Nothing has greater power to amalgamate the various parts of an empire, and smooth away differences, than good roads. Three (some reckon four) royal roads, passing through the whole length of France--the great highways constructed by the Roman conquerors of Gaul--were kept in tolerable condition, as the importance of such great arteries required; but the lateral communications were, with few exceptions, in a most unsatisfactory state. In winter, when the rivers overflowed their banks, or the snow lay deep, large towns within a few miles of each other were completely cut off from all intercourse. It often happened that one district was suffering from famine, while its neighbor had more than it could consume. The wines which in Anjou and the Orleannais sold for one sol the measure and even less, cost twenty and twenty-four sols in Normandy and Picardy. Sometimes this scarcity and variation in price may have been occasioned by foolish local restrictions upon the importation and exportation of provisions; but the more frequent cause was the want of branch roads--those which existed being often mere horse-tracks, and as impassable in bad weather as the famous road from Balaklava to Inkermann. Catherine de Medicis, “flying on the wings of desire and maternal affection,” went from Paris to Tours in three days.[160] Joan of Navarre, traveling with “extraordinary speed,” spent eighteen days on the road from Compiègne to Paris. It took eight days to carry the news of the St. Bartholomew Massacre to Toulouse along one of the best roads in France, and the same time to go from Mende to Paris. Thirty years later it took Coryat five hours to travel from Montreuil to Abbeville, a distance of twenty miles, his carriage being a two-wheeled cart covered with an awning stretched over thin hoops, not unlike that still used by our village carriers. In 1560 L’Hopital was twelve days going from Nice to St. Vallier (Drome), and he too was hurrying on as quickly as possible. Lippomano, the Venetian embassador, traveling on urgent business, could not exceed four leagues a day. These examples, taken from various parts of France, and from persons of different degrees of social rank, show decisively the difficulties of communication.