The conquest dismembered her idiom as well as her empire....

The last trace of national unity disappeared in this country after the Roman occupation.

It had been Gaul, but now it became France.

The force of centralisation which has civilised Europe, covering this immense chaos, has brought to light, after more than a hundred years, this most magnificent creation the French monarchy and the French language.

Let us lament, if you will, that the poetical imagination and the characteristic language of our ancestors have not left a more profound impression.