and later we hear complaints against the Parliament to the Council of the Lateran for attacks made by it on the "liberty of the Church," interference in the functions of the bishops, and so forth.
But this is after the death of René, and after Charles III., his nephew and successor, had left all his territory to his cousin, Louis XI., and Provence once more lapsed to the Crown of France.
From this point French history and Provençal history become one, and Provence has for her Counts Louis XI., Francis I., Henry II., Francis II. ("Roy de France et d'Ecosse," as de Bouche entitles him). Then come the religious wars in Dauphiny and Provence, the suspension of the Parliament, the Great Plague in the time of Henry III., and the "birth of the Ligue, which has caused so many evils in France," according to our historian.
The Etats Généraux de Provence were held at Aix in the reign of Henry IV.
From this time to that of Louis XIV. the country is hopelessly given over to religious troubles. Religion, or the passions that are let loose under that name, have been the scourge of this distracted land made by nature for happiness and peace.
Such are the bare outlines of Provençal history during the times that, in this country of ancient lineage, present an aspect almost modern. Those authors who have studied the drama of its farthest past treat familiarly of ages in which the Glacial Epoch plays a quite juvenile rôle.
One writer (Berenger Feraud) divides the Paleolithic Age into several epochs, one of which (Epoque Solutréen) he alludes to as a relatively short one of 11,000 years; generally they are about 100,000 years or so.
In Provence the human story can be traced to the earliest of those geological epochs when man could only express himself by "modulated cries." It took centuries and centuries to acquire a rudiment of words.
From the second epoch, when the country had become colder, dates our venerable Hearth and Home; the family living in caves (such as are still to be seen at Les Baux, for instance), and sleeping or crouching round the wood fires on long winter nights and days, slowly developing speech from the increased need of exchanging sequent ideas.
Then came the awful darkness and death of the Glacial Period, changing still further the contours of the country.