But as a rule the great nobles were obliged to take care of the foundlings abandoned within their jurisdiction. In the origin of the fiefs, the bastards had been set down as _épaves_ (waifs), and the interpreters of the law (_jurisconsults_) had decided that the lord had no right to refuse to take care of the _épaves_. The parliaments too took the view that, inasmuch as the _seigneur_ profited by all deaths that occurred and succeeded to all titles in the case of disinheritance within his domain, he should accept the liability for the care of the unknown children found within their domain. Of the many decrees which touch on this important point, the oldest is that of the Parliament of Paris in the year 1547. Many other _arrêts_ followed, until on September 3, 1667, the following, in the interest of the special hospitals, declared that: “All the _seigneurs_ (_hauts justiciers_) will be held responsible for the expense and nourishment of all infants whose parents are unknown, and who are found exposed on their lands and taken to hospitals.” This regulation, as Ramcle says, failed in its purpose, for it was not possible to force what was considered charity on the none too generous nobles. The laws were evaded, and each community tried to send to its neighbours the unfortunate infants it should have guarded. The mortality of infants increased, and as in Rome in the days of the Empire, mothers threw their children into the sewers or left them on the highways. Those less inhuman left them at the doors of the hospitals, where, during the winter, in the morning, they were frequently taken in more dead than alive. Of course, the laws against these abandonments were promptly enforced—the unfortunate women were easily punished. A girl who killed her offspring was hung, and others who were caught leaving children in solitary places were whipped and disgraced in the cities and villages where they lived. By an edict of Henry II., under penalty of punishment, a woman _enceinte_ was obliged to declare her condition; and to add to this bungling legislative effort, she was obliged to tell who the guilty man was, the maxim _creditur virgini_ being accepted everywhere. The attempts at curing the ills failed, for, while the intentions of the legislators were undoubtedly honest, they only exposed shameless conditions, made the unfortunate suffer even more, brought ruin to many honest families, and gain to shameless women only. The number of children abandoned and murdered in defiance of the regulations increased instead of decreasing. At this time there came an individual effort to better things, by a woman whose name is not even known and whose efforts at a noble work have, owing to the actions of her servants, been much misinterpreted.