[Footnote 135: _Les oeuvres de Maistre Alain Chartier_, published by Andre Duchesne, Paris, 1642, in 4to, p. 410.] [Footnote 136: _Trial_, vol. ii, p. 436. See _post_, vol. i, p. 82.] [Footnote 137: Froissart, _Chroniques_, book i, chap. 128.] [Footnote 138: Jean Juvenal des Ursins in Buchon, _Choix des Chroniques_, iv.] [Footnote 139: Rymer, _Foedera_, vol. ix, p. 427.] Every one thought first of himself. Whoever possessed land owed himself to his land; his neighbour was his enemy. The burgher thought only of his town. The peasant changed his master without knowing it. The three orders were not yet united closely enough to form, in the modern sense of the word, a state. Little by little the royal power united the French. This union became stronger in proportion as royalty grew more powerful. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that desire to think and act in common, which creates great nations, became very strong among us--at least in those families which furnished officers to the Crown--and it even spread among the lower orders of society. Rabelais introduces Francois Villon and the King of England into a tale so inflamed with military bravado that it might have been told over the camp fire in an almost identical manner by one of Napoleon's grenadiers.[140] In his preface to the poem we have just quoted, Chapelain writes of the occasions when "_la patrie_ who is our common mother, has need of all her children." Already the old poet expresses himself like the author of the _Marseillaise_.[141] [Footnote 140: _Pantagruel_, book iv, chap. lxvii.] [Footnote 141: _La Pucelle_, Preface.] It cannot be denied that the feeling for _la patrie_ did exist under the old _regime_. The impulse imparted to this sentiment by the Revolution was none the less immense. It added to it the idea of national unity and national territorial integrity. It extended to all the right of property hitherto reserved to a small number, and thus, so to speak, divided _la patrie_ among the citizens. While rendering the peasant capable of possessing, the new _regime_ imposed upon him the obligations of defending his actual or potential possessions. Recourse to arms is a necessity alike for whomsoever acquires or wishes to acquire territory. Hardly had the Frenchman come to enjoy the rights of a man and of a citizen, hardly had he entered into possession or thought he might enter into possession of a home and lands of his own, when the armies of the Coalition arrived "to drive him back to ancient slavery." Then the patriot became a soldier. Twenty-three years of warfare, with the inevitable alternations of victories and defeats, built up our fathers in their love of _la patrie_ and their hatred of the foreigner.