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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/31759-8.txt b/31759-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5301148 --- /dev/null +++ b/31759-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2869 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Infant's Skull, by Eugène Sue, Translated +by Daniel De Leon + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Infant's Skull + Or The End of the World. A Tale of the Millennium + + +Author: Eugène Sue + + + +Release Date: March 24, 2010 [eBook #31759] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFANT'S SKULL*** + + +E-text prepared by Chuck Greif and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from scanned images of +public domain material generously made available by the Google Books +Library Project (http://books.google.com/) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + the the Google Books Library Project. See + http://books.google.com/books?vid=XvMYAAAAYAAJ&id + + + + + +THE INFANT'S SKULL + +Or + +The End of the World + +A Tale of the Millennium + +by + +EUGENE SUE + +Translated from the Original French by Daniel De Leon + + + + + + + +New York Labor News Company, 1904 + +Copyright, 1904, by the +New York Labor News Company + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE + + +Among the historic phenomena of what may be called "modern antiquity," +there is none comparable to that which was witnessed on the first day of +the year 1000, together with its second or adjourned catastrophe +thirty-two years later. The end of the world, at first daily expected by +the Apostles, then postponed--upon the authority of Judaic apocalyptic +writings, together with the Revelations of St. John the Divine,--to the +year 1000, and then again to thirty-two years later, until it was +finally adjourned _sine die_, was one of those beliefs, called +"theologic," that have had vast and disastrous mundane effect. _The +Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World_, figures at that period. It is +one of that series of charming stories by Eugene Sue in which historic +personages and events are so artistically grouped that, without the +fiction losing by the otherwise solid facts, and without the solid facts +suffering by the fiction, both are enhanced, and combinedly act as a +flash-light upon the past--and no less so upon the future. + +As with all the stories of this series by the talented Sue, _The +Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World_, although, one of the +shortest, rescues invaluable historic facts from the dark and dusty +recesses where only the privileged few can otherwise reach them. Thus +its educational value is equal to its entertaining merit. It is a gem in +the necklace of gems that the distinguished author has felicitously +named _The Mysteries of the People; or The History of a Proletarian +Family Across the Ages_. + +DANIEL DE LEON. + +New York, April 20, 1904. + + + + +INDEX + + +Translator's Preface iii + +Part I. The Castle of Compiegne. + + Chapter 1. The Fountain of the Hinds 3 + + Chapter 2. The Idiot 11 + + Chapter 3. Louis the Do-Nothing 15 + + Chapter 4. A Royal Couple 18 + + Chapter 5. The Founding of a Dynasty 23 + + Chapter 6. Yvon and Marceline 27 + + Chapter 7. The Stock of Joel 33 + +Part II. The End of the World. + + Chapter 1. The Apocalyptic Frenzy 39 + + Chapter 2. Yvon the Forester's Hut 46 + + Chapter 3. On the Buck's Track 48 + + Chapter 4. Gregory the Hollow-bellied 51 + + Chapter 5. The Delirium of Starvation 56 + + Chapter 6. The Flight to Anjou 61 + +Epilogue 64 + + + + +PART I. + +THE CASTLE OF COMPIEGNE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE FOUNTAIN OF THE HINDS. + + +A spring of living water, known in the neighborhood by the appropriate +name of the "Fountain of the Hinds," empties its trickling stream under +the oaks of one of the most secret recesses of the forest of Compiegne. +Stags and hinds, deers and does, bucks and she-goats come to water at +the spot, leaving behind them numerous imprints of their steps on the +borders of the rill, or on the sandy soil of the narrow paths that these +wild animals have worn across the copse. + +One early morning in the year 987, the sun being up barely an hour, a +woman, plainly dressed and breathing hard with rapid walking, stepped +out of one of these paths and stopped at the Fountain of the Hinds. She +looked in all directions in surprise as if she expected to have been +preceded by some one at the solitary rendezvous. Finding her hopes +deceived, she made an impatient motion, sat down, still out of breath, +on a rock near the fountain, and threw off her cape. + +The woman, barely twenty years of age, had black hair, eyes and +eye-brows; her complexion was brown; and cherry-red her lips. Her +features were handsome, while the mobility of her inflated nostrils and +the quickness of her motions betokened a violent nature. She had rested +only a little while when she rose again and walked up and down with +hurried steps, stopping every now and then to listen for approaching +footsteps. Catching at last the sounds of a distant footfall, she +thrilled with joy and ran to the encounter of him she had been +expecting. He appeared. It was a man, also in plain garb and in the +vigor of age, large-sized and robust, with a piercing eye and somber, +wily countenance. The young woman leaped at a bound into the arms of +this personage, and passionately addressed him: "Hugh, I meant to +overwhelm you with reproaches; I meant to strike you; but here you are +and I forget everything," and in a transport of amorous delight she +added, suiting the deed to the words: "Your lips! Oh, give me your lips +to kiss!" + +After the exchange of a shower of kisses, and disengaging himself, not +without some effort, from the embrace of the fascinated woman, Hugh said +to her gravely: "We cannot indulge in love at this hour." + +"At this hour, to-day, yesterday, to-morrow, everywhere and always, I +love and shall continue to love you." + +"Blanche, they are foolhardy people who use the word 'always,' when +barely fourteen years separate us from the term assigned for the end of +the world! This is a grave and a fearful matter!" + +"What! Can you have given me this early morning appointment at this +secreted place, whither I have come under pretext of visiting the +hermitage of St. Eusebius, to talk to me about the end of the world? +Hugh ... Hugh.... To me there is no end of the world but when your love +ends!" + +"Trifle not with sacred matters! Do you not know that in fourteen years, +the first day of the year 1000, this world will cease to be and with it +the people who inhabit it?" + +Struck by the coldness of her lover's answers, Blanche brusquely stepped +back. Her brows contracted, her nostrils dilated, her breast heaved in +pain, and she darted a look at Hugh that seemed to wish to fathom the +very bottom of his heart. For a few instants her gaze remained fixed +upon him; she then cried in a voice trembling with rage: "You love some +other woman! You love me no more!" + +"Your words are senseless!" + +"Heaven and earth! Am I also to be despised.... I the Queen!... Yes, you +love some other woman, your own wife, perhaps; that Adelaide of Poitiers +whom you promised me you would rid yourself of by a divorce!" Further +utterances having expired upon her lips, the wife of King Louis the +Do-nothing broke down sobbing, and with eyes that glistened with fury +she shook her fists at the Count of Paris: "Hugh, if I were sure of +that, I would kill both you and your wife; I would stab you both to +death!" + +"Blanche," said Hugh slowly and watching the effect of his words upon +the face of the Queen, who, with eyes fixed upon the ground, seemed to +be meditating some sinister project: "I am not merely Count of Paris and +Duke of France, as my ancestors were, I am also Abbot of Saint Martin of +Tours and of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, abbot not only by virtue of my +cowl--but by virtue of my faith. Accordingly, I blame your incredulity +on the subject of the approaching end of the world. The holiest bishops +have prophesied it, and have urged the faithful to hasten to save their +souls during the fourteen years that still separate them from the last +judgment.... Fourteen years!... A very short period within which to gain +the eternal paradise!" + +"By the hell that burns in my heart, the man is delivering a sermon to +me!" cried the Queen with an outburst of caustic laughter. "What are you +driving at? Are you spreading a snare for me? Malediction! this man is a +compound of ruse, artifice and darkness, and yet I love him! I am +insane!... Oh, there must be some magic charm in this!" and biting into +her handkerchief with suppressed rage, she said to him: "I shall not +interrupt again, even if I should choke with anger. Proceed, Hugh the +Capet! Explain yourself!" + +"Blanche, the approach of the dreadful day when the world is to end +makes me uneasy about my salvation. I look with fright at our double +adultery, seeing we are both married." Stopping with a gesture a fresh +explosion of rage on the part of the Queen, the Count of Paris added +solemnly raising his hand heavenward: "I swear to God by the salvation +of my soul, were you a widow, I would obtain a divorce from the Pope, +and I would marry you with holy joy. But likewise do I swear to God by +the salvation of my soul, I wish no longer to brave eternal punishment +by continuing a criminal intercourse with a woman bound, as I am myself, +by the sacrament of marriage. I wish to spend in the mortification of +the flesh, in fasting, abstinence, repentance and prayer the years that +still separate us from the year 1000, to the end that I may obtain from +our Lord God the remission of my sins and of my adultery with you. +Blanche, seek not to alter my decision. According as the caprice of your +love led you, you have alternately boasted over and cursed the +inflexibility of my character. Now, what I have said is said. This shall +be the last day of our adulterous intercourse. Our carnal relations +shall then end." + +While Hugh the Capet was speaking, the wife of Louis the Do-nothing +contemplated his face with devouring attention. When he finished, so far +from breathing forth desperate criminations, she carried both her hands +to her forehead and seemed steeped in mediation. Looking askance upon +Blanche, the Count of Paris anxiously waited for the first word from the +Queen. Finally, a tremor shook her frame, she raised her head, as if +struck by a sudden thought, and curbing her emotions she asked: "Do you +believe that King Lothaire, the father of my husband Louis, died of +poison in March of last year?" + +"I believe he was poisoned." + +"Do you believe that Imma, his wife, was guilty of poisoning her +husband?" + +"She is accused of the crime." + +"Do you believe Imma guilty of the crime?" + +"I believe what I see." + +"And when you do not see?" + +"Doubt is then natural." + +"Do you know that in that murder Queen Imma's accomplice was her lover +Adalberon, bishop of Laon?" + +"It was a great scandal to the church!" + +"After the poisoning of Lothaire, the Queen and the bishop, finally +delivered from the eyes of her husband, indulged their love more +freely." + +"A double and horrible sacrilege!" cried the Count of Paris with +indignation. "A bishop and a Queen adulterers and homicides!" + +Blanche seemed astonished at the indignation of Hugh the Capet and again +contemplated him attentively. She then proceeded with her interrogatory: + +"Are you aware, Count of Paris, that King Lothaire's death is a happy +circumstance for you--provided you were ambitious? Bishop Adalberon, the +accomplice and lover of the Queen, that bishop, expert in poisons, was +your friend!" + +"He was my friend before his crime." + +"You repudiate his friendship, but you profit by his crime. That is high +statecraft." + +"In what way, Blanche, have I profited by that odious crime? Does not +the son of Lothaire reign to-day? When my ancestors, the Counts of +Paris, aspired at the crown they did not assassinate the kings, they +dethroned them. Thus Eudes dethroned Charles the Fat, and Rothbert, +Charles the Simple. A transmission of crowns is easy." + +"All of which did not prevent Charles the Simple, the nephew of Charles +the Fat from re-ascending the throne, the same as Louis Outer-mer, the +son of Charles the Simple, also resumed his crown. On the other hand, +King Lothaire, who was poisoned last year, will never reign again. +Whence we see, it is better to kill the kings than to dethrone them ... +if one wishes to reign in their stead. Not so, Count of Paris?" + +"Yes, provided one does not care for the excommunications of the +bishops, nor for the eternal flames." + +"Hugh, if perchance my husband, although young, should die?... That +might happen." + +"The will of the Lord is all-powerful," answered Hugh with a contrite +air. "There be those who to-day are full of life and youth, and +to-morrow are corpses and dust! The designs of God are impenetrable." + +"So that if perchance the King, my husband, should die," rejoined +Blanche, without taking her eyes from the face of the Count of Paris, +"in short, if some day or other I become a widow--your scruples will +then cease ... my love will no longer be adulterous, would it, Hugh?" + +"No, you would then be free." + +"And will you remain faithful to what you have just said ... 'Blanche, I +swear to God by the salvation of my soul, if you should become a widow I +shall separate from my wife Adelaide of Poitiers, and I shall marry you +with a pure and holy joy.' ... Will you be faithful to that oath?" + +"Blanche, I repeat it," answered Hugh the Capet avoiding the Queen's +eyes that remained obstinately fixed upon him. "I swear to God by the +salvation of my soul, if you become a widow I shall demand of the Pope +permission to divorce Adelaide of Poitiers, and I shall marry you. Our +love will then have ceased to be criminal." + +An interval of silence again followed the words of the Count of Paris, +whereupon Blanche resumed slowly: + +"Hugh, there are strange and sudden deaths." + +"Indeed, strange and sudden deaths have been seen in royal families." + +"None is safe from accident. Neither princes nor subjects." + +"Only the will of heaven disposes of our fates. We must bow before the +decrees of God." + +"My husband, Louis, the Do-nothing, is, like all other people, subject +to death and the decrees of Providence." + +"Indeed, kings as well as subjects." + +"It may then happen, although he is now barely twenty, that he die +suddenly ... within a year ... within six months ... to-morrow ... +to-day...." + +"Man's end is death." + +"Should that misfortune arrive," the Queen proceeded after a pause, +"there is one thing that alarms me, Hugh, and on which I desire your +advice." + +"What, my dear Blanche?" + +"Calumniators, seeing Louis dies so suddenly, might talk ... about +poison." + +"A pure conscience despises calumny. The wicked may be disregarded." + +"Oh, as to me, I would despise them. But, you, Hugh, my beloved, +whatever may be said, would you also accuse me of being a poisoner? +Would you pass such a judgment upon me?" + +"I believe what I see.... If I do not see, I doubt. Blanche, may the +curse of heaven fall upon me if I ever could be infamous enough to +conceive such a suspicion against you!" cried Hugh the Capet taking the +Queen in his arms with passionate tenderness. "What! If the Lord should +call your husband to Him He would fulfil the most cherished dreams of my +life! He would allow me to sanctify with marriage the ardent love that I +would sacrifice everything to, everything except my eternal salvation! +And would I, instead of thanking God, suspect you of an odious crime! +You the soul of my life!" + +The Queen seemed overwhelmed with ecstacy. Hugh the Capet proceeded in a +low and tremulous voice: "Oh, joy of my heart, if some day you should be +my wife before God, our souls would then merge in one and in a love that +would then be pure and holy. Then, Oh joy of Heaven, we shall not age! +The end of the world approaches. Together we shall quit life full of +ardor and love!" saying which the Count of Paris drew his mouth close to +the lips of the Queen. The latter closed her eyes and muttered a few +words in a faint voice. Hugh the Capet, however, suddenly and with great +effort disengaged himself from Blanche's arms exclaiming: "A superhuman +courage is needed to overcome the passion that consumes me! Adieu, +Blanche, well-beloved of my heart, I return to Paris!" + +With these words Hugh the Capet disappeared in the copse, while the +Queen, overpowered with passion and the struggle within herself, +followed him with her eyes: "Hugh, my lover, I shall be a widow, and you +King!" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE IDIOT. + + +Among the household serfs of the royal domain of Compiegne was a young +lad of eighteen named Yvon. Since the death of his father, a forester +serf, he lived with his grandmother, the washerwoman for the castle, who +had received permission from the bailiff to keep her grandson near her. +Yvon was at first employed in the stables; but having long lived in the +woods, he looked so wild and stupid that he was presently taken for an +idiot, went by the name of Yvon the Calf, and became the butt of all. +The King himself, Louis the Do-nothing, amused himself occasionally with +the foolish pranks of the young serf. He was taught to mimic dogs by +barking and walking on all fours; he was made to eat lizards, spiders +and grass-hoppers for general amusement. Yvon always obeyed with an +idiotic leer. Thus delivered to the sport and contempt of all, since his +grandmother's death, the lad met at the castle with the sympathy of none +except a poor female serf named Marceline the Golden-haired from the +abundant gold-blonde ornament of her head. The young girl was a helper +of Adelaide, the favorite lady of the Queen's chamber. + +The morning of the day that Blanche and Hugh the Capet had met at the +Fountain of the Hinds, Marceline, carrying on her head a bucket of +water, was crossing one of the yards of the castle towards the room of +her mistress. Suddenly she heard a volley of hisses, and immediately +after she saw Yvon enter the yard pursued by several serfs and children +of the domain, crying at the top of their voices: "The Calf!" "The +Calf!" and throwing stones and offal at the idiot. Marceline revealed +the goodness of her heart by interesting herself in the wretch, not that +Yvon's features or limbs were deformed, but that the idiotic expression +of his face affected her. He was in the habit of dressing his long +black hair in five or six plaids interwoven with wisps of straw, and the +coiffure fell upon his neck like as many tails. Barely clad in a sorry +hose that was patched with materials of different colors, his shoes were +of rabbit or squirrel skin fastened with osiers to his feet and legs. +Closely pursued from various sides by the serfs of the castle, Yvon made +several doublings in the yard in order to escape his tormentors, but +perceiving Marceline, who, standing upon the first step of the turret +stairs that she was about to ascend, contemplated the idiot with pity, +he ran towards the young girl, and throwing himself at her feet said +joining his hands: "Pardon me, Marceline, but protect poor Yvon against +these wicked people!" + +"Climb the stairs quick!" Marceline said to the idiot, pointing up the +turret. Yvon rose and swiftly followed the advice of the serf maid, who, +placing herself at the door, lay down her bucket of water, and +addressing Yvon's tormentors, who were drawing near, said to them: "Have +pity for the poor idiot, he harms no one." + +"I have just seen him leap like a wolf out of the copse of the forest +from the side of the Fountain of the Hinds," cried a forester serf. "His +hair and the rags he has on are wet with dew. He must have been in some +thicket spreading nets for game which he eats raw." + +"Oh, he is a worthy son of Leduecq, the forester, who lived like a +savage in his den, never coming out of the woods!" observed another +serf. "We must have some fun with the Calf." + +"Yes, yes, let us dip him up to his ears in the neighboring pool in +punishment for spreading nets to catch game with," said the forester; +and taking a step toward Marceline who remained at the door: "Get out of +the way, you servant of the devil, or we shall give you a ducking along +with the Calf!" + +"My mistress, Dame Adelaide, a lady of the Queen's chamber, will know +how to punish you if you ill-treat me. Begone, you heartless people!" + +"The devil take Adelaide! To the pool with the Calf!" + +"Yes, to the pool with him! And Marceline also! A good mud-bath for +both!" + +At the height of the tumult, one of the casements of the castle was +thrown open, and a young man of twenty years at most leaned out and +cried angrily: "I shall have your backs flayed with a sound strapping, +you accursed barking dogs!" + +"The King!" exclaimed the tormentors of Yvon, and a minute later all had +fled by the gate of the yard. + +"Halloa, you girl!" called out Louis the Do-nothing to Marceline who was +taking up her bucket of water. "What was the cause of the infernal +racket made by that noisy pack?" + +"Seigneur," answered Marceline trembling, "they wanted to ill-treat poor +Yvon." + +"Is the Calf about?" + +"Seigneur, I know not where he is gone to hide," explained the maid who +feared lest Yvon, barely escaped from one set of tormentors, should fall +into the hands of the whimsical King. As the latter thereupon withdrew +from the window, Marceline hastened to ascend the stair of the turret. +She had scarcely mounted a dozen steps when she saw Yvon crouching with +his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. At the sight of the +maid he shook his head and with a voice full of emotion said: "Good you; +oh, you good! Marceline good!" and he fixed his eyes so full of +gratitude upon her that she observed aloud with a sigh: "Who would +believe that this wretch, with eyes at times so captivating, still is +deprived of reason?" and again laying down her bucket she said to the +idiot: "Yvon, why did you go this morning into the forest? Your hair and +rags are really moist with dew. Is it true that you spread nets to take +game?" The idiot answered with a stupid smile, swaying his head backward +and forward. "Yvon," said Marceline, "do you understand me?" The idiot +remained mute, but presently observing the bucket of water that the maid +had laid down at his feet, he lifted it up, placed it on his own head, +and motioned to Marceline to go up ahead of him. "The poor creature is +expressing his gratitude as well as he can," Marceline was thinking to +herself when she heard steps above coming down the stairs, and a voice +cried out: + +"Oh, Calf, is it you?" + +"That is the voice of one of the King's servants," said Marceline. "He +is coming for you, Yvon. Oh, you are going to fall into another +tormentor's hands!" + +Indeed, one of the men of the royal chamber appeared at the turning of +the winding stairs and said to the idiot: "Come, get up quick and follow +me! Our lord the King wishes to amuse himself with you, you double +Calf!" + +"The King! Oh! Oh! The King!" cried Yvon with a triumphant air, clapping +his hands gayly. The bucket being left unsupported on his head, fell and +broke open at the feet of the King's servitor whose legs were thereby +drenched up to his knees. + +"A plague upon the idiot!" cried Marceline despite all her +good-heartedness. "There is the bucket broken! My mistress will beat +me!" + +Furious at the accident that drenched his clothes, the royal servitor +hurled imprecations and insults upon Yvon the Calf, who, however, +seeming not to notice either the imprecations or the insults, continued +to repeat triumphantly: "The King! Oh! Oh! The King!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +LOUIS THE DO-NOTHING. + + +Like his wife Louis the Do-nothing was barely twenty years of age. +Justly nicknamed the "Do-nothing," he looked as nonchalant as he seemed +bored. After having scolded through the window at the serfs, whose noise +annoyed him, he stretched himself out again upon his lounge. Several of +his familiar attendants stood around him. Yawning fit to dislocate his +jaws, he said to them: "What a notion that was of the Queen's to go at +sunrise with only one lady of the chamber to pray at the hermitage of +St. Eusebius! Once awakened, I could not fall asleep again. So I rose! +Oh, this day will be endless!" + +"Seigneur King, would you like to hunt?" suggested one of the +attendants. "The day is fine. We would certainly kill some game." + +"The hunt fatigues me. It is a rude sport." + +"Seigneur King, would you prefer fishing?" + +"Fishing tires me; it is a stupid pastime." + +"Seigneur King, if you call your flute and lute-players, you might enjoy +a dance." + +"Music racks my head, and I cannot bear dancing. Let's try something +else." + +"Seigneur King, shall your chaplain read to you out of some fine work?" + +"I hate reading. I think I could amuse myself with the idiot. Where is +he?" + +"Seigneur King, one of your attendants has gone out to find him.... I +hear steps.... It is surely he coming." + +The door opened and a servitor bent the knee and let in Yvon. From the +moment of his entrance Yvon started to walk on all fours, barking like a +dog; after a little while he grew livelier, jumped and cavorted about +clapping his hands and shouting with such grotesque contortions that the +King and the attendants began to laugh merrily. Encouraged by these +signs of approbation and ever cavorting about, Yvon mimicked alternately +the crowing of a rooster, the mewing of a cat, the grunting of a hog and +the braying of an ass, interspersing his sounds with clownish gestures +and ridiculous leaps, that redoubled the hilarity of the King and his +courtiers. The merriment was at its height when the door was again +thrown open, and one of the chamberlains announced in a loud voice from +the threshold where he remained: "Seigneur King, the Queen approaches!" +At these words the attendants of Louis, some of whom had dropped upon +stools convulsing with laughter, rose hastily and crowded to the door to +salute the Queen at her entrance. Louis, however, who lay stretched on +his lounge, continued laughing and cried out to the idiot: "Keep on +dancing, Calf! Dance on! You are worth your weight in gold! I never +amused myself better!" + +"Seigneur King, here is the Queen!" said one of the courtiers, seeing +Blanche cross the contiguous chamber and approach the door. The wing of +this door, when thrown open almost reached the corner of a large table +that was covered with a splendid Oriental piece of tapestry, the folds +of which reached to the floor. Yvon the Calf continued his gambols, +slowly approaching the table, and concealed from the eyes of the King by +the head-piece of the lounge on which the latter remained stretched. +Ranged at the entrance of the door in order to salute the Queen, the +prince's attendants had their backs turned to the table under which Yvon +quickly blotted himself out at the moment when the seigneurs were bowing +low before Blanche. The Queen answered their salute, and preceding them +by a few steps moved towards Louis, who had not yet ceased laughing and +crying out: "Ho, Calf, where are you? Come over this way that I may see +your capers.... Have you suddenly turned mute, you who can bark, mew and +crow so well?" + +"My beloved Louis is quite merry this morning," observed Blanche +caressingly and approaching her husband's lounge. "Whence proceeds the +mirth of my dear husband?" + +"That idiot could make a dead man laugh with his capers. Ho, there, +Calf! Come this way, you scamp, or I'll have your bones broken!" + +"Seigneur King," said one of the attendants after glancing around the +room for Yvon, "the Calf must have escaped at the moment when the door +was opened to admit the Queen. He is not here, nor in the adjoining +room." + +"Fetch him back, he can not be far!" cried the King impatiently and with +rising anger. "Bring him back here immediately!" + +One of the seigneurs hurried out to execute the King's orders, while +Blanche letting herself down near him, said, smiling tenderly: "I shall +try, my beloved seigneur, to enable you to wait patiently for the +idiot's return." + +"Fetch him back. All of you run after him; the more of you look after +him, the quicker will he be found." + +Bowing to the King's orders, the courtiers trooped out of the apartment +in search of Yvon. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A ROYAL COUPLE. + + +Blanche remained alone with her husband, whose face, that for a moment +had brightened up, speedily resumed its normal expression of lassitude. +The Queen had thrown off her simple vestment of the morning to don a +more elaborate costume. Her black hair, braided with pearls, was combed +with skill. She wore an orange colored robe of rich material, with wide +flowing sleeves, leaving half exposed her breast and shoulders. A collar +and gold bracelets studded with precious stones ornamented her neck and +arms. Still reclining on his lounge, now shared by his wife who sat down +at its edge, Louis did not even bestow a glance upon her. With his head +leaning upon one of the pillows, he was mumbling: "You will see the +clumsy fellows will turn out more stupid than the idiot; they will not +catch him." + +"In such a disastrous event," replied Blanche with an insinuating smile, +"I shall have to console you, my darling. Why is your face so careworn? +Will you not deign as much as to throw your eyes upon your wife, your +humble servant?" + +Louis indolently turned his head towards his wife and said: "How dressed +up you are!" + +"Does this dress please my amiable master?" inquired the Queen +caressingly; but noticing that the King suddenly shivered, became gloomy +and brusquely turned away his head, she added: "What is the matter, +Louis?" + +"I do not like the color of that dress!" + +"I am sorry I did not know the color of orange displeased you, dear +seigneur. I would have guarded against putting it on." + +"You were dressed in the same color on the first day of this month last +year." + +"My memory is not as perfect as yours on the subject, my dear +seigneur." + +"It was on the second of May of last year that I saw my father die, +poisoned by my mother!" answered the King mournfully. + +"What a sad souvenir! How I now hate this accursed orange color, seeing +it awakens such recollections in your mind!" + +The King remained silent; he turned on his cushions and placed his hands +over his eyes. The door of the apartment was re-opened and one of the +courtiers said: "Seigneur, despite all our search, we have not been able +to find Yvon the Calf; he must have hidden in some corner; he shall be +severely punished soon as we find him again." Louis made no answer, and +Blanche motioned the courtier with an imperious gesture to retire. Left +again alone, and seeing her husband more and more mentally troubled, +Blanche redoubled her blandishments, seeking to provoke a return of her +caresses: "Dear seigneur, your sadness afflicts me." + +"Your tenderness is extreme ... this morning. Quite different from +usual." + +"My tenderness for you increases by reason of the sorrow that I see you +steeped in, dear seigneur." + +"Oh, I lost everything with my father's death," Louis murmured +despondently, and he added with concentrated fury: + +"That felonious bishop of Laon! Poisoner and adulterer! Infamous +prelate! And my mother! my mother his accomplice! Such crimes portend +the end of the world! I shall punish the guilty!" + +"Pray, my seigneur, do forget that dark past. What is it you said about +the end of the world? It is a fable." + +"A fable! What! Do not the holiest bishops assert that in fourteen years +the world must come to an end ... in the year 1000?" + +"What makes me question their assertion, Louis, is that, while +announcing the end of the world, these prelates recommend to the +faithful to part with their goods to the Church and to donate their +domains to them." + +"Of what use would it be to keep perishable riches if soon everything is +to perish?" + +"But then, dear seigneur, if everything is to perish, what is the Church +to do with the goods that she is eternally demanding from the faithful?" + +"After all, you are right. It may be another imposture of the tonsured +fraternity. Nor should anything of the sort surprise us when we see +bishops guilty of adultery and poisoning." + +"You always come back to those lugubrious thoughts, dear seigneur! Pray +forget those unworthy calumnies regarding your mother.... Just God! Can +a woman be guilty of her husband's murder! Impossible! God would not +permit it!" + +"But did I not witness the agony and death of my father! Oh, the effect +of the poison was strange ... terrible!" said the King in somber +meditation. "My father felt his feet growing cold, icy and numb, unable +to support him. By degrees the mortal lethargy invaded his other +members, as if he were being slowly dipped into an ice bath! What a +terrible spectacle that was!" + +"There are illnesses so sudden, so strange, my beloved master.... When +such crimes are charged, I am of those who say: 'When I see I believe, +when I do not see I refuse to accept such theories.'" + +"Oh, I saw but too much!" cried Louis, and again hiding his face in his +hands he added in a distressful voice: "I know not why these thoughts +should plague me to-day. Oh, God, have pity on me. Remove these fears +from my spirit!" + +"Louis, do not weep like that, you tear my heart to pieces. Your sadness +is a wrong done to this beautiful May day. Look out of the window at +that brilliant sun; look at the spring verdure of the forest; listen to +the gay twittering of the birds. Why, all around us, everything in +nature is lovely and joyous; you alone are sad! Come, now, my beautiful +seigneur," added Blanche taking both the hands of the King. "I am going +to draw you out of this dejection that distresses me as much as it does +you.... I am all the gladder at my project, which is intended to please +and amuse you." + +"What is your project?" + +"I propose to spend the whole day near you. We shall take our morning +meal here. I have issued orders to that effect, my indolent boy. After +that we shall go to mass. We shall then take a long outing in a litter +through the forest. Finally.... But, no, no, the surprise I have in +store for you shall remain a secret. It shall be the price of your +submission." + +"What is the surprise about?" + +"You will never have spent such a delightful evening.... You whom +everything tires and whom everything is indifferent to ... you will be +charmed by what I have in store for you, my dear husband." + +Louis the Do-nothing, a youth of indolent and puerile mind, felt his +curiosity pricked, but failed to draw any explanation from Blanche. A +few minutes later the chamberlains and servants entered carrying silver +dishes and gold goblets, together with the eatables that were to serve +for the morning repast. Other attendants of the royal chamber took up +the large table covered to the floor with tapestry and under which Yvon +the Calf had hidden himself, and carried it forward to the lounge on +which were Louis and Blanche. Bent under the table, and completely +concealed by the ample folds of the cover which trailed along the floor, +the idiot moved forward on his hands and knees as, carried by the +servants, the table was being taken towards the royal lounge. When it +was set down before Louis and Blanche, Yvon also stopped. Menials and +equerries were preparing to render the habitual services at table when +the Queen said smiling to her husband: "Will my charming master consent +that to-day I be his only servant?" + +"If it please you," answered Louis the Do-nothing, and he proceeded in +an undertone: "But you know that according to my habit I shall neither +eat nor drink anything that you have not tasted before me." + +"What a child you are!" answered Blanche smiling upon her husband with +amiable reproach. "Always suspicious! We shall drink from the same cup +like two lovers." + +The officers of the King left upon a sign from the Queen. She remained +alone with Louis. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE FOUNDING OF A DYNASTY. + + +Day was waning. Darkness began to invade the spacious apartment where +seventy-five years before Francon, archbishop of Rouen, informed Charles +the Simple that he was to give his daughter Ghisele together with the +domains of Neustria to Rolf the Norman pirate, and where now King Louis +and his wife Blanche had spent the day. + +Louis the Do-nothing was asleep at full length upon his lounge near to +the table that was still covered with the dishes and vases of gold and +silver. The King's sleep was painful and restless. A cold sweat ran down +his forehead that waxed livid by the second. Presently an overpowering +torpor succeeded his restlessness, and Louis remained plunged in +apparent calmness, although his features were rapidly becoming +cadaverous. Standing behind the lounge with his elbows resting against +its head, Yvon the Calf contemplated the King of the Franks with an +expression of somber and savage triumph. Yvon had dropped his mask of +stupidity. His features now revealed undisguised intelligence, hidden +until then by the semblance of idiocy. The profoundest silence reigned +in the apartment now darkened by the approach of night. Suddenly, +emitting a deep groan, the King awoke with a start. Yvon stooped down +and disappeared behind the lounge while the King muttered to himself: +"There is a strange feeling upon me.... I felt so violent a pain in my +heart that it woke me up...." then looking towards the window: "What! Is +it night!... I must have slept long.... Where is the Queen?... Why was I +left alone?... I feel heavy and my feet are cold.... Halloa, someone!" +he called out turning his face to the door, "Halloa, Gondulf!... +Wilfrid!... Sigefried!" At the third name that he pronounced, Louis' +voice, at first loud, became almost unintelligible, it sunk to a husky +whisper. He sat up. "What is the matter with me? My voice is so feeble +that I can hardly hear myself. My throat seems to close ... then this +icy feeling ... this cold that freezes my feet and is rising to my +legs!" The King of the Franks had barely uttered these words when a +shudder of fear ran through him. He saw before him Yvon the Calf who had +suddenly risen and now stood erect behind the head of the lounge. "What +are you doing there?" asked Louis, and he immediately added with a +sinking voice: "Run quick for some one.... I am in danger....", but +interrupting himself he observed: "Of what use is such an order; the +wretch is an idiot.... Why am I left thus alone?... I shall rouse +myself," and Louis rose painfully; but hardly had he put his feet down +when his limbs gave way under him and he fell in a heap with a dull thud +upon the floor. "Help! Help!... Oh, God, have pity upon me!... Help!" + +"Louis, it is too late!" came from Yvon in a solemn voice. "You are +about to die ... barely twenty years old, Oh, King of the Franks!" + +"What says that idiot? What is the Calf doing here?" + +"You are about to die as died last year your father Lothaire, poisoned +by his wife! You have been poisoned by Queen Blanche!" + +Fear drew a long cry from Louis; his hair stood on end over his icy +forehead, his lips, now purple, moved convulsively without producing a +sound; his eyes, fixed upon Yvon, became troubled and glassy, but still +retaining a last glimmer of intelligence, while the rest of his body +remained inert. + +"This morning," said Yvon, "the Count of Paris, Hugh the Capet, met your +wife by appointment in the forest. Hugh is a cunning and unscrupulous +man. Last year he caused the poisoning of your father by Queen Imma and +her accomplice the bishop of Laon; to-day he caused you to be poisoned +by Blanche, your wife, and to-morrow the Count of Paris will be King!" +Louis understood what Yvon was saying, although his mind was beclouded +by the approach of death. A smile of hatred contracted his lips. "You +believed yourself safe from danger," Yvon proceeded, "by compelling your +wife to eat of the dishes that she served you. All poison has its +antidote. Blanche could with impunity moisten her lips in the wine she +had poisoned--" Louis seemed hardly to hear these last words of Yvon; +his limbs stiffened, his head dropped and thumped against the floor; his +eyes rolled for a last time in their depths; a slight froth gathered on +his now blackened lips; he uttered a slight moan, and the last crowned +scion of the Carlovingian stock had passed away. + +"Thus end the royal races! Thus, sooner or later, do they expiate their +original crime!" thought Yvon contemplating the corpse of the last +Carlovingian king lying at his feet. "My ancestor Amæl, the descendant +of Joel and of Genevieve, declined to be the jailor of little Childeric, +in whom the stock of Clovis was extinguished, and now I witness the +crime by which is extinguished, in the person of Louis the Do-nothing, +the stock of Charles the Great--the second dynasty of the conquerers of +Gaul. Perchance some descendant of my own will in the ages to come +witness the punishment of this third dynasty of kings, now raised by +Hugh the Capet through an act of cowardly perfidy!" + +Steps were heard outside. Sigefried, one of the courtiers, entered the +apartment saying to the King: "Seigneur, despite the express orders of +the Queen, who commanded us not to disturb your slumber, I come to +announce to you the arrival of the Count of Paris." + +So saying, Sigefried drew near, leaving the door open behind him. Yvon +profited by the circumstance and groped his way out of the apartment +under cover of the dark. Receiving no answer from Louis, Sigefried +believed the King was still asleep, when, drawing still nearer he saw +the King's body lying on the floor. He stooped and touched the icy hand. +Struck with terror he ran to the door crying out: "Help!... Help!" and +crossed the next room continuing to call for assistance. Several +servitors soon appeared with torches in their hands, preceding Hugh the +Capet, who now was clad in his brilliant armor and accompanied by +several of his officers. "What?" cried the Count of Paris addressing +Sigefried in an accent of surprise and alarm, "The King cannot be dead!" + +"Oh, Sire, I found Louis on the floor where he must have dropped down +from the lounge. I touched his hand. It was icy!" saying which Sigefried +followed Hugh the Capet into the apartment that now was brilliantly +lighted by the torches of the servants. The Count of Paris contemplated +for an instant the corpse of the last Carlovingian king, and cried in a +tone of pity: "Oh! Dead! And only twenty years of age!" and turning +towards Sigefried with his hands to his eyes as if seeking to conceal +his tears: "How can we account for so sudden a death?" + +"Seigneur, the King was in perfect health this morning. He sat down at +table with the Queen; after that she left giving us orders not to +disturb her husband's sleep; and--" Sigefried's report was interrupted +by nearing lamentations, and Blanche ran in followed by several of her +women. Her hair was tumbled, her looks distracted. "Is Louis really +dead?" and upon the answer that she received she cried: + +"Woe is me! Woe is me! I have lost my beloved husband! For pity's sake, +seigneur Hugh, do not leave me alone! Oh, promise me to join your +efforts to mine to discover the author of his death, if my Louis died by +crime!" + +"Oh, worthy spouse, I swear to God and his saints, I shall help you +discover the criminal!" answered Hugh the Capet solemnly; and seeing +Blanche tremble and stagger on her feet like one about to fall he cried: +"Help! Blanche is swooning!" and he received in his arms the seemingly +fainting body of Blanche who whispered in his ear: "I am a widow ... +you are King!