But France, complex, mobile, changeful as the sea, in riotous enjoyment of her new-found liberties, casts off a form of government as she would an ill-fitting garment. She knows the value of tranquillity--she had it for one thousand years! The _people_, who have only breathed the upper air for a century--the people, who were stifled under feudalism, stamped upon by Valois kings, riveted down by Richelieu, then prodded, outraged, and starved by Bourbons, have become a great nation. Many-sided, resourceful, gifted, it matters not whether they have called the head of their government consul, emperor, king, or president. They are a race of freemen, who can never again be enslaved by tyrannous system. There may be in store for France new revolutions and fresh overturnings. Not anchored, as is England, in an historic past which she reveres, and with a singularly gifted and emotional people who are the sport of the current of the hour, who can predict her future! But whatever that future may be, no American can be indifferent to the fate of a nation to whom we owe so much. Nor can we ever forget that in the hour of our direst extremity, and regardless of cost to herself, she helped us to establish our liberties, and to take our place among the great nations of the earth. SOVEREIGNS AND RULERS OF FRANCE. KINGS OF THE FRANKS MEROVINGIAN LINE A.D. Clovis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496 Thierry, Clodomir, Clothaire, Childebert 511 Clothaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 559 Charibert, Gontran, Chilperic, Sigheben 561 Childebert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 584 Theodebert, Thierry II., Clothaire III. 596 Dagobert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 628 Clovis II., Sigheben II. . . . . . . . . 638 Clothaire III., Chilperic II. . . . . . 656 Thierry III., Dagobert II. . . . . . . . 673 Clovis III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 690 Childebert III. . . . . . . . . . . . . 695 Dagobert III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 711 Chilperic III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 716 Thierry IV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720 Chilperic IV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 741 CARLOVINGIAN LINE Pepin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752 Charlemagne . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 768 Louis (The Debonnaire) . . . . . . . . . 814 KINGS OF FRANCE AFTER DIVISION OF THE EMPIRE Charles (The Bald) . . . . . . . . . . . 843 Louis (The Stammerer) . . . . . . . . . . 877 Louis III. and Carloman . . . . . . . . . 879 Charles (The Fat) . . . . . . . . . . . . 884 Hugh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 887 Charles (The Simple) . . . . . . . . . . 898 Raoul . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 923 Louis IV. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 936 Lothaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 954 Louis V. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 986 CAPETIAN LINE