative +dreams of universal freedom, there was wafted across the Atlantic news +of a handful of patriots arrayed against the tyranny of the British +Crown. Here were the theories of the new philosophy translated into +the reality of actual experience. "No taxation without +representation," "No privileged class," "No government without the +consent of the governed." Was this not an embodiment of their dreams? +Nor did it detract from the interest in the conflict that +England--England, the hated rival of France, was defied by an indignant +people of her own race. There was not a young noble in the land who +would not have rushed if he could to the defence of the outraged +colonies. + +The King, half doubting, and vaguely fearing, was swept into the +current, and the armies and the courage of the Americans were +splendidly reinforced by generous, enthusiastic France. + +Why should the simple-hearted Louis see what no one else seemed to see: +that victory or failure were alike full of peril for France? If the +colonies were conquered, France would feel the vengeance of England; if +they were freed and self-governing, the principle of Monarchy had a +staggering blow. + +In the mean time, as the American Revolution moved on toward success, +there was talk in the cabin as well as the _chateau_ of the "rights of +man." In shops and barns, as well as in clubs and drawing-rooms, there +was a glimmering of the coming day. + +"What is true upon one continent is true upon another," say they. "If +it is cowardly to submit to tyranny in America, what is it in France?" +"If Englishmen may revolt against oppression, why may not Frenchmen?" +"No government without the consent of the governed, eh? When has our +consent been asked, the consent of twenty-five million people? Are we +sheep, that we have let a few thousands govern us for a thousand years, +_without_ our consent?" + +Poverty and hunger gave force and urgency to these questions. The +people began to clamor more boldly for the good time which had been +promised by the kind-hearted King. The murmur swelled to an ominous +roar. Thousands were at his very palace gates, telling him in no +unmistakable terms that they were tired of smooth words and fair +promises. What they wanted was a new constitution and--bread. + +Poor Louis! the one could be made with pen and paper; but by what +miracle could he produce the other? How gladly would he have given +them anything. But what could he do? There was not enough money to +pay the salaries of his officials, nor for his gay young Queen's fetes +and balls! The old way would have been to impose new taxes. But how +could he tax a people crying at his gates for bread? He made more +promises which he could not keep; yielded, one after another, +concessions of authority and dignity; then vacillated, and tried to +return over the slippery path, only to be dragged on again by an +irresistible fate. + +When Louis XVI. convoked the States-General, he made his last +concession to the demands of his subjects. + +That almost-forgotten body had not been seen since Richelieu effaced +all the auxiliary functions of government. Nobles, ecclesiastics, and +_tiers etat_ (or commons) found themselves face to face once more. The +handsome contemptuous nobles, the princely ecclesiastics were +unchanged--but there was a new expression in the pale faces of the +commons. There was a look of calm defiance as they met the disdainful +gaze of the aristocrats across the gulf of two centuries. + +The two superior bodies absolutely refused to sit in the same room with +the commons. They might under the same roof, but in the same +room--never. + +No outburst met this insult. With marvellous self-control and dignity, +and with an ominous calm, the commons constituted themselves into the +"National Assembly." + +Aristocratic France had committed its concluding act of arrogance and +folly. And when poor distracted Louis gave impotent order for the +Assembly to disperse, he committed suicide. Louis the man lived on to +be slain by the people three years later, but Louis the King died at +that moment. + +When the Assembly defied his authority and continued to solemnly act as +if he had not spoken, the power had passed to the people. They were +sovereign. + +Paris was in wild excitement; and a rumor that troops were marching +upon the Assembly to disperse it converted excitement into madness. +The populace marched toward the Bastille, and in another hour the heads +of the Governor and his officials were being carried on pikes through +the streets of Paris. + +The horrible drama had opened, and events developed with the swiftness +of a falling avalanche. Louis might have followed his fleeing nobles. +But always vacillating, and "letting I dare not wait upon I would," the +opportunity was lost. He and his family were prisoners in the +"Temple," while an awful travesty upon a court of justice was sending +out death-warrants for his friends and adherents faster than the +guillotine could devour them. + +More and more furious swept the torrent, gathering to itself all that +was vile and outcast. Where were the pale-faced, determined patriots +who sat