THE GRAPE. 125 



beloved vines, all anxious to take some part in it, and not 

 in vain desiring to do so, for the plant can afford occupa- 

 tion for all ; and while the men broke the rocks and dug 

 the trenches, the women and children prepared and carried 

 the plants, and the aged people, recalling all they had 

 heard in their youth, went about to point out the 

 spots where tradition said the plants had formerly best 

 flourished. The ardour of the people ensured success, and 

 soon every favourable situation was covered with thriving 

 vines ; nor was the plant confined, as it had been before, to 

 the extreme south of the country, but spread through 

 almost every province ; for during the two centuries of its 

 banishment forests had been cut down, marshes drained, 

 and waste places rendered fertile, so that the land had 

 thus been prepared for it to take possession and nourish. 

 Perhaps, too, a new system of cultivation may have con- 

 tributed to the effect, for the Gauls had formerly followed 

 the Greek mode of culture, and now adopted that of the 

 Romans. They were not left long to the undisturbed en- 

 joyment of their recovered treasures, for the attacks of 

 the Northern barbarians began with the beginning of the 

 5th century, though their incursions were more hurtful 

 to the vine-dressers than to the vines, for it was for the 

 sake of this plant and its produce that the, conquerors 

 came, and they therefore took care that its culture should 

 not be neglected. By this time it had extended even to 

 the vicinity of Paris, and it would appear must have suc- 

 ceeded there better than it does at the present day, for 

 the Emperor Julian has left on record a special commen- 

 dation of the wine of this canton ; and the hill of St. 

 Genevieve, all that part of the city now known as the 

 Latin quarter, and even the enclosure of the Louvre, were 

 all dedicated to the growth of the grape. In the course of 

 time this extensive multiplication of vineyards drew down a 

 fresh proscription on the persecuted plant, for a bad har- 

 vest occurring in 1566, Charles IX., a worthy imitator of 

 Domitian, attributing the scarcity of corn, as the latter 

 had done, to the prevalence of vines, commanded that 

 they should be destroyed, but, somewhat less severe than 

 the Roman, was content that they should be permitted to 



