The author, as beseems a doctor in theology, begins the history of his country from the creation of the world, and goes steadily on with a really terrible staying power till the reign of Louis XIV., where he is forced to stop, having arrived at his own times. The height of the volumes is such that the reader has the sensation (and almost the necessity) of alternately stretching and collapsing like a telescope in order to read a page from top to bottom; and this movement seems to emphasise the sense given by the narrative of journeying through the centuries in company with the whole brilliant procession of Counts and Kings, rulers and high sovereigns of Provence.
Roman governors, Pagan Emperors, Christian Emperors, Burgundian and Visigoth Kings, Ostogoths and Franks, Merovingians, Carlovingians, Kings of Arles and Burgundy, Kings of Arles "high sovereigns"; Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire; Counts Proprietary and Hereditary of Arles and Provence, Counts of Anjou of the 1st Race of the House of France, Counts of Anjou of the 2nd Race, in the direct line of St. Louis; and finally, from Louis XI. onwards--Kings of France: the long pageant streams by in ordered magnificence, picturesque in setting, rich in colour and attire, with splendid names and sad, splendid destinies.
The Sieur de Bouche heads his first book in the following full-blooded manner:--
"Sous ses premiers et plus anciens maitres depuis la création du monde jusqu'a á ce qu'elle ait este soumise à la domination des Romains durant l'espace de 3,927 ans."
This is a mere preliminary, a slight introduction to the body of the work.
The next Book treats of the country under the Romans during 591 years, from 125 B.C. to 466 A.D. This period is divided into three sections.
I. Provence under the Republic. II. Provence under the Pagan Emperors. III. Provence under the Christian Emperors
until the arrival of the Burgundians and Visigoths.
Then comes Provence under the first barbarian kings, Burgundian and Visigoth.
The period of the Frankish kings is again divided into Sections (and let no one who has not tackled le Sieur Honoré think lightly of a Section!)
[Illustration: THE CHURCH DOOR, SAINTES MARIES. _By Joseph Pennell._]