But in the high grounds the names of the old inhabitants were lost.
Nations were designated by the names of their rivers, forests, or towns.

They were classified as accessories to inanimate things; and having no monuments which reminded them of their origin, they became as it were without recollections or associations; and degenerated, as may be almost said, into a people without ancestry.
The physical state of the country had greatly changed from the times of Caesar to those of Charlemagne.

Many parts of the forest of the Ardennes had been cut down or cleared away.

Civilization had only appeared for a while among these woods, to perish like a delicate plant in an ungenial clime; but it seemed to have sucked the very sap from the soil, and to have left the people no remains of the vigor of man in his savage state, nor of the desperate courage of the warriors of Germany.

A race of serfs now cultivated the domains of haughty lords and imperious priests.
The clergy had immense possessions in this country; an act of the following century recognizes fourteen thousand families of vassals as belonging to the single abbey of Nivelle.