in the "National Assembly"? Some of them riding with Dukes and +Marquises to the guillotine. Was this the equality they expected when +they cried "Down with the Aristocrats"? + +Did they think they could guide the whirlwind after raising it? As +well whisper to the cyclone to level only the tall trees, or to the +conflagration to burn only the temples and palaces. + +With restraining agencies removed, religion, government, King, all +swept away, that hideous brood born of vice, poverty, hatred, and +despair came out from dark hiding-places; and what had commenced as a +patriotic revolt had become a wild orgie of bloodthirsty demons, led by +three master-demons, Robespierre, Marat, and Danton, vying with each +other in ferocity. + +Then we see that simple girl thinking by one supreme act of heroism and +sacrifice, like Joan of Arc, to save her country. Foolish child! Did +she think to slay the monster devouring Paris by cutting off one of his +heads? The death of Marat only added to the fury of the tempest; and +the falling of Charlotte Corday's head was not more noticed than the +falling of a leaf in the forest. + +On the 21st of January, 1793, Louis XVI. embraced for the last time his +adored wife and children; then, with every possible indignity, was +strapped to a plank and shoved under the guillotine. + +The kindest-hearted, most inoffensive gentleman in Europe had expiated +the crimes of his ancestors. + +A few months later, Marie Antoinette, daughter of the proud Empress +Maria Theresa, and child of the Caesars, was borne along the same road. +And how bravely she met her awful fate! We forget her follies, her +reckless grasping after pleasures, in view of her horrible sufferings +and in admiration of her courage as she rides to her death; sitting in +that hideous tumbril, head erect, pale, proud, defiant, as if upon a +throne. + +With the death of the King and Queen the madness had reached its +height, and a revulsion of feeling set in. There was a surfeit of +blood, and an awakening sense of horror, which turned upon the +instigators. Danton fell, and finally, when amid cries of "Death to +the tyrant!" Robespierre was dragged wounded and shivering to the fate +he had brought upon so many thousands, the drama which had opened at +the Bastille was fittingly closed. + +The great battle for human liberty had been fought and won. Religious +freedom and political freedom were identical in principle. The right +of the human conscience proclaimed by Luther in 1517 had in 1793 only +expanded into the large conception of all the inherent rights of the +_individual_. + +It had taken centuries for English persistence to accomplish what +France, with such appalling violence, had done in as many years. It +had been a furious outburst of pent-up force; but the work had been +thorough. Not a germ of tyranny remained. The incrustations of a +thousand years were not alone broken, but pulverized; the privileged +classes were swept away, and their vast estates, two-thirds of the +territory of France, ready to be distributed among the rightful owners +of the soil, those who by toil and industry could win them. France was +as new as if she had no history. There was ample opportunity for her +people now. What would they do with it? + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + +It is strange to read that the armies went on fighting battles +automatically, even while there was no central head to direct them. +While the ghastly scenes were enacting in Paris, and while Josephine de +Beauharnais was at the Conciergerie listening with blanched face to the +call of her husband's name on the death roll for the day, a young +lieutenant of artillery, only twenty-four years old, was at Toulon, +winning his first military honors. He would have been thought a +strange prophet who had said that in less than ten years the young +Corsican lieutenant would be Emperor, and the prisoner at the +Conciergerie Empress of the French! Nor did M. de Beauharnais, as he +rode to execution, dream that forty-five years later his grandson would +over the same stones be borne to his coronation. + +In the anarchy which prevailed after the Revolution, the young hero of +Toulon was called upon to quell a riot in Paris. The people realized +they had met a master. For twenty-five years from that day, the +history of France, and indeed of Europe, was that of one man, Napoleon +Bonaparte. Commander-in-chief of the Army, then First Consul of the +Republic, then Emperor--the steps in his ascent were as rapid and as +bewildering as the movements in one of his own campaigns. France, +groping about helplessly among the wreckage of the past, believed what +she most desired was _liberty_ and _self-government_. + +This Italian, who was a French citizen even only by merest accident, +knew her better than she did herself, and that what she really wanted +was a fresh mantle of glory to cover her humiliation, and--a master. + +Leading a broken, unpaid, half-clothed army into Italy, he electrified +France and all Europe. Before the world had really found out who he +was, and whence he had come, he had conquered all of Northern Italy, +part of