One well recognized fact concerning France can hardly fail to be reiterated by any who write of the manners and customs and the arts of mediæval times, and that is that the figures of population of those days bear quite similar resemblances to those of to-day. Historians of a hundred years back, even, estimated the total population of France in the fifteenth century as being very nearly the same as at the Revolution,--perhaps thirty millions. To-day eight or perhaps ten millions more may be counted, but the increase is invariably in the great cities, Paris, Lyons, Marseilles, Bordeaux, Rouen, etc. Oloron and Orthez in Béarn, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port in Navarre, or Agde or Elne in Roussillon, remain at the same figure at which they have stood for centuries, unless, as is more often the case, they have actually fallen off in numbers. And still France is abnormally prosperous, collectively and individually, so far as old-world nations go. Originally the nobility in France was of four degrees: the _noblesse_ of the blood royal, the _haute-noblesse_, the _noblesse ordinaire_ and the _noblesse_ who were made noble by patent of the ruling prince. All of these distinctions were hereditary, save, in some instances, the _noblesse ordinaire_. In the height of feudal glory there were accredited over four thousand families belonging to the _ancienne noblesse_, and ninety thousand _familles nobles_ (descendant branches of the above houses) who could furnish a hundred thousand knightly combatants for any "little war" that might be promulgated. Sometimes the family name was noble and could be handed down, and sometimes not. Sometimes, too, inheritance was through the mother, not the father; this was known as the _noblesse du ventre_. A foreign noble naturalized in France remained noble, and retained his highest title of right. The French nobles most often took their titles from their fiefs, and these, with the exception of baronies and _marquisats_, were usually of Roman origin. The chief titles below the _noblesse du sang royal_ were _ducs_, _barons_, _marquis_, _comtes_, _vicomtes_, _vidames_, and _chevaliers_ and each had their special armorial distinctions, some exceedingly simple, and some so elaborate with quarterings and blazonings as to be indefinable by any but a heraldic expert. The coats of arms of feudal France, or _armoiries_, as the French call them (a much better form of expression by the way), are a most interesting subject of study. Some of these _armoiries_ are really beautiful, some quaint and some enigmatic, as for instance those of the King of Navarre. The Revolutionary Assembly abolished such things in France, but Napoleon restored them all again, and created a new noblesse as well: "Aussitôt maint esprit fécond en reveries, Inventa le blason avec les armoiries." sang the poet Boileau.