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +YVON AND MARCELINE. + + +Upon leaving the room where lay the corpse of Louis the Do-nothing, Yvon +descended the stairs to the apartment of Adelaide, the lady of the +Queen's chamber, and mistress of the golden-haired Marceline, whom he +expected to find alone, Adelaide having followed the Queen when the +latter ran to the King's apartment feigning despair at the death of her +husband. Yvon found the young female serf at the threshold of the door +in a state of great agitation at the tumult that had suddenly invaded +the castle. "Marceline," Yvon said to her, "I must speak with you; let +us step into your mistress's room. She will not leave the Queen for a +long time. We shall not be interrupted. Come!" The young woman opened +wide her eyes at seeing for the first time the Calf expressing himself +in a sane manner, and his face now free of its wonted look of stupidity. +In her astonishment, Marceline could not at first utter a word, and Yvon +explained, smiling: "Marceline, my language astonishes you. The reason +is, you see, I am no longer Yvon the Calf but ... Yvon who loves you! +Yvon who adores Marceline!" + +"Yvon who loves me!" cried the poor serf in fear. "Oh, God, this is some +sorcery!" + +"If so, Marceline, you are the sorceress. But, now, listen to me. When +you will have heard me, you will answer me whether you are willing or +not to have me for your husband." Yvon entered the room mechanically +followed by Marceline. She thought herself in a dream; her eyes did not +leave the Calf and found his face more and more comely. She remembered +that, often struck by the affectionateness and intelligence that beamed +from Yvon's eyes, she had asked herself how such looks could come from a +young man who was devoid of reason. + +"Marceline," he proceeded, "in order to put an end to your surprise, I +must first speak to you of my family." + +"Oh, speak, Yvon, speak! I feel so happy to see you speak like a sane +person, and such language!" + +"Well, then, my lovely Marceline, my great-grandfather, a skipper of +Paris named Eidiol, had a son and two daughters. One of these, Jeanike, +kidnapped at an early age from her parents, was sold for a serf to the +superintendant of this domain, and later she became the wet-nurse of the +daughter of Charles the Simple, whose descendant, Louis the Do-nothing, +has just died." + +"Is the rumor really true? Is the King dead? So suddenly? It is +strange!" + +"Marceline, these kings could not die too soon. Well, then, Jeanike, the +daughter of my great-grandfather had two children, Germain, a forester +serf of this domain, and Yvonne, a charming girl, whom Guyrion the +Plunger, son of my great-grandfather, took to wife. She went with him to +Paris, where they settled down and where he plied his father's trade of +skipper. Guyrion had from Yvonne a son named Leduecq ... and he was my +father. My grandfather Guyrion remained in Paris as skipper. A woman +named Anne the Sweet was assaulted by one of the officers of the Count +of the city, and her husband, Rustic the Gay, a friend of my father, +killed the officer. The soldiers ran to arms and the mariners rose at +the call of Rustic and Guyrion, but both of them were killed together +with Anne in the bloody fray that ensued. My grandfather being one of +the leaders in the revolt, the little he owned was confiscated. Reduced +to misery, his widow left Paris with her son and came to her brother +Germain the forester for shelter. He shared his hut with Yvonne and her +son. Such is the iniquity of the feudal law that those who dwell a year +and a day upon royal or seigniorial domain become its serfs. Such was +the fate of my grandfather's widow and her son Leduecq. She was put to +work in the fields, Leduecq following the occupation of his uncle +succeeded him as forester of the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds. +Later he married a serf whose mother was a washerwoman of the castle. I +was born of that marriage. My father, who was as gentle towards my +mother and myself as he was rude and intractable towards all others, +never ceased thinking of the death of my grandfather Guyrion, who was +slaughtered by the soldiers of the Count of Paris. He never left the +forest except to carry his tax of game to the castle. Of a somber and +indominable character, often switched for his insubordination towards +the bailiff's agents, he would have taken a cruel revenge for the +ill-treatment that he was subjected to were it not for the fear of +leaving my mother and myself in want. She died about a year ago. My +father survived her only a few months. When I lost him, I came by orders +of the bailiff to live with my maternal aunt, a washerwoman at the +castle of Compiegne. You now know my family." + +"The good Martha! When you first came here she always said to me: 'It is +no wonder that my grandson looks like a savage; he never left the +forest.' But during the last days of her life your grandmother often +said to me with tears in her eyes: 'The good God has willed it that Yvon +be an idiot.' I thought as she did, and therefore had great pity for +you. And yet, how mistaken I was. You speak like a clerk. While you were +just now speaking, I said to myself: 'Can it be?... Yvon the Calf, who +talks that way? And he in love?'" + +"And are you pleased to see your error dispelled? Do you reciprocate my +feelings?" + +"I do not know," answered the young serf blushing. "I am so taken by +surprise by all that you have been telling me! I must have time to +think." + +"Marceline, will you marry me, yes or no? You are an orphan; you depend +upon your mistress; I upon the bailiff; we are serfs of the same domain; +can there be any reason why they should refuse their consent to our +marriage?" And he added bitterly: "Does not the lambkin that is born +increase its master's herd?" + +"Alack! According to the laws our children are born and die serfs as +ourselves! But would my mistress Adelaide give her consent to my +marrying an idiot?" + +"This is my project: Adelaide is a favorite and confidante of the Queen. +Now, then this is a beautiful day for the Queen." + +"What! The day when the King, her husband, died?" + +"For that very reason. The Queen is to-day in high feather, and for a +thousand reasons her confidante, your mistress, must feel no less happy +than the widow of Louis the Do-nothing. To ask for a favor at such a +moment is to have it granted." + +"What favor would you ask?" + +"If you consent to marry me, Marceline, you will need Adelaide's +permission and we shall want her promise to have me appointed forester +serf with the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds under my charge. Two +words of your mistress to the Queen, two words of the Queen to the +bailiff of the domain, and our wishes are fulfilled." + +"But, Yvon, do you consider that everybody takes you for an idiot? And +would they entrust you with a canton? It is out of the question." + +"Let them give me a bow and arrows and I am ready to acquit myself as an +archer. I have an accurate eye and steady hand." + +"But how will you explain the sudden change that has turned you from an +idiot to a sane man? People will want to know why you pretended to be an +idiot. You will be severely punished for the ruse. Oh, my friend, all +that makes me tremble." + +"After I am married I shall tell you my reasons for my long comedy. As +to my transformation from idiocy to sanity, that is to be the subject of +a miracle. The thought struck me this morning while I followed your +mistress and the Queen to the hermitage of St. Eusebius. Everything is +explainable with the intervention of a saint." + +"And why did you follow the Queen?" + +"Having woke up this morning before dawn, I happened near the fosse of +the castle. Hardly was the sun up when I saw at a distance your +mistress and the Queen going all alone towards the forest. The +mysterious promenade pricked my curiosity. I followed them at a distance +across the copse. They arrived at the hermitage of St. Eusebius. Your +mistress remained there, but the Queen took the path to the Fountain of +the Hinds." + +"What could she be up to at that early hour? My curiosity also is now +pricked." + +"That is another question that I shall satisfy you upon after we are +married, Marceline," answered Yvon after a moment's reflection; "but to +return to the miracle that is to explain my transformation from idiocy +to sanity, it is quite simple: St. Eusebius, the patron of the +hermitage, will be credited with having performed the prodigy, and the +monk, who now derives a goodly revenue from the hermitage will not deny +my explanation, seeing that the report of the new miracle will double +his tithes. His whole fraternity speculate upon human stupidity." + +The golden-haired Marceline smiled broadly at the young man's idea, and +replied: + +"Can it be Yvon the Calf that reasons thus?" + +"No, my dear and sweet maid, it is Yvon the lover; Yvon on whom you took +pity when he was everybody else's butt and victim; Yvon, who, in return +for your good heart, offers you love and devotion. That is all a poor +serf can promise, seeing that his labor and his life belong to his +master. Accept my offer, Marceline, we shall be as happy as one can be +in these accursed times. We shall cultivate the field that surrounds the +forester's hut; I shall kill for the castle the game wanted there, and +as sure as the good God has created the stags for the hunt, we never +shall want for a loin of venison. You will take charge of our vegetable +garden. The streamlet of the Fountain of the Hinds flows but a hundred +paces from our home. We shall live alone in the thick of the woods +without other companions than the birds and our children. And now, +again, is it 'yes' or 'no'? I want a quick answer." + +"Oh, Yvon," answered Marceline, tears of joy running from her eyes, "if +a serf could dispose of herself, I would say 'yes' ... aye, a hundred +times, 'yes'!" + +"My beloved, our happiness depends upon you. If you have the courage to +request your mistress's permission to take me for your husband, you may +be certain of her consent." + +"Shall I ask Dame Adelaide this evening?" + +"No, but to-morrow morning, after I shall have come back _with my +sanity_. I am going on the spot to fetch it at the hermitage of St. +Eusebius, and to-morrow I shall bring it to you nice and fresh from the +holy place--and with the monk's consent, too." + +"And people called him the 'Calf'!" murmured the young serf more and +more charmed at the retorts of Yvon, who disappeared speedily, fearing +he might be surprised by the Queen's lady of the chamber, Adelaide. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE STOCK OF JOEL. + + +Yvon's calculations proved right. He had told Marceline that no more +opportune time could be chosen to obtain a favor from the Queen, so +happy was she at the death of Louis the Do-nothing and the expectation +of marrying Hugh the Capet. Thanks to the good-will of Adelaide, who +consented to the marriage of her maid, the bailiff of the domain also +granted his consent to Yvon after the latter, agreeable to the promise +he had made Marceline, returned _with his sanity_ from the chapel of the +hermitage of St. Eusebius. The serf's story was, that entering the +chapel in the evening, he saw by the light of the lamp in the sanctuary +a monstrous black snake coiled around the feet of the saint; that +suddenly enlightened by a ray from on high, he stoned and killed the +horrible dragon, which was nothing else than a demon, seeing that no +trace of the monster was left; and that, in recompense for his timely +assistance, St. Eusebius miraculously returned his reason to him. In +glorification of the miracle that was thus performed by St. Eusebius in +favor of the Calf, Yvon was at his own request appointed forester serf +over the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds, and the very morning after +his marriage to the golden-haired Marceline, he settled down with her in +one of the profound solitudes of the forest of Compiegne, where they +lived happily for many years. + +As was to be expected, Marceline's curiosity, pricked on the double +score of the reasons that led Yvon to simulate idiocy for so many years, +and that took the Queen to the Fountain of the Hinds at the early hours +of the morning of May 2nd, instead of dying out, grew intenser. Yvon had +promised after marriage to satisfy her on both subjects. She was not +slow to remind him of the promise, nor he to satisfy her. + +"My dear wife," said Yvon to Marceline the first morning that they awoke +in their new forest home, "What were the motives of my pretended +idiocy?--I was brought up by my father in the hatred of kings. My +grandfather Guyrion, slaughtered in a popular uprising, had taught my +father to read and write, so that he might continue the chronicle of our +family. He preserved the account left by his grandfather Eidiol, the +dean of the skippers of Paris, together with an iron arrow-head, the +emblem attached to the account. We do not know whatever became of the +branch of our family that lived in Britanny near the sacred stones of +Karnak. It has the previous chronicles and relics that our ancestors +recorded and gathered from generation to generation since the days of +Joel, at the time of the Roman invasion of Gaul by Julius Caesar. My +grandfather and my father wrote nothing on their obscure lives. But in +the profound solitude where we lived, of an evening, after a day spent +hunting or in the field, my father would narrate to me what my +grandfather Guyrion had told him concerning the adventures of the +descendants of Joel. Guyrion received these traditions from Eidiol, who +received them from his grandfather, a resident of Britanny, before the +separation of the grandchildren of Vortigern. I was barely eighteen +years old when my father died. He made me promise him to record the +experience of my life should I witness any important event. To that end +he handed me the scroll of parchment written by Eidiol and the iron +arrow-head taken from the wound of Paelo, the pirate. I carefully put +these cherished mementos of the past in the pocket of my hose. That +evening I closed my father's eyes. Early next morning I dug his grave +near his hut and buried him. His bow, his arrows, a few articles of +dress, his pallet, his trunk, his porridge-pot--everything was a fixture +of and belonged to the royal domain. The serf can own nothing. +Nevertheless I cogitated how to take possession of the bow, arrows and a +bag of chestnuts that was left, determined to roam over the woods in +freedom, when a singular accident upturned my projects. I had lain down +upon the grass in the thick of a copse near our hut, when suddenly I +heard the steps of two riders and saw that they were men of +distinguished appearance. They were promenading in the forest. They +alighted from their richly caparisoned horses, held them by the bridle, +and walked slowly. One of them said to the other: + +'King Lothaire was poisoned last year by his wife Imma and her lover, +the archbishop of Laon ... but there is Louis left, Lothaire's son ... +Louis the Do-nothing.' + +'And if this Louis were to die, would his uncle, the Duke of Lorraine, +to whom the crown would then revert by right, venture to dispute the +crown of France from me ... from me, Hugh, the Count of Paris?' + +'No, seigneur; he would not. But it is barely six months since +Lothaire's death. It would require a singular chain of accidents for his +son to follow him so closely to the tomb.' + +'The ways of Providence are impenetrable.... Next spring, Louis will +come with the Queen to Compiegne, and--' + +"I could not hear the end of the conversation, the cavaliers were +walking away from me as they spoke. The words that I caught gave me +matter for reflection. I recalled some of the stories that my father +told me, that of Amæl among others, one of our ancestors, who declined +the office of jailor of the last scion of Clovis. I said to myself that +perhaps I, a descendant of Joel, might now witness the death of the last +of the kings of the house of Charles the Great. The thought so took hold +of me that it caused me to give up my first plan. Instead of roaming +over the woods, I went the next morning to my grandmother. I had never +before stepped out of the forest where I lived in complete seclusion +with my father. I was taciturn by nature, and wild. Upon arriving at the +castle in quest of my grandmother, I met by accident a company of +Frankish soldiers who had been exercising. For pastime they began to +make sport of me. My hatred of their race, coupled with my astonishment +at finding myself for the first time in my life among such a big crowd, +made me dumb. The soldiers took my savage silence for stupidity, and +they cried in chorus: 'He is a calf!' Thus they carried me along with +them amidst wild yells and jeers, and not a few blows bestowed upon me! +I cared little whether I was taken for an idiot or not, and considering +that nobody minds an idiot, I began in all earnest to play the rôle, +hoping that, thanks to my seeming stupidity, I might succeed in +penetrating into the castle without arousing suspicion. My poor +grandmother believed me devoid of reason, the retainers at the castle, +the courtiers, and later the King himself amused themselves with the +imbecility of Yvon the Calf. And so one day, after having been an unseen +witness to the interview of Hugh the Capet with Blanche near the +Fountain of the Hinds, I saw the degenerate descendant of Charles the +Great expire under my very eyes; I saw extinguished in Louis the +Do-nothing the second royal dynasty of France." + +Marceline followed Yvon closely with her hands in his, and kissed him, +thinking the recital over. + +"But I have a confession to make to you," Yvon resumed. "Profiting by +the facility I enjoyed in entering the castle, I committed a theft.... I +one day snatched away a roll of skins that had been prepared to write +upon. Never having owned one denier, it would have been impossible for +me to purchase so expensive an article as parchment. As to pens and +fluid, the feathers that I pluck from eagles and crows, and the black +juice of the trivet-berry will serve me to record the events of my life, +the past and recent part of which is monumental, and whose next and +approaching part promises to be no less so." + + + + +PART II. + +THE END OF THE WORLD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE APOCALYPTIC FRENZY. + + +Two months after the poisoning of Louis the Do-nothing in 987, Hugh the +Capet, Count of Paris and Anjou, Duke of Isle-de-France, and Abbot of +St. Martin of Tours and St. Germain-des-Pres, had himself proclaimed +King by his bands of warriors, and was promptly consecrated by the +Church. By his ascension to the throne, Hugh usurped the crown of +Charles, Duke of Lorraine, the uncle of Blanche's deceased husband. +Hugh's usurpation led to bloody civil strifes between the Duke of +Lorraine and Hugh the Capet. The latter died in 996 leaving as his +successor his son Rothbert, an imbecile and pious prince. Rothbert's +long reign was disturbed by the furious feuds among the seigneurs; +counts, dukes, abbots and bishops, entrenched in their fortified +castles, desolated the country with their brigandage. Rothbert, Hugh's +son, died in 1031 and was succeeded by his son Henry I. His advent to +the throne was the signal for fresh civil strife, caused by his own +brother, who was incited thereto by his mother. Another Rothbert, +surnamed the Devil, Duke of Normandy, a descendant of old Rolf the +pirate, took a hand in these strifes and made himself master of Gisors, +Chaumont and Pontoise. It was under the reign of Hugh the Capet's +grandson, Henry I, that the year 1033 arrived, and with it unheard-of, +even incredible events--a spectacle without its equal until then--which +was the culmination of the prevalent myth regarding the end of the world +with the year 1000. + +The Church had fixed the last day of the year 1000 as the final term for +the world's existence. Thanks to the deception, the clergy came into +possession of the property of a large number of seigneurs. During the +last months of that year an immense saturnalia was on foot. The wildest +passions, the most insensate, the drollest and the most atrocious acts +seemed then unchained. + +"The end of the world approaches!" exclaimed the clergy. "Did not St. +John the Divine prophesy it in the Apocalypse saying: '_When the +thousand years are expired, Satan will be loosed out of his prison, and +shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of +the earth; the book of life will be opened; the sea will give up the +dead which were in it; death and hell will deliver up the dead which +were in them; they will be judged every man according to his works; they +will be judged by Him who is seated upon a brilliant throne, and there +will be a new heaven and a new earth._'--Tremble, ye peoples!" the +clergy repeated everywhere, "the one thousand years, announced by St. +John, will run out with the end of this year! Satan, the anti-Christ is +to arrive! Tremble! The trumpet of the day of judgment is about to +sound; the dead are about to arise from their tombs; in the midst of +thunder and lightning, and surrounded by archangels carrying flaming +swords, the Eternal is about to pass judgment upon us all! Tremble, ye +mighty ones of the earth: in order to conjure away the implacable anger +of the All-Mighty, give your goods to the Church! It is still time! It +is still time! Give your goods and your treasures to the priests of the +Lord! Give all you possess to the Church!" + +The seigneurs, themselves no less brutified than their serfs by +ignorance and by the fear of the devil, and hoping to be able to conjure +away the vengeance of the Eternal, assigned to the clergy by means of +authentic documents, executed in all the forms of terrestrial law, +lands, houses, castles, serfs, their harems, their herds of cattle, +their valuable plate, their rich armors, their pictures, their statues, +their sumptuous robes. + +Some of the shrewder ones said: "We have barely a year, a month, a week +to live! We are full of youth, of desires, of ardor! Let us put the +short period to profit! Let us stave-in our wine casks, let us indulge +ourselves freely in wine and women!" + +"The end of the world is approaching!" exclaimed with delirious joy +millions of serfs of the domains of the King, of the lay and of the +ecclesiastical seigneurs. "Our poor bodies, broken with toil, will at +last take rest in the eternal night that is to emancipate us. A blessing +on the end of the world! It is the end of our miseries and our +sufferings!" + +And those poor serfs, having nothing to spend and nothing to assign +away, sought to anticipate the expected eternal repose. The larger +number dropped their plows, their hoes and their spades so soon as +autumn set in. "What is the use," said they, "of cultivating a field +that, long before harvest time, will have been swallowed up in chaos?" + +As a consequence of this universal panic, the last days of the year 999 +presented a spectacle never before seen; it was even fabulous! +Light-headed indulgence and groans; peals of laughter and lamentations; +maudlin songs and death dirges. Here the shouts and the frantic dances +of supposed last and supreme orgies; yonder the lamentations of pious +canticles. And finally, floating above this vast mass of terror, rose +the formidable popular curiosity to see the spectacle of the destruction +of the world. It came at last, that day said to have been prophesied by +St. John the Divine! The last hour arrived, the last minute of that +fated year of 999! "Tremble, ye sinners!" the warning redoubled; +"tremble, ye peoples of the earth! the terrible moment foretold in the +holy books is here!" One more second, one more instant, midnight +sounds--and the year 1000 begins. + +In the expectation of that fatal instant, the most hardened hearts, the +souls most certain of salvation, the dullest and also the most +rebellious minds experienced a sensation that never had and never will +have a name in any language-- + +Midnight sounded!... The solemn hour.... Midnight! + +The year 1000 began! + +Oh, wonder and surprise!... The dead did not leave their tombs, the +bowels of the earth did not open, the waters of the ocean remained +within their basins, the stars of heaven were not hurled out of their +orbits and were not striking against one another in space. Aye, there +was not even a tame flash of lightning! No thunder rolled! No trace of +the cloud of fire in the midst of which the Eternal was to appear. +Jehovah remained invisible. Not one of the frightful prodigies foretold +by St. John the Divine for midnight of the year 1000 was verified. The +night was calm and serene; the moon and stars shone brilliantly in the +azure sky, not a breath of wind agitated the tops of the trees, and the +people, in the silence of their stupor, could hear the slightest ripple +of the mountain streams gliding under the grass. Dawn came ... and day +... and the sun poured upon creation the torrents of its light! As to +miracles, not a trace of any! + +Impossible to describe the revulsion of feeling at the universal +disappointment. It was an explosion of regret, of remorse, of +astonishment, of recrimination and of rage. The devout people who +believed themselves cheated out of a Paradise that they had paid for to +the Church in advance with hard cash and other property; others, who had +squandered their treasures, contemplated their ruin with trembling. The +millions of serfs who had relied upon slumbering in the restfulness of +an eternal night saw rising anew before their eyes the ghastly dawn of +that long day of misery and sufferings, of which their birth was the +morning and only their death the evening. It now began to be realized +that, left uncultivated in the expectation of the end of the world, the +land would not furnish sustenance to the people, and the horrors of +famine were foreseen. A towering clamor rose against the clergy; the +clergy, however, knew how to bring public opinion back to its side. It +did so by a new and fraudulent set of prophecies. + +"Oh, these wretched people of little faith," thus now ran the amended +prophecy and invocation; "they dare to doubt the word of the +All-powerful who spoke to them through the voice of His prophet! Oh, +these wretched blind people, who close their eyes to divine light! The +prophets have announced the end of time; the Holy Writ foretold that the +day of the last judgment would come a thousand years after the Saviour +of the world!... But although Christ was born a thousand years before +the year 1000, he did not reveal himself as God until his death, that is +thirty-two years after his birth. Accordingly it will be in the year +1032 that the end of time will come!" + +Such was the general state of besottedness that many of the faithful +blissfully accepted the new prediction. Several seigneurs, however, +rushed at the "men of God" to take back by force the property they had +bequeathed to them. The "men of God," however, well entrenched behind +fortified walls, defended themselves stoutly against the dispossessed +claimants. Hence a series of bloody wars between the scheming bishops, +on the one hand, and the despoiled seigneurs, on the other, to which +disasters were now superadded the religious massacres instigated by the +clergy. The Church had urged Clovis centuries ago to the extermination +of the then Arian heretics; now the Church preached the extermination of +the Orleans Manichæans and the Jews. A conception of these abominable +excesses may be gathered from the following passages in the account left +by Raoul Glaber, a monk and eye-witness. He wrote: + +"A short time after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in the +year 1010, it was learned from unquestionable sources that the calamity +had to be charged to the perverseness of Jews of all countries. When the +secret leaked out throughout the world, the Christians decided with a +common accord that they would expel all the Jews, down to the last, from +their territories and towns. The Jews thereby became the objects of +universal execration. Some were chased from the towns, others massacred +with iron, or thrown into the rivers, or put to death in some other +manner. This drove many to voluntary death. And thus, after the just +vengeance wreaked upon them, there were but very few of them left in the +Roman Catholic world." + +Accordingly, the wretched Jews of Gaul were persecuted and slaughtered +at the order of the clergy because the Saracens of Judea destroyed the +Temple of Jerusalem! As to the Manichæans of Orleans, another passage +from the same chronicle expresses itself in these words: + +"In 1017, the King and all his loyal subjects, seeing the folly of these +miserable heretics of Orleans, caused a large pyre to be lighted near +the town, in the hope that fear, produced by the sight, would overcome +their stubbornness; but seeing that they persisted, thirteen of them +were cast into the flames ... and all those that could not be convinced +to abandon their perverse ways met the same fate, whereupon the +venerable cult of the Catholic faith, having triumphed over the foolish +presumption of its enemies, shone with all the greater luster on earth." + +What with the wars that the ecclesiastical seigneurs plunged Gaul into +in their efforts to retain possession of the property of the lay +seigneurs whom they had despoiled by the jugglery of the "End of the +World," and what with these religious persecutions, Gaul continued to be +desolated down to the year 1033, the new term that had been fixed for +the last day of judgment. The belief in the approaching dissolution of +the world, which the clergy now again zealously preached, although not +so universally entertained as that of the year 1000, was accompanied +with results that were no less horrible. In 999, the expectation of the +end of the world had put a stop to work; all the fields except those +belonging to the ecclesiastical seigneurs, lay fallow. The formidable +famine of the year 1000 was then the immediate result, and that was +followed by a wide-spread mortality. Agriculture pined for laborers; +every successive scarcity engendered an increased mortality; Gaul was +being rapidly depopulated; famine set in almost in permanence during +thirty years in succession, the more disastrous periods being those of +the years 1003, 1008, 1010, 1014, 1027, 1029 and 1031; finally the +famine of 1033 surpassed all previous ones in its murderous effects. The +serfs, the villeins and the town plebs were almost alone the victims of +the scourge. The little that they produced met the needs of their +masters--the seigneurs, counts, dukes, bishops or abbots; the producers +themselves, however, expired under the tortures of starvation. The +corpses of the wretches who died of inanition strewed the fields, roads +and highways; the decomposing bodies poisoned the air, engendered +illnesses and even pestilential epidemics until then unknown; the +population was decimated. Within thirty-three years, Gaul lost more than +one-half its inhabitants--the new-born babies died vainly pressing their +mother's breasts for nourishment. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +YVON THE FORESTER'S HUT. + + +Yvon--now no longer the Calf, but the Forester, since his appointment +over the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds--and his family did not +escape the scourge. + +About five years before the famine of 1033, his beloved wife Marceline +died. He still inhabited his hut, now shared with him by his son +Den-Brao and the latter's wife Gervaise, together with their three +children, of whom the eldest, Nominoe, was nine, the second, Julyan, +seven, and the youngest, Jeannette, two years of age. Den-Brao, a serf +like his father, was since his youth employed in a neighboring stone +quarry. A natural taste for masonry developed itself in the lad. During +his hours of leisure he loved to carve in certain not over hard stones +the outlines of houses and cottages, the structure of which attracted +the attention of the master mason of Compiegne. Observing Den-Brao's +aptitude, the artisan taught him to hew stone, and soon confided to him +the plans of buildings and the overseership in the construction of +several fortified donjons that King Henry I ordered to be erected on the +borders of his domains in Compiegne. Den-Brao, being of a mild and +industrious disposition and resigned to servitude, had a passionate love +for his trade. Often Yvon would say to him: + +"My child, these redoubtable donjons, whose plans you are sketching and +which you build with so much care, either serve now or will serve some +day to oppress our people. The bones of our oppressed and martyrized +brothers will rot in these subterraneous cells reared above one another +with such an infernal art!" + +"Alack! You are right, father," Den-Brao would at such times answer, +"but if not I, some others will build them ... my refusal to obey my +master's orders would have no other consequence than to bring upon my +head a beating, if not mutilation and even death." + +Gervaise, Den-Brao's wife, an industrious housekeeper, adored her three +children, all of whom, in turn, clung affectionately to Yvon. + +The hut occupied by Yvon and his family lay in one of the most secluded +parts of the forest. Until the year 1033, they had suffered less than +other serf families from the devastations of the recurring famine. +Occasionally Yvon brought down a stag or doe. The meat was smoked, and +the provision thus laid by kept the family from want. With the beginning +of the year 1033, however, one of the epidemics that often afflict the +beasts of the fields attacked the wild animals of the forest of +Compiegne. They grew thin, lost their strength, and their flesh that +speedily decomposed, dropped from their bones. In default of venison, +the family was reduced towards the end of autumn to wild roots and dried +berries. They also ate up the snakes that they caught and that, +fattened, crawled into their holes for the winter. As hunger pressed, +Yvon killed and ate his hunting dog that he had named Deber-Trud in +memory of the war-dog of his ancestor Joel. Subsequently the family was +thrown upon the juice of barks, and then upon the broth of dried leaves. +But the nourishment of dead leaves soon became unbearable, and likewise +did the sap-wood, or second rind of young trees, such as elders and +aspen trees, which they beat to a pulp between stones, have to be given +up. At the time of the two previous famines, some wretched people were +said to have supported themselves with a kind of fattish clay. Not far +from Yvon's hut was a vein of such clay. Towards the end of December, +Yvon went out for some of it. It was a greenish earth of fine paste, +soft but heavy, and of insipid taste. The family thought themselves +saved. All its members devoured the first meal of the clay. But on the +morrow their contracted stomachs refused the nourishment that was as +heavy as lead. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ON THE BUCK'S TRACK. + + +Thirty-six hours of fast had followed upon the meal of clay in Yvon's +hut. Hunger gnawed again at the family's entrails. + +During these thirty-six hours a heavy snow had fallen. Yvon went out. +His family was starving within. He had death on his soul. He went +towards the nets that he had spread in the hope of snaring some bird of +passage during the snow storm. His expectations were deceived. A little +distance from the nets lay the Fountain of the Hinds, now frozen hard. +Snow covered its borders. Yvon perceived the imprint of a buck's feet. +The size of the imprint on the snow announced the animal's bulk. Yvon +estimated its weight by the cracks in the ice on the stream that it had +just crossed, the ice being otherwise thick enough to support Yvon +himself. This was the first time in many months that the forester had +run across a buck's track. Could the animal, perhaps, have escaped the +general mortality of its kind? Did it come from some distant forest? +Yvon knew not, but he followed the fresh track with avidity. Yvon had +with him his bow and arrows. To reach the animal, kill it and smoke its +flesh meant the saving of the lives of his family, now on the verge of +starvation. It meant their life for at least a month. Hope revivified +the forester's energies; he pursued the buck; the regular impress of its +steps showed that the animal was quietly following one of the beaten +paths of the forest; moreover its track lay so clearly upon the snow +that he could not have crossed the stream more than an hour before, else +the edges of the imprint that he left behind him would have been less +sharp and would have been rounded by the temperature of the air. +Following its tracks, Yvon confidently expected to catch sight of the +buck within an hour and bring the animal down. In the ardor of the +chase, the forester forgot his hunger. He had been on the march about +an hour when suddenly in the midst of the profound silence that reigned +in the forest, the wind brought a confused noise to his ears. It sounded +like the distant bellowing of a stag. The circumstance was +extraordinary. As a rule the beasts of the woods do not cry out except +at night. Thinking he might have been mistaken, Yvon put his ear to the +ground.... There was no more room for doubt. The buck was bellowing at +about a thousand yards from where Yvon stood. Fortunately a turn of the +path concealed the hunter from the game. These wild animals frequently +turn back to see behind them and listen. Instead of following the path +beyond the turning that concealed him, Yvon entered the copse expecting +to make a short cut, head off the buck, whose gait was slow, hide behind +the bushes that bordered the path, and shoot the animal when it hove in +sight. + +The sky was overcast; the wind was rising; with deep concern Yvon +noticed several snow flakes floating down. Should the snow fall heavily +before the buck was shot, the animal's tracks would be covered, and if +opportunity failed to dart an arrow at it from the forester's ambuscade, +he could not then expect to be able to trace the buck any further. +Yvon's fears proved correct. The wind soon changed into a howling storm +surcharged with thick snow. The forester quitted the thicket and struck +for the path beyond the turning and at about a hundred paces from the +clearing. The buck was nowhere to be seen. The animal had probably +caught wind of its pursuer and jumped for safety into the thicket that +bordered the path. It was impossible to determine the direction that it +had taken. Its tracks vanished under the falling snow, that lay in ever +thicker layers. + +A prey to insane rage, Yvon threw himself upon the ground and rolled in +the snow uttering furious cries. His hunger, recently forgotten in the +ardor of the hunt, tore at his entrails. He bit one of his arms and the +pain thus felt recalled him to his senses. Almost delirious, he rose +with the fixed intent of retracing the buck, killing the animal, +spreading himself beside its carcass, devouring it raw, and not rising +again so long as a shred of meat remained on its bones. At that moment, +Yvon would have defended his prey with his knife against even his own +son. Possessed by the fixed and delirious idea of retracing the buck, +Yvon went hither and thither at hap-hazard, not knowing in what +direction he walked. He beat about a long time, and night began to +approach, when a strange incident came to his aid and dissipated his +mental aberration. