The other towns of the federation¹ also suffered from disturbances² and outbreaks, and then order was restored. Reforms were introduced into institutions and great changes took place in habits and customs, but the country never recovered the loss of its capital, and never regained³ its former prosperity. Commerce and industry dwindled⁴ away, and civilization abandoned those countries which for so long it had preferred to all others. They became insalubrious and sterile⁵; the territory that had supported so many millions of men became nothing more than a desert. On the hill of Fort St. Michel wild horses cropped the coarse grass.

Days flowed by like water from the fountains, and the centuries passed like drops falling from the ends of stalactites. Hunters came to chase the bears upon the hills that covered the forgotten city; shepherds led their flocks upon them; labourers turned up the soil with their ploughs; gardeners cultivated their lettuces⁶ and grafted⁷ their pear trees. They were not rich, and they had no arts. The walls of their cabins were covered with old vines and roses. A goat-skin clothed their tanned limbs, while their wives dressed themselves with the wool that they themselves had spun⁸. The goat-herds moulded little figures of men and animals out of day, or sang songs about the young girl who follows her lover through woods or among the browsing⁹ goats while the pine trees whisper together and the water utters its murmuring sound. The master of the house grew angry with the beetles¹⁰ who

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