Questions and Answers 
 
 DC 
 
 COVERING 
 
 THE HISTORY OP 
 
 fRANCE 
 
 AND THE CAUSES OF THE 
 WORLD WAR 
 
 BY 
 
 PROR JAMES B. TAYLOR, A. M. 
 
 Head of History Department in Huntington School 
 Northeastern College 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY TO 
 
 THE WORLD'S HISTORY AT A GLANCE 
 
 THE BALL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON, MAS& 
 
Class ~:t ' i5 _ 
 
 Book _IL1^ 
 
 Gcpiglitl^" 
 
 CDPMRIGHT DEPOSIT 
 
Questions and Answers 
 
 COVERING 
 
 THE HISTORY OP 
 
 TRANCE 
 
 AND THE CAUSES OF THE 
 WORLD WAR 
 
 BY 
 
 PROR JAMES B, TAYLOR, A. M. 
 
 Head of History Department in Huntington School 
 Northeastern College 
 
 SUPPLEMENTARY TO 
 
 THE WORLD'S HISTORY AT A GLANCE 
 
 THE BALL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON. MAS& 
 
©CU473285 
 
 Copyright. 1917, by The Ball Publishing Company 
 
 SEPH I9I7 "i^J 
 
The Government of France 
 
 Although the present form of government in France, 
 usually known as the Third Republic, was proclaimed on 
 the downfall of Napoleon III, in September, 1870, and 
 really began with the election to the presidency of Louis 
 Adolph Thiers in August, 1871, it was not until 1875 that 
 the present constitutional form of government was es- 
 tabHshed and modifications to this constitutional law 
 were made in 1879, 1884, 1885 and 1889. 
 
 Under the constitution the legislative power is vested 
 in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, and the execu- 
 tive power in the President of the Republic and the Cabinet 
 or Ministry. 
 
 The President of the Republic is elected for a term of 
 seven years by an absolute majority of the votes of the 
 National Assembly, composed of the two legislative cham- 
 bers in joint session. There is no vice-president and, in 
 the case of death, resignation, or removal of the president 
 during his term of office, a new session of the National 
 Assembly elects his successor for a full term of seven 
 years. 
 
 The president promulgates the laws passed by both 
 chambers of the Congress and executes them. He ap- 
 points all civil and military officers, has the right of 
 individual pardon, concludes treaties with foreign powers, 
 but ^the approval of the legislature is necessary for any 
 treaties which affect the area of France or of the French 
 colonies; and the previous assent of both chambers is 
 required to enable him'^^to declare war. He can dissolve 
 the Chamber of Deputies at any time by the consent of 
 the Senate, thus requiring a new election for the lower 
 house. Every act of the president requires countersign- 
 ing by the proper minister in his Cabinet. 
 
 The present President of the Republic (1917) is M. 
 Raymond Poincare, born in 1858 and elected to the 
 presidency January 17, 1913. 
 
 The salary of the president is 600,000 francs (about 
 $114,000) per annum, with an additional expense allow- 
 ance of equal amoimt. 
 
4 HISTORY OP PRANCE 
 
 The Ministry, or Cabinet of the president, is appointed 
 by the president, its members generally being selected by 
 him from the two legislative chambers, although he some- 
 times chooses for special office a minister who is not a 
 member of either chamber; this is usually where a promi- 
 nent general or an admiral is made minister of war or 
 marine, and sometimes an eminent civilian is minister 
 of foreign affairs. While the appointive power is vested 
 in the President of the Republic, the Premier, as President 
 of the Cabinet, really chooses his colleagues with the 
 approval of the president. Each minister with portfolio 
 directs one of the great administrative departments, but 
 there may be included in the Cabinet one or more emi- 
 nent men who serve as ministers without portfolio. The 
 Ministry as a whole is responsible for the general policy 
 of the government, and each minister is responsible to 
 the Congress for his acts in his own department. The 
 number of ministers in the Cabinet is not rigidly fixed. 
 
 The Cabinet consists of the following ministers : Foreign 
 Affairs (the Prime Minister), Justice, Interior, War, 
 Marine, Public Instruction, Finance, Colonies, Agriculture, 
 Commerce and Posts and Telegraphs, Public Works, 
 Labor. 
 
 In the legislative branch of the French government 
 the Chamber of Deputies, or lower house, is composed of 
 deputies, one for each arrondissement (as the districts of 
 the various departments of the country are called), but if 
 the population of an arrondissement is in excess of 100,000 
 it is divided into two or more constituencies, each return- 
 ing one deputy. Each candidate must, within the fort- 
 night preceding elections, declare his candidacy for one 
 specific constituency and, as he can receive votes only from 
 the electors of that constituency, multiple elections are 
 rendered impossible. Deputies must be citizens and at 
 least twenty-five years of age. They are elected for a 
 term of four years by manhood suffrage of citizens twenty- 
 one years old, not actually in military service, who can 
 prove six months' residence in any one town or commune 
 and are not otherwise disqualified. The votes are counted 
 in each constituency and a commission of councillors- 
 general, appointed by the prefect of the department, 
 certifies the election of the deputy. The Chamber of 
 Deputies verifies the powers of its members. 
 
HISTORY OF PRANCE 5 
 
 The Chamber of Deputies sitting in 1917 was elected 
 in May, 1914, and comprises 602 deputies. They are 
 divided into parties as follows: Organized Radicals, 136; 
 Democratic Left, 102; Organized Socialists, 102; AUiance 
 Democratique, 100; Progressionists and Federated Re- 
 publicans, 54; Action Liberale, 34; Independent Socialists, 
 30; Right, 26; Independents, 18. 
 
 The Senate, or upper house, is composed of 300 members, 
 who are elected for a nine-year term, one-third of the 
 body retiring every three years. A senator must be a 
 citizen at least forty years old, and he is chosen by indi- 
 rect election by an electoral body comprising delegates 
 selected by the municipal council of each commune in 
 proportion to the population voting together with the 
 deputies, councillors-general and district councillors of each 
 department. 
 
 In this manner 225 of the senators are elected and, in 
 accordance with the Constitutional Amendment of 1879, 
 75 senators were elected for life, but by a Senate Bill of 
 1884 it was provided that whenever a vacancy should 
 occur among the life-senators his successor should be 
 elected for an ordinary nine-year term and a drawing by 
 lot should determine which department such a senator 
 should represent. The Senate, sitting as a high court of 
 justice, has exclusive jurisdiction over cases of attempts 
 against the safety of the state or plots to change the form 
 of government. The princes of deposed French dynasties 
 are ineligible for election to either chamber of the legis- 
 lature. 
 
 The salaries of senators and deputies are each 15,000 
 francs (about $2850) per annum, with a small annual 
 allowance to cover necessary railway travel. The presi- 
 dent of each chamber receives in addition an annual 
 allowance for expenses of entertainment, of 72,000 francs 
 (about $13,680). Since 1905 a pension fund for ex- 
 deputies or their widows and orphans has been main- 
 tained, supported by deductions from the pay of deputies 
 and augmented by gifts or legacies. 
 
 The President of the Republic is obliged to convene the 
 legislature at any time if demand is made by one-half of 
 the members of each chamber. Otherwise the two houses 
 assemble regularly on the second Tuesday in January of 
 each year, remaining in session at least five months of the 
 
6 HISTORY OP PRANCE 
 
 year. The president can adjourn the two chambers for 
 not more than one month, providing such adjournment 
 does not occur more than twice in the same session. 
 With the consent of the Senate, as has been said, the 
 president may dissolve the Chamber of Deputies, thus 
 requiring a new election for that body. 
 
 Legislative bills may be originated in either chamber 
 by the government or by private members. Government 
 bills are referred to the proper bureau for examination; 
 private bills to a commission of parliamentary initiative. 
 But laws affecting finance must originate in and first be 
 passed by the Chamber of Deputies. 
 
 In addition to the two legislative chambers there has 
 been maintained in France since its institution by Napo- 
 leon I a special body known as the Council of State 
 {Conseil d' Etdt). This is composed of councillors, masters 
 of requests and auditors, all appointed by the President 
 of the Republic. The minister of justice is, ex-ojfficio, 
 president of the Council of State. This body passes 
 opinion on such administrative questions as the govern- 
 ment may submit to it; prepares rules for administrative 
 process, and in administrative suits is the court of last 
 resort. 
 
 The Republic of France is divided for administrative 
 purposes into eighty-six departments and the territory of 
 Belfort. Since 1881 the three departments of Algeria have 
 been for most purposes treated as part of France itself. The 
 government of "each department is administered by its 
 prefect, appointed by the government, who supervises the 
 execution of the laws, issue's police regulations, nominates 
 subordinate officers and controls all officials of the state 
 in his department. He is assisted by a prefecture council, 
 whose advice he may take or not as he chooses. Each 
 ministry maintains in each department a local representa- 
 tive to administer matters connected with its special 
 bureau. The departments are subdivided into districts, 
 or arrondissements, of which there are a total of 362. 
 Each arrondissement has its sub-prefect, except those 
 containing the capital of the department and the Depart- 
 ment of the Seine (Paris). 
 
 The commune is the limit of local government. These 
 vary very widely in population and size. According to 
 the census in 1911 there were 36,241. Of these only less 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 7 
 
 than 5000 exceed 1500 inhabitants, and over half of them 
 have less than 500. Only 134 exceed in population 
 20,000. The executive officer of the commune is a mayor, 
 elected by a municipal council, whose members are chosen 
 by universal suffrage of Frenchmen twenty-one years of 
 age with at least six months' residence in the commune. 
 But no act of the municipal council is valid until ap- 
 proved by the prefect and some acts also require the ap- 
 proval of the President of the Republic. 
 
 Paris is divided into twenty arrondissements, each of 
 which has its own mayor, the prefect of the Depart- 
 ment of the Seine acting as mayor of the city as a whole, 
 although part of the mayor's duties are performed by the 
 prefect of police. 
 
 There are 2915 cantons, composed of an average of 
 twelve communes, though some, the very large com- 
 munes, are divided into several cantons. A canton is not 
 an administrative division but has separate judicial offices 
 under its justice of the peace. 
 
 Each canton elects one member for the conseil of the 
 arrondissement of which it forms a part, the chief func- 
 tion of these conseils being the allotment of taxation among 
 their cantons. A varying number of arrondissements 
 compose the departments, each of which has its council- 
 general, comprising one councillor for each canton, chosen 
 by universal suffrage, one-half of the body being elected 
 every three years. The council-general has authority 
 over economical affairs of the department, roads, normal 
 schools, poor relief and repartition of direct taxes among 
 the arrondissements. Their decisions require the assent 
 of the prefect and may be annulled by the President of 
 the Republic. 
 
 The educational system of France is very complete and 
 efficient, its chief occupying a seat in the Cabinet of the 
 President as Minister of Instruction. Since 1878 primary 
 instruction has been thoroughly reorganized and great 
 progress has resulted. Each department maintains two 
 primary normal schools for male and female teachers re- 
 spectively; and there are two higher normal schools for 
 the training of professors for the departmental normal 
 schools. Education is obligatory and absolutely free in 
 all primary public schools. In France and Algeria for the 
 year 1912-1913 there were 3976 infant schools, public and 
 
8 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 private, with 8738 teachers and 608,315 enrolled pupils; 
 and 83,095 primary and higher schools, with 159,982 
 teachers and 5,669,251 enrolled pupils; all of these being 
 included in the grade of primary instruction. There are 
 also excellent courses of instruction for adults conducted 
 in the evening by teachers in their schools and a very com- 
 plete system of popular lectures. The cost to the state 
 of public primary instruction in 1913 was about 225,- 
 000,000 francs (about $43,000,000). 
 
 Secondary education is supplied by the state in the 
 lycees, by the communes in the colleges, and by private 
 individuals in endowed schools (ecoles libres). The course 
 of study extends over seven years. In France and Algeria 
 for the year 1913 there were for boys a total of 343 lycees 
 and commercial colleges, with 100,203 pupils; for girls, 
 193 lycees, colleges and secondary courses, with 38,358 
 pupils. 
 
 Higher education is supplied by the state in universities 
 and special technical and professional schools, education 
 at which is free, and by private faculties and schools. In 
 1914 there were 42,037 students (of whom 35,849 were 
 French) enrolled in the public establishments. All degrees 
 are conferred by the state faculties. 
 
 In national defense the French army consists of the 
 metropolitan and colonial armies. Military service is 
 compulsory and universal, no exemption other than phys- 
 ical disability relieving from the duty. Liabihty to service 
 extends from the age of twenty to forty-eight. The term 
 of service in the active army is three years, beginning at 
 the age of twenty. This is followed by eleven years in 
 the reserve and seven years more in the territorial army, 
 with a final seven years in the territorial reserve. The 
 reserves of the active army are called upon twice during 
 their term for four weeks' manoeuvres, the territorials only 
 once for two weeks and the territorial reserves have no 
 periodical training. Voluntary engagements for three, 
 four or five years are encouraged especially for the colonial 
 army. The peace establishment of the metropolitan and 
 colonial armies in France in 1914 was 846,188. The esti- 
 mate of the " Statesman's Year Book for 1916 " is that 
 the French army in a war requiring the whole strength 
 of the nation would muster about 1,380,000 men. 
 
 The French navy is manned partly by conscription and 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 9 
 
 partly by voluntary enlistment. The " Inscription Mari- 
 time," which registers the names of all men and youths 
 devoted to a seafaring life between the ages of eighteen 
 and fifty, shows that France had a reserve of 114,000 men, 
 of whom about 25,500 usually serve with the fleet. The 
 conditions of service are similar to those in the army. 
 
 The " Statesman's Year Book for 1916 " gives the fol- 
 lowing as a summary of French warships, estimating 
 known losses to June, 1916, and estimating for construc- 
 tion in process: 
 
 Complete at end of 
 1915 1916 
 
 Dreadnaughts 7 11 
 
 Pre-dreadnaught battleships, including 6 
 
 semi-dreadnaughts 21 20 
 
 Pre-dreadnaught armored cruisers 19 18 
 
 Protected cruisers 16 16 
 
 Torpedo gunboats, etc 7 11 
 
 Destroyers 87 84 
 
 Torpedo boats 150 154 
 
 Submarines 90 90 
 
 During the war the French fleet has completely co- 
 operated with the British navy in driving the German 
 and Austrian warships from the ocean, and especially in 
 patrolling the British Channel and the Mediterranean, 
 blockading the Adriatic and transporting troops to the 
 Dardanelles, Gallipoli and Saloniki. 
 
 Questions and Answers 
 
 1. How old is France? 
 
 Ans. France, as such, may be said to have begun in 
 the year 987, when Hugh Capet, Count of Paris and Or- 
 leans, was made king by feudal chiefs, and founded the 
 Capetian line of monarchs. 
 
 2. Was France known to the Romans? 
 
 Ans. France was very well known to the Romans as 
 early as the second century B.C., but not under that 
 name. 
 
 3. Of what race were the people who lived in what 
 is now France when Rome was in power? 
 
 Ans. Julius Cassar's famous " Gallic Wars," read by 
 
10 HISTORY OP FRANCE 
 
 thousands of school boys and girls every year, begins with 
 the statement that " All Gaul is divided into three parts: 
 one of these is Aquitania or Our Province, near the 
 Mediterranean; one part the Belgas inhabit and the third 
 part the Gauls or Celts." 
 
