The country changed its masters several times.

The conquerors built castles upon the hills; cultivation increased; mills, forges, tanneries, and looms were established; roads were opened through the woods and over the marshes; the river was covered with boats.

The hamlets became large villages and joining together formed a town which protected itself by deep trenches and lofty walls.

Later, becoming the capital of a great State, it found itself straitened within its now useless ramparts and it converted them into grass-covered walks.
It grew very rich and large beyond measure.

The houses were never high enough to satisfy the people; they kept on making them still higher and built them of thirty or forty storeys, with offices, shops, banks, societies one above another; they dug cellars and tunnels ever deeper downwards.