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +GREGORY THE HOLLOW-BELLIED. + + +Driven by the gale, the snow continued to fall, when suddenly Yvon's +nostrils were struck by the exhalations emitted by frying meat. The odor +chimed in with the devouring appetite that was troubling his senses, and +at least bestowed back upon him the instinct of seeking to satisfy his +hunger. He stood still, whiffed the air hither and thither like a wolf +that from afar scents carrion, and looked about in order to ascertain by +the last glimmerings of the daylight where he was. Yvon was at the +crossing of a path in the forest that led from the little village of +Ormesson. The road ran before a tavern where travelers usually put up +for the night. It was kept by a serf of the abbey of St. Maximim named +Gregory, and surnamed the Hollow-bellied, because, according to him, +nothing could satisfy his insatiable appetite. An otherwise kind-hearted +and cheerful man, the serf often, before these distressful times, and +when Yvon carried his tithe of game to the castle, had accommodatedly +offered him a pot of hydromel. A prey now to the lashings of hunger and +exasperated by the odor of fried meat which escaped from the tavern, +Yvon carefully approached the closed door. In order to allow the smoke +to escape, Gregory had thrown the window half open without fear of being +seen. By the light of a large fire that burned in the hearth, Yvon saw +Gregory seated on a stool placidly surveying the broiling of a large +piece of meat whose odor had so violently assailed the nostrils of the +famishing forester. + +To Yvon's great surprise, the tavern-keeper's appearance had greatly +changed. He was no longer the lean and wiry fellow of before. Now his +girth was broad, his cheeks were full, wore a thick black beard and +tinkled with the warm color of life and health. Within reach of the +tavern-keeper lay a cutlass, a pike and an ax--all red with blood. At +his feet an enormous mastiff picked a bone well covered with meat. The +spectacle angered the forester. He and his family could have lived a +whole day upon the remnants left by the dog; moreover, how did the +tavern-keeper manage to procure so large a loin? Cattle had become so +dear that only the seigneurs and the ecclesiastics could afford to +purchase any; beef cost a hundred gold sous, sheep a hundred silver +sous! A sense of hate rose in Yvon's breast against Gregory whom he had +until then looked upon very much as a friend. The forester could not +take his eyes from the meat, thinking of the joy of his family if he +were to return home loaded with such a booty. For a moment Yvon was +tempted to knock at the door of the serf and demand a share, at least +the chunks thrown at the dog. But judging the tavern-keeper by himself, +and noticing, moreover, that the former was well armed, he reflected +that in days like those bread and meat were more precious than gold and +silver; to request Gregory the Hollow-bellied to yield a part of his +supper was folly; he would surely refuse, and if force was attempted he +would kill the intruder. These thoughts rapidly succeeded one another in +Yvon's troubled brain. To add to his dilemma, his presence was scented +by the mastiff who, at first, growled angrily without, however, dropping +his bone, and then began to bark. + +At that moment Gregory was removing the meat from the spit. "What's the +matter, Fillot? Be brave, old boy! We shall defend our supper. You are +furnished with good strong jaws and fangs, I with weapons. Fear not. No +one will venture to enter. So be still, Fillot! Lie down and keep +quiet!" But so far from lying down and keeping quiet, the mastiff +dropped his bone, stood up, and approaching the window where Yvon stood, +barked louder still. "Oh, oh!" remarked the tavern-keeper depositing the +meat in a large wooden platter on the table. "Fillot drops a bone to +bark ... there must be someone outside." Yvon stepped quickly back, and +from the dark that concealed him he saw Gregory seize his pike, throw +the window wide open and leaning out call with a threatening voice: "Who +is there? If any one is in search of death, he can find it here." The +deed almost running ahead of the thought, Yvon raised his bow, adjusted +an arrow and, invisible to Gregory, thanks to the darkness without, took +straight aim at the tavern-keeper's breast. The arrow whizzed; Gregory +emitted a cry followed by a prolonged groan; his head and bust fell over +the window-sill, and his pike dropped on the snow-covered ground. Yvon +quickly seized the weapon. It was done none too soon. The furious +mastiff leaped out of the window over his dead master's shoulders and +made a bound at the forester. A thrust of the pike nailed the faithful +brute to the ground. Yvon had committed the murder with the ferocity of +a famished wolf. He appeased his hunger. The dizziness that had assailed +his head vanished, his reason returned, and he found himself alone in +the tavern with a still large piece of meat beside him,--more than half +of the original chunk. + +Feeling as if he just woke from a dream, Yvon looked around and felt +frozen to the marrow. The light emitted by the hearth enabled him to see +distinctly among the bloody remnants near where the mastiff had been +gnawing his bone, a human hand and the trunk of a human arm. Horrified +as he was, Yvon approached the bleeding members. + +There was no doubt. Before him lay the remains of a human body. The +surprising girth that Gregory the Hollow-bellied had suddenly developed +came to his mind. The mystery was explained. Nourished by human flesh, +the monster had been feeding on the travelers who stopped at his place. +The roast that had just been hungrily swallowed by Yvon proceeded from a +recent murder. The forester's hair stood on end; he dare not look +towards the table where still lay the remains of his cannibal supper. He +wondered how his mouth did not reject the food. But that first and +cultivated sense of horror being over, the forester could not but admit +to himself that the meat he had just gulped down differed little from +beef. The thought started a poignant reflection: "My son, his wife and +children are at this very hour undergoing the tortures of hunger; mine +has been satisfied by this food; however abominable it may be, I shall +carry off the rest; the same as I was at first ignorant of what it was +that I ate, my family shall not know the nature of the dish.... I shall +at least have saved them for a day!" The reasoning matured into +resolution. + +As Yvon was about to quit the tavern with his load of human flesh, the +gale that had been howling without and now found entrance through the +window, violently threw open the door of a closet connecting with the +room he was in. The odor of a charnel house immediately assailed the +forester's nostrils. He ran to the hearth, picked up a flaming brand, +and looked into the closet. Its naked walls were bespattered with blood; +in a corner lay a heap of dried twigs and leaves used for kindling a +fire and from beneath them protruded a foot and part of a leg. Yvon +scattered the heap of kindling material with his feet ... they hid a +recently mutilated corpse. The penetrating smell obviously escaped from +a lower vault. Yvon noticed a trap door. Raising it, there rose so +putrid an odor that he staggered back; but driven despite himself to +carry his investigation to the end, he approached the flaming brand to +the opening and discovered below a cavern that was almost filled with +bones, heads and other human members, the bloody remnants of the +travelers whom Gregory the Hollow-bellied had lived upon. In order to +put an end to the horrible spectacle, Yvon hurled his flaming brand into +the mortuary cellar; it was immediately extinguished; for a moment the +forester remained in the dark; he then stepped back into the main room; +and overcoming a fresh assault of human scruple, darted out with the +remains of the roast in his bag, thinking only of his famishing family. + +Without, the gale blew violently; its rage seemed to increase. The moon, +then at its fullest, cast enough light, despite the whirls of snow, to +guide Yvon's steps. He struck the road to the Fountain of the Hinds in +haste, moving with firm though rapid strides. The infernal food he had +just partaken of returned to him his pristine strength. About two +leagues from his hut, he stopped, struck with a sudden thought. The +mastiff he had killed was enormous, fleshy and fat. It could furnish his +family with food for at least three or four days. Why had he forgotten +to bring it along? Yvon turned back to the tavern, long though the road +was. As he approached the house of Gregory he noticed a great brilliancy +from afar and across the falling snow. The light proceeded from the door +and window of the tavern. Only two hours before when he left, the hearth +was extinct and the place dark. Could someone have gone in afterwards +and rekindled the fire? Yvon crept near the house hoping to carry off +the dog without attracting notice, but voices reached him saying: + +"Friends, let us wait till the dog is well roasted." + +"I'm hungry! Devilish hungry!" + +"So am I ... but I have more patience than you, who would have eaten the +dainty raw.... Pheu! What a smell comes from that charnel room! And yet +the door and window are open!" + +"Never mind the smell!... I'm hungry!" + +"So, then, Master Gregory the Hollow-bellied slaughtered the travelers +to rob them, I suppose.... One of them must have been beforehand with +him and killed him.... But the devil take the tavern-keeper! His dog is +now roasted. Let's eat!" + +"Let's eat!" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE DELIRIUM OF STARVATION. + + +Too old a man to think of contesting the spoils for which he had +returned to Gregory's tavern, Yvon hurried back home and reached his hut +towards midnight. + +On entering, a torch of resinous wood, fastened near the wall by an iron +ring, lighted a heart-rending spectacle. Stretched out near the hearth +lay Den-Brao, his face covered by his mason's jacket; himself expiring +of inanition, he wished to escape the sight of the agony of his family. +His wife, Gervaise, so thin that the bones of her face could be counted, +was on her knees near a straw pallet where Julyan lay in convulsions. +Almost fainting, Gervaise struggled with her son who was alternately +crying with fury and with pain and in the frenzy of starvation sought to +apply its teeth to his own arms. Nominoe, the elder, lay flat on his +face, on the pallet with his brother. He would have been taken for dead +but for the tremor that from time to time ran over his frame still more +emaciated than his brother's. Finally Jeannette, about three years old, +murmured in her cradle with a dying voice: "Mother ... I am hungry.... I +am hungry!" + +At the sound of Yvon's steps, Gervaise turned her head: "Father!" said +she in despair, "if you bring nothing with you, I shall kill my children +to shorten their agony ... and then myself!" + +Yvon threw down his bow and took his bag from his shoulders. Gervaise +judged from its size and obvious weight that it was full. She wrenched +it from Yvon's hands with savage impatience, thrust her hand in it, +pulled out the chunk of roasted meat and raising it over her head to +show it to the whole family cried out in a quivering voice: "Meat!... +Oh, we shall not yet die! Den-Brao.... Children!... Meat!... Meat!" At +these words Den-Brao sat up precipitately; Nominoe, too feeble to rise, +turned on his pallet and stretched out his eager hands to his mother; +little Jeannette eagerly looked up from her cradle; while Julyan, whom +his mother was not now holding, neither heard nor saw aught but was +biting into his arms in the delirium of starvation, unnoticed by either +Yvon or any other member of the family. All eyes were fixed upon +Gervaise, who running to a table and taking a knife sliced off the meat +crying: "Meat!... Meat!" + +"Give me!... Give me!" cried Den-Brao, stretching out his emaciated +arms, and he devoured in an instant the piece that he received. + +"You next, Jeannette!" said Gervaise, throwing a slice to the little +girl who uttered a cry of joy, while her mother herself, yielding to the +cravings of starvation bit off mouthfuls from the slice that she reached +out to her oldest son, Nominoe, who, like the rest, pounced upon the +prey, and fell to eating in silent voracity. "And now, you, Julyan," +continued Gervaise. The lad made no answer. His mother stooped down over +him: "Julyan, do not bite your arm! Here is meat, dear boy!" But his +elder brother, Nominoe, having swallowed up his own slice, brusquely +seized that which his mother was tendering to Julyan. Seeing that the +latter continued motionless, Gervaise insisted: "My child, take your arm +from your teeth!" But hardly had she pronounced these words than, +turning towards Yvon, she cried: "Come here, father.... His arm is icy +and rigid ... so rigid that I cannot withdraw it from his jaws." + +Yvon rushed to the pallet where Julyan lay. The little boy had expired +in the convulsion of hunger, although less unfeebled than his brother +and sister. "Step aside," Yvon said to Gervaise; "step aside!" She +realized that Julyan was dead, obeyed Yvon's orders and went on to eat. +But her hunger being appeased, she approached her son's corpse and +sobbed aloud: + +"My poor little Julyan!" she lamented. "Oh, my dear child! You died of +hunger!... A few minutes longer and you would have had something to eat +like the others ... at least for to-day!" + +"Where did you get this roast, father?" asked Den-Brao. + +"I found the tracks of a buck," answered Yvon dropping his eyes; "I +followed the animal but failed to come up to it. In that way I went as +far as the tavern of Gregory the Hollow-bellied. He was at supper.... I +shared his repast, and he gave me what you have just eaten." + +"Such a gift! and in days of famine, father! in such days when only +seigneurs and the clergy do not suffer of hunger!" + +"I made the tavern-keeper sympathize with our distress," Yvon answered +brusquely, and, in order to put an end to the subject he added: "I am +worn out with fatigue; I must rest," saying which he walked into the +contiguous room to stretch himself out on his couch, while his son and +daughter remained on their knees near the body of little Julyan. The +other two children fell asleep, still saying they were hungry. After a +long and troubled sleep, Yvon woke up. It was day. Gervaise and her +husband still knelt near Julyan. His brother and sister were saying: +"Mother, give us something to eat; we are hungry!" + +"Later, dear little ones," answered the unhappy woman to console them; +"later you shall have something to eat." + +Den-Brao raised his head and asked: "Where are you going, father?" + +"I am going to dig the grave of my little grandson.... I wish to save +you the sad task." + +"Dig ours also, father," Den-Brao replied with a dejected mien. "We +shall all die to-night. For a moment allayed, our hunger will rise more +violent than last night ... dig a wide grave for us all." + +"Despair not, my children. It has stopped snowing. I may be able to find +again the traces of the buck." + +Yvon picked up a spade with which to dig Julyan's grave near where the +boy's great-grandfather, Leduecq, lay buried. Near the place was a heap +of dead branches that had been gathered shortly before by the woodsmen +serfs to turn into coal. After the grave was dug, Yvon left his spade +near it and as the snow had ceased falling he started anew in pursuit of +the buck. It was in vain. Nowhere were the animal's tracks to be seen. +It grew night with the prospect of a long darkness, seeing the moon +would not rise until late. Yvon was reminded by the pangs of hunger, +that began to assail him, that in his hut the sufferings must have +returned. A spectacle, even more distressing than that of the previous +night now awaited him--the convulsive cries of starving children, the +moaning of their mother, the woe-begone looks and dejectment of his son +who lay on the floor awaiting death, and reproaching Yvon for having +prolonged his own and the sufferings of his family with their lives. +Such was the prostration of these wretched beings that, without turning +their heads to Yvon, or even addressing a single word to him, they let +him carry out the corpse of the deceased child. + +An hour later Yvon re-entered his hut. It was pitch dark; the hearth was +cold. None had even the spirit to light a resin torch. Hollow and +spasmodic rattlings were heard from the throats of those within. +Suddenly Gervaise jumped up and groped her way in the dark towards Yvon +crying: "I smell roast meat ... just as last night ... we shall not +die!... Den-Brao, your father has brought some more meat!... Come, +children, come for your share.... A light quick!" + +"No, no! We want no light!" Yvon cried in a tremulous voice. "Take!" +said he to Gervaise, who was tugging at the bag on his shoulders. +"Take!... Divide this venison among yourselves, and eat in the dark!" + +The wretched family devoured the meat in the dark; their hunger and +feebleness did not allow them to ask what kind of meat it was. But Yvon +fled from the hut almost crazed with horror. Abomination! His family was +again feeding upon human flesh! + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE FLIGHT TO ANJOU. + + +Long, aimless, distracted, Yvon wandered about the forest. A severe +frost had succeeded the fall of snow that covered every inch of the +ground. The moon shone brilliantly in the crisp air. The forester felt +chilled; in despair he threw himself down at the foot of a tree, +determined there to await death. + +The torpor of death by freezing was creeping upon the mind of the +heart-broken serf when, suddenly, the crackling of branches that +announce the passage of game fell upon his ears and revived him with the +promise of life. The animal could not be more than fifty paces away. +Unfortunately Yvon had left his bow and arrows in his hut. "It is the +buck! Oh, this time I shall kill him!" he murmured to himself. His +revived will-power now dominated the exhaustion of his forces, and it +was strong enough to cause him to lose no time in vain regrets at not +having his hunting arms with him, now when the prey would be certain. +The crackling of the branches drew nearer. Yvon found himself under a +clump of large and old oaks, a little distance away was the thick copse +through which the animal was then passing. He rose up and planted +himself motionless close to and along the trunk of the tree at the foot +of which he had thrown himself down. Covered by the tree's thickness and +the shadow that it threw, with his neck extended, his eyes and ears on +the alert, the serf took his long forester's knife between his teeth and +waited. After several minutes of mortal suspense--the buck might get the +wind of him or come from cover beyond his reach--Yvon heard the animal +approach, then stop an instant close behind the tree against which he +had glued his back. The tree concealed Yvon from the eyes of the animal, +but it also prevented him from seeing the prey that he breathlessly lay +in wait for. Presently, six feet from Yvon and to the right, he saw +plainly sketched upon the snow, that the light of the moon rendered +brilliant, the shape of the buck and the wide antlers that crowned his +head. Yvon stopped breathing and remained motionless so long as the +shadow stood still. A moment later the shadow began to steal towards +him, and with a prodigious bound Yvon rushed at and seized the animal by +the horns. The buck was large and struggled vigorously; but clambering +himself around the horns with his left arm, Yvon plunged his knife with +his right hand into the animal's throat. The buck rolled over him and +expired, while Yvon, with his mouth fastened to the wound, pumped up and +swallowed the blood that flowed in a thick stream. + +The warm and healthy blood strengthened and revivified the serf.... He +had not eaten since the previous night. + +Yvon rested a few moments; he then bound the hind legs of the buck with +a flexible twig and dragging his booty, not without considerable effort +by reason of its weight, he arrived with it at his hut near the Fountain +of the Hinds. His family was now for a long time protected from hunger. +The buck could not yield less than three hundred pounds of meat, which +carefully prepared and smoked after the fashion of foresters, could be +preserved for many months. + +Two days after these two fateful nights, Yvon learned from a woodsman +serf, that one of his fellows, a forester of the woods of Compiegne like +himself, having discovered the next morning the body of Gregory the +Hollow-bellied pierced with an arrow that remained in the wound, and +having identified the weapon as Yvon's by the peculiar manner in which +it was feathered, had denounced him as the murderer. The bailiff of the +domain of Compiegne detested Yvon. Although the latter's crime delivered +the neighborhood of a monster who slaughtered the travelers in order to +gorge himself upon them, the bailiff ordered his arrest. Thus notified +in time, Yvon the Forester resolved to flee, leaving his son and family +behind. But Den-Brao as well as his wife insisted upon accompanying him +with their children. + +The whole family decided to take the road and place their fate in the +hands of Providence. The smoked buck's meat would suffice to sustain +them through a long journey. They knew that whichever way they took, +serfdom awaited them. It was a change of serfdom for serfdom; but they +found consolation in the knowledge that the change from the horrors they +had undergone could not but improve their misery. The famine, although +general, was not, according to reports, equally severe everywhere. + +The hut near the Fountain of the Hinds was, accordingly, abandoned. +Den-Brao and his wife carried the little Jeannette by turns on their +backs. The other child, Nominoe, being older, marched besides his +grandfather. They reached and crossed the borders of the royal domain, +and Yvon felt safe. A few days later the travelers learned from some +pilgrims that Anjou suffered less of the famine than did any other +region. Thither they directed their steps, induced thereto by the +further consideration that Anjou bordered on Britanny, the cradle of the +family. Yvon wished eventually to return thither in the hope of finding +some of his relatives in Armorica. + +The journey to Anjou was made during the first months of the year 1034 +and across a thousand vicissitudes, almost always accompanied by some +pilgrims, or by beggars and vagabonds. Everywhere on their passage the +traces were met of the horrible famine and not much less horrible +ravages caused by the private feuds of the seigneurs. Little Jeannette +perished on the road. + + + + +EPILOGUE. + + +The narrative of my father, Yvon the Forester, breaks off here. He could +not finish it. He was soon after taken sick and died. Before expiring he +made to me the following confession which he desired inserted in the +family's annals: + +"I have a horrible confession to make. Near by the grave to which I took +the body of Julyan, lay a large heap of wood that was to be reduced to +coal by the woodsmen. My family was starving in the hut. I saw no way of +prolonging their existence. The thought then occurred to me: 'Last night +the abominable food that I carried to my family from Gregory's human +charnel house kept them from dying in the agonies of starvation. My +grandson is dead. What should I do? Bury the body of little Julyan or +have it serve to prolong the life of those who gave him life?' + +"After long hesitating before such frightful alternatives, the thought +of the agonies that my family were enduring decided me. I lighted the +heap of dried wood. I laid upon it the flesh of my grandson, and by the +light cast from the pyre I buried his bones, except a fragment of his +skull, which I preserved as a sad and solemn relic of those accursed +days, and on which I engraved these fateful words in the Gallic tongue: +_Fin-al-bred_--The End of the World. I then took the broiled pieces of +meat to my expiring family!... You all ate in the dark.... You knew not +what you ate.... The ghastly meal saved your lives!" + +My father then delivered to me the parchment that contained his +narrative, accompanied with the lettered bone from the skull of my poor +little Julyan, and also the iron arrow-head which accompanied the +narrative left by our ancestor Eidiol, the skipper of Paris. Some day, +perhaps, these two narratives may be joined to the chronicle of our +family, no doubt held by those of our relatives who must still be living +in Britanny. + +My father Yvon died on the 9th of September, 1034. + +This is how our journey ended: Following my father's wishes and also +with the purpose of drawing near Britanny, we marched towards Anjou, +where we arrived on the territory of the seigneur Guiscard, Count of the +region and castle of Mont-Ferrier. All travelers who passed over his +territory had to pay tribute to his toll-gatherers. Poor people, unable +to pay, were, according to the whim of the seigneur's men, put through +some disagreeable, or humiliating, or ridiculous performance: they were +either whipped, or made to walk on their hands, or to turn somersaults, +or kiss the bolts of the toll-gatherer's gate. As to the women, they +were subjected to revolting obscenities. Many other people as penniless +as ourselves were thus subjected to indignity and brutality. Desirous of +sparing my father and my wife the disgrace, I said to the bailiff of the +seigniory who happened to be there: "The castle I see yonder looks to me +weak in many ways. I am a skillful mason; I have built a large number of +fortified donjons; employ me and I shall work to the satisfaction of +your seigneur. All I ask of you is not to allow my father, wife and +children to be maltreated, and to furnish us with shelter and bread +while the work lasts." The bailiff accepted my offer gladly, seeing that +the mason, who was killed during the last war against the castle of +Mont-Ferrier, had not yet been replaced, and besides I furnished ample +evidence of knowing how to build. The bailiff assigned us to a hut where +we were to receive a serf's pittance. My father was to cultivate a +little garden attached to our hovel, while Nominoe, then old enough to +be of assistance, was to help me at my work which would last until +winter. We contemplated a journey to Britanny after that. We had lived +here five months when, three days ago, I lost my father. + + * * * * * + +To-day the eleventh day of the month of June, of the year 1035, I, +Den-Brao add this post-script to the above lines that I appended to my +father's narrative. I have to record a sad event. The work on the castle +of Mont-Ferrier not being concluded before the winter of 1034, the +bailiff of the seigneur, shortly after my father's death proposed to me +to resume work in the spring. I accepted. I love my trade. Moreover, my +family felt less wretched here than in Compiegne, and I was not as +anxious as my father to return to Britanny where, after all, there may +be no member of our family left. I accepted the bailiff's offer, and +continued to work upon the buildings, that are now completed. The last +piece of work I did was to finish up a secret issue that leads outside +of the castle. Yesterday the bailiff came to me and said: "One of the +allies of the seigneur of Mont-Ferrier, who is just now on a visit at +the castle, expressed great admiration for the work that you did, and as +he is thinking of improving the fortifications of his own manor, he +offered the count our master to exchange you for a serf who is a +skillful armorer, and whom we need. The matter was settled between +them." + +"But I am not a serf of the seigneur of Mont-Ferrier," I interposed; "I +agreed to work here of my own free will." + +The bailiff shrugged his shoulders and replied: "The law says--_every +man who is not a Frank, and who lives a year and a day upon the land of +a seigneur, becomes a serf and the property of the said seigneur, and as +such is subject to taille at will and mercy_. You have lived here since +the tenth day of June of the year 1034; we are now at the eleventh day +of June of the year 1035; you have lived a year and a day on the land of +the seigneur of Mont-Ferrier; you are now his serf; you belong to him, +and he has the right to exchange you for a serf of the seigneur of +Plouernel. Drop all thought of resisting our master's will. Should you +kick up your heels, Neroweg IV, seigneur and count of Plouernel, will +order you tied to the tail of his horse, and drag you in that way as +far as his castle." + +I would have resigned myself to my new condition without much grief, but +for one circumstance. For forty years I lived a serf on the domain of +Compiegne, and it mattered little to me whether I exercised my trade of +masonry in one seigniory or another. But I remember that my father told +me that he had it from his grandfather Guyrion how an old family of the +name of Neroweg, established in Gaul since the conquest of Clovis, had +ever been fatal to our own. I felt a sort of terror at the thought of +finding myself the serf of a descendant of the Terrible Eagle--that +first of the Nerowegs that crossed our path. + +May heaven ordain it so that my forebodings prove unfounded! May heaven +ordain, my dear son Nominoe, that you shall not have to register on this +parchment aught but the date of my death and these few words: + +"My father Den-Brao ended peaceably his industrious life of a mason +serf." + + +(THE END.) + + + * * * * * + + +The Gold Sickle; + +...OR... + +Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen. + +By EUGENE SUE. + +Translated from the original French + +By DANIEL DE LEON. + +This story is the first of the gems in the necklace of gems +that Eugene Sue felicitously named "The Mysteries of the +People; or The History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages." +It is a story of Druid Gaul, captivating in its simplicity and +superbly preluding the grand drama that is gradually unfolded +from story to story, ending in the great French Revolution. + +PRICE 50 CENTS. + +New York Labor News Co. + +2, 4 & 6 New Reade St., New York, N. Y. + + * * * * * + + +THE PILGRIM'S SHELL + +----OR---- + +FERGAN THE QUARRYMAN + +By Eugene Sue. + +Translated By Daniel De Leon. + +283 pp., on fine book paper, cloth 75 cents. + +This great historical story by the eminent +French writer is one of the majestic +series that cover the leading and successive +episodes of the history of the human +race. The novel treats of the feudal +system, the first Crusade and the rise of +the Communes in France. It is the only +translation into English of this masterpiece +of Sue. + +The New York Sun says: + +Eugene Sue wrote a romance which seems to have disappeared in a curious +fashion, called "Les Mysteres du Peuple." It is the story of a Gallic +family through the ages, told in successive episodes, and, so far as we +have been able to read it, is fully as interesting as "The Wandering +Jew" or "The Mysteries of Paris." The French edition is pretty hard to +find, and only parts have been translated into English. We don't know +the reason. One medieval episode, telling of the struggle of the +communes for freedom, is now translated by Mr. Daniel De Leon, under the +title "The Pilgrim's Shell" (New York Labor News Co.). We trust the +success of his effort may be such as to lead him to translate the rest +of the romance. It will be the first time the feat has been done in +English. + +NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO., + +2, 4 & 6 New Reade St., New York. + + * * * * * + + +Woman +Under +Socialism + +By August Bebel + +Translated from the Original +German of the Thirty-third +Edition by Daniel De Leon, +Editor of the New York Daily +People, with translator's preface +and foot notes. + +Cloth, 400 pages, with pen +drawing of the author. + +Price, $1.00 + +The complete emancipation of woman, and her complete +equality with man is the final goal of our social development, +whose realization no power on earth can prevent;--and this +realization is possible only by a social change that shall +abolish the rule of man over man--hence also of capitalists over +working-men. Only then will the human race reach its highest +development. The "Golden Age" that man has been dreaming of for +thousands of years, and after which they have been longing, will +have come at last. Class rule will have reached its end for all +time, and along with it, the rule of man over woman. + +CONTENTS: + +WOMAN IN THE PAST. + Before Christianity. + Under Christianity. +WOMAN IN THE PRESENT. + Sexual Instinct, Wedlock, Checks and Obstructions to Marriage. + Further Checks and Obstructions to Marriage, Numerical Proportion of + the Sexes, Its Causes and Effects. + Prostitution a Necessary Institution of the Capitalist World. + Woman's Position as a Breadwinner. Her Intellectual Faculties, + Darwinism and the Condition of Society. + Woman's Civic and Political Status. + The State and Society. + The Socialization of Society. +WOMAN IN THE FUTURE. +INTERNATIONALITY. +POPULATION AND OVER-POPULATION. + +NEW YORK +LABOR NEWS CO. +2-6 New Reade St. +New York City + + * * * * * + + +The Paris Commune + +By Karl Marx, with the elaborate introduction +of Frederick Engels. It includes +the First and Second manifestos +of the International Workingman's Association, +the Civil War in France and the +Anti-Plebiscite Manifesto. Near his close +of the Civil War in France, turning from +history to forecast the future, Marx +says: + +"After Whit-Sunday, 1871, there can be +neither peace nor truce possible between +the Workingmen of France and the appropriators +of their produce. The iron +hand of a mercenary soldiery may keep +for a time both classes tied down in +common oppression. But the battle +must break out in ever growing dimensions, +and there can be no doubt as to +who will be the victor in the end--the +appropriating few, or the immense working +majority. And the French working +class is only the vanguard of the modern +proletariat." + +Price, +50 Cents. + +New York Labor News Co. +2, 4, & 6 New Reade Street, +New York City. + + * * * * * + + +DEVELOPMENT +OF ... +SOCIALISM + +From +Utopia +to +Science. + +BY +Frederick Engels. + +This is the first complete American +edition of Frederick Engels' popular essay +on Socialism, Utopian and Scientific. +As an introduction to the work itself, it +contains an essay on Historical Materialism, +written by Engels in 1892, and also +a short but instructive essay as an appendix, +written in the same year, treating +of the primitive form of collective +land ownership in Germany, and the subsequent +development of private property. + +PRICE 50 CENTS. + +New York Labor News Co. +2, 4 & 6 NEW READE STREET +NEW YORK CITY + + * * * * * + + +VALUE, +PRICE +AND +PROFIT + +From a Mechanical Standpoint + +it is the first one of Marx's works published in +America that can be looked upon as a careful +piece of publishing. It is to be hoped that this +excellent volume is the forerunner of other +volumes of Marx, and that America will have +the honor of publishing an edition that is accurate +as to text, thorough in annotations, convenient +in size and presentable in every way. +The present book will delight the lover of +Marx, and every Socialist will desire a copy +of it.--N. Y. Daily People. + +By KARL MARX. Edited by his daughter, +ELEANOR MARX AVELING. + +PRICE 15 CENTS. + +This book is especially timely, like everything else that Marx +wrote. Written a couple of years before his "Capital" appeared, +it is an address to workingmen, and covers in popular form many +of the subjects later scientifically expanded in "Capital." + +It is universally considered as the best epitome we have of the +first volume of "Capital," and as such is invaluable to the +beginner in economics. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Infant's Skull</p> +<p> Or The End of the World. A Tale of the Millennium</p> +<p>Author: Eugène Sue</p> +<p>Release Date: March 24, 2010 [eBook #31759]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFANT'S SKULL***</p> +<h4>E-text prepared by Chuck Greif<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> + from scanned images of public domain material generously made available by<br /> + the Google Books Library Project<br /> + (<a href="http://books.google.com/">http://books.google.com/</a>)</h4> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ddddee;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + the the Google Books Library Project. See + <a href="http://books.google.com/books?vid=XvMYAAAAYAAJ&id"> + http://books.google.com/books?vid=XvMYAAAAYAAJ&id</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> + +<div class="box"> +<div class="box2"> +<h1>THE INFANT'S SKULL</h1> + +<p class="c"><b>" " OR " "</b></p> + +<h2>THE END OF THE WORLD</h2> + +<table summary="name" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" +style="border-bottom:6px double black; +letter-spacing:8px;font-size:125%;"> +<tr><td> + + + </td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="c top15"><b>A Tale of the Millennium</b></p> + +<table summary="name" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" +style="border-top:4px double black; +border-bottom:6px double black;"> +<tr><td><b>——By EUGENE SUE——</b></td></tr> +</table> + +<table summary="name" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" +style="border-bottom:6px double black; +letter-spacing:8px;font-size:125%;"> +<tr><td> + + + </td></tr> +</table> + +<p class="c smcap"><b>translated from the original french by</b></p> + +<p class="c"><b>DANIEL DE LEON</b></p> + +<p class="c smcap"><b>new york labor news company, 1904</b></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class="c top5">Copyright, 1904, by the +New York Labor News Company<a name="page_ii" id="page_ii"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_iii" id="page_iii"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="TRANSLATORS_PREFACE" id="TRANSLATORS_PREFACE"></a>TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE</h3> +<p>Among the historic phenomena of what may be called "modern antiquity," +there is none comparable to that which was witnessed on the first day of +the year 1000, together with its second or adjourned catastrophe +thirty-two years later. The end of the world, at first daily expected by +the Apostles, then postponed—upon the authority of Judaic apocalyptic +writings, together with the Revelations of St. John the Divine,—to the +year 1000, and then again to thirty-two years later, until it was +finally adjourned <i>sine die</i>, was one of those beliefs, called +"theologic," that have had vast and disastrous mundane effect. <i>The +Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World</i>, figures at that period. It is +one of that series of charming stories by Eugene Sue in which historic +personages and events are so artistically grouped that, without the +fiction losing by the otherwise solid facts, and without the solid facts +suffering by the fiction, both are enhanced, and combinedly act as a +flash-light upon the past—and no less so upon the future.