CHAPTER I

The Threshold of the Century

The Age We Live in and its Great Events--True History and the Things Which Make It--Two of the World's Greatest Events--The Feudal System and Its Abuses--The Climax of Feudalism in France--The States General is Convened--The Fall of the Bastille--King and Queen Under the Guillotine--The Reign of Terror--The Wars of the French Revolution--Napoleon in Italy and Egypt--England as a Centre of Industry and Commerce--The Condition of the German States--Dissension in Italy and Decay in Spain--The Partition of Poland by the Robber Nations--Russia and Turkey 33