civilisation to the present period. Some allusions also to the
customs which existed in the earlier ages, and a statement of the
different dates as regards the erection and foundation of the
various monuments and institutions still extant.

[Illustration: Paris in the 16th Century. View taken from the towers of
Notre Dame.]


France, under the ancient appellation of Gaul, is cited in history as
early as 622 years before the Christian era, when Belloveaus, a
celebrated leader from that country, defeated the Hetrurians and made
himself master of Piedmont and Lombardy, by crossing the Rhone and the
Alps with his army, which at that period had never before been
attempted. Increasing in power, we find, 180 years after, the Gauls,
headed by Brennus, sacking and burning Rome; and the same chief, after
having been defeated and cut off by Camillus, the Roman general, with
the loss of 40,000 men, again appears in the year 387 before Christ at
the head of 150,000 foot and 60,000 horse, invading Macedonia, and after
ravaging the country and being ultimately defeated in Greece, to have
put an end to his existence. Some idea may be formed of the ferocious
and obdurate spirit of the Gauls, from the circumstance of the women
fighting as bravely as the men against Marius, who successfully defended
Italy against them; and when these desperate amazons found that they
were overpowered, they slew themselves and their children rather than
surrender. This occurred 101 years anterior to the birth of our Saviour,
and from that period scarcely a century has passed in which history does
not record many instances of heroic devotion of Frenchwomen, often wrong
in its object, but ever displaying a determined courage, reckless of all
selfish consideration. The names of Joan of Arc, Jeanne Hachette,