</p> + +<p>As with all the stories of this series by the talented Sue, <i>The +Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World</i>, although, one of the +shortest, rescues invaluable historic facts from the dark and dusty +recesses where only the privileged few can otherwise reach them. Thus +its educational value is equal to its entertaining merit. It is a gem in +the necklace of gems that the distinguished author has felicitously +named <i>The Mysteries of the People; or The History of a Proletarian +Family Across the Ages</i>.</p> + +<p class="r">DANIEL DE LEON.</p> + +<p>New York, April 20, 1904.</p> + +<p><a name="page_iv" id="page_iv"></a></p> +<h3>INDEX<a name="page_v" id="page_v"></a></h3> + +<table summary="toc" +cellspacing="2" +cellpadding="5"> +<tr><td colspan="3"><a href="#TRANSLATORS_PREFACE">Translator's Preface</a></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_iii">iii</a></td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td rowspan="8">Part I.</td><td colspan="3">The Castle of Compiegne.</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_Ia">Chapter 1</a>.</td><td>The Fountain of the Hinds</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_3">3</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IIa">Chapter 2</a>.</td><td>The Idiot</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_11">11</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IIIa">Chapter 3</a>.</td><td>Louis the Do-Nothing </td><td align="right"><a href="#page_15">15</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IVa">Chapter 4</a>.</td><td>A Royal Couple</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_18">18</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_Va">Chapter 5</a>.</td><td>The Founding of a Dynasty</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_23">23</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIa">Chapter 6</a>.</td><td>Yvon and Marceline</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_27">27</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIIa">Chapter 7</a>.</td><td>The Stock of Joel</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_33">33</a></td></tr> +<tr valign="top"><td rowspan="7">Part II.</td><td colspan="3">The End of the World.</td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_Ib">Chapter 1</a>.</td><td>The Apocalyptic Frenzy</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_39">39</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IIb">Chapter 2</a>.</td><td>Yvon the Forester's Hut</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_46">46</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IIIb">Chapter 3</a>.</td><td>On the Buck's Track</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_48">48</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_IVb">Chapter 4</a>.</td><td>Gregory the Hollow-bellied</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_51">51</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_Vb">Chapter 5</a>.</td><td>The Delirium of Starvation</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_56">56</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><a href="#CHAPTER_VIb">Chapter 6</a>.</td><td>The Flight to Anjou</td><td align="right"><a href="#page_61">61</a></td></tr> +<tr><td colspan="3"><a href="#EPILOGUE">Epilogue</a></td><td align="right"><a href="#page_64">64</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<p><a name="page_vi" id="page_vi"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_1" id="page_1"></a></p> +<h3>PART I.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">THE CASTLE OF COMPIEGNE.</p> + +<p><a name="page_2" id="page_2"></a></p> + +<p><a name="page_3" id="page_3"></a></p> + +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_Ia" id="CHAPTER_Ia"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">THE FOUNTAIN OF THE HINDS.</p> +<p>A spring of living water, known in the neighborhood by the appropriate +name of the "Fountain of the Hinds," empties its trickling stream under +the oaks of one of the most secret recesses of the forest of Compiegne. +Stags and hinds, deers and does, bucks and she-goats come to water at +the spot, leaving behind them numerous imprints of their steps on the +borders of the rill, or on the sandy soil of the narrow paths that these +wild animals have worn across the copse.</p> + +<p>One early morning in the year 987, the sun being up barely an hour, a +woman, plainly dressed and breathing hard with rapid walking, stepped +out of one of these paths and stopped at the Fountain of the Hinds. She +looked in all directions in surprise as if she expected to have been +preceded by some one at the solitary rendezvous. Finding her hopes +deceived, she made an impatient motion, sat down, still out of breath, +on a rock near the fountain, and threw off her cape.</p> + +<p>The woman, barely twenty years of age, had black hair, eyes and +eye-brows; her complexion was brown; and cherry-red her lips. Her +features were handsome, while the mobility of her inflated nostrils and +the quickness of her motions betokened a violent nature. She had rested +only a little while when she rose again and walked up and down with +hurried steps, stopping every now and then to listen for approaching +footsteps. Catching at last the sounds of a distant footfall, she +thrilled with joy and ran to the encounter of him she had been +expecting. He appeared. It was a man, also in plain garb and in the +vigor of age, large-sized and robust, with a piercing eye and somber, +wily countenance. The young woman leaped at a bound into the arms of +this personage, and passionately addressed him: "Hugh, I meant to +overwhelm you with reproaches; I meant to strike you; but<a name="page_4" id="page_4"></a> here you are +and I forget everything," and in a transport of amorous delight she +added, suiting the deed to the words: "Your lips! Oh, give me your lips +to kiss!"</p> + +<p>After the exchange of a shower of kisses, and disengaging himself, not +without some effort, from the embrace of the fascinated woman, Hugh said +to her gravely: "We cannot indulge in love at this hour."</p> + +<p>"At this hour, to-day, yesterday, to-morrow, everywhere and always, I +love and shall continue to love you."</p> + +<p>"Blanche, they are foolhardy people who use the word 'always,' when +barely fourteen years separate us from the term assigned for the end of +the world! This is a grave and a fearful matter!"</p> + +<p>"What! Can you have given me this early morning appointment at this +secreted place, whither I have come under pretext of visiting the +hermitage of St. Eusebius, to talk to me about the end of the world? +Hugh ... Hugh.... To me there is no end of the world but when your love +ends!"</p> + +<p>"Trifle not with sacred matters! Do you not know that in fourteen years, +the first day of the year 1000, this world will cease to be and with it +the people who inhabit it?"</p> + +<p>Struck by the coldness of her lover's answers, Blanche brusquely stepped +back. Her brows contracted, her nostrils dilated, her breast heaved in +pain, and she darted a look at Hugh that seemed to wish to fathom the +very bottom of his heart. For a few instants her gaze remained fixed +upon him; she then cried in a voice trembling with rage: "You love some +other woman! You love me no more!"</p> + +<p>"Your words are senseless!"</p> + +<p>"Heaven and earth! Am I also to be despised.... I the Queen!... Yes, you +love some other woman, your own wife, perhaps; that Adelaide of Poitiers +whom you promised me you would rid yourself of by a divorce!" Further +utterances having expired upon her lips, the wife of King Louis the +Do-<a name="page_5" id="page_5"></a>nothing broke down sobbing, and with eyes that glistened with fury +she shook her fists at the Count of Paris: "Hugh, if I were sure of +that, I would kill both you and your wife; I would stab you both to +death!"</p> + +<p>"Blanche," said Hugh slowly and watching the effect of his words upon +the face of the Queen, who, with eyes fixed upon the ground, seemed to +be meditating some sinister project: "I am not merely Count of Paris and +Duke of France, as my ancestors were, I am also Abbot of Saint Martin of +Tours and of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, abbot not only by virtue of my +cowl—but by virtue of my faith. Accordingly, I blame your incredulity +on the subject of the approaching end of the world. The holiest bishops +have prophesied it, and have urged the faithful to hasten to save their +souls during the fourteen years that still separate them from the last +judgment.... Fourteen years!... A very short period within which to gain +the eternal paradise!"</p> + +<p>"By the hell that burns in my heart, the man is delivering a sermon to +me!" cried the Queen with an outburst of caustic laughter. "What are you +driving at? Are you spreading a snare for me? Malediction! this man is a +compound of ruse, artifice and darkness, and yet I love him! I am +insane!... Oh, there must be some magic charm in this!" and biting into +her handkerchief with suppressed rage, she said to him: "I shall not +interrupt again, even if I should choke with anger. Proceed, Hugh the +Capet! Explain yourself!"</p> + +<p>"Blanche, the approach of the dreadful day when the world is to end +makes me uneasy about my salvation. I look with fright at our double +adultery, seeing we are both married." Stopping with a gesture a fresh +explosion of rage on the part of the Queen, the Count of Paris added +solemnly raising his hand heavenward: "I swear to God by the salvation +of my soul, were you a widow, I would obtain a divorce from the Pope, +and I would marry you with holy joy. But likewise do I swear to God by +the salvation of my soul, I wish no longer to brave eternal<a name="page_6" id="page_6"></a> punishment +by continuing a criminal intercourse with a woman bound, as I am myself, +by the sacrament of marriage. I wish to spend in the mortification of +the flesh, in fasting, abstinence, repentance and prayer the years that +still separate us from the year 1000, to the end that I may obtain from +our Lord God the remission of my sins and of my adultery with you. +Blanche, seek not to alter my decision. According as the caprice of your +love led you, you have alternately boasted over and cursed the +inflexibility of my character. Now, what I have said is said. This shall +be the last day of our adulterous intercourse. Our carnal relations +shall then end."</p> + +<p>While Hugh the Capet was speaking, the wife of Louis the Do-nothing +contemplated his face with devouring attention. When he finished, so far +from breathing forth desperate criminations, she carried both her hands +to her forehead and seemed steeped in mediation. Looking askance upon +Blanche, the Count of Paris anxiously waited for the first word from the +Queen. Finally, a tremor shook her frame, she raised her head, as if +struck by a sudden thought, and curbing her emotions she asked: "Do you +believe that King Lothaire, the father of my husband Louis, died of +poison in March of last year?"</p> + +<p>"I believe he was poisoned."</p> + +<p>"Do you believe that Imma, his wife, was guilty of poisoning her +husband?"</p> + +<p>"She is accused of the crime."</p> + +<p>"Do you believe Imma guilty of the crime?"</p> + +<p>"I believe what I see."</p> + +<p>"And when you do not see?"</p> + +<p>"Doubt is then natural."</p> + +<p>"Do you know that in that murder Queen Imma's accomplice was her lover +Adalberon, bishop of Laon?"</p> + +<p>"It was a great scandal to the church!"</p> + +<p>"After the poisoning of Lothaire, the Queen and the bishop,<a name="page_7" id="page_7"></a> finally +delivered from the eyes of her husband, indulged their love more +freely."</p> + +<p>"A double and horrible sacrilege!" cried the Count of Paris with +indignation. "A bishop and a Queen adulterers and homicides!"</p> + +<p>Blanche seemed astonished at the indignation of Hugh the Capet and again +contemplated him attentively. She then proceeded with her interrogatory:</p> + +<p>"Are you aware, Count of Paris, that King Lothaire's death is a happy +circumstance for you—provided you were ambitious? Bishop Adalberon, the +accomplice and lover of the Queen, that bishop, expert in poisons, was +your friend!"</p> + +<p>"He was my friend before his crime."</p> + +<p>"You repudiate his friendship, but you profit by his crime. That is high +statecraft."</p> + +<p>"In what way, Blanche, have I profited by that odious crime? Does not +the son of Lothaire reign to-day? When my ancestors, the Counts of +Paris, aspired at the crown they did not assassinate the kings, they +dethroned them. Thus Eudes dethroned Charles the Fat, and Rothbert, +Charles the Simple. A transmission of crowns is easy."</p> + +<p>"All of which did not prevent Charles the Simple, the nephew of Charles +the Fat from re-ascending the throne, the same as Louis Outer-mer, the +son of Charles the Simple, also resumed his crown. On the other hand, +King Lothaire, who was poisoned last year, will never reign again. +Whence we see, it is better to kill the kings than to dethrone them ... +if one wishes to reign in their stead. Not so, Count of Paris?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, provided one does not care for the excommunications of the +bishops, nor for the eternal flames."</p> + +<p>"Hugh, if perchance my husband, although young, should die?... That +might happen."</p> + +<p>"The will of the Lord is all-powerful," answered Hugh with a contrite +air. "There be those who to-day are full of life and<a name="page_8" id="page_8"></a> youth, and +to-morrow are corpses and dust! The designs of God are impenetrable."</p> + +<p>"So that if perchance the King, my husband, should die," rejoined +Blanche, without taking her eyes from the face of the Count of Paris, +"in short, if some day or other I become a widow—your scruples will +then cease ... my love will no longer be adulterous, would it, Hugh?"</p> + +<p>"No, you would then be free."</p> + +<p>"And will you remain faithful to what you have just said ... 'Blanche, I +swear to God by the salvation of my soul, if you should become a widow I +shall separate from my wife Adelaide of Poitiers, and I shall marry you +with a pure and holy joy.' ... Will you be faithful to that oath?"</p> + +<p>"Blanche, I repeat it," answered Hugh the Capet avoiding the Queen's +eyes that remained obstinately fixed upon him. "I swear to God by the +salvation of my soul, if you become a widow I shall demand of the Pope +permission to divorce Adelaide of Poitiers, and I shall marry you. Our +love will then have ceased to be criminal."</p> + +<p>An interval of silence again followed the words of the Count of Paris, +whereupon Blanche resumed slowly:</p> + +<p>"Hugh, there are strange and sudden deaths."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, strange and sudden deaths have been seen in royal families."</p> + +<p>"None is safe from accident. Neither princes nor subjects."</p> + +<p>"Only the will of heaven disposes of our fates. We must bow before the +decrees of God."</p> + +<p>"My husband, Louis, the Do-nothing, is, like all other people, subject +to death and the decrees of Providence."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, kings as well as subjects."</p> + +<p>"It may then happen, although he is now barely twenty, that he die +suddenly ... within a year ... within six months ... to-morrow ... +to-day...."</p> + +<p>"Man's end is death."<a name="page_9" id="page_9"></a></p> + +<p>"Should that misfortune arrive," the Queen proceeded after a pause, +"there is one thing that alarms me, Hugh, and on which I desire your +advice."</p> + +<p>"What, my dear Blanche?"</p> + +<p>"Calumniators, seeing Louis dies so suddenly, might talk ... about +poison."</p> + +<p>"A pure conscience despises calumny. The wicked may be disregarded."</p> + +<p>"Oh, as to me, I would despise them. But, you, Hugh, my beloved, +whatever may be said, would you also accuse me of being a poisoner? +Would you pass such a judgment upon me?"</p> + +<p>"I believe what I see.... If I do not see, I doubt. Blanche, may the +curse of heaven fall upon me if I ever could be infamous enough to +conceive such a suspicion against you!" cried Hugh the Capet taking the +Queen in his arms with passionate tenderness. "What! If the Lord should +call your husband to Him He would fulfil the most cherished dreams of my +life! He would allow me to sanctify with marriage the ardent love that I +would sacrifice everything to, everything except my eternal salvation! +And would I, instead of thanking God, suspect you of an odious crime! +You the soul of my life!"</p> + +<p>The Queen seemed overwhelmed with ecstacy. Hugh the Capet proceeded in a +low and tremulous voice: "Oh, joy of my heart, if some day you should be +my wife before God, our souls would then merge in one and in a love that +would then be pure and holy. Then, Oh joy of Heaven, we shall not age! +The end of the world approaches. Together we shall quit life full of +ardor and love!" saying which the Count of Paris drew his mouth close to +the lips of the Queen. The latter closed her eyes and muttered a few +words in a faint voice. Hugh the Capet, however, suddenly and with great +effort disengaged himself from Blanche's arms exclaiming: "A superhuman +courage is needed to overcome the passion that consumes me! Adieu, +Blanche, well-beloved of my heart, I return to Paris!"<a name="page_10" id="page_10"></a></p> + +<p>With these words Hugh the Capet disappeared in the copse, while the +Queen, overpowered with passion and the struggle within herself, +followed him with her eyes: "Hugh, my lover, I shall be a widow, and you +King!"<a name="page_11" id="page_11"></a></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IIa" id="CHAPTER_IIa"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">THE IDIOT.</p> +<p>Among the household serfs of the royal domain of Compiegne was a young +lad of eighteen named Yvon. Since the death of his father, a forester +serf, he lived with his grandmother, the washerwoman for the castle, who +had received permission from the bailiff to keep her grandson near her. +Yvon was at first employed in the stables; but having long lived in the +woods, he looked so wild and stupid that he was presently taken for an +idiot, went by the name of Yvon the Calf, and became the butt of all. +The King himself, Louis the Do-nothing, amused himself occasionally with +the foolish pranks of the young serf. He was taught to mimic dogs by +barking and walking on all fours; he was made to eat lizards, spiders +and grass-hoppers for general amusement. Yvon always obeyed with an +idiotic leer. Thus delivered to the sport and contempt of all, since his +grandmother's death, the lad met at the castle with the sympathy of none +except a poor female serf named Marceline the Golden-haired from the +abundant gold-blonde ornament of her head. The young girl was a helper +of Adelaide, the favorite lady of the Queen's chamber.</p> + +<p>The morning of the day that Blanche and Hugh the Capet had met at the +Fountain of the Hinds, Marceline, carrying on her head a bucket of +water, was crossing one of the yards of the castle towards the room of +her mistress. Suddenly she heard a volley of hisses, and immediately +after she saw Yvon enter the yard pursued by several serfs and children +of the domain, crying at the top of their voices: "The Calf!" "The +Calf!" and throwing stones and offal at the idiot. Marceline revealed +the goodness of her heart by interesting herself in the wretch, not that +Yvon's features or limbs were deformed, but that the idiotic expression +of his face affected her. He was in the habit of dressing his long<a name="page_12" id="page_12"></a> +black hair in five or six plaids interwoven with wisps of straw, and the +coiffure fell upon his neck like as many tails. Barely clad in a sorry +hose that was patched with materials of different colors, his shoes were +of rabbit or squirrel skin fastened with osiers to his feet and legs. +Closely pursued from various sides by the serfs of the castle, Yvon made +several doublings in the yard in order to escape his tormentors, but +perceiving Marceline, who, standing upon the first step of the turret +stairs that she was about to ascend, contemplated the idiot with pity, +he ran towards the young girl, and throwing himself at her feet said +joining his hands: "Pardon me, Marceline, but protect poor Yvon against +these wicked people!"</p> + +<p>"Climb the stairs quick!" Marceline said to the idiot, pointing up the +turret. Yvon rose and swiftly followed the advice of the serf maid, who, +placing herself at the door, lay down her bucket of water, and +addressing Yvon's tormentors, who were drawing near, said to them: "Have +pity for the poor idiot, he harms no one."</p> + +<p>"I have just seen him leap like a wolf out of the copse of the forest +from the side of the Fountain of the Hinds," cried a forester serf. "His +hair and the rags he has on are wet with dew. He must have been in some +thicket spreading nets for game which he eats raw."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he is a worthy son of Leduecq, the forester, who lived like a +savage in his den, never coming out of the woods!" observed another +serf. "We must have some fun with the Calf."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes, let us dip him up to his ears in the neighboring pool in +punishment for spreading nets to catch game with," said the forester; +and taking a step toward Marceline who remained at the door: "Get out of +the way, you servant of the devil, or we shall give you a ducking along +with the Calf!"</p> + +<p>"My mistress, Dame Adelaide, a lady of the Queen's chamber, will know +how to punish you if you ill-treat me. Begone, you heartless people!"<a name="page_13" id="page_13"></a></p> + +<p>"The devil take Adelaide! To the pool with the Calf!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, to the pool with him! And Marceline also! A good mud-bath for +both!"</p> + +<p>At the height of the tumult, one of the casements of the castle was +thrown open, and a young man of twenty years at most leaned out and +cried angrily: "I shall have your backs flayed with a sound strapping, +you accursed barking dogs!"</p> + +<p>"The King!" exclaimed the tormentors of Yvon, and a minute later all had +fled by the gate of the yard.</p> + +<p>"Halloa, you girl!" called out Louis the Do-nothing to Marceline who was +taking up her bucket of water. "What was the cause of the infernal +racket made by that noisy pack?"</p> + +<p>"Seigneur," answered Marceline trembling, "they wanted to ill-treat poor +Yvon."</p> + +<p>"Is the Calf about?"</p> + +<p>"Seigneur, I know not where he is gone to hide," explained the maid who +feared lest Yvon, barely escaped from one set of tormentors, should fall +into the hands of the whimsical King. As the latter thereupon withdrew +from the window, Marceline hastened to ascend the stair of the turret. +She had scarcely mounted a dozen steps when she saw Yvon crouching with +his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. At the sight of the +maid he shook his head and with a voice full of emotion said: "Good you; +oh, you good! Marceline good!" and he fixed his eyes so full of +gratitude upon her that she observed aloud with a sigh: "Who would +believe that this wretch, with eyes at times so captivating, still is +deprived of reason?" and again laying down her bucket she said to the +idiot: "Yvon, why did you go this morning into the forest? Your hair and +rags are really moist with dew. Is it true that you spread nets to take +game?" The idiot answered with a stupid smile, swaying his head backward +and forward. "Yvon," said Marceline, "do you understand me?" The idiot +remained mute, but presently observing the bucket of water that the maid +had laid down at his feet, he lifted<a name="page_14" id="page_14"></a> it up, placed it on his own head, +and motioned to Marceline to go up ahead of him. "The poor creature is +expressing his gratitude as well as he can," Marceline was thinking to +herself when she heard steps above coming down the stairs, and a voice +cried out:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Calf, is it you?"</p> + +<p>"That is the voice of one of the King's servants," said Marceline. "He +is coming for you, Yvon. Oh, you are going to fall into another +tormentor's hands!"</p> + +<p>Indeed, one of the men of the royal chamber appeared at the turning of +the winding stairs and said to the idiot: "Come, get up quick and follow +me! Our lord the King wishes to amuse himself with you, you double +Calf!"</p> + +<p>"The King! Oh! Oh! The King!" cried Yvon with a triumphant air, clapping +his hands gayly. The bucket being left unsupported on his head, fell and +broke open at the feet of the King's servitor whose legs were thereby +drenched up to his knees.</p> + +<p>"A plague upon the idiot!" cried Marceline despite all her +good-heartedness. "There is the bucket broken! My mistress will beat +me!"</p> + +<p>Furious at the accident that drenched his clothes, the royal servitor +hurled imprecations and insults upon Yvon the Calf, who, however, +seeming not to notice either the imprecations or the insults, continued +to repeat triumphantly: "The King! Oh! Oh! The King!"<a name="page_15" id="page_15"></a></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IIIa" id="CHAPTER_IIIa"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">LOUIS THE DO-NOTHING.</p> +<p>Like his wife Louis the Do-nothing was barely twenty years of age. +Justly nicknamed the "Do-nothing," he looked as nonchalant as he seemed +bored. After having scolded through the window at the serfs, whose noise +annoyed him, he stretched himself out again upon his lounge. Several of +his familiar attendants stood around him. Yawning fit to dislocate his +jaws, he said to them: "What a notion that was of the Queen's to go at +sunrise with only one lady of the chamber to pray at the hermitage of +St. Eusebius! Once awakened, I could not fall asleep again. So I rose! +Oh, this day will be endless!"</p> + +<p>"Seigneur King, would you like to hunt?" suggested one of the +attendants. "The day is fine. We would certainly kill some game."</p> + +<p>"The hunt fatigues me. It is a rude sport."</p> + +<p>"Seigneur King, would you prefer fishing?"</p> + +<p>"Fishing tires me; it is a stupid pastime."</p> + +<p>"Seigneur King, if you call your flute and lute-players, you might enjoy +a dance."</p> + +<p>"Music racks my head, and I cannot bear dancing. Let's try something +else."</p> + +<p>"Seigneur King, shall your chaplain read to you out of some fine work?"</p> + +<p>"I hate reading. I think I could amuse myself with the idiot. Where is +he?"</p> + +<p>"Seigneur King, one of your attendants has gone out to find him.... I +hear steps.... It is surely he coming."</p> + +<p>The door opened and a servitor bent the knee and let in Yvon. From the +moment of his entrance Yvon started to walk on all fours, barking like a +dog; after a little while he grew livelier,<a name="page_16" id="page_16"></a> jumped and cavorted about +clapping his hands and shouting with such grotesque contortions that the +King and the attendants began to laugh merrily. Encouraged by these +signs of approbation and ever cavorting about, Yvon mimicked alternately +the crowing of a rooster, the mewing of a cat, the grunting of a hog and +the braying of an ass, interspersing his sounds with clownish gestures +and ridiculous leaps, that redoubled the hilarity of the King and his +courtiers. The merriment was at its height when the door was again +thrown open, and one of the chamberlains announced in a loud voice from +the threshold where he remained: "Seigneur King, the Queen approaches!" +At these words the attendants of Louis, some of whom had dropped upon +stools convulsing with laughter, rose hastily and crowded to the door to +salute the Queen at her entrance. Louis, however, who lay stretched on +his lounge, continued laughing and cried out to the idiot: "Keep on +dancing, Calf! Dance on! You are worth your weight in gold! I never +amused myself better!"</p> + +<p>"Seigneur King, here is the Queen!" said one of the courtiers, seeing +Blanche cross the contiguous chamber and approach the door. The wing of +this door, when thrown open almost reached the corner of a large table +that was covered with a splendid Oriental piece of tapestry, the folds +of which reached to the floor. Yvon the Calf continued his gambols, +slowly approaching the table, and concealed from the eyes of the King by +the head-piece of the lounge on which the latter remained stretched. +Ranged at the entrance of the door in order to salute the Queen, the +prince's attendants had their backs turned to the table under which Yvon +quickly blotted himself out at the moment when the seigneurs were bowing +low before Blanche. The Queen answered their salute, and preceding them +by a few steps moved towards Louis, who had not yet ceased laughing and +crying out: "Ho, Calf, where are you? Come over this way that I may see +your capers.... Have you suddenly turned mute, you who can bark, mew and +crow so well?"<a name="page_17" id="page_17"></a></p> + +<p>"My beloved Louis is quite merry this morning," observed Blanche +caressingly and approaching her husband's lounge. "Whence proceeds the +mirth of my dear husband?"</p> + +<p>"That idiot could make a dead man laugh with his capers. Ho, there, +Calf! Come this way, you scamp, or I'll have your bones broken!"</p> + +<p>"Seigneur King," said one of the attendants after glancing around the +room for Yvon, "the Calf must have escaped at the moment when the door +was opened to admit the Queen. He is not here, nor in the adjoining +room."</p> + +<p>"Fetch him back, he can not be far!" cried the King impatiently and with +rising anger. "Bring him back here immediately!"</p> + +<p>One of the seigneurs hurried out to execute the King's orders, while +Blanche letting herself down near him, said, smiling tenderly: "I shall +try, my beloved seigneur, to enable you to wait patiently for the +idiot's return."</p> + +<p>"Fetch him back. All of you run after him; the more of you look after +him, the quicker will he be found."</p> + +<p>Bowing to the King's orders, the courtiers trooped out of the apartment +in search of Yvon.<a name="page_18" id="page_18"></a></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IVa" id="CHAPTER_IVa"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">A ROYAL COUPLE.</p> +<p>Blanche remained alone with her husband, whose face, that for a moment +had brightened up, speedily resumed its normal expression of lassitude. +The Queen had thrown off her simple vestment of the morning to don a +more elaborate costume. Her black hair, braided with pearls, was combed +with skill. She wore an orange colored robe of rich material, with wide +flowing sleeves, leaving half exposed her breast and shoulders. A collar +and gold bracelets studded with precious stones ornamented her neck and +arms. Still reclining on his lounge, now shared by his wife who sat down +at its edge, Louis did not even bestow a glance upon her. With his head +leaning upon one of the pillows, he was mumbling: "You will see the +clumsy fellows will turn out more stupid than the idiot; they will not +catch him."</p> + +<p>"In such a disastrous event," replied Blanche with an insinuating smile, +"I shall have to console you, my darling. Why is your face so careworn? +Will you not deign as much as to throw your eyes upon your wife, your +humble servant?"</p> + +<p>Louis indolently turned his head towards his wife and said: "How dressed +up you are!"</p> + +<p>"Does this dress please my amiable master?" inquired the Queen +caressingly; but noticing that the King suddenly shivered, became gloomy +and brusquely turned away his head, she added: "What is the matter, +Louis?"</p> + +<p>"I do not like the color of that dress!"</p> + +<p>"I am sorry I did not know the color of orange displeased you, dear +seigneur. I would have guarded against putting it on."</p> + +<p>"You were dressed in the same color on the first day of this month last +year."</p> + +<p>"My memory is not as perfect as yours on the subject, my dear +seigneur."<a name="page_19" id="page_19"></a></p> + +<p>"It was on the second of May of last year that I saw my father die, +poisoned by my mother!" answered the King mournfully.</p> + +<p>"What a sad souvenir! How I now hate this accursed orange color, seeing +it awakens such recollections in your mind!"</p> + +<p>The King remained silent; he turned on his cushions and placed his hands +over his eyes. The door of the apartment was re-opened and one of the +courtiers said: "Seigneur, despite all our search, we have not been able +to find Yvon the Calf; he must have hidden in some corner; he shall be +severely punished soon as we find him again." Louis made no answer, and +Blanche motioned the courtier with an imperious gesture to retire. Left +again alone, and seeing her husband more and more mentally troubled, +Blanche redoubled her blandishments, seeking to provoke a return of her +caresses: "Dear seigneur, your sadness afflicts me."</p> + +<p>"Your tenderness is extreme ... this morning. Quite different from +usual."</p> + +<p>"My tenderness for you increases by reason of the sorrow that I see you +steeped in, dear seigneur."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I lost everything with my father's death," Louis murmured +despondently, and he added with concentrated fury:</p> + +<p>"That felonious bishop of Laon! Poisoner and adulterer! Infamous +prelate! And my mother! my mother his accomplice! Such crimes portend +the end of the world! I shall punish the guilty!"</p> + +<p>"Pray, my seigneur, do forget that dark past. What is it you said about +the end of the world? It is a fable."</p> + +<p>"A fable! What! Do not the holiest bishops assert that in fourteen years +the world must come to an end ... in the year 1000?"</p> + +<p>"What makes me question their assertion, Louis, is that, while +announcing the end of the world, these prelates recommend to the +faithful to part with their goods to the Church and to donate their +domains to them."<a name="page_20" id="page_20"></a></p> + +<p>"Of what use would it be to keep perishable riches if soon everything is +to perish?"</p> + +<p>"But then, dear seigneur, if everything is to perish, what is the Church +to do with the goods that she is eternally demanding from the faithful?"</p> + +<p>"After all, you are right. It may be another imposture of the tonsured +fraternity. Nor should anything of the sort surprise us when we see +bishops guilty of adultery and poisoning."</p> + +<p>"You always come back to those lugubrious thoughts, dear seigneur! Pray +forget those unworthy calumnies regarding your mother.... Just God! Can +a woman be guilty of her husband's murder! Impossible! God would not +permit it!"</p> + +<p>"But did I not witness the agony and death of my father! Oh, the effect +of the poison was strange ... terrible!" said the King in somber +meditation. "My father felt his feet growing cold, icy and numb, unable +to support him. By degrees the mortal lethargy invaded his other +members, as if he were being slowly dipped into an ice bath! What a +terrible spectacle that was!"</p> + +<p>"There are illnesses so sudden, so strange, my beloved master.... When +such crimes are charged, I am of those who say: 'When I see I believe, +when I do not see I refuse to accept such theories.'"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I saw but too much!" cried Louis, and again hiding his face in his +hands he added in a distressful voice: "I know not why these thoughts +should plague me to-day. Oh, God, have pity on me. Remove these fears +from my spirit!"</p> + +<p>"Louis, do not weep like that, you tear my heart to pieces. Your sadness +is a wrong done to this beautiful May day. Look out of the window at +that brilliant sun; look at the spring verdure of the forest; listen to +the gay twittering of the birds. Why, all around us, everything in +nature is lovely and joyous; you alone are sad! Come, now, my beautiful +seigneur," added Blanche taking both the hands of the King. "I am going +to<a name="page_21" id="page_21"></a> draw you out of this dejection that distresses me as much as it does +you.... I am all the gladder at my project, which is intended to please +and amuse you."</p> + +<p>"What is your project?"</p> + +<p>"I propose to spend the whole day near you. We shall take our morning +meal here. I have issued orders to that effect, my indolent boy. After +that we shall go to mass. We shall then take a long outing in a litter +through the forest. Finally.... But, no, no, the surprise I have in +store for you shall remain a secret. It shall be the price of your +submission."</p> + +<p>"What is the surprise about?"</p> + +<p>"You will never have spent such a delightful evening.... You whom +everything tires and whom everything is indifferent to ... you will be +charmed by what I have in store for you, my dear husband."</p> + +<p>Louis the Do-nothing, a youth of indolent and puerile mind, felt his +curiosity pricked, but failed to draw any explanation from Blanche. A +few minutes later the chamberlains and servants entered carrying silver +dishes and gold goblets, together with the eatables that were to serve +for the morning repast. Other attendants of the royal chamber took up +the large table covered to the floor with tapestry and under which Yvon +the Calf had hidden himself, and carried it forward to the lounge on +which were Louis and Blanche. Bent under the table, and completely +concealed by the ample folds of the cover which trailed along the floor, +the idiot moved forward on his hands and knees as, carried by the +servants, the table was being taken towards the royal lounge. When it +was set down before Louis and Blanche, Yvon also stopped. Menials and +equerries were preparing to render the habitual services at table when +the Queen said smiling to her husband: "Will my charming master consent +that to-day I be his only servant?"</p> + +<p>"If it please you," answered Louis the Do-nothing, and he proceeded in +an undertone: "But you know that according to my<a name="page_22" id="page_22"></a> habit I shall neither +eat nor drink anything that you have not tasted before me."</p> + +<p>"What a child you are!" answered Blanche smiling upon her husband with +amiable reproach. "Always suspicious! We shall drink from the same cup +like two lovers."</p> + +<p>The officers of the King left upon a sign from the Queen. She remained +alone with Louis.<a name="page_23" id="page_23"></a></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_Va" id="CHAPTER_Va"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">THE FOUNDING OF A DYNASTY.</p> +<p>Day was waning. Darkness began to invade the spacious apartment where +seventy-five years before Francon, archbishop of Rouen, informed Charles +the Simple that he was to give his daughter Ghisele together with the +domains of Neustria to Rolf the Norman pirate, and where now King Louis +and his wife Blanche had spent the day.