VIII.] POWER OF THE CROWN. 157 bore the whole brunt of taxation, and supported alike king, nobles, and clergy. Their crops might not be housed till the tax-gatherer, the tithe-gatherer, and the lord of the manor had each picked out his share. So many days of their labour in the height of the season were due, some to the king's work on the roads, some to the lord's own fields. On the death of the farmer the lord took the best beast on the farm, and there were hosts of other dues to carry off the scanty supply that could be obtained. Not only might no one but the lord kill the game, but no one might scare it away or go into the fields when they might disturb the nests. Corn might be ground nowhere but at the lord's mill, with heavy dues of course ; and such produce as there might be could not be taken to market in the next town without paying octroi^ or duty at the gates. Worst of all was the gabelle, or salt-tax, which had weighed on France for four hundred years. There was no eluding it. Every member of a family, down to the new-born babe, was rated for so much salt, and the tax had to be paid, whether it were used or not ; and, after all, the royal salt was so dear and use- less that nothing was so much smuggled. Every province was still like a separate country from the rest, and the boundaries could not be passed without passports, going through a custom-house and paying duties. Each pro- vince too had a governor, a nobleman appointed by the king, with a staff of attendants, all of course paid by the wretched provincials. The old principle was still faithfully acted out : Jacques Bonhomme's back is very broad, he pays for all. Jacques Bonhomme's back was breaking at last. Ages of bad cultivation of small hold- ings made crops uncertain, and there was frequent famine. Lewis, Duke of Orleans, a good and pious man, a son of the wicked regent, once brought a loaf of black uneatable bread, full of sawdust, to the council, and, placing it on the table, said, " See, Sire, what your sub- jects eat : " but he was met with sneers on all sides. Indeed it would have taken supernatural gifts to break through the deadlock of the whole country. Pious people gave alms which only relieved distress for a moment, and thoughtful people, scholars and dreamers, tlirew themselves into the past. They studied the history of the great republics of Greece and Rome ; they forgot that these too had their slaves, and, in the corruption of Church and nation, they fancied that to go back to classic