 4. Are the Gauls, or Celts, of early France the same 
 race as the Britons, or Celts, of early England? 
 
 Ans. When Rome was rising to full power two or three 
 centuries B.C., the Celts inhabited all western Europe; 
 Celtiberians in Spain, through which the Ebro (Iberus) 
 flows; Gauls, or Celts, in modern France; and Celts, or 
 Britons, in England, It was to keep the latter from help- 
 ing their kinsmen in Gaul that Caesar crossed the Channel 
 in 55 and 54 B.C. 
 
 5. How extensive were Cagsar's activities in Gaul, 
 now France? 
 
 Ans. In eight brilliant campaigns between 58 and 50 
 B.C. Caesar subjugated three hundred tribes, eight hun- 
 dred cities, and slew a million barbarians, or a third of 
 the population, while he made another third prisoners. 
 " Let the Alps now sink," exclaimed Cicero, on Caesar's 
 return; " the gods raised them to shelter Italy from the 
 barbarians; they are now no longer needed." This per- 
 haps prompted Louis XIV's remark, " The Pyrenees are 
 no more," when his grandson sat on the throne of Spain. 
 
 6. What was the effect on Gaul of the Roman conquest? 
 
 Ans. In the second century A.D. Gaul was the most 
 populous of Roman provinces; in the fourth, it was one 
 of the most civilized. Thus the blending of Roman civi- 
 lization on the old Celtic stock produced a Gallo-Roman 
 state with a culture quite different from the Hellenistic 
 stamp in the eastern provinces and more like our modern 
 conditions than like those of the ancient world. 
 
 7. What was the last great success under this flourishing 
 civilization? 
 
 Ans. In 451, Aetius, a Roman general of barbarian 
 birth, as were many of the later Roman generals and 
 even emperors, with an army of Romans, Burgundians, 
 and Visigoths (or Latins, Celts, and Teutons fighting side 
 by side), defeated at Chalons-sur-Marne the hordes of 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 11 
 
 the fierce Hun, Attila. That was the last victory of 
 Rome in Gaul before her own fall twenty-five years later. 
 It was to Aetius in Gaul that the Britons sent their 
 petition for help when the legions of Rome had been 
 withdrawn and the Picts and Scots from the north began 
 to harass the enfeebled Celts of Britain. 
 
 8. After the fall of Rome, what happened to Gaul, or 
 France? 
 
 Ans. Gaul, like all the rest of the western European 
 Roman Empire, was speedily overrun by the invading 
 tribes from Germany in the mighty drive of the Teutonic 
 race. As the Goths invaded Italy, Spain, and Africa, and 
 the Angles and Saxons invaded England, so the Burgun- 
 dians and Franka invaded Gaul and conquered it. 
 
 9. Who were the Franks? 
 
 Ans. The Franks were a confederacy of Germanic 
 tribes between the Rhine and the Harz Mountains which 
 the Romans had attacked in vain and to whose persistent 
 attacks they had sacrificed Belgium. The Salian Franks 
 were the leading tribe and it was from the members of 
 their most powerful family, descended from a legendary 
 Merovaeus, sea king, that leaders were chosen by the 
 free vote of all the warriors. 
 
 10. When did the Franks take actual possession of 
 modern France? 
 
 Ans. After the fall of Rome, 476, Clovis, then chief 
 of the~ Franks, conceived the idea of erecting a kingdom 
 on the ruins of the Roman power. He crossed the Meuse 
 and the Sambre, and gained a great victory over the 
 Roman governor of Gaul at Soissons in 486. So fell the 
 Roman power in Gaul after a most beneficial rule of 
 over five centuries. 
 
 11. What is the story of the vase of Soissons? 
 
 Ans. After the great victory of Soissons, in 486, Clovis, 
 the leader' of the victorious Franks, asked only for a 
 beautiful vase in the division of the spoils. A hardy 
 soldier protested against any favoritism, even to the chief, 
 in place of the usual lottery and threw the vass on the 
 ground, breaking it into many fragments. Clovis said 
 
12 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 nothing but, on the next parade and inspection of arms, 
 declared the bold soldier's arms defective and split his 
 head with his battle axe, exclaiming, " Thus didst thou 
 to the vase of Soissons." 
 
 12. What were the further results of Prankish in- 
 vasion? 
 
 Ans. Clovis extended his authority over the greate^ 
 part of Gaul, reducing the various weaker Teutonic 
 tribes that had invaded the country to the condition of 
 tributaries. He then made Paris his capital, embraced 
 Christianity, and gave France its name and its first dynasty 
 of kings, the Merovingians, among whom Dagobert was 
 a favorite name. This first dynasty of Frankish kings in 
 Gaul lasted about a century and a half, but became 
 speedily so inefficient as to be called " do-nothings." 
 
 13. Who were the Burgundians? 
 
 Ans, The Burgundians were one of the Teutonic 
 tribes that spread over the Roman Empire. They settled 
 in southeast Gaul, or France, from which fact we still 
 have the name and history of Burgundy, sometimes sepa- 
 rate, but more often, as now, a valuable part of France. 
 The Burgundians were defeated by Clovis during the 
 extension of his domain after the victory at Soissons. 
 
 14. After the establishment of the Franks in place of 
 the Romans in Gaul, what was the next marked event? 
 
 Ans. In 732 the great Mohammedan invasion of Europe 
 which had crossed the Straits of Gibraltar (so called from 
 their leader, Tarik) and conquered Spain in 711, had now 
 crossed the Pyrenees and reached the Loire in central 
 France, but there, at Tours, in a three-day battle with the 
 Franks under Charles, mayor or executive officer of the 
 palace, the struggle between Christianity and the Moslems 
 was settled in favor of the former faith. 
 
 15. How long had the Franks been Christians before 
 their contest at Tours with the Mohammedans? 
 
 Ans. Just as Constantine, the first Christian Emperor 
 of Rome, is said to have been converted by a vision of a 
 cross in the sky when fighting for the throne in 313, so 
 Clovis, when attacked in 496 by the Alemanni, one of the 
 Teutonic tribes most feared by Rome before its fall, is 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 13 
 
 said to have besought the God of the Christians for 
 support in a doubtful battle and, winning the victory, 
 was baptized with several thousands of his warriors. 
 
 16. What were the results of the great Battle of Tours? 
 
 Ans. Charles, or Karl, was called Martel, or the 
 Hammer. His son, Pepin the Short, with the approval 
 of the pope, whom he had helped against the Lombards 
 of northern Italy, placed the last weak Merovingian king, 
 Chilperic, in a monastery, where he could still comb his 
 long golden hair, the only sign of royalty left to him, 
 Pepin was then anointed and crowned king 752, the first 
 of the Carlovingian line, so named after his father, Charles 
 Martel, the victor at Tours, 732. 
 
 17. Who was the most renowned of the Carlovingian 
 kings? ' 
 
 Ans. Charlemagne, the most prominent man in Europe 
 at the beginning of the ninth century (possibly excepting 
 the pope), was the son of Pepin the Short and ascended the 
 throne of the Franks in 768. He ruled forty-six years and 
 in that time so extended the bounds of his dominions 
 that they embraced at his death the larger part of western 
 Europe. He made fifty-two military campaigns, the chief 
 of which were against the Lombards, Saracens, and Saxons. 
 His domains included France, Germany, and a consid- 
 erable part of Italy. He is the only king in all history 
 dignified by having the title " the Great " welded into 
 his name. 
 
 18. - What was the most marked event in Charlemagne's 
 career? 
 
 Ans. On Christmas Day, 800, as Charlemagne knelt 
 in the Cathedral of St. Peter at Rome, the pope, Leo III, 
 approached him and, placing a crown of gold upon his 
 head, proclaimed him Emperor of the Romans and the 
 rightful and consecrated successor of Caesar Augustus, 
 first Emperor of Rome, and Constantine, the first Chris- 
 tian Emperor. Charlemagne declared afterwards that he 
 was totally ignorant beforehand of the pope's intentions. 
 
 19. What are some of the most interesting facts about 
 the great Charlemagne? 
 
 Ans. He was a most indefatigable worker and tired 
 out all his subordinates by his ceaseless activity. He was 
 
14 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 the most energetic character in history between JuHus 
 Caesar and Napoleon. While at meals he was read to or 
 else held converse with learned men. He conquered the 
 Lombards in northern Italy, placed the king in a monastery 
 and the iron crown of Lombardy on his own head ; he con- 
 firmed the grant of the Papal States given by Pepin to the 
 pope after defeating the Lombards and thus laid the basis 
 of the pope's temporal power. 
 
 20. Who were Charlemagne's worst foes? 
 
 Ans. The hardest foes to be subdued were the Saxons, 
 almost the only German tribe that still retained idolatry. 
 For thirty years Charlemagne carried on campaign after 
 campaign against the Saxons, who, when reduced to tem- 
 porary submission, would time and again revolt. At last, 
 Charlemagne, angered beyond measure at their obstinacy, 
 ordered forty-five hundred prisoners to be slaughtered, 
 after which the Saxons yielded, accepting Charlemagne as 
 their ruler and embracing Christianity. 
 
 21. Why is the year 800 to be considered a very promi- 
 nent one in the history of the Middle Ages, that run 
 from 476, the fall of Rome, to the last half of the fifteenth 
 century? 
 
 Ans. Bearing in mind the coronation of Charlemagne 
 on Christmas of that year by the pope at Rome as Emperor 
 of the Holy Roman Empire of the West, we realize that 
 this marks the full restoration of the authority of Rome, 
 re-establishing there the seat of power for western Europe, 
 which for over four hundred years had been at Constan- 
 tinople. We see further that the Teuton is established as 
 the dominant power in Europe rather than the Latin, but 
 that while his fresh vitality and energy have prevailed 
 over effete Roman civilization he has, in turn, absorbed 
 much of the law and culture of the Roman and embraced 
 Christianity with a childlike ardor impossiblein the worn- 
 out race. Celtic and Teutonic virility are to give the world 
 new standards and ideals, but softened and refined by 
 Latin and Italian culture and traditions. 
 
 22. Where did Charlemagne live? 
 
 Ans. His favorite capital was Aachen, or Aix-la- 
 Chapelle, in northwestern Germany near the Rhine. 
 Within the cathedral, in a tomb which he had built, he 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 15 
 
 was placed after his death in 814, upon a throne, with his 
 royal robes around him, his sword by his side and an open 
 Bible in his lap. He is the most imposing figure of the 
 Middle Ages. He was a reformer and statesman, as well 
 as a warrior. He founded schools, reformed the laws, 
 collected libraries, aided the church; in short, laid the 
 foundation of most that was noble and useful in the 
 Middle Ages. 
 
 23. What became of the mighty empire of Charle- 
 magne? 
 
 Ans. Like Alexander's mighty empire, the dominion 
 of Charlemagne broke up within a few years after the 
 founder's death. In 843, by the Treaty of Verdun, the 
 empire was divided among his three grandsons, Charles 
 taking France; Louis, Germany; while the imperial title; 
 went to Lothaire with Italy, the valley of the Rhone, and a 
 narrow strip of land from Switzerland to the mouth of the 
 Rhine. 
 
 24. What was the next change in France after its 
 separation from the rest of Charlemagne's domains? 
 
 Ans. The royal family of Charlemagne became extinct 
 in the tenth century. The Northmen, who had made 
 descents on the coasts of Gaul, even in Charlemagne's 
 time, at last, in 918, obtained from Charles the Simple a 
 considerable portion of the northwest part of Gaul under 
 condition of homage and conversion. This was similar 
 to the grants of Alfred to the Danes in England a short 
 time before. These Northmen under RoUo soon became 
 the famous Normans who conquered England in 1066. 
 
 25. What was the general form of government when 
 the kingdom of France began under Hugh Capet in 987? 
 
 Ans. The feudal system was then in full swing. 
 France was divided among nearly two hundred over- 
 lords, all exercising equal powers of sovereignty; their 
 vast estates were subdivided into about seventy thousand 
 smaller fiefs. The holders of these petty estates were 
 bound to serve and obey their overlords and the great 
 nobles were in turn the sworn vassals of the French king. 
 Many of these overlords were richer and stronger than 
 the king himself and if they chose to cast off their alle- 
 giance it was well-nigh impossible to control them. 
 
16 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 26. What were the principal evils of the feudal sys- 
 tem? 
 
 Ans. It rendered impossible the formation of a strong 
 national government and it fostered a proud and op- 
 pressive aristocracy, which ultimately was the cause of 
 the French Revolution and the democracy of Napoleon's 
 career. 
 
 27. Were there any compensating good results in the 
 feudal system? 
 
 Ans. It developed individualism among its privileged 
 members and a love of personal liberty, which was a promi- 
 nent Teutonic trait. It prevented royalty from becoming 
 as despotic as it would otherwise have been, or at least 
 retarded its despotism. The castle and baronial hall 
 developed poetry and romance as the cloister had favored 
 learning and philosophy. And finally it developed a 
 nice sense of honor and an exalted regard for women, both 
 of which traits found expression in Chivalry. 
 
 28. What were the main ideas of Chivalry? 
 
 Ans. Chivalry, whose home, if not its cradle, was in 
 France, was a military institution or order; its members 
 were called knights and were pledged to the protection 
 of the church, the weak and the oppressed. The institu- 
 tion flourished from the eleventh into the fifteenth cen- 
 tury. It colored all the events and literature of the latter 
 half of the Middle Ages. The Crusades, the chief event of 
 the age, were enterprises of Christian Chivalry. 
 
 29. What, in a few words, were the Crusades? 
 
 Ans. The Crusades were great military expeditions 
 undertaken by the Christian nations of Europe to rescue 
 the holy places of Palestine from the Mohammedans. 
 There were four principal and four minor Crusades, not 
 counting the Children's Crusade and other smaller expe- 
 ditions, such as the suppression of the Albigenses in 
 southern France. 
 
 30. How large a share did France have in starting the 
 Crusades? 
 
 Ans. The First Crusade was the result of the earnest 
 preaching in France and Italy of Peter the Hermit, of 
 Picardy, France, a former soldier who had seen the in- 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 17 
 
 suits heaped on Christian pilgrims by the Turks. The 
 Turks were now advancing toward Constantinople, the 
 capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the Greek 
 emperor there had implored aid from the pope, Urban II. 
 At a great council of the church held at Clermont, France, 
 in 1095, the pope himself spoke eloquently, and the warm- 
 hearted and martial Franks responded with one voice, 
 " It is the will of God! It is God's will!" and thousands 
 affixed the cross to their garments as a pledge of their 
 engagement to go to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 31. How large a share did France take in the Crusades? 
 
 Ans. Godfrey of Bouillon, was leader of the 700,000 
 men in the First Crusade and after the conquest of 
 Jerusalem became the head of the Latin Kingdom of 
 Jerusalem. Louis VII led one of the two divisions in the 
 Second Crusade. Philip Augustus was a leader in the 
 Third Crusade and the saintly Louis XI led the Seventh 
 and Eighth Crusades. 
 
 32. What were some of the most prominent results 
 of the Crusades? 
 
 Ans. They kept Europe stirred up for two hundred 
 years and cost several millions of lives beside incalculable 
 cost and suffering. Disorder, license and crime accom- 
 panied them, but, on the whole, they indirectly accom- 
 plished more good than harm. They greatly increased the 
 power of the church and of kings and of the people at 
 the expense of the nobility. They delayed the capture 
 of Constantinople for centuries. They liberalized the minds 
 of the Crusaders and awakened mental activity, which 
 developed commerce, geographical discovery, and learning. 
 