</p> + +<p>Louis the Do-nothing was asleep at full length upon his lounge near to +the table that was still covered with the dishes and vases of gold and +silver. The King's sleep was painful and restless. A cold sweat ran down +his forehead that waxed livid by the second. Presently an overpowering +torpor succeeded his restlessness, and Louis remained plunged in +apparent calmness, although his features were rapidly becoming +cadaverous. Standing behind the lounge with his elbows resting against +its head, Yvon the Calf contemplated the King of the Franks with an +expression of somber and savage triumph. Yvon had dropped his mask of +stupidity. His features now revealed undisguised intelligence, hidden +until then by the semblance of idiocy. The profoundest silence reigned +in the apartment now darkened by the approach of night. Suddenly, +emitting a deep groan, the King awoke with a start. Yvon stooped down +and disappeared behind the lounge while the King muttered to himself: +"There is a strange feeling upon me.... I felt so violent a pain in my +heart that it woke me up...." then looking towards the window: "What! Is +it night!... I must have slept long.... Where is the Queen?... Why was I +left alone?... I feel heavy and my feet are cold.... Halloa, someone!" +he called out turning his face to the door, "Halloa, Gondulf!... +Wilfrid!... Sigefried!" At the third name that he pronounced, Louis' +voice, at first loud,<a name="page_24" id="page_24"></a> became almost unintelligible, it sunk to a husky +whisper. He sat up. "What is the matter with me? My voice is so feeble +that I can hardly hear myself. My throat seems to close ... then this +icy feeling ... this cold that freezes my feet and is rising to my +legs!" The King of the Franks had barely uttered these words when a +shudder of fear ran through him. He saw before him Yvon the Calf who had +suddenly risen and now stood erect behind the head of the lounge. "What +are you doing there?" asked Louis, and he immediately added with a +sinking voice: "Run quick for some one.... I am in danger....", but +interrupting himself he observed: "Of what use is such an order; the +wretch is an idiot.... Why am I left thus alone?... I shall rouse +myself," and Louis rose painfully; but hardly had he put his feet down +when his limbs gave way under him and he fell in a heap with a dull thud +upon the floor. "Help! Help!... Oh, God, have pity upon me!... Help!"</p> + +<p>"Louis, it is too late!" came from Yvon in a solemn voice. "You are +about to die ... barely twenty years old, Oh, King of the Franks!"</p> + +<p>"What says that idiot? What is the Calf doing here?"</p> + +<p>"You are about to die as died last year your father Lothaire, poisoned +by his wife! You have been poisoned by Queen Blanche!"</p> + +<p>Fear drew a long cry from Louis; his hair stood on end over his icy +forehead, his lips, now purple, moved convulsively without producing a +sound; his eyes, fixed upon Yvon, became troubled and glassy, but still +retaining a last glimmer of intelligence, while the rest of his body +remained inert.</p> + +<p>"This morning," said Yvon, "the Count of Paris, Hugh the Capet, met your +wife by appointment in the forest. Hugh is a cunning and unscrupulous +man. Last year he caused the poisoning of your father by Queen Imma and +her accomplice the bishop of Laon; to-day he caused you to be poisoned +by Blanche, your<a name="page_25" id="page_25"></a> wife, and to-morrow the Count of Paris will be King!" +Louis understood what Yvon was saying, although his mind was beclouded +by the approach of death. A smile of hatred contracted his lips. "You +believed yourself safe from danger," Yvon proceeded, "by compelling your +wife to eat of the dishes that she served you. All poison has its +antidote. Blanche could with impunity moisten her lips in the wine she +had poisoned—" Louis seemed hardly to hear these last words of Yvon; +his limbs stiffened, his head dropped and thumped against the floor; his +eyes rolled for a last time in their depths; a slight froth gathered on +his now blackened lips; he uttered a slight moan, and the last crowned +scion of the Carlovingian stock had passed away.</p> + +<p>"Thus end the royal races! Thus, sooner or later, do they expiate their +original crime!" thought Yvon contemplating the corpse of the last +Carlovingian king lying at his feet. "My ancestor Amæl, the descendant +of Joel and of Genevieve, declined to be the jailor of little Childeric, +in whom the stock of Clovis was extinguished, and now I witness the +crime by which is extinguished, in the person of Louis the Do-nothing, +the stock of Charles the Great—the second dynasty of the conquerers of +Gaul. Perchance some descendant of my own will in the ages to come +witness the punishment of this third dynasty of kings, now raised by +Hugh the Capet through an act of cowardly perfidy!"</p> + +<p>Steps were heard outside. Sigefried, one of the courtiers, entered the +apartment saying to the King: "Seigneur, despite the express orders of +the Queen, who commanded us not to disturb your slumber, I come to +announce to you the arrival of the Count of Paris."</p> + +<p>So saying, Sigefried drew near, leaving the door open behind him. Yvon +profited by the circumstance and groped his way out of the apartment +under cover of the dark. Receiving no answer from Louis, Sigefried +believed the King was still asleep, when, drawing still nearer he saw +the King's body lying on the floor. He stooped and touched the icy hand. +Struck with terror he ran<a name="page_26" id="page_26"></a> to the door crying out: "Help!... Help!" and +crossed the next room continuing to call for assistance. Several +servitors soon appeared with torches in their hands, preceding Hugh the +Capet, who now was clad in his brilliant armor and accompanied by +several of his officers. "What?" cried the Count of Paris addressing +Sigefried in an accent of surprise and alarm, "The King cannot be dead!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Sire, I found Louis on the floor where he must have dropped down +from the lounge. I touched his hand. It was icy!" saying which Sigefried +followed Hugh the Capet into the apartment that now was brilliantly +lighted by the torches of the servants. The Count of Paris contemplated +for an instant the corpse of the last Carlovingian king, and cried in a +tone of pity: "Oh! Dead! And only twenty years of age!" and turning +towards Sigefried with his hands to his eyes as if seeking to conceal +his tears: "How can we account for so sudden a death?"</p> + +<p>"Seigneur, the King was in perfect health this morning. He sat down at +table with the Queen; after that she left giving us orders not to +disturb her husband's sleep; and—" Sigefried's report was interrupted +by nearing lamentations, and Blanche ran in followed by several of her +women. Her hair was tumbled, her looks distracted. "Is Louis really +dead?" and upon the answer that she received she cried:</p> + +<p>"Woe is me! Woe is me! I have lost my beloved husband! For pity's sake, +seigneur Hugh, do not leave me alone! Oh, promise me to join your +efforts to mine to discover the author of his death, if my Louis died by +crime!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, worthy spouse, I swear to God and his saints, I shall help you +discover the criminal!" answered Hugh the Capet solemnly; and seeing +Blanche tremble and stagger on her feet like one about to fall he cried: +"Help! Blanche is swooning!" and he received in his arms the seemingly +<a name="page_27" id="page_27"></a>fainting body of Blanche who whispered in his ear: "I am a widow ... +you are King!"</p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIa" id="CHAPTER_VIa"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">YVON AND MARCELINE.</p> +<p>Upon leaving the room where lay the corpse of Louis the Do-nothing, Yvon +descended the stairs to the apartment of Adelaide, the lady of the +Queen's chamber, and mistress of the golden-haired Marceline, whom he +expected to find alone, Adelaide having followed the Queen when the +latter ran to the King's apartment feigning despair at the death of her +husband. Yvon found the young female serf at the threshold of the door +in a state of great agitation at the tumult that had suddenly invaded +the castle. "Marceline," Yvon said to her, "I must speak with you; let +us step into your mistress's room. She will not leave the Queen for a +long time. We shall not be interrupted. Come!" The young woman opened +wide her eyes at seeing for the first time the Calf expressing himself +in a sane manner, and his face now free of its wonted look of stupidity. +In her astonishment, Marceline could not at first utter a word, and Yvon +explained, smiling: "Marceline, my language astonishes you. The reason +is, you see, I am no longer Yvon the Calf but ... Yvon who loves you! +Yvon who adores Marceline!"</p> + +<p>"Yvon who loves me!" cried the poor serf in fear. "Oh, God, this is some +sorcery!"</p> + +<p>"If so, Marceline, you are the sorceress. But, now, listen to me. When +you will have heard me, you will answer me whether you are willing or +not to have me for your husband." Yvon entered the room mechanically +followed by Marceline. She thought herself in a dream; her eyes did not +leave the Calf and found his face more and more comely. She remembered +that, often struck by the affectionateness and intelligence that beamed +from Yvon's eyes, she had asked herself how such looks could come from a +young man who was devoid of reason.<a name="page_28" id="page_28"></a></p> + +<p>"Marceline," he proceeded, "in order to put an end to your surprise, I +must first speak to you of my family."</p> + +<p>"Oh, speak, Yvon, speak! I feel so happy to see you speak like a sane +person, and such language!"</p> + +<p>"Well, then, my lovely Marceline, my great-grandfather, a skipper of +Paris named Eidiol, had a son and two daughters. One of these, Jeanike, +kidnapped at an early age from her parents, was sold for a serf to the +superintendant of this domain, and later she became the wet-nurse of the +daughter of Charles the Simple, whose descendant, Louis the Do-nothing, +has just died."</p> + +<p>"Is the rumor really true? Is the King dead? So suddenly? It is +strange!"</p> + +<p>"Marceline, these kings could not die too soon. Well, then, Jeanike, the +daughter of my great-grandfather had two children, Germain, a forester +serf of this domain, and Yvonne, a charming girl, whom Guyrion the +Plunger, son of my great-grandfather, took to wife. She went with him to +Paris, where they settled down and where he plied his father's trade of +skipper. Guyrion had from Yvonne a son named Leduecq ... and he was my +father. My grandfather Guyrion remained in Paris as skipper. A woman +named Anne the Sweet was assaulted by one of the officers of the Count +of the city, and her husband, Rustic the Gay, a friend of my father, +killed the officer. The soldiers ran to arms and the mariners rose at +the call of Rustic and Guyrion, but both of them were killed together +with Anne in the bloody fray that ensued. My grandfather being one of +the leaders in the revolt, the little he owned was confiscated. Reduced +to misery, his widow left Paris with her son and came to her brother +Germain the forester for shelter. He shared his hut with Yvonne and her +son. Such is the iniquity of the feudal law that those who dwell a year +and a day upon royal or seigniorial domain become its serfs. Such was +the fate of my grandfather's widow and her son Leduecq. She was put to +work in the fields, Leduecq following the occupation of his uncle +succeeded him as<a name="page_29" id="page_29"></a> forester of the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds. +Later he married a serf whose mother was a washerwoman of the castle. I +was born of that marriage. My father, who was as gentle towards my +mother and myself as he was rude and intractable towards all others, +never ceased thinking of the death of my grandfather Guyrion, who was +slaughtered by the soldiers of the Count of Paris. He never left the +forest except to carry his tax of game to the castle. Of a somber and +indominable character, often switched for his insubordination towards +the bailiff's agents, he would have taken a cruel revenge for the +ill-treatment that he was subjected to were it not for the fear of +leaving my mother and myself in want. She died about a year ago. My +father survived her only a few months. When I lost him, I came by orders +of the bailiff to live with my maternal aunt, a washerwoman at the +castle of Compiegne. You now know my family."</p> + +<p>"The good Martha! When you first came here she always said to me: 'It is +no wonder that my grandson looks like a savage; he never left the +forest.' But during the last days of her life your grandmother often +said to me with tears in her eyes: 'The good God has willed it that Yvon +be an idiot.' I thought as she did, and therefore had great pity for +you. And yet, how mistaken I was. You speak like a clerk. While you were +just now speaking, I said to myself: 'Can it be?... Yvon the Calf, who +talks that way? And he in love?'"</p> + +<p>"And are you pleased to see your error dispelled? Do you reciprocate my +feelings?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know," answered the young serf blushing. "I am so taken by +surprise by all that you have been telling me! I must have time to +think."</p> + +<p>"Marceline, will you marry me, yes or no? You are an orphan; you depend +upon your mistress; I upon the bailiff; we are serfs of the same domain; +can there be any reason why they should refuse their consent to our +marriage?" And he added bitterly: "Does not the lambkin that is born +increase its master's herd?"<a name="page_30" id="page_30"></a></p> + +<p>"Alack! According to the laws our children are born and die serfs as +ourselves! But would my mistress Adelaide give her consent to my +marrying an idiot?"</p> + +<p>"This is my project: Adelaide is a favorite and confidante of the Queen. +Now, then this is a beautiful day for the Queen."</p> + +<p>"What! The day when the King, her husband, died?"</p> + +<p>"For that very reason. The Queen is to-day in high feather, and for a +thousand reasons her confidante, your mistress, must feel no less happy +than the widow of Louis the Do-nothing. To ask for a favor at such a +moment is to have it granted."</p> + +<p>"What favor would you ask?"</p> + +<p>"If you consent to marry me, Marceline, you will need Adelaide's +permission and we shall want her promise to have me appointed forester +serf with the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds under my charge. Two +words of your mistress to the Queen, two words of the Queen to the +bailiff of the domain, and our wishes are fulfilled."</p> + +<p>"But, Yvon, do you consider that everybody takes you for an idiot? And +would they entrust you with a canton? It is out of the question."</p> + +<p>"Let them give me a bow and arrows and I am ready to acquit myself as an +archer. I have an accurate eye and steady hand."</p> + +<p>"But how will you explain the sudden change that has turned you from an +idiot to a sane man? People will want to know why you pretended to be an +idiot. You will be severely punished for the ruse. Oh, my friend, all +that makes me tremble."</p> + +<p>"After I am married I shall tell you my reasons for my long comedy. As +to my transformation from idiocy to sanity, that is to be the subject of +a miracle. The thought struck me this morning while I followed your +mistress and the Queen to the hermitage of St. Eusebius. Everything is +explainable with the intervention of a saint."</p> + +<p>"And why did you follow the Queen?"</p> + +<p>"Having woke up this morning before dawn, I happened near the fosse of +the castle. Hardly was the sun up when I saw at a<a name="page_31" id="page_31"></a> distance your +mistress and the Queen going all alone towards the forest. The +mysterious promenade pricked my curiosity. I followed them at a distance +across the copse. They arrived at the hermitage of St. Eusebius. Your +mistress remained there, but the Queen took the path to the Fountain of +the Hinds."</p> + +<p>"What could she be up to at that early hour? My curiosity also is now +pricked."</p> + +<p>"That is another question that I shall satisfy you upon after we are +married, Marceline," answered Yvon after a moment's reflection; "but to +return to the miracle that is to explain my transformation from idiocy +to sanity, it is quite simple: St. Eusebius, the patron of the +hermitage, will be credited with having performed the prodigy, and the +monk, who now derives a goodly revenue from the hermitage will not deny +my explanation, seeing that the report of the new miracle will double +his tithes. His whole fraternity speculate upon human stupidity."</p> + +<p>The golden-haired Marceline smiled broadly at the young man's idea, and +replied:</p> + +<p>"Can it be Yvon the Calf that reasons thus?"</p> + +<p>"No, my dear and sweet maid, it is Yvon the lover; Yvon on whom you took +pity when he was everybody else's butt and victim; Yvon, who, in return +for your good heart, offers you love and devotion. That is all a poor +serf can promise, seeing that his labor and his life belong to his +master. Accept my offer, Marceline, we shall be as happy as one can be +in these accursed times. We shall cultivate the field that surrounds the +forester's hut; I shall kill for the castle the game wanted there, and +as sure as the good God has created the stags for the hunt, we never +shall want for a loin of venison. You will take charge of our vegetable +garden. The streamlet of the Fountain of the Hinds flows but a hundred +paces from our home. We shall live alone in the thick of the woods +without other companions than the birds and our children. And now, +again, is it 'yes' or 'no'? I want a quick answer."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Yvon," answered Marceline, tears of joy running from<a name="page_32" id="page_32"></a> her eyes, "if +a serf could dispose of herself, I would say 'yes' ... aye, a hundred +times, 'yes'!"</p> + +<p>"My beloved, our happiness depends upon you. If you have the courage to +request your mistress's permission to take me for your husband, you may +be certain of her consent."</p> + +<p>"Shall I ask Dame Adelaide this evening?"</p> + +<p>"No, but to-morrow morning, after I shall have come back <i>with my +sanity</i>. I am going on the spot to fetch it at the hermitage of St. +Eusebius, and to-morrow I shall bring it to you nice and fresh from the +holy place—and with the monk's consent, too."</p> + +<p>"And people called him the 'Calf'!" murmured the young serf more and +more charmed at the retorts of Yvon, who disappeared speedily, fearing +he might be surprised by the Queen's lady of the chamber, Adelaide.<a name="page_33" id="page_33"></a></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIIa" id="CHAPTER_VIIa"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">THE STOCK OF JOEL.</p> +<p>Yvon's calculations proved right. He had told Marceline that no more +opportune time could be chosen to obtain a favor from the Queen, so +happy was she at the death of Louis the Do-nothing and the expectation +of marrying Hugh the Capet. Thanks to the good-will of Adelaide, who +consented to the marriage of her maid, the bailiff of the domain also +granted his consent to Yvon after the latter, agreeable to the promise +he had made Marceline, returned <i>with his sanity</i> from the chapel of the +hermitage of St. Eusebius. The serf's story was, that entering the +chapel in the evening, he saw by the light of the lamp in the sanctuary +a monstrous black snake coiled around the feet of the saint; that +suddenly enlightened by a ray from on high, he stoned and killed the +horrible dragon, which was nothing else than a demon, seeing that no +trace of the monster was left; and that, in recompense for his timely +assistance, St. Eusebius miraculously returned his reason to him. In +glorification of the miracle that was thus performed by St. Eusebius in +favor of the Calf, Yvon was at his own request appointed forester serf +over the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds, and the very morning after +his marriage to the golden-haired Marceline, he settled down with her in +one of the profound solitudes of the forest of Compiegne, where they +lived happily for many years.</p> + +<p>As was to be expected, Marceline's curiosity, pricked on the double +score of the reasons that led Yvon to simulate idiocy for so many years, +and that took the Queen to the Fountain of the Hinds at the early hours +of the morning of May 2nd, instead of dying out, grew intenser. Yvon had +promised after marriage to satisfy her on both subjects. She was not +slow to remind him of the promise, nor he to satisfy her.<a name="page_34" id="page_34"></a></p> + +<p>"My dear wife," said Yvon to Marceline the first morning that they awoke +in their new forest home, "What were the motives of my pretended +idiocy?—I was brought up by my father in the hatred of kings. My +grandfather Guyrion, slaughtered in a popular uprising, had taught my +father to read and write, so that he might continue the chronicle of our +family. He preserved the account left by his grandfather Eidiol, the +dean of the skippers of Paris, together with an iron arrow-head, the +emblem attached to the account. We do not know whatever became of the +branch of our family that lived in Britanny near the sacred stones of +Karnak. It has the previous chronicles and relics that our ancestors +recorded and gathered from generation to generation since the days of +Joel, at the time of the Roman invasion of Gaul by Julius Caesar. My +grandfather and my father wrote nothing on their obscure lives. But in +the profound solitude where we lived, of an evening, after a day spent +hunting or in the field, my father would narrate to me what my +grandfather Guyrion had told him concerning the adventures of the +descendants of Joel. Guyrion received these traditions from Eidiol, who +received them from his grandfather, a resident of Britanny, before the +separation of the grandchildren of Vortigern. I was barely eighteen +years old when my father died. He made me promise him to record the +experience of my life should I witness any important event. To that end +he handed me the scroll of parchment written by Eidiol and the iron +arrow-head taken from the wound of Paelo, the pirate. I carefully put +these cherished mementos of the past in the pocket of my hose. That +evening I closed my father's eyes. Early next morning I dug his grave +near his hut and buried him. His bow, his arrows, a few articles of +dress, his pallet, his trunk, his porridge-pot—everything was a fixture +of and belonged to the royal domain. The serf can own nothing. +Nevertheless I cogitated how to take possession of the bow, arrows and a +bag of chestnuts that was<a name="page_35" id="page_35"></a> left, determined to roam over the woods in +freedom, when a singular accident upturned my projects. I had lain down +upon the grass in the thick of a copse near our hut, when suddenly I +heard the steps of two riders and saw that they were men of +distinguished appearance. They were promenading in the forest. They +alighted from their richly caparisoned horses, held them by the bridle, +and walked slowly. One of them said to the other:</p> + +<p>'King Lothaire was poisoned last year by his wife Imma and her lover, +the archbishop of Laon ... but there is Louis left, Lothaire's son ... +Louis the Do-nothing.'</p> + +<p>'And if this Louis were to die, would his uncle, the Duke of Lorraine, +to whom the crown would then revert by right, venture to dispute the +crown of France from me ... from me, Hugh, the Count of Paris?'</p> + +<p>'No, seigneur; he would not. But it is barely six months since +Lothaire's death. It would require a singular chain of accidents for his +son to follow him so closely to the tomb.'</p> + +<p>'The ways of Providence are impenetrable.... Next spring, Louis will +come with the Queen to Compiegne, and—'</p> + +<p>"I could not hear the end of the conversation, the cavaliers were +walking away from me as they spoke. The words that I caught gave me +matter for reflection. I recalled some of the stories that my father +told me, that of Amæl among others, one of our ancestors, who declined +the office of jailor of the last scion of Clovis. I said to myself that +perhaps I, a descendant of Joel, might now witness the death of the last +of the kings of the house of Charles the Great. The thought so took hold +of me that it caused me to give up my first plan. Instead of roaming +over the woods, I went the next morning to my grandmother. I had never +before stepped out of the forest where I lived in complete seclusion +with my father. I was taciturn by nature, and wild. Upon arriving at the +castle in quest of my grandmother, I met by accident a company<a name="page_36" id="page_36"></a> of +Frankish soldiers who had been exercising. For pastime they began to +make sport of me. My hatred of their race, coupled with my astonishment +at finding myself for the first time in my life among such a big crowd, +made me dumb. The soldiers took my savage silence for stupidity, and +they cried in chorus: 'He is a calf!' Thus they carried me along with +them amidst wild yells and jeers, and not a few blows bestowed upon me! +I cared little whether I was taken for an idiot or not, and considering +that nobody minds an idiot, I began in all earnest to play the rôle, +hoping that, thanks to my seeming stupidity, I might succeed in +penetrating into the castle without arousing suspicion. My poor +grandmother believed me devoid of reason, the retainers at the castle, +the courtiers, and later the King himself amused themselves with the +imbecility of Yvon the Calf. And so one day, after having been an unseen +witness to the interview of Hugh the Capet with Blanche near the +Fountain of the Hinds, I saw the degenerate descendant of Charles the +Great expire under my very eyes; I saw extinguished in Louis the +Do-nothing the second royal dynasty of France."</p> + +<p>Marceline followed Yvon closely with her hands in his, and kissed him, +thinking the recital over.</p> + +<p>"But I have a confession to make to you," Yvon resumed. "Profiting by +the facility I enjoyed in entering the castle, I committed a theft.... I +one day snatched away a roll of skins that had been prepared to write +upon. Never having owned one denier, it would have been impossible for +me to purchase so expensive an article as parchment. As to pens and +fluid, the feathers that I pluck from eagles and crows, and the black +juice of the trivet-berry will serve me to record the events of my life, +the past and recent part of which is monumental, and whose next and +approaching part promises to be no less so."<a name="page_37" id="page_37"></a></p> +<h3>PART II.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">THE END OF THE WORLD.<a name="page_39" id="page_39"></a><a name="page_38" id="page_38"></a></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_Ib" id="CHAPTER_Ib"></a>CHAPTER I.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">THE APOCALYPTIC FRENZY.</p> +<p>Two months after the poisoning of Louis the Do-nothing in 987, Hugh the +Capet, Count of Paris and Anjou, Duke of Isle-de-France, and Abbot of +St. Martin of Tours and St. Germain-des-Pres, had himself proclaimed +King by his bands of warriors, and was promptly consecrated by the +Church. By his ascension to the throne, Hugh usurped the crown of +Charles, Duke of Lorraine, the uncle of Blanche's deceased husband. +Hugh's usurpation led to bloody civil strifes between the Duke of +Lorraine and Hugh the Capet. The latter died in 996 leaving as his +successor his son Rothbert, an imbecile and pious prince. Rothbert's +long reign was disturbed by the furious feuds among the seigneurs; +counts, dukes, abbots and bishops, entrenched in their fortified +castles, desolated the country with their brigandage. Rothbert, Hugh's +son, died in 1031 and was succeeded by his son Henry I. His advent to +the throne was the signal for fresh civil strife, caused by his own +brother, who was incited thereto by his mother. Another Rothbert, +surnamed the Devil, Duke of Normandy, a descendant of old Rolf the +pirate, took a hand in these strifes and made himself master of Gisors, +Chaumont and Pontoise. It was under the reign of Hugh the Capet's +grandson, Henry I, that the year 1033 arrived, and with it unheard-of, +even incredible events—a spectacle without its equal until then—which +was the culmination of the prevalent myth regarding the end of the world +with the year 1000.</p> + +<p>The Church had fixed the last day of the year 1000 as the final term for +the world's existence. Thanks to the deception, the clergy came into +possession of the property of a large number of seigneurs. During the +last months of that year an immense saturnalia was on foot. The wildest +passions, the most<a name="page_40" id="page_40"></a> insensate, the drollest and the most atrocious acts +seemed then unchained.</p> + +<p>"The end of the world approaches!" exclaimed the clergy. "Did not St. +John the Divine prophesy it in the Apocalypse saying: '<i>When the +thousand years are expired, Satan will be loosed out of his prison, and +shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of +the earth; the book of life will be opened; the sea will give up the +dead which were in it; death and hell will deliver up the dead which +were in them; they will be judged every man according to his works; they +will be judged by Him who is seated upon a brilliant throne, and there +will be a new heaven and a new earth.</i>'—Tremble, ye peoples!" the +clergy repeated everywhere, "the one thousand years, announced by St. +John, will run out with the end of this year! Satan, the anti-Christ is +to arrive! Tremble! The trumpet of the day of judgment is about to +sound; the dead are about to arise from their tombs; in the midst of +thunder and lightning, and surrounded by archangels carrying flaming +swords, the Eternal is about to pass judgment upon us all! Tremble, ye +mighty ones of the earth: in order to conjure away the implacable anger +of the All-Mighty, give your goods to the Church! It is still time! It +is still time! Give your goods and your treasures to the priests of the +Lord! Give all you possess to the Church!"</p> + +<p>The seigneurs, themselves no less brutified than their serfs by +ignorance and by the fear of the devil, and hoping to be able to conjure +away the vengeance of the Eternal, assigned to the clergy by means of +authentic documents, executed in all the forms of terrestrial law, +lands, houses, castles, serfs, their harems, their herds of cattle, +their valuable plate, their rich armors, their pictures, their statues, +their sumptuous robes.</p> + +<p>Some of the shrewder ones said: "We have barely a year, a month, a week +to live! We are full of youth, of desires, of ardor! Let us put the +short period to profit! Let us stave-in<a name="page_41" id="page_41"></a> our wine casks, let us indulge +ourselves freely in wine and women!"</p> + +<p>"The end of the world is approaching!" exclaimed with delirious joy +millions of serfs of the domains of the King, of the lay and of the +ecclesiastical seigneurs. "Our poor bodies, broken with toil, will at +last take rest in the eternal night that is to emancipate us. A blessing +on the end of the world! It is the end of our miseries and our +sufferings!"</p> + +<p>And those poor serfs, having nothing to spend and nothing to assign +away, sought to anticipate the expected eternal repose. The larger +number dropped their plows, their hoes and their spades so soon as +autumn set in. "What is the use," said they, "of cultivating a field +that, long before harvest time, will have been swallowed up in chaos?"</p> + +<p>As a consequence of this universal panic, the last days of the year 999 +presented a spectacle never before seen; it was even fabulous! +Light-headed indulgence and groans; peals of laughter and lamentations; +maudlin songs and death dirges. Here the shouts and the frantic dances +of supposed last and supreme orgies; yonder the lamentations of pious +canticles. And finally, floating above this vast mass of terror, rose +the formidable popular curiosity to see the spectacle of the destruction +of the world. It came at last, that day said to have been prophesied by +St. John the Divine! The last hour arrived, the last minute of that +fated year of 999! "Tremble, ye sinners!" the warning redoubled; +"tremble, ye peoples of the earth! the terrible moment foretold in the +holy books is here!" One more second, one more instant, midnight +sounds—and the year 1000 begins.</p> + +<p>In the expectation of that fatal instant, the most hardened hearts, the +souls most certain of salvation, the dullest and also the most +rebellious minds experienced a sensation that never had and never will +have a name in any language—<a name="page_42" id="page_42"></a></p> + +<p>Midnight sounded!... The solemn hour.... Midnight!</p> + +<p>The year 1000 began!</p> + +<p>Oh, wonder and surprise!... The dead did not leave their tombs, the +bowels of the earth did not open, the waters of the ocean remained +within their basins, the stars of heaven were not hurled out of their +orbits and were not striking against one another in space. Aye, there +was not even a tame flash of lightning! No thunder rolled! No trace of +the cloud of fire in the midst of which the Eternal was to appear. +Jehovah remained invisible. Not one of the frightful prodigies foretold +by St. John the Divine for midnight of the year 1000 was verified. The +night was calm and serene; the moon and stars shone brilliantly in the +azure sky, not a breath of wind agitated the tops of the trees, and the +people, in the silence of their stupor, could hear the slightest ripple +of the mountain streams gliding under the grass. Dawn came ... and day +... and the sun poured upon creation the torrents of its light! As to +miracles, not a trace of any!</p> + +<p>Impossible to describe the revulsion of feeling at the universal +disappointment. It was an explosion of regret, of remorse, of +astonishment, of recrimination and of rage. The devout people who +believed themselves cheated out of a Paradise that they had paid for to +the Church in advance with hard cash and other property; others, who had +squandered their treasures, contemplated their ruin with trembling. The +millions of serfs who had relied upon slumbering in the restfulness of +an eternal night saw rising anew before their eyes the ghastly dawn of +that long day of misery and sufferings, of which their birth was the +morning and only their death the evening. It now began to be realized +that, left uncultivated in the expectation of the end of the world, the +land would not furnish sustenance to the people, and the horrors of +famine were foreseen. A towering clamor rose against the clergy;<a name="page_43" id="page_43"></a> the +clergy, however, knew how to bring public opinion back to its side. It +did so by a new and fraudulent set of prophecies.</p> + +<p>"Oh, these wretched people of little faith," thus now ran the amended +prophecy and invocation; "they dare to doubt the word of the +All-powerful who spoke to them through the voice of His prophet! Oh, +these wretched blind people, who close their eyes to divine light! The +prophets have announced the end of time; the Holy Writ foretold that the +day of the last judgment would come a thousand years after the Saviour +of the world!... But although Christ was born a thousand years before +the year 1000, he did not reveal himself as God until his death, that is +thirty-two years after his birth. Accordingly it will be in the year +1032 that the end of time will come!"</p> + +<p>Such was the general state of besottedness that many of the faithful +blissfully accepted the new prediction. Several seigneurs, however, +rushed at the "men of God" to take back by force the property they had +bequeathed to them. The "men of God," however, well entrenched behind +fortified walls, defended themselves stoutly against the dispossessed +claimants. Hence a series of bloody wars between the scheming bishops, +on the one hand, and the despoiled seigneurs, on the other, to which +disasters were now superadded the religious massacres instigated by the +clergy. The Church had urged Clovis centuries ago to the extermination +of the then Arian heretics; now the Church preached the extermination of +the Orleans Manichæans and the Jews. A conception of these abominable +excesses may be gathered from the following passages in the account left +by Raoul Glaber, a monk and eye-witness. He wrote:</p> + +<p>"A short time after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in the +year 1010, it was learned from unquestionable sources that the calamity +had to be charged to the perverseness of Jews of all countries. When the +secret leaked out<a name="page_44" id="page_44"></a> throughout the world, the Christians decided with a +common accord that they would expel all the Jews, down to the last, from +their territories and towns. The Jews thereby became the objects of +universal execration. Some were chased from the towns, others massacred +with iron, or thrown into the rivers, or put to death in some other +manner. This drove many to voluntary death. And thus, after the just +vengeance wreaked upon them, there were but very few of them left in the +Roman Catholic world."</p> + +<p>Accordingly, the wretched Jews of Gaul were persecuted and slaughtered +at the order of the clergy because the Saracens of Judea destroyed the +Temple of Jerusalem! As to the Manichæans of Orleans, another passage +from the same chronicle expresses itself in these words:</p> + +<p>"In 1017, the King and all his loyal subjects, seeing the folly of these +miserable heretics of Orleans, caused a large pyre to be lighted near +the town, in the hope that fear, produced by the sight, would overcome +their stubbornness; but seeing that they persisted, thirteen of them +were cast into the flames ... and all those that could not be convinced +to abandon their perverse ways met the same fate, whereupon the +venerable cult of the Catholic faith, having triumphed over the foolish +presumption of its enemies, shone with all the greater luster on earth."</p> + +<p>What with the wars that the ecclesiastical seigneurs plunged Gaul into +in their efforts to retain possession of the property of the lay +seigneurs whom they had despoiled by the jugglery of the "End of the +World," and what with these religious persecutions, Gaul continued to be +desolated down to the year 1033, the new term that had been fixed for +the last day of judgment. The belief in the approaching dissolution of +the world, which the clergy now again zealously preached, although not +so universally entertained as that of the year 1000, was accompanied +with results that were no less horrible. In 999,<a name="page_45" id="page_45"></a> the expectation of the +end of the world had put a stop to work; all the fields except those +belonging to the ecclesiastical seigneurs, lay fallow. The formidable +famine of the year 1000 was then the immediate result, and that was +followed by a wide-spread mortality. Agriculture pined for laborers; +every successive scarcity engendered an increased mortality; Gaul was +being rapidly depopulated; famine set in almost in permanence during +thirty years in succession, the more disastrous periods being those of +the years 1003, 1008, 1010, 1014, 1027, 1029 and 1031; finally the +famine of 1033 surpassed all previous ones in its murderous effects. The +serfs, the villeins and the town plebs were almost alone the victims of +the scourge. The little that they produced met the needs of their +masters—the seigneurs, counts, dukes, bishops or abbots; the producers +themselves, however, expired under the tortures of starvation. The +corpses of the wretches who died of inanition strewed the fields, roads +and highways; the decomposing bodies poisoned the air, engendered +illnesses and even pestilential epidemics until then unknown; the +population was decimated. Within thirty-three years, Gaul lost more than +one-half its inhabitants—the new-born babies died vainly pressing their +mother's breasts for nourishment.<a name="page_46" id="page_46"></a></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IIb" id="CHAPTER_IIb"></a>CHAPTER II.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">YVON THE FORESTER'S HUT.</p> +<p>Yvon—now no longer the Calf, but the Forester, since his appointment +over the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds—and his family did not +escape the scourge.</p> + +<p>About five years before the famine of 1033, his beloved wife Marceline +died. He still inhabited his hut, now shared with him by his son +Den-Brao and the latter's wife Gervaise, together with their three +children, of whom the eldest, Nominoe, was nine, the second, Julyan, +seven, and the youngest, Jeannette, two years of age. Den-Brao, a serf +like his father, was since his youth employed in a neighboring stone +quarry. A natural taste for masonry developed itself in the lad. During +his hours of leisure he loved to carve in certain not over hard stones +the outlines of houses and cottages, the structure of which attracted +the attention of the master mason of Compiegne. Observing Den-Brao's +aptitude, the artisan taught him to hew stone, and soon confided to him +the plans of buildings and the overseership in the construction of +several fortified donjons that King Henry I ordered to be erected on the +borders of his domains in Compiegne. Den-Brao, being of a mild and +industrious disposition and resigned to servitude, had a passionate love +for his trade. Often Yvon would say to him:</p> + +<p>"My child, these redoubtable donjons, whose plans you are sketching and +which you build with so much care, either serve now or will serve some +day to oppress our people. The bones of our oppressed and martyrized +brothers will rot in these subterraneous cells reared above one another +with such an infernal art!"