nce possessed of the whole
coast, did not seek to make the slightest progress toward the
interior. The element of their enterprise and the object of their
ambition was the ocean; and when this hardy and intrepid race
became too numerous for their narrow limits, expeditions and
colonies beyond the sea carried off their redundant population.
The Saxon warriors established themselves near the mouths of the
Loire; others, conducted by Hengist and Horsa, settled in Great
Britain. It will always remain problematical from what point
of the coast these adventurers departed; but many circumstances
tend to give weight to the opinion which pronounces those old
Saxons to have started from the Netherlands.

Paganism not being yet banished from these countries, the obscurity
which would have enveloped them is in some degree dispelled by the
recitals of the monks who went among them to preach Christianity.
We see in those records, and by the text of some of their early
laws, that this maritime people were more industrious, prosperous,
and happy, than those of France. The men were handsome and richly
clothed; and the land well cultivated, and abounding in fruits,
milk, and honey. The Saxon merchants carried their trade far
into the southern countries. In the meantime, the parts of the
Netherlands which belonged to France resembled a desert. The
monasteries which were there founded were established, according
to the words of their charters, amid immense solitudes; and the
French nobles only came into Brabant for the sport of bear-hunting
in its interminable forests. Thus, while the inhabitants of the
low lands, as far back as the light of history penetrates, appear
in a continual state of improvement, those of the high grounds,
after frequent vicissitudes, seem to sink into utter degeneracy
and subjugation. The latter wished to denaturalize themselves,
and become as though they were foreigners even on their native
soil; the former remained firm and faithful to their country
and to each other.

But the growth of French power menaced utter ruin to this interesting
race. Clovis had succeeded about the year 485 of our era, in
destroying the last remnants of Roman domination in Gaul. The
successors of these conquerors soon extended their empire from the
Pyrenees to the Rhine. They had continual contests with the free
population of the Low Countries, and their nearest neighbors. In the
commencement of the seventh century, the French king,