Austria and Belgium, had created a Cisalpine Republic out of +the fragments, and was making treaties and dictating terms to kings and +princes. + +France, discredited and almost disgraced among the monarchies of +Europe, found herself suddenly feared and glorious. Napoleon had +captured the most imaginative and military people in Europe. The rest +of the way was easy. Prudent, discreet, knowing when to wait, and when +to come down like an avalanche, this marvellous man held France in his +hands, and placed Europe under his feet. + +The people which had exerted such superhuman effort for freedom were +held by a hand more despotic than Richelieu's, more destructive to +popular freedom than that of Louis XIV.; and the more absolute his +rule, the more overpowering his authority, the better pleased they +seemed to be. + +But, was there not equal opportunity for every man in the Empire? +Every soldier's knapsack, might it not hold a Marshal's baton? Was not +the Emperor himself a living illustration of what a man from the people +might become? And then what did it mean to Frenchmen to be suddenly +lifted to dazzling ascendancy in Europe? Who would not willingly serve +a master who could bring Hapsburg, Hohenzollern, Romanoff, Bourbon, +crouching at his feet--who could tear down states, and set them up, and +if an extra throne were needed for a retainer, could carve a new state +from territory of friend and foe alike, and place a diadem upon every +head in his domestic or military household? It was the most stupendous +display of personal power ever beheld, England alone standing upright +in his presence, and in the end accomplishing his ruin. + +When Austria with a reluctant shudder bestowed her princess upon the +invincible parvenu, and when France with regretful pity saw the adored +Josephine set aside for that disdainful royal maiden, Marie Louise, at +that moment Napoleon passed the meridian of his greatness. + +It had taken just fifteen years to make the most astonishing and +dazzling chapter in French history; and then came "Moscow" and "Elba," +to be quickly followed by "Waterloo" and "St. Helena." And then for +France--most incomprehensible of all--a return to the Bourbons! It had +required the greatest tragedy of modern times to get rid of them, and +here they were again, Louis XVIII. and Charles X., as overbearing and +as arrogant as if their brother's head had not dropped into a basket in +1793. When somebody said of the Bourbons "they learn nothing and +forget nothing," he was inaccurate. They had certainly forgotten the +French Revolution. + +But death removed the first, and popular sentiment the second, of these +relics of an obsolete past. And a new experiment was tried. This time +it was the son of _Philippe Egalite_, that wickedest of all the +regicides, who came smiling and bowing before the people as a popular +sovereign, who would beneficently rule under a liberal constitution. +Whatever his father had been, Louis Philippe was far from being a +wicked man. Whether teaching school in Switzerland, or giving French +lessons in America, or wearing the kingly crown in France, he was the +kindest hearted, most inoffensive of gentlemen. + + +When in the pre-revolutionary days we read of France making war, it +means that the King, or his minister, with more or less deference to +the will of a few thousand nobles, did so. They are the France +referred to. The real France was not consulted and had nothing to do +with it, unless it were to fill the ranks with fathers, sons, and +husbands, and then pay the taxes imposed to support them. But times +were changed. Under a constitutional monarchy, the King does not +govern; he reigns. Louis Philippe was King of the French,--not of +France. He was chosen by the people as their ornamental figurehead. +But what if he ceased to be ornamental? What was the use of a King who +in eighteen years had added not a single ray of glory to the national +name, but who was using his high position to increase his enormous +private fortune, and incessantly begging an impoverished country for +benefits and emoluments for five sons? + +An excellent father, truly, though a short-sighted one. His power had +no roots. The cutting from the Orleans tree had never taken hold upon +the soil, and toppled over at the sound of Lamartine's voice +proclaiming a Republic from the balcony of the "Hotel de Ville." + +When invited to step down from his royal throne, he did so on the +instant. Never did King succumb with such alacrity, and never did +retiring royalty look less imposing, than when Louis Philippe was in +hiding at Havre under the name of "William Smith," waiting for safe +convoy to England, without having struck one blow in defence of his +throne. + +But three terrible words had floated into the open windows of the +Tuileries. With the echoes of 1792 still sounding in his ears, +"Liberty," "Fraternity," and "Equality," shouted in the streets of +Paris, had not a pleasant sound! + + +Republicanism was an abiding sentiment in France, even while two dull +Bourbon Kings were stupidly trying to turn back the hands on the dial +of time, and while an Orleans, with