They had found out, by some light of nature, that the Rhine and the Alps were the natural limits of France.

RHINE, one of the chief rivers of Europe; of several small Alpine head-streams, the Nearer and the Farther Rhine are the two principal, issuing from the eastern flanks of Mount St Gothard; a junction is formed at Reichenau, whence the united streamthe Upper Rhineflows N. to Lake Constance, and issuing from the NW.

And in the same spirit of entire adoption of French feelings, and even of French prejudices, she declared to the baroness that though the Rhine and the Danube were both noble rivers, the Seine was so much more beautiful that it had made her forget them both.

Roman fear disguised itself under the specious title of moderation, and the Rhine became the acknowledged boundary of the two nations until the fifth century of our era, when the Germans became the assailants, and carved with their conquering swords the provinces of imperial Rome into the kingdoms of modern Europe.