The history of the Franks becomes, therefore, the history of the Netherlands.
In the tenth century the old Batavian and later Roman forms have faded away.
Thus the whole country was broken into many shreds and patches of sovereignty.
When did one man ever civilize a people?
A new civilization was not to be improvised by a single mind.
For a century longer, Rome still retains its outward form, but the swarming nations are now in full career.