 33. What was the Children's Crusade? 
 
 Ans. In 1212, between the Fourth and the Fifth Crusades, 
 a twelve-year-old peasant child in France named Stephen 
 became persuaded that Christ had commanded him to 
 lead a crusade of children to the rescue of the Holy Sepul- 
 chre. The children flocked to his call in crowds, wildly 
 excited. Many adults declared it the work of the Holy 
 Spirit and quoted, " Out of the mouths of babes and 
 sucklings thou hast ordained strength," and "A little child 
 shall lead them." Others pronounced it the devil's work. 
 Thirty thousand French children, mostly lads, but also 
 many girls, set out for Marseilles as the port of departure. 
 
18 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 Those that sailed were betrayed and sold as slaves in 
 Alexandria and other slave markets in the Mohammedan 
 world they were to conquer. Fifty thousand German chil- 
 dren crossed the Alps and marched down the Mediter- 
 ranean shore looking for some miraculous pathway through 
 the sea. From Brindisi two or three thousand sailing into 
 oblivion " were never heard from more." Such were the 
 ignorance, superstition, and fanaticism of the period. 
 
 34. What was the crusade against the Albigenses? 
 
 Ans. In the south of France a sect of Christians called 
 Albigenses, from Albi, one of their cities, had departed 
 from the common faith of the church and embraced 
 social heresies to such an extent that Innocent III called 
 on the French king and his nobles to suppress them. 
 Their almost total extirpation gave the French crown 
 large and rich territories in the south of France that were 
 formerly the possession of the Counts of Toulouse. This 
 crusade lasted from 1207 to 1229. 
 
 35. What were the relations between England and 
 France after the Norman Conquest of 1066? 
 
 Ans. The Norman kings of England were still vassals 
 of the king of France for their possessions in Normandy. 
 However, when in 1154 Henry II, son of the Count of 
 Anjou and Matilda of England, came to the English 
 throne, he ruled over more territory in France than in 
 England, as his father's domains of Anjou and France 
 were added to Matilda's inheritance of Normandy and 
 Brittany, and his French wife's dower gave him Aquitaine 
 in the south of France. Almost all the western coast of 
 France was in the possession of the forceful first Plantage- 
 net king of England, but for it all he, of course, paid 
 homage to the French king. Naturally the French king 
 was ever watching for a pretext to regain the whole of 
 France, and when in 1199 John succeeded Richard I on 
 the English throne, the opportunity came. John was 
 accused of murdering his older brother's son Arthur to 
 deprive him of the throne and the charge was doubtless 
 just. Philip Augustus of France, as John's feudal superior, 
 ordered him to come and clear himself of the charge in 
 France before his French peers. John refused and was 
 then stripped of all his French possessions, except Aqui- 
 taine. This accession of territory greatly strengthened 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 19 
 
 the king of France and made him for the first time easily 
 the superior of any of his vassals at the beginning of the 
 thirteenth century. 
 
 36. What was the States-General of France? 
 
 Ans. In 1302 a dispute had arisen between Philip the 
 Fair (1285-1314) and the pope respecting the control of 
 the offices and revenues of the French church, and, in 
 order to rally all classes to his support, Philip called an 
 assembly to which he invited representatives of the 
 burghers, or inhabitants of the cities; this added The Third 
 Estate to the royal council of the nobles and the clergy, 
 and the assembly henceforth is known as the States- 
 General. It corresponds with the summoning of the 
 House of Commons in England to meet with the king, 
 clergy and nobles by Edward I in 1295, only seven years 
 previous to the States-General in France. In time, the 
 church, nobility, and monarchy go down before the third 
 estate, just as in England clergy, nobles, and king have 
 been forced to yield to the rising power of the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 37. What was the main event of the fourteenth century 
 in France after the creation of the States-General in 1302? 
 
 Ans. The great event for France, as for England, in 
 the fourteenth century was the Hundred Years' War 
 between the two countries. As related in the History of 
 England in this series, when the last Capetian king, 
 Charles the Fourth, died, Edward III, the flower of 
 English chivalry, laid claim to the throne through his 
 mother, Isabella, sister of Charles, as being nearer to the 
 succession than Philip of Valois, cousin of Charles. 
 
 38. What were the principal events of the Hundred 
 Years' War? 
 
 Ans. The brilliant English victory at Crecy, in 1346, 
 followed by the capture of Calais, held afterwards by the 
 English for two centuries; the English victory of Poitiers, 
 in 1356, where, as at Cr6cy, the Black Prince, son of 
 the English king, won great renown; and the Treaty of 
 Bretigny, in 1360, marked the first period of the war. 
 This was succeeded by a lull of over fifty years, when the 
 war was renewed by Henry V of England in 1415 at 
 Agincourt. 
 
20 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 39. "Who was Joan of Arc? 
 
 Ans, Joan of Arc, the famous Maid of Orleans, was a 
 simple shepherd peasant girl of eastern France, of very 
 devout character, who seemed to see visions and thought 
 she heard heavenly voices telling her to redeem her 
 country from the English when they had well-nigh con- 
 quered it and were besieging Orleans on the Loire in 
 central France. 
 
 40. What are a few of the details of her exploit? 
 
 Ans. Like Paul on the road to Damascus, Joan " was 
 not disobedient to the heavenly vision." She sought the 
 priest of her native village; he sent her to the bishop; the 
 bishop, convinced by her earnestness, commended her 
 to the dauphin, Charles, the uncrowned heir of the insane 
 Charles VI, who had recently died. She easily picked out 
 the plainly dressed prince from his more gaudily dressed 
 court, her services were accepted and, clad in white 
 armor, mounted on a black charger, she was placed at 
 the head of a French army to raise the siege. The impul- 
 sive, highly imaginative French nation rose and followed 
 her as they followed Peter the Hermit to the Crusades, 
 as they afterwards followed Napoleon over all Europe. 
 The siege was raised, the prince was conducted by the 
 triumphant army to Rheims in northern France and 
 crowned in the ancestral shrine of his ancestors. Then 
 the voices ceased, the visions faded and Joan begged to be 
 dismissed. 
 
 41. What became of this remarkable girl? 
 
 Ans. The new-crowned king deemed her altogether too 
 valuable an asset to be released and required her further 
 service. In a contest with the forces of Burgundy, who 
 were allied to the English, Joan was captured and given 
 over to the English. By them this girl of nineteen was 
 tried as a witch and heretic, condemned and burnt at the 
 stake in the market-place of Rouen, to the everlasting 
 shame of English manhood. 
 
 42. How has Joan of Arc been regarded by the French 
 and others in more recent times? 
 
 Ans. Joan of Arc has been regarded by the world at 
 large and the French in particular as a saint, and on April 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 21 
 
 18, 1909, after a careful and modern investigation of all 
 the history and circumstances of her life, her solemn beati- 
 fication put the official seal of Rome on a sanctity long 
 recognized by the world. Ruskin's essay on her character 
 is one of the best. 
 
 43. How did the Hundred Years' War end and when? 
 
 Ans. The second period of the war, begun at Agincourt 
 by Henry V, in 1415, was halted by the Treaty of Troyes 
 in 1420 but renewed by the French in favor of the dauphin, 
 when Charles VI died soon afterwards. After Joan of 
 Arc's death in 1431, the French renewed their efforts 
 and drove the English back step by step and out of the 
 country until, in 1453, their only remaining foothold in 
 France was Calais, opposite Dover. 
 
 44. What were the main results of the war to France? 
 
 Ans. The principal result of the Hundred Years' War 
 to France was, as also in England, the overthrow of the 
 feudal aristocracy, already undermined by the. Crusades. 
 The prostration of the nobility naturally favored the 
 growth of the royal power, and also the spirit of national- 
 ism among all sections was awakened by the great wars 
 against England. We may say that feudalism here ended 
 and France became a great monarchy and nation. 
 
 45. How was the power of France still further aug- 
 mented after the Hundred Years' War? 
 
 Ans. Charles VII, called the Victorious, the weak- 
 hearted coward whom Joan of Arc had placed on the 
 throne, died in 1461 and was succeeded by Louis XI, as 
 foxy and unscrupulous a monarch as ever sat on a throne. 
 His favorite maxim was, " He who knows how to deceive 
 knows how to reign," which reminds us of the Stuart's 
 definition of lying as the " art of kingcraft." The few 
 feudal lords who remained after the war with England 
 were brought to destruction and their fiefs added to the 
 crown. The most famous and powerful vassal was Charles 
 the Bold of Burgundy. On his death, Louis, without clear 
 right, seized the bulk of his possessions and also gained 
 territory in the south of France, thereby getting a wide 
 frontage on the Mediterranean and making the Pyrenees 
 his southern defense, 
 
22 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 46. How long did the House of Valois hold the throne? 
 
 Ans. The House of Valois, which ascended the throne 
 
 in the person of Philip VI, cousin of the last Capetian 
 
 king, Charles IV, in 1328, furnished seven monarchs to 
 
 France and ended with Charles VIII, the Affable, suc- 
 
 . cessor of Louis XI, in 1498. 
 
 47. What is noticeable about the duration of the reigns 
 of the Capetian kings, and also of the throne of Valois? 
 
 Ans. It has been regarded by historians as remarkable 
 that only fourteen Capetian kings reigned from Hugh 
 Capet, 987, to Charles IV, the Handsome, 1328, or an 
 average of over twenty-four years each, and that the 
 seven kings of the House of Valois covered one hundred 
 and seventy years, or again over twenty-four years' 
 average. This record is perhaps unparalleled in history. 
 
 48. How does the French record for length of reigns 
 compare with the English? 
 
 Ans. The English record is an interesting and close 
 second to the French in duration of dynasties. There 
 were fourteen Plantagenet kings, like the fourteen Capetians 
 in France. The Plantagenets, moreover, were of French 
 descent, deriving their name from the Count of Anjou, 
 father of Henry II, first Plantagenet king of England. 
 These fourteen kings covered three hundred and thirty 
 years, or an average of over twenty-three and a half years, 
 but this includes the Houses of Lancaster and York and the 
 Wars of the Roses in which they fought and supplanted 
 each other. The succeeding Tudors, only five in number, 
 reigned from 1485 to 1603, a period of one hundred and 
 eighteen years, again an average of over twenty-three 
 and a half. The first three Stuart kings after the Tudors 
 maintained the same average, but their reigns were 
 interrupted by Cromwell and the Commonwealth, and 
 James II, the fourth Stuart, was exiled in three years. 
 
 49. Who were the Troubadours? 
 
 Ans, The Troubadours were the poets of the south of 
 France where the Langue d'Oc, or Provencal, dialect pre- 
 vailed, the blending of the old Latin speech in Gaul with 
 that of the Teutonic invaders. The French proper of the 
 north was called Langue d'Oui; these terms, Langue d'Oc 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 23 
 
 and Langue d'Oui, arose from the different word for **yes/' 
 which in the south was oc and in the north was out. 
 French literature really began in the more polished south 
 in the twelfth century. 
 
 50. Were there any marked differences between the 
 literary products of the north and south of France? 
 
 Ans. The compositions of the Troubadours were almost 
 entirely lyrical and their songs were sung in every land 
 and stimulated the early poetry of other European nations. 
 The work of the Trouveres in the north of France took 
 the form of long epics or narrative, romances — especially 
 about King Arthur, Alexander the Great, and Charle- 
 magne. The influence of the first is shown in Tennyson's 
 "Idylls." 
 
 51. Who was the first French writer of spirited prose? 
 
 Ans. Prose usually follows rather than precedes 
 poetry in the development of a nation's literature. Homer 
 in Greece preceded Herodotus, and Chaucer in England 
 wrote the " Canterbury Tales " before there was any 
 worthy prose. Froissart, in the fourteenth century, living 
 at the time of the Hundred Years' War, was the French 
 annalist of those times, knowing personally many of the 
 actors therein and narrating their exploits vividly. 
 
 52. Under what circumstances did the House of Valois 
 p France end? 
 
 Ans. The House of Valois ended when, in 1498, Charles 
 the Eighth, called the Affable, died, after a vain attempt 
 to conquer Naples, with the further intent of humbling the 
 Turkish power now grown rampant in the Mediterranean. 
 To this end he led the standing army of France, for France 
 possessed the first standing army of Europe, formed by 
 Charles the Seventh in 1448 during his long war with 
 England; this standing army was developed further by 
 his successor, the astute Louis XI. 
 
 53. What house succeeded that of Valois? 
 
 Ans. When Charles VIII died, in 1498, at the age of 
 twenty-eight, he had lost both his infant sons, his only 
 children, and the crown went to Louis, Duke of Orleans, 
 twelfth of the name among French kings. 
 
24 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 54. What English princess was married to Louis XII, 
 first French monarch of the Orleans line? 
 
 Ans. Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII and the most 
 beautiful princess in Europe, was married by her powerful 
 brother to Louis XII of France; but he died in six weeks, on 
 New Year's Day, 1515, owing to the pageants and feasting 
 with which he received his young bride, who was his third 
 wife, though he was not very old. 
 
 55. Who were the most prominent rulers in Europe 
 during the first half of the sixteenth century? 
 
 Ans. The first half of the sixteenth century was marked 
 by the rival reigns of three powerful, ambitious young 
 rulers in England, France, and Spain: Henry VIII, father 
 of Elizabeth of England, reigned from 1509 to 1547; 
 Charles I of Spain, 1516 to 1558, who was also the Emperor 
 Charles V, of the German Empire, the most powerful ruler 
 in Europe and in constant warfare with the third ruler, 
 Francis I of France, 1515-1547. 
 
 56. What wars marked this period? 
 
 Ans. Charles and Francis were rivals for the imperial 
 honors in Germany. When the title of emperor was 
 conferred by the electors on Carlos I of Spain, who then 
 became known by the greater title of the Emperor Charles 
 V, a series of wars ensued between him and Francis I, 
 whose country was now almost surrounded bv the domin- 
 ions of Charles as ruler of Spain, Germany, and the Nether- 
 lands. A good deal of the fighting took place in Italy, 
 where both sought to gain dominion. The wars, four in 
 number, covered much of the time from 1521 to 1544 and 
 ended without any substantial change in the possessions 
 of either rival. Francis, however, was badly beaten in 
 Italy; his forces were driven out and he himself wounded 
 and taken prisoner, but he was released by the Treaty of 
 Madrid, 1526. 
 
 , 57. What was the worst effect of these wars? 
 
 Ans. The worst effect of these continuous wars was 
 to embroil Christian nations for a quarter of a century in 
 contests with one another instead of presenting a united 
 stand against the all- conquering Turk, who ravaged 
 Hungary, captured Rhodes and strengthened Algiers and 
 Tunis. Francis not only made an alliance with the Turkish 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 25 
 
 saltan who ravaged the coasts of the Mediterranean and 
 sold his captives and plunder in Marseilles, but he perse- 
 cuted the inhabitants of Piedmont and Provence who had 
 embraced the Protestant doctrines of the Reformation of 
 Luther. Thousands of heretics were put to death by the 
 sword, thousands were burnt at the stake and the region 
 was changed to a wilderness. Such was the result of 
 religious fanaticism. 
 
 58. What and where was the Field of the Cloth of 
 Gold? 
 
 'Ans. Francis I loved pleasure and glory. In his ef- 
 fort to get the help of Henry VIII of England in his attempt 
 to be Emperor of Germany, Francis arranged a meeting 
 near Calais, where such splendors in tents, ornaments and 
 apparel were displayed that the conference is known by 
 that title. 
 