</p> + +<p>"Alack! You are right, father," Den-Brao would at such times answer, +"but if not I, some others will build them ... my refusal to obey my +master's orders would have no other consequence<a name="page_47" id="page_47"></a> than to bring upon my +head a beating, if not mutilation and even death."</p> + +<p>Gervaise, Den-Brao's wife, an industrious housekeeper, adored her three +children, all of whom, in turn, clung affectionately to Yvon.</p> + +<p>The hut occupied by Yvon and his family lay in one of the most secluded +parts of the forest. Until the year 1033, they had suffered less than +other serf families from the devastations of the recurring famine. +Occasionally Yvon brought down a stag or doe. The meat was smoked, and +the provision thus laid by kept the family from want. With the beginning +of the year 1033, however, one of the epidemics that often afflict the +beasts of the fields attacked the wild animals of the forest of +Compiegne. They grew thin, lost their strength, and their flesh that +speedily decomposed, dropped from their bones. In default of venison, +the family was reduced towards the end of autumn to wild roots and dried +berries. They also ate up the snakes that they caught and that, +fattened, crawled into their holes for the winter. As hunger pressed, +Yvon killed and ate his hunting dog that he had named Deber-Trud in +memory of the war-dog of his ancestor Joel. Subsequently the family was +thrown upon the juice of barks, and then upon the broth of dried leaves. +But the nourishment of dead leaves soon became unbearable, and likewise +did the sap-wood, or second rind of young trees, such as elders and +aspen trees, which they beat to a pulp between stones, have to be given +up. At the time of the two previous famines, some wretched people were +said to have supported themselves with a kind of fattish clay. Not far +from Yvon's hut was a vein of such clay. Towards the end of December, +Yvon went out for some of it. It was a greenish earth of fine paste, +soft but heavy, and of insipid taste. The family thought themselves +saved. All its members devoured the first meal of the clay. But on the +morrow their contracted stomachs refused the nourishment that was as +heavy as lead.<a name="page_48" id="page_48"></a></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IIIb" id="CHAPTER_IIIb"></a>CHAPTER III.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">ON THE BUCK'S TRACK.</p> +<p>Thirty-six hours of fast had followed upon the meal of clay in Yvon's +hut. Hunger gnawed again at the family's entrails.</p> + +<p>During these thirty-six hours a heavy snow had fallen. Yvon went out. +His family was starving within. He had death on his soul. He went +towards the nets that he had spread in the hope of snaring some bird of +passage during the snow storm. His expectations were deceived. A little +distance from the nets lay the Fountain of the Hinds, now frozen hard. +Snow covered its borders. Yvon perceived the imprint of a buck's feet. +The size of the imprint on the snow announced the animal's bulk. Yvon +estimated its weight by the cracks in the ice on the stream that it had +just crossed, the ice being otherwise thick enough to support Yvon +himself. This was the first time in many months that the forester had +run across a buck's track. Could the animal, perhaps, have escaped the +general mortality of its kind? Did it come from some distant forest? +Yvon knew not, but he followed the fresh track with avidity. Yvon had +with him his bow and arrows. To reach the animal, kill it and smoke its +flesh meant the saving of the lives of his family, now on the verge of +starvation. It meant their life for at least a month. Hope revivified +the forester's energies; he pursued the buck; the regular impress of its +steps showed that the animal was quietly following one of the beaten +paths of the forest; moreover its track lay so clearly upon the snow +that he could not have crossed the stream more than an hour before, else +the edges of the imprint that he left behind him would have been less +sharp and would have been rounded by the temperature of the air. +Following its tracks, Yvon confidently expected to catch sight of the +buck within an hour and bring the animal down. In the ardor of the +chase,<a name="page_49" id="page_49"></a> the forester forgot his hunger. He had been on the march about +an hour when suddenly in the midst of the profound silence that reigned +in the forest, the wind brought a confused noise to his ears. It sounded +like the distant bellowing of a stag. The circumstance was +extraordinary. As a rule the beasts of the woods do not cry out except +at night. Thinking he might have been mistaken, Yvon put his ear to the +ground.... There was no more room for doubt. The buck was bellowing at +about a thousand yards from where Yvon stood. Fortunately a turn of the +path concealed the hunter from the game. These wild animals frequently +turn back to see behind them and listen. Instead of following the path +beyond the turning that concealed him, Yvon entered the copse expecting +to make a short cut, head off the buck, whose gait was slow, hide behind +the bushes that bordered the path, and shoot the animal when it hove in +sight.</p> + +<p>The sky was overcast; the wind was rising; with deep concern Yvon +noticed several snow flakes floating down. Should the snow fall heavily +before the buck was shot, the animal's tracks would be covered, and if +opportunity failed to dart an arrow at it from the forester's ambuscade, +he could not then expect to be able to trace the buck any further. +Yvon's fears proved correct. The wind soon changed into a howling storm +surcharged with thick snow. The forester quitted the thicket and struck +for the path beyond the turning and at about a hundred paces from the +clearing. The buck was nowhere to be seen. The animal had probably +caught wind of its pursuer and jumped for safety into the thicket that +bordered the path. It was impossible to determine the direction that it +had taken. Its tracks vanished under the falling snow, that lay in ever +thicker layers.</p> + +<p>A prey to insane rage, Yvon threw himself upon the ground and rolled in +the snow uttering furious cries. His hunger, recently forgotten in the +ardor of the hunt, tore at his entrails.<a name="page_50" id="page_50"></a> He bit one of his arms and the +pain thus felt recalled him to his senses. Almost delirious, he rose +with the fixed intent of retracing the buck, killing the animal, +spreading himself beside its carcass, devouring it raw, and not rising +again so long as a shred of meat remained on its bones. At that moment, +Yvon would have defended his prey with his knife against even his own +son. Possessed by the fixed and delirious idea of retracing the buck, +Yvon went hither and thither at hap-hazard, not knowing in what +direction he walked. He beat about a long time, and night began to +approach, when a strange incident came to his aid and dissipated his +mental aberration.<a name="page_51" id="page_51"></a></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_IVb" id="CHAPTER_IVb"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">GREGORY THE HOLLOW-BELLIED.</p> +<p>Driven by the gale, the snow continued to fall, when suddenly Yvon's +nostrils were struck by the exhalations emitted by frying meat. The odor +chimed in with the devouring appetite that was troubling his senses, and +at least bestowed back upon him the instinct of seeking to satisfy his +hunger. He stood still, whiffed the air hither and thither like a wolf +that from afar scents carrion, and looked about in order to ascertain by +the last glimmerings of the daylight where he was. Yvon was at the +crossing of a path in the forest that led from the little village of +Ormesson. The road ran before a tavern where travelers usually put up +for the night. It was kept by a serf of the abbey of St. Maximim named +Gregory, and surnamed the Hollow-bellied, because, according to him, +nothing could satisfy his insatiable appetite. An otherwise kind-hearted +and cheerful man, the serf often, before these distressful times, and +when Yvon carried his tithe of game to the castle, had accommodatedly +offered him a pot of hydromel. A prey now to the lashings of hunger and +exasperated by the odor of fried meat which escaped from the tavern, +Yvon carefully approached the closed door. In order to allow the smoke +to escape, Gregory had thrown the window half open without fear of being +seen. By the light of a large fire that burned in the hearth, Yvon saw +Gregory seated on a stool placidly surveying the broiling of a large +piece of meat whose odor had so violently assailed the nostrils of the +famishing forester.</p> + +<p>To Yvon's great surprise, the tavern-keeper's appearance had greatly +changed. He was no longer the lean and wiry fellow of before. Now his +girth was broad, his cheeks were full, wore a thick black beard and +tinkled with the warm color of life and health. Within reach of the +tavern-keeper lay a cutlass, a<a name="page_52" id="page_52"></a> pike and an ax—all red with blood. At +his feet an enormous mastiff picked a bone well covered with meat. The +spectacle angered the forester. He and his family could have lived a +whole day upon the remnants left by the dog; moreover, how did the +tavern-keeper manage to procure so large a loin? Cattle had become so +dear that only the seigneurs and the ecclesiastics could afford to +purchase any; beef cost a hundred gold sous, sheep a hundred silver +sous! A sense of hate rose in Yvon's breast against Gregory whom he had +until then looked upon very much as a friend. The forester could not +take his eyes from the meat, thinking of the joy of his family if he +were to return home loaded with such a booty. For a moment Yvon was +tempted to knock at the door of the serf and demand a share, at least +the chunks thrown at the dog. But judging the tavern-keeper by himself, +and noticing, moreover, that the former was well armed, he reflected +that in days like those bread and meat were more precious than gold and +silver; to request Gregory the Hollow-bellied to yield a part of his +supper was folly; he would surely refuse, and if force was attempted he +would kill the intruder. These thoughts rapidly succeeded one another in +Yvon's troubled brain. To add to his dilemma, his presence was scented +by the mastiff who, at first, growled angrily without, however, dropping +his bone, and then began to bark.</p> + +<p>At that moment Gregory was removing the meat from the spit. "What's the +matter, Fillot? Be brave, old boy! We shall defend our supper. You are +furnished with good strong jaws and fangs, I with weapons. Fear not. No +one will venture to enter. So be still, Fillot! Lie down and keep +quiet!" But so far from lying down and keeping quiet, the mastiff +dropped his bone, stood up, and approaching the window where Yvon stood, +barked louder still. "Oh, oh!" remarked the tavern-keeper depositing the +meat in a large wooden platter <a name="page_53" id="page_53"></a>on the table. "Fillot drops a bone to +bark ... there must be someone outside." Yvon stepped quickly back, and +from the dark that concealed him he saw Gregory seize his pike, throw +the window wide open and leaning out call with a threatening voice: "Who +is there? If any one is in search of death, he can find it here." The +deed almost running ahead of the thought, Yvon raised his bow, adjusted +an arrow and, invisible to Gregory, thanks to the darkness without, took +straight aim at the tavern-keeper's breast. The arrow whizzed; Gregory +emitted a cry followed by a prolonged groan; his head and bust fell over +the window-sill, and his pike dropped on the snow-covered ground. Yvon +quickly seized the weapon. It was done none too soon. The furious +mastiff leaped out of the window over his dead master's shoulders and +made a bound at the forester. A thrust of the pike nailed the faithful +brute to the ground. Yvon had committed the murder with the ferocity of +a famished wolf. He appeased his hunger. The dizziness that had assailed +his head vanished, his reason returned, and he found himself alone in +the tavern with a still large piece of meat beside him,—more than half +of the original chunk.</p> + +<p>Feeling as if he just woke from a dream, Yvon looked around and felt +frozen to the marrow. The light emitted by the hearth enabled him to see +distinctly among the bloody remnants near where the mastiff had been +gnawing his bone, a human hand and the trunk of a human arm. Horrified +as he was, Yvon approached the bleeding members.</p> + +<p>There was no doubt. Before him lay the remains of a human body. The +surprising girth that Gregory the Hollow-bellied had suddenly developed +came to his mind. The mystery was explained. Nourished by human flesh, +the monster had been feeding on the travelers who stopped at his place. +The roast that had just been hungrily swallowed by Yvon proceeded from a +recent murder. The forester's hair stood on end; he dare not look +towards the table where still lay the remains of his cannibal supper. He +wondered how his mouth<a name="page_54" id="page_54"></a> did not reject the food. But that first and +cultivated sense of horror being over, the forester could not but admit +to himself that the meat he had just gulped down differed little from +beef. The thought started a poignant reflection: "My son, his wife and +children are at this very hour undergoing the tortures of hunger; mine +has been satisfied by this food; however abominable it may be, I shall +carry off the rest; the same as I was at first ignorant of what it was +that I ate, my family shall not know the nature of the dish.... I shall +at least have saved them for a day!" The reasoning matured into +resolution.</p> + +<p>As Yvon was about to quit the tavern with his load of human flesh, the +gale that had been howling without and now found entrance through the +window, violently threw open the door of a closet connecting with the +room he was in. The odor of a charnel house immediately assailed the +forester's nostrils. He ran to the hearth, picked up a flaming brand, +and looked into the closet. Its naked walls were bespattered with blood; +in a corner lay a heap of dried twigs and leaves used for kindling a +fire and from beneath them protruded a foot and part of a leg. Yvon +scattered the heap of kindling material with his feet ... they hid a +recently mutilated corpse. The penetrating smell obviously escaped from +a lower vault. Yvon noticed a trap door. Raising it, there rose so +putrid an odor that he staggered back; but driven despite himself to +carry his investigation to the end, he approached the flaming brand to +the opening and discovered below a cavern that was almost filled with +bones, heads and other human members, the bloody remnants of the +travelers whom Gregory the Hollow-bellied had lived upon. In order to +put an end to the horrible spectacle, Yvon hurled his flaming brand into +the mortuary cellar; it was immediately extinguished; for a moment the +forester remained in the dark; he then stepped back into the main room; +and overcoming a fresh assault of human scruple, darted out with<a name="page_55" id="page_55"></a> the +remains of the roast in his bag, thinking only of his famishing family.</p> + +<p>Without, the gale blew violently; its rage seemed to increase. The moon, +then at its fullest, cast enough light, despite the whirls of snow, to +guide Yvon's steps. He struck the road to the Fountain of the Hinds in +haste, moving with firm though rapid strides. The infernal food he had +just partaken of returned to him his pristine strength. About two +leagues from his hut, he stopped, struck with a sudden thought. The +mastiff he had killed was enormous, fleshy and fat. It could furnish his +family with food for at least three or four days. Why had he forgotten +to bring it along? Yvon turned back to the tavern, long though the road +was. As he approached the house of Gregory he noticed a great brilliancy +from afar and across the falling snow. The light proceeded from the door +and window of the tavern. Only two hours before when he left, the hearth +was extinct and the place dark. Could someone have gone in afterwards +and rekindled the fire? Yvon crept near the house hoping to carry off +the dog without attracting notice, but voices reached him saying:</p> + +<p>"Friends, let us wait till the dog is well roasted."</p> + +<p>"I'm hungry! Devilish hungry!"</p> + +<p>"So am I ... but I have more patience than you, who would have eaten the +dainty raw.... Pheu! What a smell comes from that charnel room! And yet +the door and window are open!"</p> + +<p>"Never mind the smell!... I'm hungry!"</p> + +<p>"So, then, Master Gregory the Hollow-bellied slaughtered the travelers +to rob them, I suppose.... One of them must have been beforehand with +him and killed him.... But the devil take the tavern-keeper! His dog is +now roasted. Let's eat!"</p> + +<p>"Let's eat!"<a name="page_56" id="page_56"></a></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_Vb" id="CHAPTER_Vb"></a>CHAPTER V.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">THE DELIRIUM OF STARVATION.</p> +<p>Too old a man to think of contesting the spoils for which he had +returned to Gregory's tavern, Yvon hurried back home and reached his hut +towards midnight.</p> + +<p>On entering, a torch of resinous wood, fastened near the wall by an iron +ring, lighted a heart-rending spectacle. Stretched out near the hearth +lay Den-Brao, his face covered by his mason's jacket; himself expiring +of inanition, he wished to escape the sight of the agony of his family. +His wife, Gervaise, so thin that the bones of her face could be counted, +was on her knees near a straw pallet where Julyan lay in convulsions. +Almost fainting, Gervaise struggled with her son who was alternately +crying with fury and with pain and in the frenzy of starvation sought to +apply its teeth to his own arms. Nominoe, the elder, lay flat on his +face, on the pallet with his brother. He would have been taken for dead +but for the tremor that from time to time ran over his frame still more +emaciated than his brother's. Finally Jeannette, about three years old, +murmured in her cradle with a dying voice: "Mother ... I am hungry.... I +am hungry!"</p> + +<p>At the sound of Yvon's steps, Gervaise turned her head: "Father!" said +she in despair, "if you bring nothing with you, I shall kill my children +to shorten their agony ... and then myself!"</p> + +<p>Yvon threw down his bow and took his bag from his shoulders. Gervaise +judged from its size and obvious weight that it was full. She wrenched +it from Yvon's hands with savage impatience, thrust her hand in it, +pulled out the chunk of roasted meat and raising it over her head to +show it to the whole family cried out in a quivering voice: "Meat!... +Oh, we shall not yet die! Den-Brao.... Children!...<a name="page_57" id="page_57"></a> Meat!... Meat!" At +these words Den-Brao sat up precipitately; Nominoe, too feeble to rise, +turned on his pallet and stretched out his eager hands to his mother; +little Jeannette eagerly looked up from her cradle; while Julyan, whom +his mother was not now holding, neither heard nor saw aught but was +biting into his arms in the delirium of starvation, unnoticed by either +Yvon or any other member of the family. All eyes were fixed upon +Gervaise, who running to a table and taking a knife sliced off the meat +crying: "Meat!... Meat!"</p> + +<p>"Give me!... Give me!" cried Den-Brao, stretching out his emaciated +arms, and he devoured in an instant the piece that he received.</p> + +<p>"You next, Jeannette!" said Gervaise, throwing a slice to the little +girl who uttered a cry of joy, while her mother herself, yielding to the +cravings of starvation bit off mouthfuls from the slice that she reached +out to her oldest son, Nominoe, who, like the rest, pounced upon the +prey, and fell to eating in silent voracity. "And now, you, Julyan," +continued Gervaise. The lad made no answer. His mother stooped down over +him: "Julyan, do not bite your arm! Here is meat, dear boy!" But his +elder brother, Nominoe, having swallowed up his own slice, brusquely +seized that which his mother was tendering to Julyan. Seeing that the +latter continued motionless, Gervaise insisted: "My child, take your arm +from your teeth!" But hardly had she pronounced these words than, +turning towards Yvon, she cried: "Come here, father.... His arm is icy +and rigid ... so rigid that I cannot withdraw it from his jaws."</p> + +<p>Yvon rushed to the pallet where Julyan lay. The little boy had expired +in the convulsion of hunger, although less unfeebled than his brother +and sister. "Step aside," Yvon said to Gervaise; "step aside!" She +realized that Julyan was dead, obeyed Yvon's orders and went on to eat. +But her hunger<a name="page_58" id="page_58"></a> being appeased, she approached her son's corpse and +sobbed aloud:</p> + +<p>"My poor little Julyan!" she lamented. "Oh, my dear child! You died of +hunger!... A few minutes longer and you would have had something to eat +like the others ... at least for to-day!"</p> + +<p>"Where did you get this roast, father?" asked Den-Brao.</p> + +<p>"I found the tracks of a buck," answered Yvon dropping his eyes; "I +followed the animal but failed to come up to it. In that way I went as +far as the tavern of Gregory the Hollow-bellied. He was at supper.... I +shared his repast, and he gave me what you have just eaten."</p> + +<p>"Such a gift! and in days of famine, father! in such days when only +seigneurs and the clergy do not suffer of hunger!"</p> + +<p>"I made the tavern-keeper sympathize with our distress," Yvon answered +brusquely, and, in order to put an end to the subject he added: "I am +worn out with fatigue; I must rest," saying which he walked into the +contiguous room to stretch himself out on his couch, while his son and +daughter remained on their knees near the body of little Julyan. The +other two children fell asleep, still saying they were hungry. After a +long and troubled sleep, Yvon woke up. It was day. Gervaise and her +husband still knelt near Julyan. His brother and sister were saying: +"Mother, give us something to eat; we are hungry!"</p> + +<p>"Later, dear little ones," answered the unhappy woman to console them; +"later you shall have something to eat."</p> + +<p>Den-Brao raised his head and asked: "Where are you going, father?"</p> + +<p>"I am going to dig the grave of my little grandson.... I wish to save +you the sad task."</p> + +<p>"Dig ours also, father," Den-Brao replied with a dejected mien. "We +shall all die to-night. For a moment allayed, our<a name="page_59" id="page_59"></a> hunger will rise more +violent than last night ... dig a wide grave for us all."</p> + +<p>"Despair not, my children. It has stopped snowing. I may be able to find +again the traces of the buck."</p> + +<p>Yvon picked up a spade with which to dig Julyan's grave near where the +boy's great-grandfather, Leduecq, lay buried. Near the place was a heap +of dead branches that had been gathered shortly before by the woodsmen +serfs to turn into coal. After the grave was dug, Yvon left his spade +near it and as the snow had ceased falling he started anew in pursuit of +the buck. It was in vain. Nowhere were the animal's tracks to be seen. +It grew night with the prospect of a long darkness, seeing the moon +would not rise until late. Yvon was reminded by the pangs of hunger, +that began to assail him, that in his hut the sufferings must have +returned. A spectacle, even more distressing than that of the previous +night now awaited him—the convulsive cries of starving children, the +moaning of their mother, the woe-begone looks and dejectment of his son +who lay on the floor awaiting death, and reproaching Yvon for having +prolonged his own and the sufferings of his family with their lives. +Such was the prostration of these wretched beings that, without turning +their heads to Yvon, or even addressing a single word to him, they let +him carry out the corpse of the deceased child.</p> + +<p>An hour later Yvon re-entered his hut. It was pitch dark; the hearth was +cold. None had even the spirit to light a resin torch. Hollow and +spasmodic rattlings were heard from the throats of those within. +Suddenly Gervaise jumped up and groped her way in the dark towards Yvon +crying: "I smell roast meat ... just as last night ... we shall not +die!... Den-Brao, your father has brought some more meat!... Come, +children, come for your share.... A light quick!"</p> + +<p>"No, no! We want no light!" Yvon cried in a tremulous<a name="page_60" id="page_60"></a> voice. "Take!" +said he to Gervaise, who was tugging at the bag on his shoulders. +"Take!... Divide this venison among yourselves, and eat in the dark!"</p> + +<p>The wretched family devoured the meat in the dark; their hunger and +feebleness did not allow them to ask what kind of meat it was. But Yvon +fled from the hut almost crazed with horror. Abomination! His family was +again feeding upon human flesh!<a name="page_61" id="page_61"></a></p> +<h3><a name="CHAPTER_VIb" id="CHAPTER_VIb"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h3> + +<p class="subhead">THE FLIGHT TO ANJOU.</p> +<p>Long, aimless, distracted, Yvon wandered about the forest. A severe +frost had succeeded the fall of snow that covered every inch of the +ground. The moon shone brilliantly in the crisp air. The forester felt +chilled; in despair he threw himself down at the foot of a tree, +determined there to await death.</p> + +<p>The torpor of death by freezing was creeping upon the mind of the +heart-broken serf when, suddenly, the crackling of branches that +announce the passage of game fell upon his ears and revived him with the +promise of life. The animal could not be more than fifty paces away. +Unfortunately Yvon had left his bow and arrows in his hut. "It is the +buck! Oh, this time I shall kill him!" he murmured to himself. His +revived will-power now dominated the exhaustion of his forces, and it +was strong enough to cause him to lose no time in vain regrets at not +having his hunting arms with him, now when the prey would be certain. +The crackling of the branches drew nearer. Yvon found himself under a +clump of large and old oaks, a little distance away was the thick copse +through which the animal was then passing. He rose up and planted +himself motionless close to and along the trunk of the tree at the foot +of which he had thrown himself down. Covered by the tree's thickness and +the shadow that it threw, with his neck extended, his eyes and ears on +the alert, the serf took his long forester's knife between his teeth and +waited. After several minutes of mortal suspense—the buck might get the +wind of him or come from cover beyond his reach—Yvon heard the animal +approach, then stop an instant close behind the tree against which he +had glued his back. The tree concealed Yvon from the eyes of the animal, +but it also prevented him from seeing the prey that he breathlessly lay +in wait for. Presently,<a name="page_62" id="page_62"></a> six feet from Yvon and to the right, he saw +plainly sketched upon the snow, that the light of the moon rendered +brilliant, the shape of the buck and the wide antlers that crowned his +head. Yvon stopped breathing and remained motionless so long as the +shadow stood still. A moment later the shadow began to steal towards +him, and with a prodigious bound Yvon rushed at and seized the animal by +the horns. The buck was large and struggled vigorously; but clambering +himself around the horns with his left arm, Yvon plunged his knife with +his right hand into the animal's throat. The buck rolled over him and +expired, while Yvon, with his mouth fastened to the wound, pumped up and +swallowed the blood that flowed in a thick stream.</p> + +<p>The warm and healthy blood strengthened and revivified the serf.... He +had not eaten since the previous night.</p> + +<p>Yvon rested a few moments; he then bound the hind legs of the buck with +a flexible twig and dragging his booty, not without considerable effort +by reason of its weight, he arrived with it at his hut near the Fountain +of the Hinds. His family was now for a long time protected from hunger. +The buck could not yield less than three hundred pounds of meat, which +carefully prepared and smoked after the fashion of foresters, could be +preserved for many months.</p> + +<p>Two days after these two fateful nights, Yvon learned from a woodsman +serf, that one of his fellows, a forester of the woods of Compiegne like +himself, having discovered the next morning the body of Gregory the +Hollow-bellied pierced with an arrow that remained in the wound, and +having identified the weapon as Yvon's by the peculiar manner in which +it was feathered, had denounced him as the murderer. The bailiff of the +domain of Compiegne detested Yvon. Although the latter's crime delivered +the neighborhood of a monster who slaughtered the travelers in order to +gorge himself upon them, the bailiff ordered his arrest. Thus notified +in time, Yvon<a name="page_63" id="page_63"></a> the Forester resolved to flee, leaving his son and family +behind. But Den-Brao as well as his wife insisted upon accompanying him +with their children.</p> + +<p>The whole family decided to take the road and place their fate in the +hands of Providence. The smoked buck's meat would suffice to sustain +them through a long journey. They knew that whichever way they took, +serfdom awaited them. It was a change of serfdom for serfdom; but they +found consolation in the knowledge that the change from the horrors they +had undergone could not but improve their misery. The famine, although +general, was not, according to reports, equally severe everywhere.</p> + +<p>The hut near the Fountain of the Hinds was, accordingly, abandoned. +Den-Brao and his wife carried the little Jeannette by turns on their +backs. The other child, Nominoe, being older, marched besides his +grandfather. They reached and crossed the borders of the royal domain, +and Yvon felt safe. A few days later the travelers learned from some +pilgrims that Anjou suffered less of the famine than did any other +region. Thither they directed their steps, induced thereto by the +further consideration that Anjou bordered on Britanny, the cradle of the +family. Yvon wished eventually to return thither in the hope of finding +some of his relatives in Armorica.</p> + +<p>The journey to Anjou was made during the first months of the year 1034 +and across a thousand vicissitudes, almost always accompanied by some +pilgrims, or by beggars and vagabonds. Everywhere on their passage the +traces were met of the horrible famine and not much less horrible +ravages caused by the private feuds of the seigneurs. Little Jeannette +perished on the road.<a name="page_64" id="page_64"></a></p> +<h3><a name="EPILOGUE" id="EPILOGUE"></a>EPILOGUE.</h3> +<p>The narrative of my father, Yvon the Forester, breaks off here. He could +not finish it. He was soon after taken sick and died. Before expiring he +made to me the following confession which he desired inserted in the +family's annals:</p> + +<p>"I have a horrible confession to make. Near by the grave to which I took +the body of Julyan, lay a large heap of wood that was to be reduced to +coal by the woodsmen. My family was starving in the hut. I saw no way of +prolonging their existence. The thought then occurred to me: 'Last night +the abominable food that I carried to my family from Gregory's human +charnel house kept them from dying in the agonies of starvation. My +grandson is dead. What should I do? Bury the body of little Julyan or +have it serve to prolong the life of those who gave him life?'</p> + +<p>"After long hesitating before such frightful alternatives, the thought +of the agonies that my family were enduring decided me. I lighted the +heap of dried wood. I laid upon it the flesh of my grandson, and by the +light cast from the pyre I buried his bones, except a fragment of his +skull, which I preserved as a sad and solemn relic of those accursed +days, and on which I engraved these fateful words in the Gallic tongue: +<i>Fin-al-bred</i>—The End of the World. I then took the broiled pieces of +meat to my expiring family!... You all ate in the dark.... You knew not +what you ate.... The ghastly meal saved your lives!"</p> + +<p>My father then delivered to me the parchment that contained his +narrative, accompanied with the lettered bone from the skull of my poor +little Julyan, and also the iron arrow-head which accompanied the +narrative left by our ancestor Eidiol, the skipper of Paris. Some day, +perhaps, these two narratives<a name="page_65" id="page_65"></a> may be joined to the chronicle of our +family, no doubt held by those of our relatives who must still be living +in Britanny.</p> + +<p>My father Yvon died on the 9th of September, 1034.</p> + +<p>This is how our journey ended: Following my father's wishes and also +with the purpose of drawing near Britanny, we marched towards Anjou, +where we arrived on the territory of the seigneur Guiscard, Count of the +region and castle of Mont-Ferrier. All travelers who passed over his +territory had to pay tribute to his toll-gatherers. Poor people, unable +to pay, were, according to the whim of the seigneur's men, put through +some disagreeable, or humiliating, or ridiculous performance: they were +either whipped, or made to walk on their hands, or to turn somersaults, +or kiss the bolts of the toll-gatherer's gate. As to the women, they +were subjected to revolting obscenities. Many other people as penniless +as ourselves were thus subjected to indignity and brutality. Desirous of +sparing my father and my wife the disgrace, I said to the bailiff of the +seigniory who happened to be there: "The castle I see yonder looks to me +weak in many ways. I am a skillful mason; I have built a large number of +fortified donjons; employ me and I shall work to the satisfaction of +your seigneur. All I ask of you is not to allow my father, wife and +children to be maltreated, and to furnish us with shelter and bread +while the work lasts." The bailiff accepted my offer gladly, seeing that +the mason, who was killed during the last war against the castle of +Mont-Ferrier, had not yet been replaced, and besides I furnished ample +evidence of knowing how to build. The bailiff assigned us to a hut where +we were to receive a serf's pittance. My father was to cultivate a +little garden attached to our hovel, while Nominoe, then old enough to +be of assistance, was to help me at my work which would last until +winter. We contemplated a journey to Britanny after that. We had lived +here five months when, three days ago, I lost my father.</p> + +<p class="asterisks">* * </p> + +<p><a name="page_66" id="page_66"></a></p> + +<p>To-day the eleventh day of the month of June, of the year 1035, I, +Den-Brao add this post-script to the above lines that I appended to my +father's narrative. I have to record a sad event. The work on the castle +of Mont-Ferrier not being concluded before the winter of 1034, the +bailiff of the seigneur, shortly after my father's death proposed to me +to resume work in the spring. I accepted. I love my trade. Moreover, my +family felt less wretched here than in Compiegne, and I was not as +anxious as my father to return to Britanny where, after all, there may +be no member of our family left. I accepted the bailiff's offer, and +continued to work upon the buildings, that are now completed. The last +piece of work I did was to finish up a secret issue that leads outside +of the castle. Yesterday the bailiff came to me and said: "One of the +allies of the seigneur of Mont-Ferrier, who is just now on a visit at +the castle, expressed great admiration for the work that you did, and as +he is thinking of improving the fortifications of his own manor, he +offered the count our master to exchange you for a serf who is a +skillful armorer, and whom we need. The matter was settled between +them."</p> + +<p>"But I am not a serf of the seigneur of Mont-Ferrier," I interposed; "I +agreed to work here of my own free will."</p> + +<p>The bailiff shrugged his shoulders and replied: "The law says—<i>every +man who is not a Frank, and who lives a year and a day upon the land of +a seigneur, becomes a serf and the property of the said seigneur, and as +such is subject to taille at will and mercy</i>. You have lived here since +the tenth day of June of the year 1034; we are now at the eleventh day +of June of the year 1035; you have lived a year and a day on the land of +the seigneur of Mont-Ferrier; you are now his serf; you belong to him, +and he has the right to exchange you for a serf of the seigneur of +Plouernel. Drop all thought of resisting our master's will. Should you +kick up your heels, Neroweg IV, seigneur and count of Plouernel, will +order you tied to the<a name="page_67" id="page_67"></a> tail of his horse, and drag you in that way as +far as his castle."</p> + +<p>I would have resigned myself to my new condition without much grief, but +for one circumstance. For forty years I lived a serf on the domain of +Compiegne, and it mattered little to me whether I exercised my trade of +masonry in one seigniory or another. But I remember that my father told +me that he had it from his grandfather Guyrion how an old family of the +name of Neroweg, established in Gaul since the conquest of Clovis, had +ever been fatal to our own. I felt a sort of terror at the thought of +finding myself the serf of a descendant of the Terrible Eagle—that +first of the Nerowegs that crossed our path.</p> + +<p>May heaven ordain it so that my forebodings prove unfounded! May heaven +ordain, my dear son Nominoe, that you shall not have to register on this +parchment aught but the date of my death and these few words:</p> + +<p>"My father Den-Brao ended peaceably his industrious life of a mason +serf."</p> +<p class="subhead">(THE END.)</p> + +<div class="box3"> +<h1>The Gold Sickle;</h1> +<p class="c">...OR...<br /> +<br /> +Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen.<br /> +<br /> +By EUGENE SUE.<br /> +<br /> +Translated from the original French<br /> +<br /> +By DANIEL DE LEON.</p> + +<p>This story is the first of the gems in the necklace of gems<br /> +that Eugene Sue felicitously named "The Mysteries of the<br /> +People; or The History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages."<br /> +It is a story of Druid Gaul, captivating in its simplicity and<br /> +superbly preluding the grand drama that is gradually unfolded<br /> +from story to story, ending in the great French Revolution.</p> + +<p class="c">PRICE 50 CENTS.<br /> +<br /> +New York Labor News Co.<br /> +<br /> +2, 4 & 6 New Reade St., New York, N. Y.<br /> +</p> +</div> +<div class="box3"> +<p class="c">THE PILGRIM'S SHELL</p> + +<p class="c">OR</p> + +<p class="c">FERGAN THE QUARRYMAN</p> + +<p class="c">By Eugene Sue.</p> + +<p class="c">Translated by Daniel De Leon.</p> + +<p class="c">283 pp., on fine book paper, cloth 75 cents.</p> + +<p>This great historical story by the eminent French writer is one of the +majestic series that cover the leading and successive episodes of the +history of the human race. The novel treats of the feudal system, the +first Crusade and the rise of the Communes in France. It is the only +translation into English of this masterpiece of Sue.</p> + +<p class="c">The New York Sun says:</p> + +<p>Eugene Sue wrote a romance which seems to have disappeared in a curious +fashion, called "Les Mysteres du Peuple." It is the story of a Gallic +family through the ages, told in successive episodes, and, so far as we +have been able to read it, is fully as interesting as "The Wandering +Jew" or "The Mysteries of Paris." The French edition is pretty hard to +find, and only parts have been translated into English. We don't know +the reason. One medieval episode, telling of the struggle of the +communes for freedom, is now translated by Mr. Daniel De Leon, under the +title "The Pilgrim's Shell" (New York Labor News Co.). We trust the +success of his effort may be such as to lead him to translate the rest +of the romance. It will be the first time the feat has been done in +English.</p> + +<p class="c">NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.,<br />2, 4 & 6 New Reade St., New York.