667.] These details have been entered into without hesitation because it is important to clearly understand by what means, by what assiduous efforts, and at what price Henry IV.

managed to win back pacifically many provinces of his kingdom, rally to his government many leaders of note, and finally to confer upon France that territorial and political unity which she lacked under the feudal regimen, and which, in the sixteenth century, the religious wars all but put it beyond her power to acquire.
To the two instances just cited of royalist reconciliation--Lyons and the spontaneous example set by her population, and Rouen and the dearly purchased capitulation of her governor Villars--must be added a third, of a different sort.

Nicholas de Neufville, Lord of Villeroi, after having served Charles IX.

and Henry III., had become, through attachment to the Catholic cause, a member of the League, and one of the Duke of Mayenne's confidants.

When Henry IV.