POLITICS AND RELIGION 
93 
subjugated, though the acknowledgment of Hova sove¬ 
reignty was rather a nominal one, and their sphere of 
power reached only as far as the military posts were 
maintained. 
View of the former Royal Palace at Antananarivo. 
(From the Revue des Sciences.) 
The Hova Kingdom has now only a historical significa¬ 
tion, as it has been shattered by the French. The once 
all-powerful prime minister died in banishment, the last 
queen, Ranavalona III., to whom only a phantom of 
sovereignty was left after the French invasion, was 
dethroned in 1897 ^.nd is at present living in exile on 