 59. What was the Ladies' Peace? 
 
 Ans. The other nations of Europe thought the emperor 
 was rather too severe toward Francis I in the Treaty of 
 Madrid, 1526, and Louise of Savoy, the mother of Francis, 
 and Margaret of Austria, aunt of the emperor, met and 
 made what was called the Ladies' Peace, which gave 
 Francis somewhat better terms. 
 
 60. Who was Bayard? 
 
 Ans. Bayard, commonly called the " fearless and blame- 
 less" (sans peur et sans reproche) was one of the most 
 famous h'rench knights in the Italian campaigns under 
 Louis XII and Francis I. When finally shot in Italy and 
 left dying under a tree, he set up his cross-handled sword 
 before him and died in devotion to the emblem of his 
 religion. 
 
 61. What gain, if any, did France make in these 
 frequent wars of the period? 
 
 Ans. During the reign of Henry II, son of Francis I> 
 the French Duke of Guise managed to capture the city of 
 Calais by surprise, after England had held it for two 
 centuries, ever since the times of Edward III. Queen Mary 
 of England, 1547-53, often called Bloody Mary, daughter 
 of Henry VIII, said Calais would be found written on her 
 heart, its loss was so deeply graven there. 
 
26 HISTORY OF FRANCE - 
 
 62. What third British Mary within a half century had 
 unpleasant recollections of France? 
 
 Ans. Mary, Queen of Scots, granddaughter of Henry 
 VIH's sister Margaret, was married to the delicate Francis 
 II of France, who ascended the throne in 1559 at the age 
 of fifteen. He died in a year and the lovely Mary, so 
 young a widow, went home to her native Scotland where 
 she could reign as a queen of royal descent instead of 
 staying under her mother-in-law, the famous, or in- 
 famous, Catherine de' Medici, the daughter of Italian 
 merchants. 
 
 63. What was the result of the Protestant Reformation 
 in France? 
 
 Ans. The general results of the Protestant Reformation, 
 which began in the early part of the sixteenth century, 
 were that the northern countries of Europe, excepting 
 Ireland, became Protestant, while the southern remained 
 steadfast. France, which lies between the north and south, 
 remained, in the main, Catholic, but somewhat split by 
 the growth of the Huguenots. 
 
 64. Who were the Huguenots? 
 
 Ans. The Huguenots were the Protestants of France 
 who followed the teachings of John Calvin, a noted French- 
 man, who condemned many of the practices and doc- 
 trines of the church of Rome and was obliged to flee 
 from Paris to Geneva, where he established himself as a 
 doctrinaire and greatly influenced the religion of Scotland, 
 England, France, and New England. 
 
 65. What was the beginning of the religious wars in 
 France with the Huguenots? 
 
 Ans. In 1562 a congregation of Huguenots, or French 
 Protestants, was attacked in a barn by the followers of 
 the Duke of Guise, the most prominent leader of the 
 Catholics of France. About forty Huguenots were killed 
 and many more wounded. 
 
 66. What were the immediate results of the attack on 
 the worshiping Huguenots at Vassy in 1662? 
 
 Ans. Admiral Coligny, the worthiest of the Huguenots, 
 Anthony, Duke of Bourbon, and the Prince of Cond6, the 
 younger brother of Anthony, headed the Huguenots, who 
 
HISTORY OP FRANCE 27 
 
 rose throughout France, while the Duke of Guise led the 
 Catholics of France, to whose aid Philip II of Spain con- 
 tributed. Elizabeth of England helped the Huguenots. 
 Sieges, battles and truces followed one another in rapid 
 succession. Christians of both Protestant and Catholic 
 persuasion fought each other with the ferocity of pagans. 
 Conspiracies, treacheries and assassinations disgraced 
 both parties until, in 1570, the Peace of St. Germain 
 brought a temporary but delusive peace. 
 
 67. What was the general character of the Treaty of 
 St. Germain in 1570? 
 
 Ans. The Treaty of St. Germain, which was the third 
 treaty between the Catholics and Huguenots of France 
 within eight years, was highly favorable to the Huguenots, 
 who seemed to be getting the better of the Catholics. 
 By this treaty the Huguenots received four towns, includ- 
 ing La Rochelle, their stronghold, to hold and to garrison 
 as places of safety and good faith. 
 
 68. What brilliant scheme did Catherine de* Medici, 
 the queen mother of the young King Charles IX, now 
 propose? 
 
 Ans. Catherine de' Medici, a scheming, intriguing 
 Italian, cared more for power than religion and, though 
 nominally Catholic, often favored the Huguenots in order 
 to offset the power of the Guises. She now proposed 
 marriage between her daughter Marguerite, sister of the 
 king, and young Henry of Navarre, the head of the House 
 of Bourbon and of the Huguenots, for Duke Anthony, his 
 father, and the Prince of Cond6, his uncle, had both fallen 
 in the wars of the previous years. This proposed alliance 
 caused great rejoicing among both Catholics and Protes- 
 tants. 
 
 69. How was the marriage of Marguerite of France 
 and Henry of Navarre celebrated? 
 
 Ans. The leading Catholics and Huguenots of France 
 flocked to the wedding in Paris, which took place on the 
 18th of August, 1572. Before the nuptial festivities that 
 followed were over the world was shocked by the worst 
 crime that stains the long history of France — the Mas- 
 sacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24, 1572. 
 
28 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 70. What were some of the details of the Massacre of 
 St. Bartholomew? 
 
 Ans. Among the Huguenots attending the great wed- 
 ding, Admiral Coligny was easily foremost and at once 
 gained such influence over the young and weak Charles 
 IX that his jealous mother resorted to an attempted 
 assassination of the admiral and, when he escaped with a 
 wound in the hand and the Huguenots threatened ven- 
 geance, the queen mother, insane with fear and hatred, 
 resolved promptly on the extermination of all the Hugue- 
 nots in Paris. When the midnight bell tolled, the massacre 
 began. Coligny was one of the first victims and his body 
 was tossed from the window of his chamber. 
 
 71. Did the king sanction this atrocious crime? 
 
 Ans. On the evening of the massacre Catherine went 
 to Charles and told him that the Huguenots had formed 
 a plot to assassinate the royal family and all the Catholic 
 leaders, and their only escape was in getting ahead of them 
 at their own game. The king at first refused to sign the 
 decree, but at last, overcome by his strong-willed mother, 
 he agreed on condition that not one Huguenot should be 
 left to reproach him with the deed. 
 
 72. What was the extent of the Massacre of St Bar- 
 tholomew? 
 
 Ans. The massacre continued in Paris for three days 
 and nights and estimates of the slaughtered range from 
 three thousand to ten thousand. Orders were then is- 
 sued to clear the principal cities of France of heretics. 
 Though in some places the instincts of humanity over- 
 powered the fear of disobeying the decree, it is estimated 
 that between twenty and thirty thousand perished. 
 
 73. What provision was made to distinguish friend 
 from foe on the night of St. Bartholomew's Massacre? 
 
 Ans. The Catholics tied a white scarf around the left 
 arm in order to know one another. 
 
 73a. What celebrated picture commemorates this 
 tying of the scarf? 
 
 Ans. The celebrated painting by Millais of the Hugue- 
 not lover whose Catholic sweetheart binds a white scarf 
 around his arm as they part late at night while he tries to 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 29 
 
 read the meaning in her pleading eyes. The beautiful face 
 of the girl is said to be that of Ruskin's wife, whom the 
 great author compassionately divorced in order that she 
 might marry the artist with whom she had fallen violently 
 in love while he was engaged in painting her portrait. 
 The-picture is also said to represent Marguerite of France 
 trying to save her young Huguenot husband of less than a 
 week from the danger to" which her mother and brother's 
 crime has exposed him. 
 
 *^ 74. What was the effect of the Massacre of St. Bar- 
 tholomew? 
 
 Ans. That " the blood of the martyrs is the seed of 
 the church " was again illustrated. Though Philip H of 
 Spain is said to have rejoiced and the pope to have ordered 
 a Te Deum to be sung in Rome, under a partial mis- 
 apprehension of the facts, a cry of execration arose in 
 almost every part of the civilized world from Catholics 
 and Protestants alike. Throughout the two remaining 
 years of Charles IX's reign and the fifteen of his brother 
 Henry HI, war and turmoil reigned until, in 1589, the 
 House of Valois- Orleans ended with the third of the three 
 weak, childless brothers, and Henry of Navarre, the 
 leader of the Huguenots to whom Catherine de Medici 
 had married her daughter Marguerite, came to the throne 
 as Henry IV. 
 
 75. What sort of a man and ruler was Henry IV? 
 
 Ans. Henry IV was an immoral man but he was a 
 far abler ruler than France had known. He sought to 
 heal the wounds made by war and to encourage agricul- 
 ture, trade and commerce. 
 
 76. What are a few of the details of the reign of Henry 
 IV of France? 
 
 Ans. During the first four years of his reign, 1589 to 
 1593, Henry proved the ablest leader the Huguenots had 
 had; he won the battle of Ivry, where he told his soldiers 
 to press where they saw his white plume wave. In 1593 
 he decided to adopt the Roman Catholic faith as the one 
 thing necessary for hearty support by the Catholic chiefs, 
 who liked him personally. Henry then proceeded to 
 strengthen his kingdom, especially by proclaiming the 
 celebrated Edict of Nantes, 1598. 
 
30 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 77. What was the Edict of Nantes? 
 
 Ans. The Edict of Nantes, proclaimed in 1598, granted 
 the Huguenots freedom of worship, opened to them all 
 offices and employments, and gave them a large number of 
 fortified towns and cities of refuge. 
 
 78. What were the results of the Edict of Nantes? 
 
 Ans. By this act of religious toleration the way was 
 paved for such a revival of trade, industry, and commerce 
 as France had lacked for a generation, but it also led to the 
 assassination of Henry IV by Ravaillac, a fanatic monk, 
 who looked on Henry as an enemy of the Catholic church. 
 This was in 1610, twelve years after the edict of toleration. 
 
 79. Who succeeded the able Henry IV? 
 
 Ans. The nine-year-old son of Henry, Louis XIII, 
 succeeded to the throne, but his mother, Marie de' Medici, 
 administered the government until he attained his ma- 
 jority. When Louis assumed the control he called to his 
 assistance the very celebrated Cardinal Richelieu, who 
 virtually ruled France for twenty years, and largely 
 controlled all Europe. 
 
 80. What was Richelieu's policy? 
 
 Ans. Richelieu's policy was twofold: first, to make the 
 king absolute in France; and second, to make France 
 supreme in Europe. 
 
 81. What means did Richelieu take to carry out his 
 twofold policy? 
 
 Ans. To secure the first, the absolute power of the 
 king, Richelieu sought to crush the Huguenots and the 
 independence of the old feudal aristocracy; to make France 
 dominant in Europe, he labored to break down the power 
 of the Hapsburgs in Austria and Spain. 
 
 82. What weapons did Richelieu use in his work as 
 minister? 
 
 Ans. Intrigue, diplomacy, and war were the weapons 
 that Richelieu employed with consummate skill for nearly 
 a generation to attain his ends. His double authority of 
 church and state, as cardinal and prime minister, greatly 
 aided him. " I shall trample all opposition under foot," 
 he said, " and then cover all errors with my scarlet robe." 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 31 
 
 83. How did Richelieu proceed to undermine the 
 Huguenots? 
 
 Ans. The Huguenot chiefs, dissatisfied with their po- 
 Htical position, were contemplating the founding of a 
 Protestant republic in southwest France, with La Rochelle 
 on the coast as capital, and in 1627 formed an alliance 
 with England for aid in that design. An English fleet and 
 army crossed the Channel, but Richelieu in person led an 
 army against La Rochelle, which was compelled to opeai 
 its gates, 1628, after a year's siege. Louis ordered the 
 fortifications razed so completely that a plow could be 
 drawn through the ground as through tilled land. 
 
 84. What was the final outcome of the Huguenot 
 defeat at La Rochelle? 
 
 Ans. After a few months' further struggle in the south 
 of France, the Huguenots lost all political power but 
 were, by the Edict of Grace, 1629, still allowed freedom of 
 worship according to the provisions of the Edict of Nantes 
 of Henry IV in 1598, a generation previous. 
 
 85. What was the cost to France of this religious 
 struggle between Catholic and Protestant Frenchmen? 
 
 Ans. It is estimated that the religious wars which 
 desolated France for two generations, 1562 to 1629, cost 
 a million lives and the destruction of between three and 
 four hundred villages and towns. 
 
 86. How did Richelieu's foreign policy differ from his 
 home policy? 
 
 Ans. Although Richelieu used all his power to crush 
 Protestantism in France, he aided the Protestant princes 
 of Germany in the great Thirty Years' War, 1618-48, in 
 which a similar religious contest was being waged in 
 Germany between the two branches of the Christian 
 church. This policy Richelieu followed not, of course, 
 from any sympathy with Protestantism, but to divide 
 Germany and humiliate Austria. 
 
 87. Did Richelieu succeed in his foreign policy as well 
 as in his home rule? 
 
 Ans. Richelieu did not live to see the result of the 
 Thirty Years' War in Germany, or the end of the war 
 
32 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 which he began with Spain, but the continuation of his 
 poHcy by his successors resulted in fulfilUng his ambition: 
 the humiUation of both branches of the House of Haps- 
 burg and the Hfting of France into the first place in Europe. 
 
 88. What celebrated play illustrates Cardinal Riche- 
 lieu's power and personality? 
 
 Ans. "Richeheu" by Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton, pre- 
 sents Richelieu in very vivid colors. As played by Edwin 
 Booth, America's greatest tragedian, the power of the great 
 cardinal over the weaker king and scheming nobles was 
 made so real as to be a memory for a lifetime. 
 
 89. What changes followed on the death of Richelieu, 
 the prime minister of Louis XIII? 
 
 Ans. Richelieu's parting advice to Louis XIII, when 
 dying in his fifty-eighth year in 1642, was to trust to 
 Mazarin, an Italian priest, for guidance, but the king 
 survived his great minister only a few months and died 
 at forty-two in 1643, leaving the prosperous realm to his 
 son, Louis XIV, then only five years old. 
 
 90. What were the general characteristics of Louis 
 XIV's reign? 
 
 Ans. Louis XIV had the longest reign in history, 
 seventy-two years, or from 1643 to 1715, exceeding that of 
 Queen Victoria, the longest reign in English history, by 
 nine years, and that of Francis Joseph of Austria by three 
 years. He was called the Grand Monarch, everything 
 French was then so splendid. The king personally was very 
 able, the country very prosperous, his warriors and scholars 
 very brilliant. But his life reign was typical of that 
 of nations and many persons — -growth, glory, dechne; 
 and though in middle life Louis seemed to dominate all 
 Europe, and his generals won great victories, at the last 
 his power was greatly weakened. William of Orange and 
 the Duke of Marlborough won many victories over him 
 and the aging monarch was very ready to make peace 
 on almost any terms. 
 
 91. Who administered the government during Louis 
 XIV's minority? 
 
 Ans. Anne of Austria, a Spanish princess, was regent, 
 but Mazarin was the able successor of Richelieu and 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 33 
 
 continued his policies. The Thirty Years' ReHgious War 
 in Germany ended in the Peace of WestphaUa in 1648, 
 with Austria exhausted and all Germany well-nigh ruined. 
 War between France and Spain continued till the Treaty 
 of the Pyrenees, in 1659, which asserted the triumph 
 of France. The House of Hapsburg had lost in both 
 Austria and Spain, and the French House of Bourbon 
 •.now led in European affairs. 
 
