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History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages
THE GOLD SICKLE; or, _Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen_. THE BRASS BELL; or, _The Chariot of Death_. THE IRON COLLAR; or, _Faustine and Syomara_. THE SILVER CROSS; or, _The Carpenter of Nazareth_. THE CASQUE'S LARK; or, _Victoria, the Mother of the Camps_. THE PONIARID'S HILT; or, _Karadeucq and Ronan_. THE BRANDING NEEDLE; or, The _Monastery of Charolles_. THE ABBATIAL CROSIER; or, _Bonaik and Septimine_. THE CARLOVINGIAN COINS; or, _The Daughters of Charlemagne_. THE IRON ARROW-HEAD; or, _The Buckler Maiden_. THE INFANT'S SKULL; or, _The End of the World_. THE PILGRIM'S SHELL; or, _Fergan the Quarryman_. THE IRON PINCERS; or, _Mylio and Karvel_. THE IRON TREVET; or Jocelyn the Champion. THE EXECUTIONER'S KNIFE; or, Joan of Arc. THE POCKET BIBLE; or, _Christian the Printer_. THE BLACKSMITH'S HAMMER; or, _The Peasant Code_. THE SWORD OF HONOR; or, _The Foundation of the French Republic_. THE GALLEY SLAVE'S RING; or, _The Family Lebrenn_.
Published Uniform With This Volume By THE NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO. 28 CITY HALL PLACE NEW YORK CITY
Translated from the Original French by Daniel De Leon
Copyright, 1908, by the New York Labor News Co.
The invasion of Gaul by Clovis introduced feudalism in France, which is equivalent to saying in Europe, France being the teeming womb of the great historic events of that epoch. It goes without saying that so vast a social system as that of feudalism could not be perfected in a day, or even during one reign. Indeed, generations passed, and it was not until the Age of Charlemagne that feudalism can be said to have taken some measure of shape and form. Between the Ages of Clovis and Charlemagne a period of turbulence ensued altogether peculiar to the combined circumstances that feudalism was forced to struggle with two foes--one internal, the disintegrating forces that ever accompany a new movement; the other external, the stubborn and inspiring resistance, on the part of the native masses, to the conqueror from the wilds of Germania. Historians, with customary levity, have neglected to reproduce this interesting epoch in the annals of that social structure that is mother to the social structure now prevalent. The task was undertaken and successfully accomplished by Eugene Sue in this boisterous historic novel entitled _The Poniard's Hilt; or, Karadeucq and Ronan_, the sixth of his majestic series of historic novels, _The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages_. The leading characters are all historic. It required the genius, the learning, the poetry, the tact, withal the daring of a Sue to weave these characters into a fascinating tale and draw a picture as vivid as the quartos, from which the facts are gathered, are musty with old age.