ABSTRACT
FROM the turmoil of the last invasions, the West emerged covered with countless scars. The towns themselves had not been spared-at least not by the Scandinavians-and if many of them, after pillage or evacuation, rose again from their ruins, this break in the regular course of their life left them for long years enfeebled. Others were even less fortunate: the two principal ports of the Carolingian empire on the northern seas, Duurstede on the Rhine delta, Quentovic at the mouth of the Canche, sank once and for all to the status, respectively, of a modest hamlet and a fishing village. Along the river routes the trading centres had lost all security: in 861, the merchants of Paris, escaping in their boats, were overtaken by the ships of the Northmen and carried off into captivity.