 92. What were the wars of the Fronde? 
 
 Ans. When Mazarin laid an unjust tax on the food 
 brought into Paris, the French Parliament, which repre- 
 sented not all France, but was made up of the lawyers of 
 Paris and the great nobles of the old duchy of France with 
 the bishops and princes of the blood royal, revolted. 
 The struggle which ensued, from 1648 to 1652, is called 
 the Fronde. Fronde means " sling " and refers to the 
 sharp words slung at one another by the various speakers 
 in the earlier part of the quarrel. Paris was twice besieged 
 in the course of the war that followed. Mazarin was 
 expelled by the Prince of Conde, but by the aid of the 
 queen was recalled and threw Conde into prison, but the 
 latter, being released, joined the Spaniards in their war 
 against his country. 
 
 93. What was the second period in Louis XIV's long 
 career? 
 
 Ans. In 1661, when Louis was twenty-three, Mazarin 
 died. To the miinisters asking to whom they should report 
 Louis answered, " To myself," and for over half a century 
 he ruled as an absolute and irresponsible monarch, " I am 
 the State " {L'etat, c'est moi) was his declaration, in that 
 terse remark claiming all executive, legislative, and judicial 
 power. Never once was the States-General convened 
 during his long reign. 
 
 94. What were Louis -XIV's personal traits of character? 
 
 Ans. Louis XIV was an able man. Mazarin said that 
 he had the making of four kings in him and an honest 
 man besides. He was noted for stately courtesy and kindly 
 manners. He never received a courtesy without returning 
 a bow and he dazzled nearly every one, male as well as 
 female, so that they looked on him as almost a divinity 
 and could not see his faults. His great defect was the idea 
 
34 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 that the nation was made for his glory and not that he 
 was made for the good of the people. Mazarin had cared 
 more for the greatness of France than for the character of 
 the king and the young monarch had been allowed to 
 grow up in ignorance, though he tried later to atone for 
 this neglect. His mother had taught him religion as well 
 as manners and he always respected religion though he 
 failed to practice it. 
 
 95. What was the character of the court of Louis XIV? 
 
 Ans. The French court of the last half of the seven- 
 teenth century was noted for its splendor and also for its 
 stiffness. Every one knew just who must stand and who 
 might sit, who might be on stools and who must kneel. 
 It was a most gorgeous spectacle, but a hollow, artificial 
 show, as theatrical as the high heels the king wore to 
 increase his dignity. 
 
 96. What was the theory of government prevailing in 
 Europe in the seventeenth century? 
 
 Ans. In England, under the Stuart kings, 1603-88, 
 and in France, under Louis XIV, the Grand Monarch, 
 1643-1715, and other rulers of the period, the theory of the 
 divine right of kings to rule prevailed. The nation was a 
 great family, with the king as its divinely appointed head. 
 The king was to govern as a father and was responsible 
 to God alone; the children were unfortunate if he did 
 wrong, but under no circumstances could they rebel 
 against the king. 
 
 97. What was the outcome of the prevailing theory of 
 absolute government by the ** divine right of kings " ? 
 
 Ans. The theory proved very costly to kings and people, 
 but in the end the people of both England and France 
 proved they were capable and had a right to govern them- 
 selves. In England one king was executed, Charles I, 
 1649; another expelled, James II, 1688; the dynasty 
 changed and no ruler has ever exercised political power 
 in England since the Stuarts; George III lost the American 
 colonies by attempting to do so. In France Louis XIV 
 lost much that he had gained and before another century 
 expired the French Revolution, in 1793, executed its king 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 35 
 
 and established a republic that after various vicissitudes 
 has, in its third establishment in 1871, now stood stead- 
 fast for nearly half a century. 
 
 98. In how many and what wars did Louis XIV engage? 
 
 Ans. The wars of Louis were four, all wars of conquest 
 and aggression: the war in the Spanish Netherlands, 
 1667-68; a war with Holland, 1672-78; a war in Germany, 
 1689-97; and the War of the Spanish Succession. 
 
 99. What was the character and result of the war in 
 the Netherlands? 
 
 Ans. When Philip of Spain, the father of Louis' wife, 
 died, Louis claimed in the name of his wife a portion of 
 the Spanish Netherlands. Holland was naturally alarmed 
 and formed a Triple Alliance with England and Sweden, 
 forcing Louis to give up most of the land he had seized. 
 
 100. How did Louis the Great succeed against little 
 Holland? 
 
 Ans. Angered by the interference of Holland with his 
 designs on the Netherlands, Louis succeeded by skilful 
 diplomacy in drawing both England and Sweden from 
 their alliance with Holland and even secured help from 
 Charles of England. But Holland made a stout resistance 
 and forced the invaders to retreat by cutting the dykes 
 and flooding the surrounding country when the French 
 were threatening Amsterdam. Their heroic defense de- 
 tached many allies from France and joined them to 
 Holland until peace was arranged in 1678. 
 
 101. When was the Grand Monarch, Louis XIV, at the 
 height of his career? 
 
 Ans. Louis XIV may be said to have been at the 
 zenith of his long career of nearly three-quarters of a cen- 
 tury when he ended his second war, that with Holland, in 
 1678. Out of that struggle with half of Europe against 
 him he emerged with increased reputation and with 
 possession of many towns and fortresses in the Nether- 
 lands and some territory and cities on the German border. 
 
 102. When may Louis XIV be said to have com- 
 menced to fail? 
 
 Ans. In 1685 Louis revoked the Edict of Nantes, that 
 wise provision of Henry IV, which secured religious free- 
 
36 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 dom to the Protestants of France in 1598. From this 
 date Louis' power began to fail. 
 
 103. What were the results of the revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes? 
 
 Ans. The prosperity of France changed; the Protestant 
 churches were closed; all Huguenots who refused to be- 
 come Cathohcs were outlawed; dragoons were quartered 
 upon Protestant families with full permission to annoy 
 and persecute them in every way short of violation and 
 death. These persecutions were called dragonnades. It 
 is supposed that not less than three hundred thousand 
 of the most skilled and industrious workmen of France 
 were driven out of France to transfer their skill and in- 
 dustry to Holland, England, and America. Several im- 
 portant, flourishing industries were ruined or seriously 
 crippled in France, to flourish more elsewhere. 
 
 104. What marks of French Huguenots are to be 
 found in American history? 
 
 Ans. In 1562 and 1564 French Huguenots settled on 
 the coasts of South Carolina and Florida, but the first 
 colony returned to France and the second was massacred 
 by the Spaniards under Men6ndez, who settled the oldest 
 city in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida, 1565. 
 This was before the Edict of Nantes allowed of Protestant 
 worship in France. After the revocation, a century later, 
 the parents of Peter Faneuil, the wealthiest merchant of 
 Boston, who built Faneuil Hall in 1743; of Paul Revere; 
 of Governor Bowdoin, for whom Bowdoin College was 
 named, came to Boston with other Huguenot families. 
 Marion, Sevier and Laurens are a few famous names of 
 South Carolina patriots of French Huguenot origin. 
 
 105. What was the nature of Louis XIV's third war? 
 
 Ans, As an indirect result of the revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes, such indignation was aroused among the 
 Protestant nations of Europe that William of Orange, 
 Louis' most inveterate and sagest enemy, was able to form 
 the League of Augsburg, 1686, Louis resolved to attack 
 the confederates. He claimed portions of the Palatinate 
 in the name of his sister-in-law, hurried a large army 
 there, overran the country and turned it into a desert. 
 Churches and abbeys, palaces and cottages, villas and cities 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 37 
 
 were given to the flames. Alsace and Strasburg were 
 annexed to France. The Germans were furious and the 
 Grand Alliance of eight different rulers and countries was 
 formed against Louis, 1689. 
 
 106. How did the war of Louis XIV against Germany 
 end? 
 
 Ans. For almost a decade, 1689 to 1697, nearly all 
 Europe was a great battlefield; both sides finally wearied 
 of war and became exhausted in resources, so a peace 
 was concluded by the Treaty of Ryswick, 1697. There 
 was a mutual surrender of places conquered in the war 
 and Louis also was obliged to give up some of the places 
 unjustly seized at the beginning of the war. But the 
 beginning of the present Alsace-Lorraine trouble was the 
 seizure and annexation of German territory by French. 
 
 107. What and when was Louis XIV' s fourth and last 
 war? 
 
 Ans. Three years after the Treaty of Ryswick was 
 signed, in 1697, the leading powers of Europe were engaged 
 in the War of the Spanish Succession. In 1700 the king of 
 Spain died, leaving his crown to Philip, grandson of Louis, 
 whose wife we must remember was a Spanish princess. 
 "There are no longer any Pyrenees," said Louis, at the 
 prospect of controlling Spain as well as France. But 
 England and Holland were alarmed at this upset of the 
 balance of power among the nations, and a second Grand 
 Alliance was formed to put Charles, Archduke of Austria, 
 on the Spanish throne instead of Philip. 
 
 108. Who were the generals opposed to France and 
 what was their degree of success? 
 
 Ans\ The great Duke of Orange, who had become 
 William III of England, died in 1702, but his place was 
 ably taken by John Churchill, the very famous Duke of 
 Marlborough, perhaps the ablest general England ever 
 produced. For thirteen years, 1701-14, he never lost a 
 battle or failed to take a fortress he besieged. Blenheim, 
 Ramillies, Oudenarde, Malplaquet, were splendid victories, 
 and Eugene of Savoy was a very able ally of Marlborough. 
 
 109. What was the strange outcome of the War of 
 the Spanish Succession? 
 
 Ans. Deaths in the House of Austria brought the 
 
38 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 Archduke Charles to the imperial throne of Germany, so 
 that the balance of power shifted and the allies now pre- 
 ferred that Philip, grandson of Louis, should stay on the 
 throne of Spain. Treaties were made to that effect, but 
 his kingdom was trimmed; Gibraltar and Minorca were 
 ceded to England, while the Spanish Netherlands and 
 Milan, Naples, and Sardinia were given to Austria. 
 
 110. What was the end of Louis? 
 
 Ans. The offer of peace came to Louis in his last war 
 like water to a man dying of thirst. Exorbitant taxes to 
 maintain the wars and to support the splendor of the 
 court had bankrupted the country and people were cry- 
 ing for bread. The old king had lost his son, the dauphin, 
 the dauphiness and his two grandsons. On September 1, 
 1715, the Grand Monarch left a country deep in debt and 
 misery to his nearest heir, a great-grandson, Louis XV. 
 
 111. What was the most expensive expenditure of 
 Louis in the way of splendor? 
 
 Ans. Among the half-dozen palaces of Louis, that of 
 Versailles outshone the rest. The palace itself cost more 
 than a hundred million dollars, and the gardens were elabor- 
 ate. The royal household numbered fifteen thousand per- 
 sons, maintained in luxurious idleness at the expense of 
 the people. 
 
 112. What was the standard of morality of Louis XIV' s 
 splendid court? 
 
 Ans. Life at the court of Louis XIV was very corrupt, 
 but the scandalous immoralities of king and courtier were 
 gilded by superficial accomplishments and exquisite polish 
 of manner. 
 
 113. Was this glitter of the French court communi- 
 cated elsewhere? 
 
 Ans. Europe imitated and emulated French manners 
 and extravagance. Especially in England, the court of 
 Charles II, 1660-85, after the death of Cromwell and the 
 overthrow of Puritanism, became the most corrupt that 
 England ever knew before or since. Charles had lived as 
 a royal exile in the court of Louis after his father's execu- 
 tion, and imbibed completely the French ideals of life 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 39 
 
 and vice, and imported plays and actresses, the first women 
 to appear on the English stage. 
 
 114. Did France possess many talented men during 
 Louis XrV's reign? 
 
 Ans. Many men of the highest order of ability dis" 
 tinguished the long reign of Louis: Colbert, during the 
 early years of the reign, handled the finances of France 
 with consummate ability; Turenne and the Prince of 
 Cond6 were probably the ablest generals in Europe when 
 Louis was reaching the maximum of his power; Bossuet and 
 F^nelon were saints and scholars of great worth ; Corneille, 
 Racine and Moliere are the greatest names in the French 
 drama. Louis encouraged writers of every class and made 
 his reign the Augustan Age of French literature. 
 
 115. What were the fortunes of .France under the 
 successor of Louis XIV? 
 
 Ans. Under Louis XV, 1715-74, another long reign, 
 France passed from great brilliancy and strength to sharp 
 decline and humiliation. She still took part in all the wars 
 of the period, but generally with loss of prestige and 
 territory. The leading wars were the War of the Austrian 
 Succession and the Seven Years' War with England. 
 This latter war, 1756-63, is most interesting to Americans 
 because by it France lost her American and East Indian 
 possessions. By service in that war colonial troops and 
 officers were prepared for the American Revolution and its 
 cost led England to impose those taxes on her colonies 
 which precipitated their revolt. 
 
 116. What was the personal character of Louis XV? 
 
 Ans. Louis XV was barely five when his great-grand- 
 father's death gave him the throne. Philip, Duke of Or- 
 leans, son of Louis XIV's brother, acted as regent. He 
 was a thoroughly dissipated man and the whole court 
 became a sink of iniquity. The king was shy and dull; 
 his wife, a Polish princess, was kind and gentle, but not 
 clever, and the king soon fell under the influences of the 
 boon companions of the Duke of Orleans, who died as 
 the young king came to manhood. The king grew worse 
 in morals and frequented low dances of the Paris mob, 
 though he took pains to go to church every morning. 
 
40 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 117. Who succeeded Louis XV? 
 
 Ans, When Louis XV, a disgrace to his name and 
 country, died in 1774, his grandson, a fine young man, 
 twenty years old, ascended the throne. His wife was the 
 beautiful, bright, young Marie Antoinette of Austria. 
 
 118. What was the character of the young Louis XVI 
 who succeeded the dissolute Louis XV in 1774? 
 
 Ans. When Louis XVI and his young queen, Marie 
 Antoinette, heard of their grandfather's death, they threw 
 themselves on their knees and cried, " Oh, God, help us; 
 we are too young to reign." They felt the danger of the 
 situation after centuries of selfishness and wickedness, 
 and the young king tried hard to set things right, but he 
 was not a clever man and was very awkward, shy, and 
 easily confused. 
 
 119. How did the young queen, Marie Antoinette, dis- 
 please the French people? 
 
 - Ans. Marie Antoinette had been brought up in a 
 court that at that time was much less stately and where 
 manners were more simple than in the court of France, 
 and she laughed at the formal court ways and tried to get 
 free from them. She called the Duchess of Noailles, who 
 tried to keep her in order, Madame d' Etiquette, and in- 
 stead of living at Versailles, or even at the little palace 
 at Trianon, sjtie occupied a smaller house, with farm and 
 dairy, where she and her ladies wore muslin dresses and 
 straw hats and amused themselves in simple, innocent 
 ways; but the French people, steeped in the past scandals 
 of the French court, could not believe in her innocence 
 and, moreover, they hated the land of her birth. 
 
 120. What were the main causes of the great French 
 Revolution in the reign of Louis XVI? 
 
 Ans. Five leading causes of the French Revolution 
 were: 
 
 1. The abuses and extravagances of the reigning House 
 of Bourbon, culminating in the scandals arising from the 
 alleged order of the queen for an immensely expensive 
 diamond necklace. 
 
 2. The unjust privileges of the nobility and clergy. 
 
 3. The wretched condition of the ma§s of the people. 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 41 
 
 4. The revolutionar}'- character of the French literature 
 of the period and the attacks upon the private character 
 of Marie Antoinette. 
 
