But these conditions led to two results which played a great part in subsequent events.

One was the exclusion of women from the succession by the adoption of the Salic Law.

Then, in order to curb the degeneracy or to reinforce the inefficiency of the hereditary ruler, there was created the office of _Maire du Palais_, a modest title which contained the germ of the future, not alone of France, but of the world.
To imperfect human vision it would have seemed at the time a fatal mistake to bury out of sight the refinements which a Latin civilization had been for nearly five centuries planting in Gaul.

But so often has this been repeated in the history of the world, one is compelled to recognize it as a part of the evolutionary method.

Again and again have we seen old civilizations effaced by barbarians.