more supple neck, was posing as a +popular sovereign. During all this tiresome interlude, the real fact +was developing. A Republican sentiment which had existed vaguely in +the air was materializing, consolidating, into a more and more tangible +reality in the minds of thinking men and patriots. + +The ablest men in the country stood with plans matured, ready to meet +this crisis. A Republic was proclaimed; M. de Lamartine, Ledru-Rollin, +General Cavaignac, M. Raspail, and Louis Napoleon were rival candidates +for the office of President. + +The nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte, and son of Hortense, was only known +as the perpetrator of two very absurd attempts to overthrow the +monarchy under Louis Philippe. But since the remains of the great +Emperor had been returned to France by England, and the splendors of +the past placed in striking contrast with a dull, lustreless present, +there had been a revival of Napoleonic memories and enthusiasm. Here +was an opportunity to unite two powerful sentiments in one man--a +Napoleon at the head of Republican France would express the glory of +the past and the hope of the future. + +The magic of the name was irresistible. Louis Napoleon was elected +President of the second Republic, and history prepared to repeat +itself. What sort of a ruler would he be--this dark, mysterious, +unmagnetic man? Even should he not turn out well, no great harm could +be done. It was only for four years. His hand had not the steely +fineness of touch of his great uncle's, but it was strong, and guided, +they soon found, by a subtle intelligence. + +The overthrow of Monarchy in France had set fire to Republicanism in +Europe, Kossuth with transcendent eloquence leading a revolution in +Hungary, and Garibaldi and Mazzini with pen and sword in Italy. Europe +was in a blaze of revolt. The first great military exploit of Napoleon +Bonaparte had been in Italy, and so was his nephew's, but with this +difference--the object of the one was to build up Republics on the +other side of the Alps, and of the other to pull them down. Garibaldi +and Mazzini were driven out of Italy by French bayonets, which also +propped up the pontifical throne for the fugitive Pope. + +The Assembly soon realized that in this Prince-President it had no +automaton to deal with. A deep antagonism grew, and the cunningly +devised issue could not fail to secure popular support to Louis +Napoleon. When an Assembly is at war with the President because it +desires to restrict the suffrage, and he to make it universal, can any +one doubt the result? He was safe in appealing to the people on such +an issue, and sure of being sustained in his Proclamation dissolving +the Assembly. He was gathering the reins into his hands with the +astute courage of his uncle. Moving on almost identical lines with his +great original, the nephew set his face toward the same goal. + +The French people must have realized they were being betrayed. They +must have seen that this ambitious plotter was slipping the old fetters +of arbitrary power into position. But, under the powerful spell of the +Napoleonic name, lulled to tranquillity by the gift of suffrage, and +fascinated by the growing splendors of an ingenious reproduction of the +most brilliant chapter in French history, they were unresistingly drawn +into the Imperial net. + +France was for the second time an Empire, and Napoleon III. was Emperor +of the French. + +His Mephistophelian face did not look as classic under the laurel +wreath as had his uncle's, nor had his work the blinding splendor nor +the fineness of texture of his great model. But then, an imitation +never has. It was a marble masterpiece, done in plaster! But what a +clever reproduction it was! And how, by sheer audacity, it compelled +recognition and homage, and at last even adulation in Europe!--and what +a clever stroke it was, for this heavy, unsympathetic man to bring up +to his throne from the people a radiant Empress, who would capture +romantic and aesthetic France! + +The distance was great from cheap lodgings in New York to a seat upon +the Imperial throne of France; but human ambition is not easily +satisfied. A Pelion always rises beyond an Ossa. It was not enough to +feel that he had re-established the prosperity and prestige of France, +that fresh glory had been added to the Napoleonic name. Was there not +after all a certain irritating reserve in the homage paid him, was +there not a touch of condescension in the friendship of his royal +neighbors? And had he not always a Mordecai at his gate--while the +"_Faubourg St. Germain_" stood aloof and disdainful, smiling at his +brand-new aristocracy? + +War is the thing to give solidity to empire and to reputation! Neither +France nor Europe can withstand the magic of military renown. And so, +upon a quickly improvised pretext, the French Emperor started, amid the +booming of cannon and the wild acclamations of a delighted people, upon +his errand of conquest. The insolent Germans were to be chastised; +and, incidentally, Europe was to be made to tremble! + +In a few months the bubble was pricked. The glittering French