 5. The success of the American Revolution. 
 
 121. What are the most noticeable details under the 
 first cause of the French Revolution? 
 
 Ans. Under the Bourbons, every person's life was at 
 the arbitrary disposal of the king. One might be thrown 
 into prison and kept there without knowing the offense. 
 The taxes were confiscations and the public money was 
 shamelessly wasted in scandalous excesses. 
 
 122. What was the peculiarity of the French nobility? 
 
 Ans. The nobility of France numbered eighty thousand, 
 since, unlike England, all the children in a French noble- 
 man's family were noble and exempt from taxes. The no- 
 bility of France held one-fifth of the land, for which they 
 paid scarcely anything in taxes. 
 
 123. Why were the French clergy a burden rather than 
 a blessing? 
 
 Ans. The clergy possessed more than a third of the 
 land, the gift of piety through many centuries. This large 
 share of the country was practically exempt from taxa- 
 tion. The clergy were largely recruited from the families 
 of the nobility who were attracted into the church by its 
 revenues and social distinction rather than by the induce- 
 ments of piety or care for the poor. 
 
 124. What was, in some detail, the condition of the 
 common people in France before the Revolution? 
 
 Ans~. The common people of France, numbering about 
 twenty-five millions and owning less than half of the land, 
 paid all the expenses of an extravagant court and main- 
 tained an arrogant, worthless nobility and clergy. More- 
 over, they were greatly hampered by old feudal obligations 
 in the use of the restricted territory belonging to them. 
 They were forbidden to fence their fields, as fences interfered 
 with hunting; they were forbidden to cultivate their 
 fields at certain seasons, as it disturbed the partridges; 
 they were forbidden to manure their fields lest they offend 
 my lord's aristocratic nostrils; they must beat the bushes 
 and quiet the frogs at night, if my lady was sick. If crops 
 
42 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 failed, they starved and died along the roadways. The 
 lord of the manor, among his feudal rights, might even 
 claim the body of his tenant's daughter before she could 
 be permitted to marry. 
 
 125. Who were the leading French writers in the middle 
 of the eighteenth century and what was their influence? 
 
 Ans. Rousseau, 1712-78, and Voltaire, 1694-1778, were 
 brilliant but sceptical and revolutionary writers. Rousseau 
 declared that the evils of the state were due to the false, 
 artificial arrangements of society, such as the family, the 
 church, the state. Savages, he declared, were happier 
 than civilized men; therefore, let us return to a state of 
 nature — or simplicity. This teaching amid the eyils of 
 the time fostered discontent with the established order 
 of things and created an intolerable thirst for change and 
 innovation. 
 
 126. How much did the American Revolution have to 
 do with causing the French Revolution? 
 
 Ans, The American Revolution undoubtedly did much 
 toward starting the French Revolution. From the first 
 the French had deeply sympathized with the colonists in 
 their struggle for independence. It was but a decade 
 since England had driven them out of their vast pos- 
 sessions in New France. Lafayette and many other 
 noblemen had offered service, and, after Saratoga, an 
 open alliance furnished money, ships and soldiers, without 
 which aid it is hard to see how America could have suc- 
 ceeded. In the American success the French saw their 
 dream a reality. The rights of man had been reclaimed 
 and vindicated, Franklin and Jefferson, our ministers to 
 France, had charmed the French and they longed for 
 equal freedom from tyranny. 
 
 127. What efforts did the young king make to stem 
 the rising tide of discontent? 
 
 Ans. Louis XVI called to his aid the most eminent 
 financiers and statesmen, Turgot, Necker, Calonne, and 
 others, but the disease had gnawed to the vitals and could 
 not be cured. Reform and retrenchment were impossible 
 against tradition, custom, and selfishness. In 1787 the 
 king summoned the Notables, a body of lords and prel- 
 ates not previously called since the reign of Henry IV 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 43 
 
 in 1589, or for two hundred years. They refused to give 
 up any of their feudal privileges or to be taxed, and so 
 their coming together accompHshed nothing. 
 
 128. What was the next attempt to rescue France from 
 bankruptcy when the Notables failed in 1787? 
 
 Ans. On May 5, 1789, less than a week after Washing- 
 ton was installed as President of the United States, the 
 States-General met at Versailles, for the first time it had 
 been called to deliberate on the affairs of the nation in 
 one hundred and seventy-five years. 
 
 129. Of what was the States-General of France com- 
 posed? 
 
 Ans. The States-General, an almost forgotten assembly 
 of France, when summoned to meet at Versailles in 1789, 
 was composed of the three estates — the nobility, the 
 clergy, and the commons, the third estate {Tiers Etat). 
 As convened in 1789, it consisted of twelve hundred repre- 
 sentatives, more than half of whom, a clear majority, were 
 deputies of the commons. 
 
 130. What were the first acts of the States-Genera^ 
 of France in 1789? 
 
 Ans. It had been the ancient custom for the States- 
 General to vote by orders, in which event, as things were 
 in 1789, the third estate, or commons, though in a majority, 
 was sure to be outvoted by the privileged orders of the 
 nobility and the clergy. The commons, therefore, in- 
 sisted that the voting should be by individuals. After a 
 wrangle over this matter for five weeks, the commons 
 took the revolutionary step of declaring themselves the 
 National Assembly and inviting the two others to join 
 them. Refused the palace, the commons met in a church 
 and were joined by many of the clergy and, in a couple of 
 days, by the nobility. The States-General had now be- 
 come in reality the National Assembly. 
 
 131. What is meant by the Storming of the Bastille? 
 
 Ans. The BastiUe was a grim old prison where the 
 Bourbons had confined their political prisoners. On July 
 14, 1789, a frenzy seized the mob on a report that the 
 guns of the Bastille were trained on the city. The mob laid 
 siege to the fortress and in a few hours its walls were 
 
44 , HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 razed. Few prisoners were found, for Louis XVI had 
 released all his grandfather's prisoners. The Bastille had 
 been regarded as the symbol of despotism and the four- 
 teenth of July was afterwards hailed as the French 
 equivalent of the American Fourth of July, the symbol of 
 freedom from tyranny. 
 
 132. What followed on the fall of the Bastille? 
 
 Ans. The mob now felt its power. Sympathizers with 
 royalty were massacred mercilessly, castles throughout 
 the most of the country were sacked and burnt, the occu- 
 pants were killed and thrust into prison. All the nobility 
 that could get away fled beyond the frontier. 
 
 133. What was the next specific act of the mob after 
 destroying the Bastille? 
 
 Ans. On the arrival of a body of troops at Versailles, a 
 banquet was given to the officers, at which the young 
 nobles, when heated with wine, trampled on the national 
 tricolor cockades and displayed the Bourbon emblem, the 
 white cockade. A report of this reached Paris, together 
 with a rumor of the intended flight of the king to Metz. 
 The poorer classes were suffering _for bread, and, savage 
 with hunger, on October 5, 1789, a mob of women bran-w 
 dishing knives and clubs streamed out of Paris toward 
 Versailles, twelve miles distant, bent on demanding relief 
 from the king. The National Guard, commanded by 
 Lafayette, followed, and Paris emptied itself into the 
 royal suburbs. 
 
 134. What was the outcome of the wild mob's raid on 
 Versailles? 
 
 Ans. After camping in the streets of Versailles for the 
 night, the mob broke into the palace with axes, killed two 
 of the guards, and the timely arrival of Lafayette alone 
 saved the entire royal family from massacre. The queen 
 barely escaped from her chamber as the mob reached it. 
 
 135. What was the next step in the French Revolution 
 after the attack on the palace at Versailles? 
 
 Ans. The king was compelled to return with the mob 
 to Paris that he might remain under their observation. 
 Lafayette was charged with the duty of guarding the 
 king, practically imprisoned in the Palace ofsthe Tuileries, 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 45 
 
 as a hostage for the good conduct of the nobility and 
 foreign rulers while the Assembly prepared a constitution. 
 This was known as the Joyous Entry of October 6. Ver- 
 sailles, stripped of royalty and spattered with blood, was 
 never again the residence of a King of France. 
 
 136. What became of the king confined in the Tuileries? 
 
 Ans. For nearly two years affairs were comparatively 
 quiet. The Assembly was busy with reform in church and 
 state; the nobles watched from the frontier but dared not 
 endanger the king by any rash attack. Finally, on June 
 20, 1791, the royal family attempted to escape in disguise. 
 They very nearly succeeded and in an hour would have 
 crossed the border, when the Bourbon features of the king 
 betrayed him and the entire party was brought back to 
 Paris. This attempt to run away hurt the king's cause 
 fatally. It amounted to abdication and the people began 
 to talk of a republic. 
 
 137. What final action was taken by the National 
 Assembly? 
 
 Ans. On the 14th of September, 1791, the new con- 
 stitution making the government a constitutional mon- 
 archy was solemnly ratified by the king. The National 
 Assembly then adjourned, after holding session for three 
 years. 
 
 138. What happened after the National Assembly 
 adjourned September 30, 1791? 
 
 Ans. a legislative assembly of seven hundred and 
 forty-five members, provided for by the National Assembly, 
 convened the following day, October 1, 1791, consisting 
 of three groups: ConstitutionaHsts, supporters of the new 
 constitution; Girondists, who desired a republic like 
 America; and the radical Mountainists (so called from 
 their high seats), who were levellers of all ranks. Marat, 
 Danton, and Robespierre were the leaders of this third 
 faction and their names became the terror of the majority 
 
 139. What action was taken by the great powers of 
 Europe? 
 
 Ans. The French situation caused great anxiety in 
 Europe. If the French succeeded in overthrowing their 
 hereditary ruler, what became of the divine right of 
 
46 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 kings? Who would be dethroned next? So Frederick 
 William III of Prussia and Francis II of the German 
 Empire (Austria and her allies) began warlike prepara- 
 tions which led the Assembly to declare war on them. 
 Over a hundred thousand Prussians and Austrians crossed 
 the French border and were at first successful, and the 
 Duke of Brunswick approached Paris with an immense 
 army. 
 
 140. How did the French act in the presence of a 
 hostile army? 
 
 Ans. An insolent demand from the Duke of Brunswick 
 that the French submit to their king, accompanied by a 
 threat to destroy the city, drove the excitable French 
 frantic. They attacked the Tuileries, cut down the cele- 
 brated Swiss Guard that defended it bravely and when 
 the allies hurried to the rescue the excited Parisians, led 
 by Danton, resolved to murder all royalists confined in 
 the jails of Paris. A hundred assassins were hired for 
 this atrocity, who first slew all priests in the churches who 
 refused to take oath to the new constitution, and then 
 the victims of the jails. This "September Massacre," 
 in which several thousand were butchered, was the worst 
 crime of the French Revolution. 
 
 141. What became of the allies? 
 
 Ans. The allies were checked, and on September 20, 
 1792, defeated at Valmy and driven out of the country. 
 About the same date the Legislative Assembly dissolved 
 and a National Convention assembled. 
 
 142. Of what did the National Convention consist? 
 
 Ans. The National Convention of September, 1792, con- 
 sisted of seven hundred and forty-nine deputies. Thomas 
 Paine, the American free-thinker whose pamphlet, "Com- 
 mon Sense," had helped to achieve the American Revolu- 
 tion, was among them. '^ There were now two parties only, 
 the Constitutionalists having been suppressed. No one 
 dared talk of a monarchy; all were republicans. On the 
 opening day, September 21, 1792, the monarchy was 
 abolished and a republic proclaimed. All titles of nobility 
 were abolished; every one was called a citizen; the king 
 was merely Citizen Capet and a shoeblack was Citizen 
 Shoeblack. 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 47 
 
 143. What change was made in counting time? 
 
 Ans. The day following the proclamation of the re- 
 public, September 22, 1792, was called the first day of the 
 year 1, the beginning of a new era, the natal day of lib- 
 erty. All nations were called to rise against despotism 
 and the aid of France was promised to all people who 
 wished to secure liberty. Belgium, then an Austrian pos- 
 session, was overrun and occupied, Austria and Prussia 
 having been beaten back. 
 
 144. How did the victorious French treat their king? 
 
 Ans. The king was brought before the bar of the Con- 
 vention on the 11th of December, 1792, charged with 
 having conspired with the enemies of France against the 
 will of his people and with having caused the massacre of 
 August 10, 1792. The sentence was immediate death, 
 and on January 21, 1793, Louis XVI was conducted to 
 the scaffold. 
 
 145. What was the fate of the queen, the beautiful 
 Marie Antoinette? 
 
 Ans. The queen was spared at the time of the king's 
 execution and endured nine months' imprisonment before 
 the Reign of Terror reached a height which brought her 
 before the revolutionary tribunal that quickly condemned 
 her to be beheaded. 
 
 146. How was the execution of the king regarded out- 
 side of France? 
 
 Ans. The execution of the king awakened the most 
 bitter hostility against the revolutionists in all the old 
 monarchies of Europe. No less than eleven powers, 
 headed by Prussia, Austria, and England, formed a grand 
 coalition against them and a quarter of a million men 
 threatened France at once on every frontier. 
 
 147. Was there great unanimity throughout France at 
 this time? 
 
 Ans. The people of La Vendee, in western France, re- 
 tained their reverence for royalty, church, and the nobil- 
 ity, and rose in revolt against the innovations, meeting 
 with considerable success for a while. 
 
48 HISTORY OP FRANCE 
 
 148. How did the Convention meet all the dangers 
 within and without? 
 
 Ans. The Convention ordered a levy of three hundred 
 thousand men. The Mountainists, on the reception of 
 gloomy news, defeats of the armies, counter-revolution in 
 La Vendee, urged extreme measures, forced contributions 
 by the rich, and confiscations of their carriages to convey 
 soldiers to the field. The more conservative Girondists op- 
 posed these latter measures until a mob of eighty thousand 
 surrounded the Convention and demanded the surrender 
 of the Girondists as enemies of the republic. The 
 Girondists were placed under arrest and the mob thus 
 purged the Convention as the army purged the English 
 Parliament in the days of Cromwell. 
 
 149. When did the Reign of Terror begin? 
 
 Ans. The Reign of Terror began June- 2, 1793, with the 
 fall of the Girondists, the last resisting check on violence. 
 With the moderates expelled, the extremists, through a 
 Committee of Public Safety, carried out a policy of terror- 
 ism. All aristocrats and persons lukewarm in the cause of 
 liberty were ordered to the guillotine. Hundreds were 
 murdered for their wealth; others, as the victims of dis- 
 pleasure. 
 
 150. Who were the most prominent leaders in the 
 French Reign of Terror? 
 
 Ans. Marat, a man of low origin, was president of the 
 Committee of Public Safety, and Danton and Robespierre 
 were members. 
 
 151. Who was Charlotte Corday? 
 
 Ans. Charlotte Corday was a maid of Normandy who, 
 like Joan of Arc, rose to the occasion and conceived the 
 idea of delivering France from proscription and tyrannv 
 by killing Marat, which she accomplished by stabbing him 
 in his bath, and then paid the penalty on the guillotine. 
 
