n the Rhine wrote a wonderful war song which was
first sung in Paris by the men of Marseilles, and thus has come to be
called "La Marseillaise." It is the cry of a crushed and oppressed
people against foreign tyrants who would again enslave them. It fired
the French army with a wonderful enthusiasm, and untrained as they
were, they beat back the invaders at the hard-fought field of Valmy
and saved the French Republic.

[Illustration: The Reign of Terror]

The period known as "the reign of terror" now began in earnest. A
faction of the extreme republican party got control of the government,
and kept it by terrorizing the more peaceable citizens. The brutal
wrongs which nobles had put upon the lower classes for so many hundred
years were brutally avenged. The king was executed, as were most of
the nobles who had not fled from the country. For three or four years,
the gutters of the principal French cities ran blood. Then the better
sense of the nation came to the front and the people settled down. A
fairly good government was organized, and the executions ceased. Still
the kings of Europe would not recognize the new republic. There was
war against France for the next twenty years on the part of England,
and generally two or three other countries as well.

[Illustration: The First Singing of 'The Marseillaise']

Questions for Review

1. Why was Poland an easy prey for her neighbors?
2. Why did not Spain, France, or England interfere to prevent the
partition of Poland?
3. How did Lithuania come to be joined to Poland?
4. What things could the king of France do which would not be
tolerated in the United States today?
5. Why did the people of France submit to the rule of the king?
6. Why did the king call together the three "estates"?
7. Why do the French celebrate the 14th of July?
8. Why did the other kings take up the cause of the king of France?
9. What was the cause of the reign of terror?

CHAPTER IX

The Little Man from the Common People

The young Corsican.--The war in Italy.--Italy a battlefield for
centuries.--The victories of Bonaparte.--The first consul.--The
empire.--The French sweep over Europe.--Kings and emperors beaten and
deposed.--The fatal Russian campaign.--The first abdication.--The
return from Elba.--The battle of Waterloo.--The feudal lords once more
triumphant.

And now there came to the front one of the most remarkable characters
in all history. This was Napol