army +proved to be a thing of tinsel and fustian. No reality, no power to +stand before the solid German battalions, it melted like hoar-frost. +Napoleon III. was prisoner of war at Sedan, and King William, Unser +Fritz, and Von Moltke were at Versailles. + +Moved by his colossal misfortunes, and perhaps partly in displeasure at +having a French Republic once more at her door, England offered asylum +to the deposed Emperor. There, from the seclusion of "Chiselhurst," he +and his still beautiful Eugenie watched the Republic weathering the +first days of storm and stress, and coming out at last stable and +triumphant. + +The weary exile felt that not in his day would the reaction come. But +his son would yet wear the Imperial crown which was his birthright. +Futile dream! The boy was destined to cruel fate--to be slain by Zulu +assegai, while fighting the battles of England,--England, the author of +_Waterloo_. Strange ending for the heir to the name and glory of +Napoleon Bonaparte. + +But the reaction Louis Napoleon so confidently hoped for did not come. +With military pride humbled in the dust, national pride wounded by the +loss of two provinces, loaded down with an immense war indemnity, the +people set about the task of rehabilitation; in an incredibly short +time, the galling debt was paid, financial prosperity and political +strength restored, and with military organization second to none in +Europe, France, with revengeful eyes fastened on Germany, waits for the +day of reckoning. + +For twenty-four years the Republic has existed. Communistic fires +always smouldering have again and again burst forth--demagogues, +fanatics, and those creatures for whom there is no place in organized +society, whose element is chaos, standing ready to fan the fires of +revolt; while Orleanist, Bonapartist, Bourbon, are ever on the alert, +watching for opportunity to slip in through the open door of Revolution. + +England in conscious superiority smiles at a nation which has had seven +political revolutions in a hundred years. Republic, then Empire, then +a return to the Bourbons, then Constitutional Monarchy under Louis +Philippe, then Republic, followed by Empire again, and now for the +third time a Republic! + +But France, complex, mobile, changeful as the sea, in riotous enjoyment +of her new-found liberties, casts off a form of government as she would +an ill-fitting garment. She knows the value of tranquillity--she had +it for one thousand years! The _people_, which have only breathed the +upper air for a century--the people, who were stifled under feudalism, +stamped upon by Valois Kings, riveted down by Richelieu, then prodded, +outraged, and starved by Bourbons, have become a great nation. +Many-sided, resourceful, gifted, it matters not whether they have +called the head of their government Consul, Emperor, King, or +President. They are a race of freemen, who can never again be enslaved +by tyrannous system. + +It was a bright day for France when that ambitious young Emperor of +Germany sent his great Chancellor into retirement; and another bright +day when, taking offence at scant courtesy at the hands of the Czar, he +left ajar the back door to his dominions. An alliance between despotic +Russia thirsting for the waters of the Mediterranean, and Republican +France thirsting for revenge, is the darkest cloud on the German +horizon to-day. It is only a matter of months or of years when France +will be at the throat of Germany demanding Alsace and Lorraine. The +French army is not the one which faced Von Moltke in 1871; and when +France knocks at her front door, Germany will have all she can attend +to, without hearing Russian batteries thundering at her rear. A +dramatic reconciliation with the old Chancellor is interesting, but it +will not undo the work of the last four years. + +There is no longer thought of conflict between any two nations of +Europe. The next war is to be one of tremendous combinations. +National alliances are shifting and uncertain. But at the time this is +written (1894) Germany, Austria, and Italy are drawn together in one +hostile camp, while France and Russia, in loving embrace, stand in the +other; and England, aloof and suspicious, holds herself ready to hurl +her weight against whichever one obstructs her path to India. + +There is something in the air which makes one think the name Napoleon +is still a thing to conjure with. But whatever the future may hold for +France, no American can be indifferent to the fate of a nation to whom +we owe so much. Nor can we ever forget that in the hour of our direst +extremity, and regardless of cost to herself, she helped us to +establish our liberties, and to take our place among the great nations +of the earth. + + + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Evolution of an Empire, by Mary Parmele + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE EVOLUTION OF AN EMPIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 34071.txt or 34071.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/0/7/34071/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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