 152. What was the guillotine? 
 
 Ans. The guillotine was a sharp and heavy knife, 
 named from the doctor who invented it as a means of 
 prompt and painless execution. It dropped through slots 
 like a pile driver and was an improvement on the heads- 
 man's axe. 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 49 
 
 153. Did the death of Marat in July, 1793, check the 
 Mountainists? 
 
 Ans. Instead of checking the Reign of Terror, the as- 
 sassination of Marat drove the Committee of Public 
 Safety, the executive agents of the extremists, to greater 
 excesses. In Lyons, where the Revolution encountered 
 opposition, only the dwellings of the poor were allowed to 
 remain; all others were demolished. The queen was be- 
 headed about this time and soon after her death twenty- 
 one leading Girondists were executed. Hundreds of less 
 distinguished victims followed. Seats were arranged 
 around the instrument of death, as at a theatre. Christi- 
 anity was abolished and Sunday with it. The churches 
 were closed, their wealth confiscated. The busts of Marat 
 and other ' ' patriots ' ' were set up in place of the images of 
 the Virgin and of Christ. The Holy Guillotine took the 
 place of the cross.^ 
 
 154. What were some of the reforms or changes 
 introduced? 
 
 Ans. a new system of weights and measures, the metric, 
 was introduced; the names of the months were changed; 
 the month was divided into three periods of ten days 
 each, the tenth in each period taking the place of Sunday. 
 
 155. "What may be regarded as the wildest act of the 
 Revolutionists? 
 
 Ans. a celebrated but frail beauty was set upon the 
 altar of Notre Dame as the Goddess of Reason and pro- 
 claimed as an object of homage and adoration. 
 
 156.^ What further changes preceded the end of the 
 Reign of Terror? 
 
 Ans. By March and April, 1794, nearly one year after 
 they began their desperate cause, the Revolutionists, 
 having destroyed all their foes, began to fall on one an- 
 other to satisfy their thirst for blood. The Jacobin Club, 
 an organization which fed the Revolution by constant 
 agitation, was itself now divided into three factions, 
 differing as to the degree of violence to be used. Danton, 
 who had taken Marat's place as leader of the Revolution, 
 became more conservative and condemned the excesses 
 and cruelties of the Committee of Public Safety, of which 
 
50 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 he was no longer a member. Hebert, known as Pere 
 Duchesne, led a faction ready for any extreme of com- 
 munism and atheism. Robespierre held a middle ground 
 and resolved to crush both his opponents. By working 
 with Danton he overcame Hebert and within a week after 
 the execution of Hebert, Danton was destroyed and Robes- 
 pierre stood alone on the top of the mountain. 
 
 157. How did Robespierre use his power as a dictator? 
 
 Ans. He re-established the worship of the supreme 
 being instead of the worship of reason. " If God did not 
 exist, it would behoove man to invent him. The idea of 
 one who watches over oppressed innocence and punishes 
 triumphant guilt is, and always will be, popular." So 
 the Convention passed a decree that the French people 
 acknowledge the existence of the supreme being and 
 the immortality of the soul; and the churches that had 
 been used as temples of the Goddess of Reason were now 
 officially reconsecrated to the worship of God. 
 
 158. Did Robespierre reform the civic procedure as 
 he did the religious? 
 
 Ans. No. With all power in his hands, the slaughters 
 increased in number and atrocity; two hundred thousand 
 prisoners crowded the jails and room for more was gained 
 by trying and condemning groups of ten or even fifty at 
 a time. Carts bore victims to the scaffold like loads of 
 bricks. Benches arranged for the spectacle were rented 
 as in the theatre; a special sewer was built to carry off 
 the blood. In five weeks, from June 10 to July 17, 1794, 
 twelve hundred and eighty-five were guillotined. 
 
 159. Were the provinces of France as cruel as the mob 
 of Paris? 
 
 Ans. Matters were even worse in many of the leading 
 cities of France. In Nantes the " Republican Baptism " 
 consisted in crowding a hundred or more suspected per- 
 sons into a vessel and scuttling it in the Loire. A " Re- 
 publican Marriage " bound a man and woman together 
 and threw them into the river. " Battues " ranged the 
 victims in long ranks and mowed them down by cannon 
 and musket. Fifteen thousand were destroyed in a month 
 in this one city of Nantes, and thirty thousand during the 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 51 
 
 Reign of Terror. Many of the victims were women and 
 children. Three hundred orphans were drowned in a 
 single night. In Bordeaux, Toulon, and Marseilles the 
 scenes were more or less similar. 
 
 160. How were the French Revolutionists regarded 
 by the English Whigs who had approved the American 
 Revolution? 
 
 Ans. At first the effort of the French people to free 
 themselves from the tyranny of an absolute, reckless 
 monarchy, as Englishmen had done, was regarded with 
 pleasure and satisfaction by Burke, Fox, Wordsworth, 
 Shelley, Byron and most Whigs, but when the Girondists 
 — the Constitutionalists — fell before the anarchists and 
 atheists, most of the Whigs of England turned in horror 
 from the French Revolution and when Burke was taunted 
 with being a turncoat he asserted that he was an Old 
 Whig, not one of the rabid new type. 
 
 161. How long did Robespierre hold the reins of 
 power in his own hands? 
 
 Ans. For a period of about three months, till late in 
 July, 1794, Robespierre and his creatures drove many to 
 insanity and suicide in addition to the multitudes they 
 sent to the guillotine. The strain was too great for human 
 nature. The reaction came. Success of the armies and the 
 realization of the Convention's authority made massacre 
 seem uncalled for. Some one in the Convention dared to 
 denounce Robespierre as a tyrant. The spell was broken. 
 Robespierre was arrested and though he tried to kill him- 
 self was hurried to the guillotine with his confederates, 
 and France awakened at last from the nightmare of the 
 Reign^of Terror, July 28, 1794. 
 
 162. What events happened after Robespierre's fall? 
 
 Ans. Deputies that had been driven from their seats 
 in the Convention resumed their places. Christian worship 
 was re-established and when a mob of forty thousand in 
 October, 1795, advanced to storm the Tuileries where the 
 Convention met. Napoleon, a young lieutenant of artillery, 
 with well-directed cannon, mowed them down with grape 
 shot. The Revolution had produced a genius capable of 
 controlling and directing it. 
 
62 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 163. What was the next step after Napoleon _ quelled 
 the Parisian mob? 
 
 Ans. The Convention soon dissolved, declaring its 
 labors ended, and the councils and board of directors 
 provided for in the new constitution assumed control. 
 
 164. How was the new government organized? 
 
 Ans. There were to be two legislative bodies somewhat 
 corresponding to the American House and Senate; a 
 Council of hive Hundred and a Council of the Ancients, 
 half as large and all over fifty years of age. The executive 
 power was vested in a directory or board of five persons. 
 
 165. What did the new government proceed to do? 
 Ans. The revolutionists now became propagandists; 
 
 the republic now began to do what it had promised — 
 help all those who desired freedom, and such longings for 
 social and political equality and freedom were astir that 
 French armies were welcomed as deliverers and a band 
 of commonwealths were created surrounding France. 
 
 166. Was there any permanent freedom gained in 
 countries outside of France? 
 
 Ans. Though the various republics established by 
 French armies were short lived, yet there was a general 
 gain. The monarchies were never as despotic afterwards 
 as before the Revolution. 
 
 167. What were the first new commonwealths formed 
 by France? 
 
 Ans. Austria and England were the only formidable 
 opponents of the French republic. The directory decided 
 to crush the former. Two armies invaded Austria directly, 
 while Napoleon with a much smaller army was given the 
 task of driving the Austrians out of Italy. This he did, 
 crossing the Maritime Alps before they were free from 
 snow. As a result of this first campaign of 1796-97, Na- 
 poleon- established the Cisalpine Republic in northern 
 Italy and also the Ligurian Republic around Genoa. 
 
 168. After establishing two new republics in northern 
 Italy, what was Napoleon's further action before returning 
 to Paris? 
 
 Ans. The larger armies previously sent into Austria 
 having been driven back, instead of returning to Paris 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 53 
 
 when his assigned task in Italy was accompHshed, Napoleon 
 climbed the eastern Alps and deployed upon the plains of 
 Austria. By threatening Vienna he induced the emperor 
 to make an important treaty by which not only was the 
 work done in Italy formally acknowledged, but Austria 
 ceded her Belgian provinces to the French Republic and 
 also valuable provinces on the west side of the Rhine. 
 
 169. What was the next step of the French directory 
 after humbling Austria by the genius of Napoleon? 
 
 Ans. The next step was an attack on England by way of 
 Egypt. It was Napoleon who proposed the indirect attack 
 on England's eastern possessions rather than the direct 
 attack across the English Channel. By conquering and 
 colonizing Egypt, France would control eastern trade 
 and block England's route to India. The directory, more- 
 over, was glad to send the dangerously able Napoleon out 
 of France for a time. 
 
 170. How well did Napoleon's eastern scheme succeed? 
 
 Ans. Napoleon conquered Egypt in the celebrated 
 Battle of the Pyramids, where he aroused the enthusiasm 
 of his men by the famous words, " Soldiers, from yonder 
 pyramids forty centuries are looking down upon you." 
 All lower Egypt was his, but Nelson destroyed his fleet 
 August 1, 1798, and Admiral Sidney Smith prevented his 
 capture of Acre in Syria, after Gaza and Jaffa had fallen. 
 
 171. Did France succeed in establishing republics 
 outside of Italy? 
 
 Ans. During 1798 and January, 1799, the French set 
 up three new republics. First, by means of an insurrection 
 in Rome and by making a prisoner of the pope, the Roman, 
 or Tiberian, jxepublic was established. i\ext, the Swiss 
 cantons were united under the name of the Helvetic 
 Republic; and thirdly, the King of Naples was driven out 
 of his kingdom and the ParthenopEean Republic started. 
 
 172. Did the successes of the French in 1798 continue? 
 
 Ans. The year 1799 was, on the whole, quite disastrous 
 for the French. Napoleon was unable to carry his victories 
 beyond Egypt and by the loss of his fleet was unable to 
 move anywhere freely. A coalition of the leading states 
 of Europe was quickly formed, encouraged by Nelson's 
 
54 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 victory; the French, were driven out of Italy and the re- 
 publics at Rome and Naples were abolished. The French 
 royalists plucked up courage, while the Jacobins began 
 to threaten another Reign of Terror. 
 
 173. What was the outcome of the defeats and dangers 
 of 1799? 
 
 Ans. Napoleon, hearing of the conditions in France* 
 boldly slipped through the English fleet, reached Paris 
 and was hailed with acclaim. The majority of the people 
 felt the need of his power; some of the directors agreed 
 with him to overthrow the government and, when the 
 Council of Five Hundred opposed his measures, he 
 promptly drove them out, November 9, 1799. Napoleon 
 became a French Cromwell and was master of the situa- 
 tion. The republic was over and the Revolution at an end. 
 
 174. What form of government took the place of the 
 republic? 
 
 Ans. a new constitution, the fourth in the decade 
 since 1789, was prepared, submitted to the people and 
 heartily approved. This vested the executive power in 
 three consuls for ten years. The first consul really exer- 
 cised the authority of the three, and Napoleon, of course, 
 was first consul, exercising a veiled military despotism. 
 
 175. Were all the functions of government absorbed 
 by the three consuls? 
 
 Ans. The ordinary functions of government were still 
 carried on by a council of state, a tribunate, a legislature 
 and a senate. But the members of all these bodies were 
 appointed or approved more or less directly by the con- 
 suls; or, in other words, France was such a republic as 
 Rome was under Augustus Caesar. Names and forms 
 continued as before, but it was one-man power. 
 
 176. How did the great powers of Europe regard this 
 failure of the republican idea and return to monarchical 
 rule? 
 
 Ans. Austria and ^ England refused to recognize the 
 success of a usurper in place of the divine rights of the 
 Bourbons. 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 55 
 
 177. How did Napoleon enforce his position and that 
 of France? 
 
 Ans. In the spring of 1800 Napoleon, for a second time, 
 crossed the Alps into Italy and defeated an Austrian army 
 three times as large as his own in the battle of Marengo. 
 Moreau gained another victory at Hohenlinden, and 
 Frances II of Austria signed a treaty which allowed the 
 Rhine to become the eastern boundary of France, Febru- 
 ary, 1801, and which also recognized the Cisalpine, Ligu- 
 rian, Helvetian, and Batavian Republics. England also 
 signed the Treaty of Amiens March, 1802. Napoleon had 
 gained the recognition of all his formidable foes. 
 
 178. Having won success abroad, what was Napoleon 
 able to do for internal affairs in France? 
 
 Ans. Napoleon was now free to use his enormous 
 energies in the arts of peace, as amazing as his stupendous 
 acts of war. He built a miHtary road by the Simplon 
 Pass, superior in engineering to any of the famous old 
 Roman roads over difficult passes. He revised the laws 
 of France by the Code Napoleon, not unlike the work of 
 the Roman Justinian. By it the work of the Revolution 
 was secured. It recognized the equality of noble and 
 peasant before the law. It is today the basis of law in 
 France, Belgium, Holland, western Germany, Switzer- 
 land, and Italy. It did more to secure liberation in western 
 Europe than anything else has done. 
 
 179. What was Napoleon's reward for his services to 
 France? 
 
 Ans. He was made consul for life, by a vote of the 
 people, with the right to name his successor, August, 
 1802, and in 1804, after a conspiracy against his life and 
 some activity on the part of his former foes, he was made 
 emperor by an almost unanimous vote, less than three 
 thousand voting against the decree submitted to the 
 people, 
 
 180. Did the change in France from a republic to a 
 monarchy also change the other republics which France 
 had created? 
 
 Ans. Within five years all the surrounding republics 
 which France had created were changed into monarchies 
 dependent upon France or became a part of France proper . 
 
56 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 181. What were the new kingdoms established by 
 Napoleon soon after he assumed the monarchy? 
 
 Ans. Napoleon crowned himself King of Italy in Milan 
 with the iron crown of the Lombards, thus changing the 
 Cisalpine Republic into a kingdom; the Ligurian Republic, 
 with Genoa as a center and including part of Sardinia, 
 was annexed to France, and the Batavian Republic became 
 the Kingdom of Holland with Napoleon's brother, Louis 
 Bonaparte, as king, 1806. He also made his oldest brother, 
 Joseph, King of Naples. 
 
 182. Did the powers of Europe accept Napoleon's new 
 movements peacefully? 
 
 Ans. The great powers of Europe dreaded the empire 
 of France more than the republic. Napoleon's military 
 despotism was a menace to Europe and from his assump- 
 tion of the crown, in 1804, to his final defeat in 1815, coali- 
 tion after coalition was formed against him, with England 
 always leading. 
 
 183. What was the character of the first coalition 
 against the Emperor Napoleon? 
 
 Ans. In 1805, England, Russia, Austria and Sweden 
 united against Napoleon, and Napoleon promptly massed 
 a large army to invade England, but when his fleet failed 
 to do its part he turned on the Austrians and Russians 
 as they approached the Rhine, defeated the Austrians at 
 Ulm, marched through Vienna once more, and gained one 
 of his greatest victories, Austerlitz, over one hundred 
 thousand Austrians and Russians. 
 
 184. What were the rewards of Austerlitz? 
 
 Ans. Austria was forced to yield Venetia. Sixteen 
 German states, declaring themselves independent, formed 
 the Confederation of the Rhine, with Napoleon as pro- 
 tector. Francis II was obliged to resign the crown of the 
 Holy Roman Empire and content himself with that of 
 Austria alone. Thus Napoleon with almost a single blow 
 shattered an empire that had existed for eight hundred 
 years. 
 
 185. What check on Napoleon's success resembled 
 his previous check in Egypt and Syria? 
 
 Ans. Nelson won Trafalgar, off the coast of Spain, 
 October 21, 1805, two days after Napoleon's success at 
 Ulm, and England was safe from invasion. 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 67 
 
 186. What were Napoleon's movements after humbling 
 Austria? 
 
 Ans. Prussia, angered by Napoleon's insulting treat- 
 ment, risked war and lost at Jena in 1806, and Napoleon, 
 in less than a month, crushed the military power that 
 Frederick the Great had consolidated half a century before. 
 In 1807 Tsar Alexander I felt the power of Napoleon at , 
 Friedland and sued for peace. Prussia was stripped of half 
 her domains and part was given to Saxony as the Grand 
 Duchy of Warsaw and part became the Kingdom of 
 Westphalia with Napoleon's brother, Jerome Bonaparte, as 
 king. Prussia was now virtually a dependency of France. 
 
 187. What was the famous continental system of 
 Napoleon? 
 
 Ans. The continental system of Napoleon was the 
 effort he made to strike England through her commerce, 
 as he was unable to reach her directly. He issued two 
 famous decrees, named from the cities he happened to be 
 in at the time, Berlin and Milan, which closed all the ports 
 of the continent against English ships and forbade any 
 European nation holding any intercourse with Great 
 Britain, all of whose ports he declared closed. 
 
 188. Was Napoleon able to enforce his continental 
 system? 
 
 Ans. So powerful was his control of Europe that 
 Napoleon was able to very seriously cripple England's 
 trade, but this injured France also. Portugal opened its 
 ports to England and the prince regent was promptly 
 deposed by Napoleon, who sent a marshal to take posses- 
 sion of the country, and then Napoleon forced the Bourbon 
 King of Spain to resign his crown, which was bestowed on 
 Joseph Bonaparte, 1808. Naples, where Joseph had been 
 reigning, was given to Murat, Napoleon's brother-in-law. 
 Thus Napoleon made and unmade kings and distributed 
 his family over western Europe. 
 
 189. What was the result of Napoleon's bold usurpa- 
 tions? 
 
 Ans. Spain and Portugal flew to arms and England 
 sent Sir Arthur Wellesley, afterwards the Duke of Welling- 
 ton, to Spain to help. The French were driven out of 
 
58 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 Portugal and forced north of the Ebro in Spain. Joseph 
 fled in dismay and Napoleon was forced to take the field, 
 himself. He entered Spain with a large army and re- 
 placed his brother on the throne at Madrid. 
 
 190. Did any other country dare to engage Napoleon 
 in war? 
 
 Ans. Austria took advantage of Napoleon's absence 
 in Spain to declare war, but the great strategist crossed 
 the Danube, won Wagram, and again rode through the 
 familiar streets of Vienna, and Austria was still further 
 dismembered by tracts of land going either to France or 
 neighboring states. This was in 1809. 
 
 191. What were some of the further signs of Napoleon's 
 treatment of opposition? 
 
 Ans. Pius VII opposed the continental system and 
 Napoleon added the Papal States to the French Empire. 
 The pope excommunicated Napoleon, and the latter 
 arrested the pontiff and held him a prisoner in France for 
 four years. Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland, also dis- 
 approved his brother's policy, as it was ruining the trade 
 of the Dutch. Napoleon thereupon annexed Holland to 
 France. 
 
 192. What final act of haughty power did Napoleon 
 now consummate? 
 
 Ans. In 1810, the year after the overthrow of Austria. 
 Napoleon divorced his wife, Josephine, of lowly origin like 
 himself, and married the archduchess, Maria Louisa, 
 daughter of Francis II of Austria. This was a matter of 
 politics rather than passion or affection. Napoleon had a 
 feeling that he might stand better with other royal families 
 if allied with one, and he also ardently desired an heir 
 for his throne. 
 
 193. When may Napoleon be considered to be at the 
 height of his power and glory? 
 
 Ans, In 1811, after a son was born to Napoleon and 
 the daughter of the House of Hapsburg, Napoleon may be 
 regarded as at the summit of his marvelous career. His 
 empire stretched from the Baltic to southern Italy and 
 embraced France, Belgium, Holland, northwestern Ger- 
 many, Italy west of the Apennines as far as Naples, be- 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 59 
 
 sides Venetia at the head of the Adriatic. Only allied, 
 vassal or dependent states surrounded his own large 
 empire. His brothers, relatives or marshals occupied 
 ancient thrones. He was King of Italy and Protector of 
 the Confederation of the Rhine. Prussia and Austria were 
 subject to his will and Russia and Denmark were allies. 
 
 194. Why was the splendor of Napoleon, like the 
 splendor of Louis XIV, sure to fall? 
 
 Ans. First, the diverse elements of which the empire 
 was composed were as yet too loosely joined to outlive 
 the life of its founder. Secondly, the continental system 
 inflicted much suffering in all the maritime nations of 
 Europe and caused much discontent. This had drawn 
 Napoleon into war with Spain, which resulted in much 
 trouble to him later. Thirdly, France had now recruited 
 her exhausted armies with mere boys unfit to bear the 
 strain of Napoleon's rapid campaigns and the taxes 
 necessary to meet expenses added fearful burdens. Fourth, 
 the crowd of dispossessed princes and aristocrats were 
 naturally watching their chances of return. Fifth, 
 those who had welcomed Napoleon as a deliverer, as the 
 carrier-out of the French ideals of liberty and equality, 
 now saw him adopt imperial manners and set aside his 
 plebeian wife that he might wed royalty, which was 
 looked on as a betrayal of the people's cause. 
 
 195. What was Napoleon's first obvious blunder and 
 failure? 
 
 Ans. When the tsar entered a coalition against Na- 
 poleon in 1812 and the latter entered the confines of Rus- 
 sia with half a million men, though he won a costly victory 
 at Borodino, he found Moscow deserted, and shortly on 
 fire, depriving him of food and shelter and obliging him 
 to attempt return amid the hardships of approaching 
 winter. Thousands perished in long black files, frozen to 
 death and circling each camp fire, while other thousands 
 were picked off by fierce Cossacks ever hanging like wolves 
 on the army's trail; three hundred thousand perished; 
 one hundred thousand were made prisoners, and only 
 one hundred thousand recrossed the Niemen. 
 
 196. What was the inevitable result of this fearful 
 failure of the invasion of Russia? 
 
 Ans. a sixth coalition was formed by Russia, Prussia, 
 
60 HISTORY OF FRANCE 
 
 England and Sweden, By gigantic efforts, Napoleon 
 raised a new army of three hundred thousand men and 
 won two battles over the Russians and Prussians, but at 
 Leipsic Napoleon met so many allies that the three days' 
 battle was called the " Battle of the Nations." Napoleon 
 lost and was for the first time forced to retreat into France. 
 
 197. What happened to France after Napoleon's defeat 
 in the three-days Battle of the Nations at Leipsic, 1813? 
 
 Ans. The -allies poured over the frontiers of France. 
 Napoleon struggled hard against the invaders, but his 
 most trusted officers deserted him. Napoleon abdicated 
 in favor of his infant son, but Paris surrendered to the 
 allies and the Bourbons sat once more on the throne of 
 France in the person of Louis XVI 's brother, called Louis 
 XVIII. 
 
 198. What became of Napoleon after his abdication, 
 1814? 
 
 Ans. Napoleon was banished to the little island of 
 Elba in the Mediterranean and allowed to retain his title 
 of emperor and some hundreds of his old retainers, 
 
 199. What became of his empire? 
 
 Ans. Commissioners met in Vienna to readjust the 
 map of Europe. It was a laborious task to settle the con- 
 flicting claims and it took nearly a year, from September, 
 1814, to June, 1815. The great effort was to put everything 
 back as nearly as possible in the shape it was before the 
 French Revolution of twenty-five years before. There 
 was no regard for the people, only for the princes. Thrones 
 were righted and their legitimate despots invited to re- 
 mount them. Germany and Italy were split up among 
 many petty tyrants and the Bourbons were restored in 
 Spain and Naples as well as France. Temporarily every- 
 thing went back to its former relations, but the Revolution 
 had gone too far to allow the people to be confined again 
 as before for any length of time. 
 
 200. How was the dream of the royalists who strove 
 to bring back the good old days of the former monarchies 
 rudely disturbed? 
 
 Ans. In March, 1815, when many were feeling dis- 
 appointed at the reactionary Bourbon rule (which called 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 61 
 
 this the nineteenth year of Louis XVIH's reign) and long- 
 ings for Napoleon were being nidulged, he suddenly ap- 
 peared in the south of France, won all hearts by his 
 patriotic address, and pushed on to Paris, greeted ar- 
 dently by all his old soldiers and officers, Louis was 
 deserted and fled. 
 
 201. What was the outcome of this sudden return of 
 Napoleon? 
 
 Ans. The congress at Vienna was still in session meting 
 out the land when the news reached them that Napoleon 
 was in France. A seventh and last coalition was at once 
 formed and a million men poured over the French border. 
 Napoleon desired peace, but there was no peace with him 
 on the throne. Hoping to win by his old-time speed, 
 Napoleon hastened into Belgium with one hundred and 
 thirty thousand men in order to crush the English and 
 Prussians. He defeated the Prussians under Bliicher and 
 then met the English at Waterloo, June 18, 1815, and, as 
 all the world knows, lost after a hard fight. 
 
 202. What was the end of Napoleon after Waterloo? 
 
 Ans. This time he was banished to a lonely rock in the 
 South Atlantic, St. Helena, where he was carefully guarded 
 by the British till his death in 1821. 
 
 203. What has been the history of France since the fall 
 of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbons? 
 
 Ans. The history of France for the century since the 
 fall of Napoleon and the restoration of the Bourbons has 
 been a struggle between the new ideals of the Revolution 
 and the monarchical tendencies of the conservative and 
 aristocratic classes. Notwithstanding reverses, the re- 
 publican ideals have survived and finally won their way, 
 developing the powerful French nation of today that has 
 astonished the world with its virility and resourcefulness. 
 
 204. What was the first marked episode in France 
 after the second restoration of the Bourbons? 
 
 Ans. Louis XVIII paid more heed to the new ideas of 
 the people after he regained the throne and affairs moved 
 with tranquility until his death in 1824, but Charles X 
 began a reactionary policy and the people rose in revolt 
 and drove him into exile and placed Louis Philippe, Duke 
 of Orleansr on the throne in 1830. 
 
62 , HISTORY OP FRANCE 
 
 205. How did France fare under the House of Orleans? 
 
 Ans. Louis Philippe had travelled extensively and 
 suffered the ups and downs of fortune. Consequently the 
 people and he felt more kindly toward each other, and 
 under a new constitution much satisfaction was antici- 
 pated. His title, " King of the French," evidenced his 
 democratic intentions. But the leaven was working, the 
 republican party was steadily gaining strength, and in 
 1848 Louis Philippe fled to England as plain Mr. Smith. 
 The second republic was established and Louis Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, nephew of the great Napoleon, was chosen 
 president December 20, 1848. 
 
 206. Did the republican ideas that kept working in 
 France affect other countries in Europe? 
 
 Ans. In almost every country there were uprisings 
 after the French change of rulers in 1830. Existing con- 
 stitutions were liberalized in some countries so as to give 
 the people a larger share in the government, while in some 
 others the governments grew more cruel and despotic 
 than before. On the whole, there was a gain in liberty, 
 and Belgium, in 1831, became an independent state, and 
 after the establishment of the second republic in 1848 
 the constitutions of Europe underwent further changes in 
 the interests of the people. 
 
 207. How did the second Napoleon succeed as presi- 
 dent? 
 
 Ans. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte succeeded so well in 
 imitating his uncle's methods that in three years, after a 
 quarrel with the Legislative Assembly, he suddenly dis- 
 solved that body, placed its leaders under arrest and ap- 
 pealed to the country to endorse his act. This the people 
 approved by a vote of over seven millions in favor and 
 much less than one million against. They even rewarded 
 him for it by making him president for ten years, or 
 practically a dictator. The next year, 1852, by a similar 
 popular vote, he was made emperor and took the title of 
 Napoleon III. 
 
 208. Who was Napoleon II? 
 
 Ans. The son of Napoleon I and Maria Louisa as heir 
 apparent was called the King of Rome. After* Napoleon's 
 
HISTORY OF FRANCE 63 
 
 . downfall he lived at his grandfather's court at Vienna as 
 the Duke of Reichstadt. Although he never ruled in France 
 he is known as Napoleon II. He was a delicate child and 
 died on the verge of manhood at twenty. 
 
 209. What were the principal events of Napoleon Ill's 
 career? 
 
 Ans. Napoleon III had some of his great uncle's taste 
 for war and engaged in three within his reign of less than 
 twenty years. The first of- the three was with Russia in 
 the Crimean War, 1853-56; the second was the Austro- 
 Sardinian war, 1859 ; and the third was the Franco-Prussian 
 war of 1870-71, so disastrous to France. 
 
 210. What were the causes of the Franco-Prussian 
 war of 1870-71? 
 
 Ans. The main causes of this war were French jealousy 
 of Prussia's growing power and the French Emperor's 
 desire to stand well with his people by emulating the 
 achievements of his uncle. 
 
 211. What was the character of the war between 
 France and Prussia? 
 
 Ans. Napoleon started the war by declaring that 
 Prussia was scheming to increase her power by placing a 
 prince on the vacant throne of Spain, and though, to please 
 France, Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern offered to with- 
 draw, Napoleon, making further humiliating demands, 
 which were refused, invaded Germany, but was speedily 
 hurled back, defeated at Gravelotte in August, 1870, made 
 a prisoner at Sedan, and in January, 1871, Paris was com- 
 pelled to surrender after a siege of a few months. Napoleon 
 died in England in 1873. 
 
 212. What were the terms exacted from France by the 
 successful Germans in 1871? 
 
 Ans. France was required to surrender the greater 
 part of the Rhinish provinces of Alsace and Lorraine 
 that had once belonged to Germany; to pay an indemnity 
 of about one billion dollars, the largest sum ever de- 
 manded by a conqueror; and to allow parts of French 
 territory to be occupied by German garrisons until the sum 
 was paid. 
 
64 HISTORY OP FRANCE 
 
 213. How did France act in regard to the German 
 terms? 
 
 Ans. The Red Republicans, or Communists, of Paris 
 shut the gates of the city, declaring the capital would 
 never submit to such humiliation and a second Reign of 
 Terror was started, but the government suppressed the 
 anarchists and restored order after the Tuileries, the 
 Hotel de Ville and many other public buildings had been 
 burnt. The Third Republic was set up under the presi- 
 dency of M, Thiers, the eminent historian, the indemnity 
 was paid in an astonishingly short time, and France has 
 shown every sign of permanent growth and power. 
 
 214. Why did France enter the present war? 
 
 Ans. Prance was attacked by Germany because her 
 reply was unsatisfactory as to her stand in case of a 
 German-Russo war. ..Germany claims that airmen from 
 France dropped bombs on Nuremberg before Germany's 
 declaration of war. The newspapers of Nuremberg, how- 
 ever, first heard of the outrage in a dispatch from Berlin 
 and make no mention of such an occurrence. 
 
 215. Had Germany reason to believe that France 
 would attack her in case of war with Russia? 
 
 Ans. Prance was Russia's ally. Prom the time of her 
 defeat in 1871, she had mourned her lost territory of 
 Alsace-Lorraine. In Paris the statues of Strasburg and 
 Metz were kept in the circle of the statues of French cities 
 and on each anniversary of their loss to Prance were 
 draped in mourning. Revanche, or revenge, was the watch- 
 word of Prance, while that of Germany was Saigner a blanc, 
 or a threat to "bleed white" or ruin Prance in case of 
 another war. A conflict between Germany and Prance 
 seemed but a matter of time.