</p> +</div> +<div class="box3"> +<p class="c">Woman Under Socialism</p> + +<p class="c">By August Bebel</p> + +<p>Translated from the Original German of the Thirty-third Edition by +Daniel De Leon, Editor of the New York Daily People, with translator's +preface and foot notes.</p> + +<p class="c">Cloth, 400 pages, with pen drawing of the author.</p> + +<p class="c">Price, $1.00</p> + +<p>The complete emancipation of woman, and her complete equality with man +is the final goal of our social development, whose realization no power +on earth can prevent;—and this realization is possible only by a social +change that shall abolish the rule of man over man—hence also of +capitalists over working-men. Only then will the human race reach its +highest development. The "Golden Age" that man has been dreaming of for +thousands of years, and after which they have been longing, will have +come at last. Class rule will have reached its end for all time, and +along with it, the rule of man over woman.</p> + +<p class="c">CONTENTS:</p> + +<p style="text-indent:0%;"> +WOMAN IN THE PAST.<br /> + Before Christianity.<br /> + Under Christianity.<br /><br /> +WOMAN IN THE PRESENT.<br /> + Sexual Instinct, Wedlock, Checks and Obstructions to Marriage.<br /> + Further Checks and Obstructions to Marriage, Numerical Proportion of<br /> + the Sexes, Its Causes and Effects.<br /> + Prostitution a Necessary Institution of the Capitalist World.<br /> + Woman's Position as a Breadwinner. Her Intellectual Faculties,<br /> + Darwinism and the Condition of Society.<br /> + Woman's Civic and Political Status.<br /> + The State and Society.<br /> + The Socialization of Society.<br /><br /> +WOMAN IN THE FUTURE.<br /> +INTERNATIONALITY.<br /> +POPULATION AND OVER-POPULATION.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="c">NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.<br />2-6 New Reade St.<br />New York City</p> +</div> +<div class="box3"> +<p class="c">The Paris Commune</p> + +<p>By Karl Marx, with the elaborate introduction of Frederick Engels. It +includes the First and Second manifestos of the International +Workingman's Association, the Civil War in France and the +Anti-Plebiscite Manifesto. Near his close of the Civil War in France, +turning from history to forecast the future, Marx says:</p> + +<p>"After Whit-Sunday, 1871, there can be neither peace nor truce possible +between the Workingmen of France and the appropriators of their produce. +The iron hand of a mercenary soldiery may keep for a time both classes +tied down in common oppression. But the battle must break out in ever +growing dimensions, and there can be no doubt as to who will be the +victor in the end—the appropriating few, or the immense working +majority. And the French working class is only the vanguard of the +modern proletariat."</p> + +<p class="c">Price, 50 cents.</p> + +<p class="c">New York Labor News Co.<br /> +2, 4, & 6 New Reade Street,<br /> +New York City.<br /></p> +</div> + +<div class="box3"> +<h1>DEVELOPMENT<br /> +OF ...<br /> +SOCIALISM</h1> + +<p class="c">From<br /> +Utopia<br /> +to<br /> +Science.<br /> +<br /> +BY<br /> +Frederick Engels.<br /> +</p> + +<p>This is the first complete American<br /> +edition of Frederick Engels' popular essay<br /> +on Socialism, Utopian and Scientific.<br /> +As an introduction to the work itself, it<br /> +contains an essay on Historical Materialism,<br /> +written by Engels in 1892, and also<br /> +a short but instructive essay as an appendix,<br /> +written in the same year, treating<br /> +of the primitive form of collective<br /> +land ownership in Germany, and the subsequent<br /> +development of private property.<br /> +</p> + +<p class="c">PRICE - - 50 CENTS.<br /> +<br /> +New York Labor News Co.<br /> +2, 4 & 6 NEW READE STREET<br /> +NEW YORK CITY<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<div class="box3"> +<h1> +VALUE,<br /> +PRICE<br /> +AND<br /> +PROFIT</h1> + +<p class="c">From a Mechanical Standpoint<br /> +it is the first one of Marx's works published in<br /> +America that can be looked upon as a careful<br /> +piece of publishing. It is to be hoped that this<br /> +excellent volume is the forerunner of other<br /> +volumes of Marx, and that America will have<br /> +the honor of publishing an edition that is accurate<br /> +as to text, thorough in annotations, convenient<br /> +in size and presentable in every way.<br /> +The present book will delight the lover of<br /> +Marx, and every Socialist will desire a copy<br /> +of it.—N. Y. Daily People.</p> + +<p class="c">By KARL MARX. Edited by his daughter,<br /> +ELEANOR MARX AVELING.<br /> +<br /> +PRICE 15 CENTS.</p> + +<p class="c">This book is especially timely, like everything else that Marx<br /> +wrote. Written a couple of years before his "Capital" appeared,<br /> +it is an address to workingmen, and covers in popular form many<br /> +of the subjects later scientifically expanded in "Capital."<br /> +<br /> +It is universally considered as the best epitome we have of the<br /> +first volume of "Capital," and as such is invaluable to the beginner<br /> +in economics. It places him squarely on his feet at the<br /> +threshold of his inquiry; that is, in a position where his perceptive<br /> +faculties cannot be deceived and his reasoning power<br /> +vitiated by the very use of his eyesight; whereas, by the very<br /> +nature of his capitalist surroundings, he now stands on his head<br /> +and sees all things inverted.<br /> +<br /> +Special interest attaches to what Marx says relative to<br /> +strikes. Were the working class thoroughly acquainted with the<br /> +subject matter of this little work, we should hear no more of the<br /> +"common ground" on which capital and labor might meet to<br /> +settle their differences.<br /> +<br /> +The thousand and one schemes that are daily being flaunted<br /> +in the faces of the working class by the lieutenants of the capitalists<br /> +show the necessity there is on the part of the working<br /> +class for a comprehensive understanding of the matter of wages,<br /> +the relation of the wage worker to the employer, the source of<br /> +profits, and the relation between profits and wages. These and<br /> +other subjects are here presented, and so clearly does Marx<br /> +present them that all he has to say can be understood by any<br /> +person willing to pay close attention to his words.</p> + +<p class="c">NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY,<br /> +<br /> +2-6 New Reade Street, New York City.<br /> +</p> +</div> + +<div class="box3"> +<h1> +<i>Two Pages<br /> +From<br /> +Roman<br /> +History</i></h1> + +<p class="c"><i>I. Plebs Leaders and<br /> +Labor Leaders</i><br /> +<br /> +<i>II. The Warning<br /> +of the Gracchi</i><br /> + +<br /> +Two Lectures by<br /> +DANIEL DE LEON<br /> +Editor of The Daily People</p> + +<p>The Trades Union Question is becoming the Burning Question<br /> +of the day. Reform movements are simultaneously growing<br /> +into political factors. In this work the "pure and simple" union<br /> +labor leader is held up to the light of the plebeians' experience<br /> +with the leaders of their time; and, through the failure of the<br /> +Gracchian movement, it is shown how modern reforms are pitfalls<br /> +for the labor movement of to-day.</p> + +<p class="c">A 96-PAGE PAMPHLET SELLING AT<br /> +15 CENTS.<br /> +<br /> +<i>New York Labor News Co.</i><br /> +<br /> +<i>2-6 New Reade Street, New York.</i><br /> +</p> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFANT'S SKULL***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 31759-h.txt or 31759-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/7/5/31759">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/1/7/5/31759</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/31759.txt b/31759.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..901c712 --- /dev/null +++ b/31759.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2869 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Infant's Skull, by Eugène Sue, Translated +by Daniel De Leon + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Infant's Skull + Or The End of the World. A Tale of the Millennium + + +Author: Eugène Sue + + + +Release Date: March 24, 2010 [eBook #31759] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFANT'S SKULL*** + + +E-text prepared by Chuck Greif and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from scanned images of +public domain material generously made available by the Google Books +Library Project (http://books.google.com/) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + the the Google Books Library Project. See + http://books.google.com/books?vid=XvMYAAAAYAAJ&id + + + + + +THE INFANT'S SKULL + +Or + +The End of the World + +A Tale of the Millennium + +by + +EUGENE SUE + +Translated from the Original French by Daniel De Leon + + + + + + + +New York Labor News Company, 1904 + +Copyright, 1904, by the +New York Labor News Company + + + + +TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE + + +Among the historic phenomena of what may be called "modern antiquity," +there is none comparable to that which was witnessed on the first day of +the year 1000, together with its second or adjourned catastrophe +thirty-two years later. The end of the world, at first daily expected by +the Apostles, then postponed--upon the authority of Judaic apocalyptic +writings, together with the Revelations of St. John the Divine,--to the +year 1000, and then again to thirty-two years later, until it was +finally adjourned _sine die_, was one of those beliefs, called +"theologic," that have had vast and disastrous mundane effect. _The +Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World_, figures at that period. It is +one of that series of charming stories by Eugene Sue in which historic +personages and events are so artistically grouped that, without the +fiction losing by the otherwise solid facts, and without the solid facts +suffering by the fiction, both are enhanced, and combinedly act as a +flash-light upon the past--and no less so upon the future. + +As with all the stories of this series by the talented Sue, _The +Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World_, although, one of the +shortest, rescues invaluable historic facts from the dark and dusty +recesses where only the privileged few can otherwise reach them. Thus +its educational value is equal to its entertaining merit. It is a gem in +the necklace of gems that the distinguished author has felicitously +named _The Mysteries of the People; or The History of a Proletarian +Family Across the Ages_. + +DANIEL DE LEON. + +New York, April 20, 1904. + + + + +INDEX + + +Translator's Preface iii + +Part I. The Castle of Compiegne. + + Chapter 1. The Fountain of the Hinds 3 + + Chapter 2. The Idiot 11 + + Chapter 3. Louis the Do-Nothing 15 + + Chapter 4. A Royal Couple 18 + + Chapter 5. The Founding of a Dynasty 23 + + Chapter 6. Yvon and Marceline 27 + + Chapter 7. The Stock of Joel 33 + +Part II. The End of the World. + + Chapter 1. The Apocalyptic Frenzy 39 + + Chapter 2. Yvon the Forester's Hut 46 + + Chapter 3. On the Buck's Track 48 + + Chapter 4. Gregory the Hollow-bellied 51 + + Chapter 5. The Delirium of Starvation 56 + + Chapter 6. The Flight to Anjou 61 + +Epilogue 64 + + + + +PART I. + +THE CASTLE OF COMPIEGNE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE FOUNTAIN OF THE HINDS. + + +A spring of living water, known in the neighborhood by the appropriate +name of the "Fountain of the Hinds," empties its trickling stream under +the oaks of one of the most secret recesses of the forest of Compiegne. +Stags and hinds, deers and does, bucks and she-goats come to water at +the spot, leaving behind them numerous imprints of their steps on the +borders of the rill, or on the sandy soil of the narrow paths that these +wild animals have worn across the copse. + +One early morning in the year 987, the sun being up barely an hour, a +woman, plainly dressed and breathing hard with rapid walking, stepped +out of one of these paths and stopped at the Fountain of the Hinds. She +looked in all directions in surprise as if she expected to have been +preceded by some one at the solitary rendezvous. Finding her hopes +deceived, she made an impatient motion, sat down, still out of breath, +on a rock near the fountain, and threw off her cape. + +The woman, barely twenty years of age, had black hair, eyes and +eye-brows; her complexion was brown; and cherry-red her lips. Her +features were handsome, while the mobility of her inflated nostrils and +the quickness of her motions betokened a violent nature. She had rested +only a little while when she rose again and walked up and down with +hurried steps, stopping every now and then to listen for approaching +footsteps. Catching at last the sounds of a distant footfall, she +thrilled with joy and ran to the encounter of him she had been +expecting. He appeared. It was a man, also in plain garb and in the +vigor of age, large-sized and robust, with a piercing eye and somber, +wily countenance. The young woman leaped at a bound into the arms of +this personage, and passionately addressed him: "Hugh, I meant to +overwhelm you with reproaches; I meant to strike you; but here you are +and I forget everything," and in a transport of amorous delight she +added, suiting the deed to the words: "Your lips! Oh, give me your lips +to kiss!" + +After the exchange of a shower of kisses, and disengaging himself, not +without some effort, from the embrace of the fascinated woman, Hugh said +to her gravely: "We cannot indulge in love at this hour." + +"At this hour, to-day, yesterday, to-morrow, everywhere and always, I +love and shall continue to love you." + +"Blanche, they are foolhardy people who use the word 'always,' when +barely fourteen years separate us from the term assigned for the end of +the world! This is a grave and a fearful matter!" + +"What! Can you have given me this early morning appointment at this +secreted place, whither I have come under pretext of visiting the +hermitage of St. Eusebius, to talk to me about the end of the world? +Hugh ... Hugh.... To me there is no end of the world but when your love +ends!" + +"Trifle not with sacred matters! Do you not know that in fourteen years, +the first day of the year 1000, this world will cease to be and with it +the people who inhabit it?" + +Struck by the coldness of her lover's answers, Blanche brusquely stepped +back. Her brows contracted, her nostrils dilated, her breast heaved in +pain, and she darted a look at Hugh that seemed to wish to fathom the +very bottom of his heart. For a few instants her gaze remained fixed +upon him; she then cried in a voice trembling with rage: "You love some +other woman! You love me no more!" + +"Your words are senseless!" + +"Heaven and earth! Am I also to be despised.... I the Queen!... Yes, you +love some other woman, your own wife, perhaps; that Adelaide of Poitiers +whom you promised me you would rid yourself of by a divorce!" Further +utterances having expired upon her lips, the wife of King Louis the +Do-nothing broke down sobbing, and with eyes that glistened with fury +she shook her fists at the Count of Paris: "Hugh, if I were sure of +that, I would kill both you and your wife; I would stab you both to +death!" + +"Blanche," said Hugh slowly and watching the effect of his words upon +the face of the Queen, who, with eyes fixed upon the ground, seemed to +be meditating some sinister project: "I am not merely Count of Paris and +Duke of France, as my ancestors were, I am also Abbot of Saint Martin of +Tours and of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, abbot not only by virtue of my +cowl--but by virtue of my faith. Accordingly, I blame your incredulity +on the subject of the approaching end of the world. The holiest bishops +have prophesied it, and have urged the faithful to hasten to save their +souls during the fourteen years that still separate them from the last +judgment.... Fourteen years!... A very short period within which to gain +the eternal paradise!" + +"By the hell that burns in my heart, the man is delivering a sermon to +me!" cried the Queen with an outburst of caustic laughter. "What are you +driving at? Are you spreading a snare for me? Malediction! this man is a +compound of ruse, artifice and darkness, and yet I love him! I am +insane!... Oh, there must be some magic charm in this!" and biting into +her handkerchief with suppressed rage, she said to him: "I shall not +interrupt again, even if I should choke with anger. Proceed, Hugh the +Capet! Explain yourself!" + +"Blanche, the approach of the dreadful day when the world is to end +makes me uneasy about my salvation. I look with fright at our double +adultery, seeing we are both married." Stopping with a gesture a fresh +explosion of rage on the part of the Queen, the Count of Paris added +solemnly raising his hand heavenward: "I swear to God by the salvation +of my soul, were you a widow, I would obtain a divorce from the Pope, +and I would marry you with holy joy. But likewise do I swear to God by +the salvation of my soul, I wish no longer to brave eternal punishment +by continuing a criminal intercourse with a woman bound, as I am myself, +by the sacrament of marriage. I wish to spend in the mortification of +the flesh, in fasting, abstinence, repentance and prayer the years that +still separate us from the year 1000, to the end that I may obtain from +our Lord God the remission of my sins and of my adultery with you. +Blanche, seek not to alter my decision. According as the caprice of your +love led you, you have alternately boasted over and cursed the +inflexibility of my character. Now, what I have said is said. This shall +be the last day of our adulterous intercourse. Our carnal relations +shall then end." + +While Hugh the Capet was speaking, the wife of Louis the Do-nothing +contemplated his face with devouring attention. When he finished, so far +from breathing forth desperate criminations, she carried both her hands +to her forehead and seemed steeped in mediation. Looking askance upon +Blanche, the Count of Paris anxiously waited for the first word from the +Queen. Finally, a tremor shook her frame, she raised her head, as if +struck by a sudden thought, and curbing her emotions she asked: "Do you +believe that King Lothaire, the father of my husband Louis, died of +poison in March of last year?" + +"I believe he was poisoned." + +"Do you believe that Imma, his wife, was guilty of poisoning her +husband?" + +"She is accused of the crime." + +"Do you believe Imma guilty of the crime?" + +"I believe what I see." + +"And when you do not see?" + +"Doubt is then natural." + +"Do you know that in that murder Queen Imma's accomplice was her lover +Adalberon, bishop of Laon?" + +"It was a great scandal to the church!" + +"After the poisoning of Lothaire, the Queen and the bishop, finally +delivered from the eyes of her husband, indulged their love more +freely." + +"A double and horrible sacrilege!" cried the Count of Paris with +indignation. "A bishop and a Queen adulterers and homicides!" + +Blanche seemed astonished at the indignation of Hugh the Capet and again +contemplated him attentively. She then proceeded with her interrogatory: + +"Are you aware, Count of Paris, that King Lothaire's death is a happy +circumstance for you--provided you were ambitious? Bishop Adalberon, the +accomplice and lover of the Queen, that bishop, expert in poisons, was +your friend!" + +"He was my friend before his crime." + +"You repudiate his friendship, but you profit by his crime. That is high +statecraft." + +"In what way, Blanche, have I profited by that odious crime? Does not +the son of Lothaire reign to-day? When my ancestors, the Counts of +Paris, aspired at the crown they did not assassinate the kings, they +dethroned them. Thus Eudes dethroned Charles the Fat, and Rothbert, +Charles the Simple. A transmission of crowns is easy." + +"All of which did not prevent Charles the Simple, the nephew of Charles +the Fat from re-ascending the throne, the same as Louis Outer-mer, the +son of Charles the Simple, also resumed his crown. On the other hand, +King Lothaire, who was poisoned last year, will never reign again. +Whence we see, it is better to kill the kings than to dethrone them ... +if one wishes to reign in their stead. Not so, Count of Paris?" + +"Yes, provided one does not care for the excommunications of the +bishops, nor for the eternal flames." + +"Hugh, if perchance my husband, although young, should die?... That +might happen." + +"The will of the Lord is all-powerful," answered Hugh with a contrite +air. "There be those who to-day are full of life and youth, and +to-morrow are corpses and dust! The designs of God are impenetrable." + +"So that if perchance the King, my husband, should die," rejoined +Blanche, without taking her eyes from the face of the Count of Paris, +"in short, if some day or other I become a widow--your scruples will +then cease ... my love will no longer be adulterous, would it, Hugh?" + +"No, you would then be free." + +"And will you remain faithful to what you have just said ... 'Blanche, I +swear to God by the salvation of my soul, if you should become a widow I +shall separate from my wife Adelaide of Poitiers, and I shall marry you +with a pure and holy joy.' ... Will you be faithful to that oath?" + +"Blanche, I repeat it," answered Hugh the Capet avoiding the Queen's +eyes that remained obstinately fixed upon him. "I swear to God by the +salvation of my soul, if you become a widow I shall demand of the Pope +permission to divorce Adelaide of Poitiers, and I shall marry you. Our +love will then have ceased to be criminal." + +An interval of silence again followed the words of the Count of Paris, +whereupon Blanche resumed slowly: + +"Hugh, there are strange and sudden deaths." + +"Indeed, strange and sudden deaths have been seen in royal families." + +"None is safe from accident. Neither princes nor subjects." + +"Only the will of heaven disposes of our fates. We must bow before the +decrees of God." + +"My husband, Louis, the Do-nothing, is, like all other people, subject +to death and the decrees of Providence." + +"Indeed, kings as well as subjects." + +"It may then happen, although he is now barely twenty, that he die +suddenly ... within a year ... within six months ... to-morrow ... +to-day...." + +"Man's end is death." + +"Should that misfortune arrive," the Queen proceeded after a pause, +"there is one thing that alarms me, Hugh, and on which I desire your +advice." + +"What, my dear Blanche?" + +"Calumniators, seeing Louis dies so suddenly, might talk ... about +poison." + +"A pure conscience despises calumny. The wicked may be disregarded." + +"Oh, as to me, I would despise them. But, you, Hugh, my beloved, +whatever may be said, would you also accuse me of being a poisoner? +Would you pass such a judgment upon me?" + +"I believe what I see.... If I do not see, I doubt. Blanche, may the +curse of heaven fall upon me if I ever could be infamous enough to +conceive such a suspicion against you!" cried Hugh the Capet taking the +Queen in his arms with passionate tenderness. "What! If the Lord should +call your husband to Him He would fulfil the most cherished dreams of my +life! He would allow me to sanctify with marriage the ardent love that I +would sacrifice everything to, everything except my eternal salvation! +And would I, instead of thanking God, suspect you of an odious crime! +You the soul of my life!" + +The Queen seemed overwhelmed with ecstacy. Hugh the Capet proceeded in a +low and tremulous voice: "Oh, joy of my heart, if some day you should be +my wife before God, our souls would then merge in one and in a love that +would then be pure and holy. Then, Oh joy of Heaven, we shall not age! +The end of the world approaches. Together we shall quit life full of +ardor and love!" saying which the Count of Paris drew his mouth close to +the lips of the Queen. The latter closed her eyes and muttered a few +words in a faint voice. Hugh the Capet, however, suddenly and with great +effort disengaged himself from Blanche's arms exclaiming: "A superhuman +courage is needed to overcome the passion that consumes me! Adieu, +Blanche, well-beloved of my heart, I return to Paris!" + +With these words Hugh the Capet disappeared in the copse, while the +Queen, overpowered with passion and the struggle within herself, +followed him with her eyes: "Hugh, my lover, I shall be a widow, and you +King!" + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE IDIOT. + + +Among the household serfs of the royal domain of Compiegne was a young +lad of eighteen named Yvon. Since the death of his father, a forester +serf, he lived with his grandmother, the washerwoman for the castle, who +had received permission from the bailiff to keep her grandson near her. +Yvon was at first employed in the stables; but having long lived in the +woods, he looked so wild and stupid that he was presently taken for an +idiot, went by the name of Yvon the Calf, and became the butt of all. +The King himself, Louis the Do-nothing, amused himself occasionally with +the foolish pranks of the young serf. He was taught to mimic dogs by +barking and walking on all fours; he was made to eat lizards, spiders +and grass-hoppers for general amusement. Yvon always obeyed with an +idiotic leer. Thus delivered to the sport and contempt of all, since his +grandmother's death, the lad met at the castle with the sympathy of none +except a poor female serf named Marceline the Golden-haired from the +abundant gold-blonde ornament of her head. The young girl was a helper +of Adelaide, the favorite lady of the Queen's chamber. + +The morning of the day that Blanche and Hugh the Capet had met at the +Fountain of the Hinds, Marceline, carrying on her head a bucket of +water, was crossing one of the yards of the castle towards the room of +her mistress. Suddenly she heard a volley of hisses, and immediately +after she saw Yvon enter the yard pursued by several serfs and children +of the domain, crying at the top of their voices: "The Calf!" "The +Calf!" and throwing stones and offal at the idiot. Marceline revealed +the goodness of her heart by interesting herself in the wretch, not that +Yvon's features or limbs were deformed, but that the idiotic expression +of his face affected her. He was in the habit of dressing his long +black hair in five or six plaids interwoven with wisps of straw, and the +coiffure fell upon his neck like as many tails. Barely clad in a sorry +hose that was patched with materials of different colors, his shoes were +of rabbit or squirrel skin fastened with osiers to his feet and legs. +Closely pursued from various sides by the serfs of the castle, Yvon made +several doublings in the yard in order to escape his tormentors, but +perceiving Marceline, who, standing upon the first step of the turret +stairs that she was about to ascend, contemplated the idiot with pity, +he ran towards the young girl, and throwing himself at her feet said +joining his hands: "Pardon me, Marceline, but protect poor Yvon against +these wicked people!" + +"Climb the stairs quick!" Marceline said to the idiot, pointing up the +turret. Yvon rose and swiftly followed the advice of the serf maid, who, +placing herself at the door, lay down her bucket of water, and +addressing Yvon's tormentors, who were drawing near, said to them: "Have +pity for the poor idiot, he harms no one." + +"I have just seen him leap like a wolf out of the copse of the forest +from the side of the Fountain of the Hinds," cried a forester serf. "His +hair and the rags he has on are wet with dew. He must have been in some +thicket spreading nets for game which he eats raw." + +"Oh, he is a worthy son of Leduecq, the forester, who lived like a +savage in his den, never coming out of the woods!" observed another +serf. "We must have some fun with the Calf." + +"Yes, yes, let us dip him up to his ears in the neighboring pool in +punishment for spreading nets to catch game with," said the forester; +and taking a step toward Marceline who remained at the door: "Get out of +the way, you servant of the devil, or we shall give you a ducking along +with the Calf!" + +"My mistress, Dame Adelaide, a lady of the Queen's chamber, will know +how to punish you if you ill-treat me. Begone, you heartless people!" + +"The devil take Adelaide! To the pool with the Calf!" + +"Yes, to the pool with him! And Marceline also! A good mud-bath for +both!" + +At the height of the tumult, one of the casements of the castle was +thrown open, and a young man of twenty years at most leaned out and +cried angrily: "I shall have your backs flayed with a sound strapping, +you accursed barking dogs!" + +"The King!" exclaimed the tormentors of Yvon, and a minute later all had +fled by the gate of the yard. + +"Halloa, you girl!" called out Louis the Do-nothing to Marceline who was +taking up her bucket of water. "What was the cause of the infernal +racket made by that noisy pack?" + +"Seigneur," answered Marceline trembling, "they wanted to ill-treat poor +Yvon." + +"Is the Calf about?" + +"Seigneur, I know not where he is gone to hide," explained the maid who +feared lest Yvon, barely escaped from one set of tormentors, should fall +into the hands of the whimsical King. As the latter thereupon withdrew +from the window, Marceline hastened to ascend the stair of the turret. +She had scarcely mounted a dozen steps when she saw Yvon crouching with +his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hands. At the sight of the +maid he shook his head and with a voice full of emotion said: "Good you; +oh, you good! Marceline good!" and he fixed his eyes so full of +gratitude upon her that she observed aloud with a sigh: "Who would +believe that this wretch, with eyes at times so captivating, still is +deprived of reason?" and again laying down her bucket she said to the +idiot: "Yvon, why did you go this morning into the forest? Your hair and +rags are really moist with dew. Is it true that you spread nets to take +game?" The idiot answered with a stupid smile, swaying his head backward +and forward. "Yvon," said Marceline, "do you understand me?" The idiot +remained mute, but presently observing the bucket of water that the maid +had laid down at his feet, he lifted it up, placed it on his own head, +and motioned to Marceline to go up ahead of him. "The poor creature is +expressing his gratitude as well as he can," Marceline was thinking to +herself when she heard steps above coming down the stairs, and a voice +cried out: + +"Oh, Calf, is it you?" + +"That is the voice of one of the King's servants," said Marceline. "He +is coming for you, Yvon. Oh, you are going to fall into another +tormentor's hands!" + +Indeed, one of the men of the royal chamber appeared at the turning of +the winding stairs and said to the idiot: "Come, get up quick and follow +me! Our lord the King wishes to amuse himself with you, you double +Calf!" + +"The King! Oh! Oh! The King!" cried Yvon with a triumphant air, clapping +his hands gayly. The bucket being left unsupported on his head, fell and +broke open at the feet of the King's servitor whose legs were thereby +drenched up to his knees. + +"A plague upon the idiot!" cried Marceline despite all her +good-heartedness. "There is the bucket broken! My mistress will beat +me!" + +Furious at the accident that drenched his clothes, the royal servitor +hurled imprecations and insults upon Yvon the Calf, who, however, +seeming not to notice either the imprecations or the insults, continued +to repeat triumphantly: "The King! Oh! Oh! The King!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +LOUIS THE DO-NOTHING. + + +Like his wife Louis the Do-nothing was barely twenty years of age. +Justly nicknamed the "Do-nothing," he looked as nonchalant as he seemed +bored. After having scolded through the window at the serfs, whose noise +annoyed him, he stretched himself out again upon his lounge. Several of +his familiar attendants stood around him. Yawning fit to dislocate his +jaws, he said to them: "What a notion that was of the Queen's to go at +sunrise with only one lady of the chamber to pray at the hermitage of +St. Eusebius! Once awakened, I could not fall asleep again. So I rose! +Oh, this day will be endless!" + +"Seigneur King, would you like to hunt?" suggested one of the +attendants. "The day is fine. We would certainly kill some game." + +"The hunt fatigues me. It is a rude sport." + +"Seigneur King, would you prefer fishing?" + +"Fishing tires me; it is a stupid pastime." + +"Seigneur King, if you call your flute and lute-players, you might enjoy +a dance." + +"Music racks my head, and I cannot bear dancing. Let's try something +else." + +"Seigneur King, shall your chaplain read to you out of some fine work?" + +"I hate reading. I think I could amuse myself with the idiot. Where is +he?" + +"Seigneur King, one of your attendants has gone out to find him.... I +hear steps.... It is surely he coming." + +The door opened and a servitor bent the knee and let in Yvon. From the +moment of his entrance Yvon started to walk on all fours, barking like a +dog; after a little while he grew livelier, jumped and cavorted about +clapping his hands and shouting with such grotesque contortions that the +King and the attendants began to laugh merrily. Encouraged by these +signs of approbation and ever cavorting about, Yvon mimicked alternately +the crowing of a rooster, the mewing of a cat, the grunting of a hog and +the braying of an ass, interspersing his sounds with clownish gestures +and ridiculous leaps, that redoubled the hilarity of the King and his +courtiers. The merriment was at its height when the door was again +thrown open, and one of the chamberlains announced in a loud voice from +the threshold where he remained: "Seigneur King, the Queen approaches!" +At these words the attendants of Louis, some of whom had dropped upon +stools convulsing with laughter, rose hastily and crowded to the door to +salute the Queen at her entrance. Louis, however, who lay stretched on +his lounge, continued laughing and cried out to the idiot: "Keep on +dancing, Calf! Dance on! You are worth your weight in gold! I never +amused myself better!" + +"Seigneur King, here is the Queen!" said one of the courtiers, seeing +Blanche cross the contiguous chamber and approach the door. The wing of +this door, when thrown open almost reached the corner of a large table +that was covered with a splendid Oriental piece of tapestry, the folds +of which reached to the floor. Yvon the Calf continued his gambols, +slowly approaching the table, and concealed from the eyes of the King by +the head-piece of the lounge on which the latter remained stretched. +Ranged at the entrance of the door in order to salute the Queen, the +prince's attendants had their backs turned to the table under which Yvon +quickly blotted himself out at the moment when the seigneurs were bowing +low before Blanche. The Queen answered their salute, and preceding them +by a few steps moved towards Louis, who had not yet ceased laughing and +crying out: "Ho, Calf, where are you? Come over this way that I may see +your capers.... Have you suddenly turned mute, you who can bark, mew and +crow so well?" + +"My beloved Louis is quite merry this morning," observed Blanche +caressingly and approaching her husband's lounge. "Whence proceeds the +mirth of my dear husband?" + +"That idiot could make a dead man laugh with his capers. Ho, there, +Calf! Come this way, you scamp, or I'll have your bones broken!" + +"Seigneur King," said one of the attendants after glancing around the +room for Yvon, "the Calf must have escaped at the moment when the door +was opened to admit the Queen. He is not here, nor in the adjoining +room." + +"Fetch him back, he can not be far!" cried the King impatiently and with +rising anger. "Bring him back here immediately!" + +One of the seigneurs hurried out to execute the King's orders, while +Blanche letting herself down near him, said, smiling tenderly: "I shall +try, my beloved seigneur, to enable you to wait patiently for the +idiot's return." + +"Fetch him back. All of you run after him; the more of you look after +him, the quicker will he be found." + +Bowing to the King's orders, the courtiers trooped out of the apartment +in search of Yvon. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +A ROYAL COUPLE. + + +Blanche remained alone with her husband, whose face, that for a moment +had brightened up, speedily resumed its normal expression of lassitude. +The Queen had thrown off her simple vestment of the morning to don a +more elaborate costume. Her black hair, braided with pearls, was combed +with skill. She wore an orange colored robe of rich material, with wide +flowing sleeves, leaving half exposed her breast and shoulders. A collar +and gold bracelets studded with precious stones ornamented her neck and +arms. Still reclining on his lounge, now shared by his wife who sat down +at its edge, Louis did not even bestow a glance upon her. With his head +leaning upon one of the pillows, he was mumbling: "You will see the +clumsy fellows will turn out more stupid than the idiot; they will not +catch him." + +"In such a disastrous event," replied Blanche with an insinuating smile, +"I shall have to console you, my darling. Why is your face so careworn? +Will you not deign as much as to throw your eyes upon your wife, your +humble servant?" + +Louis indolently turned his head towards his wife and said: "How dressed +up you are!" + +"Does this dress please my amiable master?" inquired the Queen +caressingly; but noticing that the King suddenly shivered, became gloomy +and brusquely turned away his head, she added: "What is the matter, +Louis?" + +"I do not like the color of that dress!" + +"I am sorry I did not know the color of orange displeased you, dear +seigneur. I would have guarded against putting it on." + +"You were dressed in the same color on the first day of this month last +year." + +"My memory is not as perfect as yours on the subject, my dear +seigneur." + +"It was on the second of May of last year that I saw my father die, +poisoned by my mother!" answered the King mournfully. + +"What a sad souvenir! How I now hate this accursed orange color, seeing +it awakens such recollections in your mind!" + +The King remained silent; he turned on his cushions and placed his hands +over his eyes. The door of the apartment was re-opened and one of the +courtiers said: "Seigneur, despite all our search, we have not been able +to find Yvon the Calf; he must have hidden in some corner; he shall be +severely punished soon as we find him again." Louis made no answer, and +Blanche motioned the courtier with an imperious gesture to retire. Left +again alone, and seeing her husband more and more mentally troubled, +Blanche redoubled her blandishments, seeking to provoke a return of her +caresses: "Dear seigneur, your sadness afflicts me." + +"Your tenderness is extreme ... this morning. Quite different from +usual." + +"My tenderness for you increases by reason of the sorrow that I see you +steeped in, dear seigneur." + +"Oh, I lost everything with my father's death," Louis murmured +despondently, and he added with concentrated fury: + +"That felonious bishop of Laon! Poisoner and adulterer! Infamous +prelate! And my mother! my mother his accomplice! Such crimes portend +the end of the world! I shall punish the guilty!" + +"Pray, my seigneur, do forget that dark past. What is it you said about +the end of the world? It is a fable." + +"A fable! What! Do not the holiest bishops assert that in fourteen years +the world must come to an end ... in the year 1000?" + +"What makes me question their assertion, Louis, is that, while +announcing the end of the world, these prelates recommend to the +faithful to part with their goods to the Church and to donate their +domains to them." + +"Of what use would it be to keep perishable riches if soon everything is +to perish?" + +"But then, dear seigneur, if everything is to perish, what is the Church +to do with the goods that she is eternally demanding from the faithful?" + +"After all, you are right. It may be another imposture of the tonsured +fraternity. Nor should anything of the sort surprise us when we see +bishops guilty of adultery and poisoning." + +"You always come back to those lugubrious thoughts, dear seigneur! Pray +forget those unworthy calumnies regarding your mother.... Just God! Can +a woman be guilty of her husband's murder! Impossible! God would not +permit it!" + +"But did I not witness the agony and death of my father! Oh, the effect +of the poison was strange ... terrible!" said the King in somber +meditation. "My father felt his feet growing cold, icy and numb, unable +to support him. By degrees the mortal lethargy invaded his other +members, as if he were being slowly dipped into an ice bath! What a +terrible spectacle that was!" + +"There are illnesses so sudden, so strange, my beloved master.... When +such crimes are charged, I am of those who say: 'When I see I believe, +when I do not see I refuse to accept such theories.'" + +"Oh, I saw but too much!" cried Louis, and again hiding his face in his +hands he added in a distressful voice: "I know not why these thoughts +should plague me to-day. Oh, God, have pity on me. Remove these fears +from my spirit!" + +"Louis, do not weep like that, you tear my heart to pieces. Your sadness +is a wrong done to this beautiful May day. Look out of the window at +that brilliant sun; look at the spring verdure of the forest; listen to +the gay twittering of the birds. Why, all around us, everything in +nature is lovely and joyous; you alone are sad! Come, now, my beautiful +seigneur," added Blanche taking both the hands of the King. "I am going +to draw you out of this dejection that distresses me as much as it does +you.... I am all the gladder at my project, which is intended to please +and amuse you." + +"What is your project?" + +"I propose to spend the whole day near you. We shall take our morning +meal here. I have issued orders to that effect, my indolent boy. After +that we shall go to mass. We shall then take a long outing in a litter +through the forest. Finally.... But, no, no, the surprise I have in +store for you shall remain a secret. It shall be the price of your +submission." + +"What is the surprise about?" + +"You will never have spent such a delightful evening.... You whom +everything tires and whom everything is indifferent to ... you will be +charmed by what I have in store for you, my dear husband." + +Louis the Do-nothing, a youth of indolent and puerile mind, felt his +curiosity pricked, but failed to draw any explanation from Blanche. A +few minutes later the chamberlains and servants entered carrying silver +dishes and gold goblets, together with the eatables that were to serve +for the morning repast. Other attendants of the royal chamber took up +the large table covered to the floor with tapestry and under which Yvon +the Calf had hidden himself, and carried it forward to the lounge on +which were Louis and Blanche. Bent under the table, and completely +concealed by the ample folds of the cover which trailed along the floor, +the idiot moved forward on his hands and knees as, carried by the +servants, the table was being taken towards the royal lounge. When it +was set down before Louis and Blanche, Yvon also stopped. Menials and +equerries were preparing to render the habitual services at table when +the Queen said smiling to her husband: "Will my charming master consent +that to-day I be his only servant?" + +"If it please you," answered Louis the Do-nothing, and he proceeded in +an undertone: "But you know that according to my habit I shall neither +eat nor drink anything that you have not tasted before me." + +"What a child you are!" answered Blanche smiling upon her husband with +amiable reproach. "Always suspicious! We shall drink from the same cup +like two lovers." + +The officers of the King left upon a sign from the Queen. She remained +alone with Louis. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE FOUNDING OF A DYNASTY. + + +Day was waning. Darkness began to invade the spacious apartment where +seventy-five years before Francon, archbishop of Rouen, informed Charles +the Simple that he was to give his daughter Ghisele together with the +domains of Neustria to Rolf the Norman pirate, and where now King Louis +and his wife Blanche had spent the day. + +Louis the Do-nothing was asleep at full length upon his lounge near to +the table that was still covered with the dishes and vases of gold and +silver. The King's sleep was painful and restless. A cold sweat ran down +his forehead that waxed livid by the second. Presently an overpowering +torpor succeeded his restlessness, and Louis remained plunged in +apparent calmness, although his features were rapidly becoming +cadaverous. Standing behind the lounge with his elbows resting against +its head, Yvon the Calf contemplated the King of the Franks with an +expression of somber and savage triumph. Yvon had dropped his mask of +stupidity. His features now revealed undisguised intelligence, hidden +until then by the semblance of idiocy. The profoundest silence reigned +in the apartment now darkened by the approach of night. Suddenly, +emitting a deep groan, the King awoke with a start. Yvon stooped down +and disappeared behind the lounge while the King muttered to himself: +"There is a strange feeling upon me.... I felt so violent a pain in my +heart that it woke me up...." then looking towards the window: "What! Is +it night!... I must have slept long.... Where is the Queen?... Why was I +left alone?... I feel heavy and my feet are cold.... Halloa, someone!" +he called out turning his face to the door, "Halloa, Gondulf!... +Wilfrid!... Sigefried!" At the third name that he pronounced, Louis' +voice, at first loud, became almost unintelligible, it sunk to a husky +whisper. He sat up. "What is the matter with me? My voice is so feeble +that I can hardly hear myself. My throat seems to close ... then this +icy feeling ... this cold that freezes my feet and is rising to my +legs!" The King of the Franks had barely uttered these words when a +shudder of fear ran through him. He saw before him Yvon the Calf who had +suddenly risen and now stood erect behind the head of the lounge. "What +are you doing there?" asked Louis, and he immediately added with a +sinking voice: "Run quick for some one.... I am in danger....", but +interrupting himself he observed: "Of what use is such an order; the +wretch is an idiot.... Why am I left thus alone?... I shall rouse +myself," and Louis rose painfully; but hardly had he put his feet down +when his limbs gave way under him and he fell in a heap with a dull thud +upon the floor. "Help! Help!... Oh, God, have pity upon me!... Help!" + +"Louis, it is too late!" came from Yvon in a solemn voice. "You are +about to die ... barely twenty years old, Oh, King of the Franks!" + +"What says that idiot? What is the Calf doing here?" + +"You are about to die as died last year your father Lothaire, poisoned +by his wife! You have been poisoned by Queen Blanche!" + +Fear drew a long cry from Louis; his hair stood on end over his icy +forehead, his lips, now purple, moved convulsively without producing a +sound; his eyes, fixed upon Yvon, became troubled and glassy, but still +retaining a last glimmer of intelligence, while the rest of his body +remained inert. + +"This morning," said Yvon, "the Count of Paris, Hugh the Capet, met your +wife by appointment in the forest. Hugh is a cunning and unscrupulous +man. Last year he caused the poisoning of your father by Queen Imma and +her accomplice the bishop of Laon; to-day he caused you to be poisoned +by Blanche, your wife, and to-morrow the Count of Paris will be King!" +Louis understood what Yvon was saying, although his mind was beclouded +by the approach of death. A smile of hatred contracted his lips. "You +believed yourself safe from danger," Yvon proceeded, "by compelling your +wife to eat of the dishes that she served you. All poison has its +antidote. Blanche could with impunity moisten her lips in the wine she +had poisoned--" Louis seemed hardly to hear these last words of Yvon; +his limbs stiffened, his head dropped and thumped against the floor; his +eyes rolled for a last time in their depths; a slight froth gathered on +his now blackened lips; he uttered a slight moan, and the last crowned +scion of the Carlovingian stock had passed away. + +"Thus end the royal races! Thus, sooner or later, do they expiate their +original crime!" thought Yvon contemplating the corpse of the last +Carlovingian king lying at his feet. "My ancestor Amael, the descendant +of Joel and of Genevieve, declined to be the jailor of little Childeric, +in whom the stock of Clovis was extinguished, and now I witness the +crime by which is extinguished, in the person of Louis the Do-nothing, +the stock of Charles the Great--the second dynasty of the conquerers of +Gaul. Perchance some descendant of my own will in the ages to come +witness the punishment of this third dynasty of kings, now raised by +Hugh the Capet through an act of cowardly perfidy!" + +Steps were heard outside. Sigefried, one of the courtiers, entered the +apartment saying to the King: "Seigneur, despite the express orders of +the Queen, who commanded us not to disturb your slumber, I come to +announce to you the arrival of the Count of Paris." + +So saying, Sigefried drew near, leaving the door open behind him. Yvon +profited by the circumstance and groped his way out of the apartment +under cover of the dark. Receiving no answer from Louis, Sigefried +believed the King was still asleep, when, drawing still nearer he saw +the King's body lying on the floor. He stooped and touched the icy hand. +Struck with terror he ran to the door crying out: "Help!... Help!" and +crossed the next room continuing to call for assistance. Several +servitors soon appeared with torches in their hands, preceding Hugh the +Capet, who now was clad in his brilliant armor and accompanied by +several of his officers. "What?" cried the Count of Paris addressing +Sigefried in an accent of surprise and alarm, "The King cannot be dead!" + +"Oh, Sire, I found Louis on the floor where he must have dropped down +from the lounge. I touched his hand. It was icy!" saying which Sigefried +followed Hugh the Capet into the apartment that now was brilliantly +lighted by the torches of the servants. The Count of Paris contemplated +for an instant the corpse of the last Carlovingian king, and cried in a +tone of pity: "Oh! Dead! And only twenty years of age!" and turning +towards Sigefried with his hands to his eyes as if seeking to conceal +his tears: "How can we account for so sudden a death?" + +"Seigneur, the King was in perfect health this morning. He sat down at +table with the Queen; after that she left giving us orders not to +disturb her husband's sleep; and--" Sigefried's report was interrupted +by nearing lamentations, and Blanche ran in followed by several of her +women. Her hair was tumbled, her looks distracted. "Is Louis really +dead?" and upon the answer that she received she cried: + +"Woe is me! Woe is me! I have lost my beloved husband! For pity's sake, +seigneur Hugh, do not leave me alone! Oh, promise me to join your +efforts to mine to discover the author of his death, if my Louis died by +crime!" + +"Oh, worthy spouse, I swear to God and his saints, I shall help you +discover the criminal!" answered Hugh the Capet solemnly; and seeing +Blanche tremble and stagger on her feet like one about to fall he cried: +"Help! Blanche is swooning!" and he received in his arms the seemingly +fainting body of Blanche who whispered in his ear: "I am a widow ... +you are King!" + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +YVON AND MARCELINE. + + +Upon leaving the room where lay the corpse of Louis the Do-nothing, Yvon +descended the stairs to the apartment of Adelaide, the lady of the +Queen's chamber, and mistress of the golden-haired Marceline, whom he +expected to find alone, Adelaide having followed the Queen when the +latter ran to the King's apartment feigning despair at the death of her +husband. Yvon found the young female serf at the threshold of the door +in a state of great agitation at the tumult that had suddenly invaded +the castle. "Marceline," Yvon said to her, "I must speak with you; let +us step into your mistress's room. She will not leave the Queen for a +long time. We shall not be interrupted. Come!" The young woman opened +wide her eyes at seeing for the first time the Calf expressing himself +in a sane manner, and his face now free of its wonted look of stupidity. +In her astonishment, Marceline could not at first utter a word, and Yvon +explained, smiling: "Marceline, my language astonishes you. The reason +is, you see, I am no longer Yvon the Calf but ... Yvon who loves you! +Yvon who adores Marceline!" + +"Yvon who loves me!" cried the poor serf in fear. "Oh, God, this is some +sorcery!" + +"If so, Marceline, you are the sorceress. But, now, listen to me. When +you will have heard me, you will answer me whether you are willing or +not to have me for your husband." Yvon entered the room mechanically +followed by Marceline. She thought herself in a dream; her eyes did not +leave the Calf and found his face more and more comely. She remembered +that, often struck by the affectionateness and intelligence that beamed +from Yvon's eyes, she had asked herself how such looks could come from a +young man who was devoid of reason. + +"Marceline," he proceeded, "in order to put an end to your surprise, I +must first speak to you of my family." + +"Oh, speak, Yvon, speak! I feel so happy to see you speak like a sane +person, and such language!" + +"Well, then, my lovely Marceline, my great-grandfather, a skipper of +Paris named Eidiol, had a son and two daughters. One of these, Jeanike, +kidnapped at an early age from her parents, was sold for a serf to the +superintendant of this domain, and later she became the wet-nurse of the +daughter of Charles the Simple, whose descendant, Louis the Do-nothing, +has just died." + +"Is the rumor really true? Is the King dead? So suddenly? It is +strange!" + +"Marceline, these kings could not die too soon. Well, then, Jeanike, the +daughter of my great-grandfather had two children, Germain, a forester +serf of this domain, and Yvonne, a charming girl, whom Guyrion the +Plunger, son of my great-grandfather, took to wife. She went with him to +Paris, where they settled down and where he plied his father's trade of +skipper. Guyrion had from Yvonne a son named Leduecq ... and he was my +father. My grandfather Guyrion remained in Paris as skipper. A woman +named Anne the Sweet was assaulted by one of the officers of the Count +of the city, and her husband, Rustic the Gay, a friend of my father, +killed the officer. The soldiers ran to arms and the mariners rose at +the call of Rustic and Guyrion, but both of them were killed together +with Anne in the bloody fray that ensued. My grandfather being one of +the leaders in the revolt, the little he owned was confiscated. Reduced +to misery, his widow left Paris with her son and came to her brother +Germain the forester for shelter. He shared his hut with Yvonne and her +son. Such is the iniquity of the feudal law that those who dwell a year +and a day upon royal or seigniorial domain become its serfs. Such was +the fate of my grandfather's widow and her son Leduecq. She was put to +work in the fields, Leduecq following the occupation of his uncle +succeeded him as forester of the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds. +Later he married a serf whose mother was a washerwoman of the castle. I +was born of that marriage. My father, who was as gentle towards my +mother and myself as he was rude and intractable towards all others, +never ceased thinking of the death of my grandfather Guyrion, who was +slaughtered by the soldiers of the Count of Paris. He never left the +forest except to carry his tax of game to the castle. Of a somber and +indominable character, often switched for his insubordination towards +the bailiff's agents, he would have taken a cruel revenge for the +ill-treatment that he was subjected to were it not for the fear of +leaving my mother and myself in want. She died about a year ago. My +father survived her only a few months. When I lost him, I came by orders +of the bailiff to live with my maternal aunt, a washerwoman at the +castle of Compiegne. You now know my family." + +"The good Martha! When you first came here she always said to me: 'It is +no wonder that my grandson looks like a savage; he never left the +forest.' But during the last days of her life your grandmother often +said to me with tears in her eyes: 'The good God has willed it that Yvon +be an idiot.' I thought as she did, and therefore had great pity for +you. And yet, how mistaken I was. You speak like a clerk. While you were +just now speaking, I said to myself: 'Can it be?... Yvon the Calf, who +talks that way? And he in love?'" + +"And are you pleased to see your error dispelled? Do you reciprocate my +feelings?" + +"I do not know," answered the young serf blushing. "I am so taken by +surprise by all that you have been telling me! I must have time to +think." + +"Marceline, will you marry me, yes or no? You are an orphan; you depend +upon your mistress; I upon the bailiff; we are serfs of the same domain; +can there be any reason why they should refuse their consent to our +marriage?" And he added bitterly: "Does not the lambkin that is born +increase its master's herd?" + +"Alack! According to the laws our children are born and die serfs as +ourselves! But would my mistress Adelaide give her consent to my +marrying an idiot?" + +"This is my project: Adelaide is a favorite and confidante of the Queen. +Now, then this is a beautiful day for the Queen." + +"What! The day when the King, her husband, died?" + +"For that very reason. The Queen is to-day in high feather, and for a +thousand reasons her confidante, your mistress, must feel no less happy +than the widow of Louis the Do-nothing. To ask for a favor at such a +moment is to have it granted." + +"What favor would you ask?" + +"If you consent to marry me, Marceline, you will need Adelaide's +permission and we shall want her promise to have me appointed forester +serf with the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds under my charge. Two +words of your mistress to the Queen, two words of the Queen to the +bailiff of the domain, and our wishes are fulfilled." + +"But, Yvon, do you consider that everybody takes you for an idiot? And +would they entrust you with a canton? It is out of the question." + +"Let them give me a bow and arrows and I am ready to acquit myself as an +archer. I have an accurate eye and steady hand." + +"But how will you explain the sudden change that has turned you from an +idiot to a sane man? People will want to know why you pretended to be an +idiot. You will be severely punished for the ruse. Oh, my friend, all +that makes me tremble." + +"After I am married I shall tell you my reasons for my long comedy. As +to my transformation from idiocy to sanity, that is to be the subject of +a miracle. The thought struck me this morning while I followed your +mistress and the Queen to the hermitage of St. Eusebius. Everything is +explainable with the intervention of a saint." + +"And why did you follow the Queen?" + +"Having woke up this morning before dawn, I happened near the fosse of +the castle. Hardly was the sun up when I saw at a distance your +mistress and the Queen going all alone towards the forest. The +mysterious promenade pricked my curiosity. I followed them at a distance +across the copse. They arrived at the hermitage of St. Eusebius. Your +mistress remained there, but the Queen took the path to the Fountain of +the Hinds." + +"What could she be up to at that early hour? My curiosity also is now +pricked." + +"That is another question that I shall satisfy you upon after we are +married, Marceline," answered Yvon after a moment's reflection; "but to +return to the miracle that is to explain my transformation from idiocy +to sanity, it is quite simple: St. Eusebius, the patron of the +hermitage, will be credited with having performed the prodigy, and the +monk, who now derives a goodly revenue from the hermitage will not deny +my explanation, seeing that the report of the new miracle will double +his tithes. His whole fraternity speculate upon human stupidity." + +The golden-haired Marceline smiled broadly at the young man's idea, and +replied: + +"Can it be Yvon the Calf that reasons thus?" + +"No, my dear and sweet maid, it is Yvon the lover; Yvon on whom you took +pity when he was everybody else's butt and victim; Yvon, who, in return +for your good heart, offers you love and devotion. That is all a poor +serf can promise, seeing that his labor and his life belong to his +master. Accept my offer, Marceline, we shall be as happy as one can be +in these accursed times. We shall cultivate the field that surrounds the +forester's hut; I shall kill for the castle the game wanted there, and +as sure as the good God has created the stags for the hunt, we never +shall want for a loin of venison. You will take charge of our vegetable +garden. The streamlet of the Fountain of the Hinds flows but a hundred +paces from our home. We shall live alone in the thick of the woods +without other companions than the birds and our children. And now, +again, is it 'yes' or 'no'? I want a quick answer." + +"Oh, Yvon," answered Marceline, tears of joy running from her eyes, "if +a serf could dispose of herself, I would say 'yes' ... aye, a hundred +times, 'yes'!" + +"My beloved, our happiness depends upon you. If you have the courage to +request your mistress's permission to take me for your husband, you may +be certain of her consent." + +"Shall I ask Dame Adelaide this evening?" + +"No, but to-morrow morning, after I shall have come back _with my +sanity_. I am going on the spot to fetch it at the hermitage of St. +Eusebius, and to-morrow I shall bring it to you nice and fresh from the +holy place--and with the monk's consent, too." + +"And people called him the 'Calf'!" murmured the young serf more and +more charmed at the retorts of Yvon, who disappeared speedily, fearing +he might be surprised by the Queen's lady of the chamber, Adelaide. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE STOCK OF JOEL. + + +Yvon's calculations proved right. He had told Marceline that no more +opportune time could be chosen to obtain a favor from the Queen, so +happy was she at the death of Louis the Do-nothing and the expectation +of marrying Hugh the Capet. Thanks to the good-will of Adelaide, who +consented to the marriage of her maid, the bailiff of the domain also +granted his consent to Yvon after the latter, agreeable to the promise +he had made Marceline, returned _with his sanity_ from the chapel of the +hermitage of St. Eusebius. The serf's story was, that entering the +chapel in the evening, he saw by the light of the lamp in the sanctuary +a monstrous black snake coiled around the feet of the saint; that +suddenly enlightened by a ray from on high, he stoned and killed the +horrible dragon, which was nothing else than a demon, seeing that no +trace of the monster was left; and that, in recompense for his timely +assistance, St. Eusebius miraculously returned his reason to him. In +glorification of the miracle that was thus performed by St. Eusebius in +favor of the Calf, Yvon was at his own request appointed forester serf +over the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds, and the very morning after +his marriage to the golden-haired Marceline, he settled down with her in +one of the profound solitudes of the forest of Compiegne, where they +lived happily for many years. + +As was to be expected, Marceline's curiosity, pricked on the double +score of the reasons that led Yvon to simulate idiocy for so many years, +and that took the Queen to the Fountain of the Hinds at the early hours +of the morning of May 2nd, instead of dying out, grew intenser. Yvon had +promised after marriage to satisfy her on both subjects. She was not +slow to remind him of the promise, nor he to satisfy her. + +"My dear wife," said Yvon to Marceline the first morning that they awoke +in their new forest home, "What were the motives of my pretended +idiocy?--I was brought up by my father in the hatred of kings. My +grandfather Guyrion, slaughtered in a popular uprising, had taught my +father to read and write, so that he might continue the chronicle of our +family. He preserved the account left by his grandfather Eidiol, the +dean of the skippers of Paris, together with an iron arrow-head, the +emblem attached to the account. We do not know whatever became of the +branch of our family that lived in Britanny near the sacred stones of +Karnak. It has the previous chronicles and relics that our ancestors +recorded and gathered from generation to generation since the days of +Joel, at the time of the Roman invasion of Gaul by Julius Caesar. My +grandfather and my father wrote nothing on their obscure lives. But in +the profound solitude where we lived, of an evening, after a day spent +hunting or in the field, my father would narrate to me what my +grandfather Guyrion had told him concerning the adventures of the +descendants of Joel. Guyrion received these traditions from Eidiol, who +received them from his grandfather, a resident of Britanny, before the +separation of the grandchildren of Vortigern. I was barely eighteen +years old when my father died. He made me promise him to record the +experience of my life should I witness any important event. To that end +he handed me the scroll of parchment written by Eidiol and the iron +arrow-head taken from the wound of Paelo, the pirate. I carefully put +these cherished mementos of the past in the pocket of my hose. That +evening I closed my father's eyes. Early next morning I dug his grave +near his hut and buried him. His bow, his arrows, a few articles of +dress, his pallet, his trunk, his porridge-pot--everything was a fixture +of and belonged to the royal domain. The serf can own nothing. +Nevertheless I cogitated how to take possession of the bow, arrows and a +bag of chestnuts that was left, determined to roam over the woods in +freedom, when a singular accident upturned my projects. I had lain down +upon the grass in the thick of a copse near our hut, when suddenly I +heard the steps of two riders and saw that they were men of +distinguished appearance. They were promenading in the forest. They +alighted from their richly caparisoned horses, held them by the bridle, +and walked slowly. One of them said to the other: + +'King Lothaire was poisoned last year by his wife Imma and her lover, +the archbishop of Laon ... but there is Louis left, Lothaire's son ... +Louis the Do-nothing.' + +'And if this Louis were to die, would his uncle, the Duke of Lorraine, +to whom the crown would then revert by right, venture to dispute the +crown of France from me ... from me, Hugh, the Count of Paris?' + +'No, seigneur; he would not. But it is barely six months since +Lothaire's death. It would require a singular chain of accidents for his +son to follow him so closely to the tomb.' + +'The ways of Providence are impenetrable.... Next spring, Louis will +come with the Queen to Compiegne, and--' + +"I could not hear the end of the conversation, the cavaliers were +walking away from me as they spoke. The words that I caught gave me +matter for reflection. I recalled some of the stories that my father +told me, that of Amael among others, one of our ancestors, who declined +the office of jailor of the last scion of Clovis. I said to myself that +perhaps I, a descendant of Joel, might now witness the death of the last +of the kings of the house of Charles the Great. The thought so took hold +of me that it caused me to give up my first plan. Instead of roaming +over the woods, I went the next morning to my grandmother. I had never +before stepped out of the forest where I lived in complete seclusion +with my father. I was taciturn by nature, and wild. Upon arriving at the +castle in quest of my grandmother, I met by accident a company of +Frankish soldiers who had been exercising. For pastime they began to +make sport of me. My hatred of their race, coupled with my astonishment +at finding myself for the first time in my life among such a big crowd, +made me dumb. The soldiers took my savage silence for stupidity, and +they cried in chorus: 'He is a calf!' Thus they carried me along with +them amidst wild yells and jeers, and not a few blows bestowed upon me! +I cared little whether I was taken for an idiot or not, and considering +that nobody minds an idiot, I began in all earnest to play the role, +hoping that, thanks to my seeming stupidity, I might succeed in +penetrating into the castle without arousing suspicion. My poor +grandmother believed me devoid of reason, the retainers at the castle, +the courtiers, and later the King himself amused themselves with the +imbecility of Yvon the Calf. And so one day, after having been an unseen +witness to the interview of Hugh the Capet with Blanche near the +Fountain of the Hinds, I saw the degenerate descendant of Charles the +Great expire under my very eyes; I saw extinguished in Louis the +Do-nothing the second royal dynasty of France." + +Marceline followed Yvon closely with her hands in his, and kissed him, +thinking the recital over. + +"But I have a confession to make to you," Yvon resumed. "Profiting by +the facility I enjoyed in entering the castle, I committed a theft.... I +one day snatched away a roll of skins that had been prepared to write +upon. Never having owned one denier, it would have been impossible for +me to purchase so expensive an article as parchment. As to pens and +fluid, the feathers that I pluck from eagles and crows, and the black +juice of the trivet-berry will serve me to record the events of my life, +the past and recent part of which is monumental, and whose next and +approaching part promises to be no less so." + + + + +PART II. + +THE END OF THE WORLD. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE APOCALYPTIC FRENZY. + + +Two months after the poisoning of Louis the Do-nothing in 987, Hugh the +Capet, Count of Paris and Anjou, Duke of Isle-de-France, and Abbot of +St. Martin of Tours and St. Germain-des-Pres, had himself proclaimed +King by his bands of warriors, and was promptly consecrated by the +Church. By his ascension to the throne, Hugh usurped the crown of +Charles, Duke of Lorraine, the uncle of Blanche's deceased husband. +Hugh's usurpation led to bloody civil strifes between the Duke of +Lorraine and Hugh the Capet. The latter died in 996 leaving as his +successor his son Rothbert, an imbecile and pious prince. Rothbert's +long reign was disturbed by the furious feuds among the seigneurs; +counts, dukes, abbots and bishops, entrenched in their fortified +castles, desolated the country with their brigandage. Rothbert, Hugh's +son, died in 1031 and was succeeded by his son Henry I. His advent to +the throne was the signal for fresh civil strife, caused by his own +brother, who was incited thereto by his mother. Another Rothbert, +surnamed the Devil, Duke of Normandy, a descendant of old Rolf the +pirate, took a hand in these strifes and made himself master of Gisors, +Chaumont and Pontoise. It was under the reign of Hugh the Capet's +grandson, Henry I, that the year 1033 arrived, and with it unheard-of, +even incredible events--a spectacle without its equal until then--which +was the culmination of the prevalent myth regarding the end of the world +with the year 1000. + +The Church had fixed the last day of the year 1000 as the final term for +the world's existence. Thanks to the deception, the clergy came into +possession of the property of a large number of seigneurs. During the +last months of that year an immense saturnalia was on foot. The wildest +passions, the most insensate, the drollest and the most atrocious acts +seemed then unchained. + +"The end of the world approaches!" exclaimed the clergy. "Did not St. +John the Divine prophesy it in the Apocalypse saying: '_When the +thousand years are expired, Satan will be loosed out of his prison, and +shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of +the earth; the book of life will be opened; the sea will give up the +dead which were in it; death and hell will deliver up the dead which +were in them; they will be judged every man according to his works; they +will be judged by Him who is seated upon a brilliant throne, and there +will be a new heaven and a new earth._'--Tremble, ye peoples!" the +clergy repeated everywhere, "the one thousand years, announced by St. +John, will run out with the end of this year! Satan, the anti-Christ is +to arrive! Tremble! The trumpet of the day of judgment is about to +sound; the dead are about to arise from their tombs; in the midst of +thunder and lightning, and surrounded by archangels carrying flaming +swords, the Eternal is about to pass judgment upon us all! Tremble, ye +mighty ones of the earth: in order to conjure away the implacable anger +of the All-Mighty, give your goods to the Church! It is still time! It +is still time! Give your goods and your treasures to the priests of the +Lord! Give all you possess to the Church!" + +The seigneurs, themselves no less brutified than their serfs by +ignorance and by the fear of the devil, and hoping to be able to conjure +away the vengeance of the Eternal, assigned to the clergy by means of +authentic documents, executed in all the forms of terrestrial law, +lands, houses, castles, serfs, their harems, their herds of cattle, +their valuable plate, their rich armors, their pictures, their statues, +their sumptuous robes. + +Some of the shrewder ones said: "We have barely a year, a month, a week +to live! We are full of youth, of desires, of ardor! Let us put the +short period to profit! Let us stave-in our wine casks, let us indulge +ourselves freely in wine and women!" + +"The end of the world is approaching!" exclaimed with delirious joy +millions of serfs of the domains of the King, of the lay and of the +ecclesiastical seigneurs. "Our poor bodies, broken with toil, will at +last take rest in the eternal night that is to emancipate us. A blessing +on the end of the world! It is the end of our miseries and our +sufferings!" + +And those poor serfs, having nothing to spend and nothing to assign +away, sought to anticipate the expected eternal repose. The larger +number dropped their plows, their hoes and their spades so soon as +autumn set in. "What is the use," said they, "of cultivating a field +that, long before harvest time, will have been swallowed up in chaos?" + +As a consequence of this universal panic, the last days of the year 999 +presented a spectacle never before seen; it was even fabulous! +Light-headed indulgence and groans; peals of laughter and lamentations; +maudlin songs and death dirges. Here the shouts and the frantic dances +of supposed last and supreme orgies; yonder the lamentations of pious +canticles. And finally, floating above this vast mass of terror, rose +the formidable popular curiosity to see the spectacle of the destruction +of the world. It came at last, that day said to have been prophesied by +St. John the Divine! The last hour arrived, the last minute of that +fated year of 999! "Tremble, ye sinners!" the warning redoubled; +"tremble, ye peoples of the earth! the terrible moment foretold in the +holy books is here!" One more second, one more instant, midnight +sounds--and the year 1000 begins. + +In the expectation of that fatal instant, the most hardened hearts, the +souls most certain of salvation, the dullest and also the most +rebellious minds experienced a sensation that never had and never will +have a name in any language-- + +Midnight sounded!... The solemn hour.... Midnight! + +The year 1000 began! + +Oh, wonder and surprise!... The dead did not leave their tombs, the +bowels of the earth did not open, the waters of the ocean remained +within their basins, the stars of heaven were not hurled out of their +orbits and were not striking against one another in space. Aye, there +was not even a tame flash of lightning! No thunder rolled! No trace of +the cloud of fire in the midst of which the Eternal was to appear. +Jehovah remained invisible. Not one of the frightful prodigies foretold +by St. John the Divine for midnight of the year 1000 was verified. The +night was calm and serene; the moon and stars shone brilliantly in the +azure sky, not a breath of wind agitated the tops of the trees, and the +people, in the silence of their stupor, could hear the slightest ripple +of the mountain streams gliding under the grass. Dawn came ... and day +... and the sun poured upon creation the torrents of its light! As to +miracles, not a trace of any! + +Impossible to describe the revulsion of feeling at the universal +disappointment. It was an explosion of regret, of remorse, of +astonishment, of recrimination and of rage. The devout people who +believed themselves cheated out of a Paradise that they had paid for to +the Church in advance with hard cash and other property; others, who had +squandered their treasures, contemplated their ruin with trembling. The +millions of serfs who had relied upon slumbering in the restfulness of +an eternal night saw rising anew before their eyes the ghastly dawn of +that long day of misery and sufferings, of which their birth was the +morning and only their death the evening. It now began to be realized +that, left uncultivated in the expectation of the end of the world, the +land would not furnish sustenance to the people, and the horrors of +famine were foreseen. A towering clamor rose against the clergy; the +clergy, however, knew how to bring public opinion back to its side. It +did so by a new and fraudulent set of prophecies. + +"Oh, these wretched people of little faith," thus now ran the amended +prophecy and invocation; "they dare to doubt the word of the +All-powerful who spoke to them through the voice of His prophet! Oh, +these wretched blind people, who close their eyes to divine light! The +prophets have announced the end of time; the Holy Writ foretold that the +day of the last judgment would come a thousand years after the Saviour +of the world!... But although Christ was born a thousand years before +the year 1000, he did not reveal himself as God until his death, that is +thirty-two years after his birth. Accordingly it will be in the year +1032 that the end of time will come!" + +Such was the general state of besottedness that many of the faithful +blissfully accepted the new prediction. Several seigneurs, however, +rushed at the "men of God" to take back by force the property they had +bequeathed to them. The "men of God," however, well entrenched behind +fortified walls, defended themselves stoutly against the dispossessed +claimants. Hence a series of bloody wars between the scheming bishops, +on the one hand, and the despoiled seigneurs, on the other, to which +disasters were now superadded the religious massacres instigated by the +clergy. The Church had urged Clovis centuries ago to the extermination +of the then Arian heretics; now the Church preached the extermination of +the Orleans Manichaeans and the Jews. A conception of these abominable +excesses may be gathered from the following passages in the account left +by Raoul Glaber, a monk and eye-witness. He wrote: + +"A short time after the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem in the +year 1010, it was learned from unquestionable sources that the calamity +had to be charged to the perverseness of Jews of all countries. When the +secret leaked out throughout the world, the Christians decided with a +common accord that they would expel all the Jews, down to the last, from +their territories and towns. The Jews thereby became the objects of +universal execration. Some were chased from the towns, others massacred +with iron, or thrown into the rivers, or put to death in some other +manner. This drove many to voluntary death. And thus, after the just +vengeance wreaked upon them, there were but very few of them left in the +Roman Catholic world." + +Accordingly, the wretched Jews of Gaul were persecuted and slaughtered +at the order of the clergy because the Saracens of Judea destroyed the +Temple of Jerusalem! As to the Manichaeans of Orleans, another passage +from the same chronicle expresses itself in these words: + +"In 1017, the King and all his loyal subjects, seeing the folly of these +miserable heretics of Orleans, caused a large pyre to be lighted near +the town, in the hope that fear, produced by the sight, would overcome +their stubbornness; but seeing that they persisted, thirteen of them +were cast into the flames ... and all those that could not be convinced +to abandon their perverse ways met the same fate, whereupon the +venerable cult of the Catholic faith, having triumphed over the foolish +presumption of its enemies, shone with all the greater luster on earth." + +What with the wars that the ecclesiastical seigneurs plunged Gaul into +in their efforts to retain possession of the property of the lay +seigneurs whom they had despoiled by the jugglery of the "End of the +World," and what with these religious persecutions, Gaul continued to be +desolated down to the year 1033, the new term that had been fixed for +the last day of judgment. The belief in the approaching dissolution of +the world, which the clergy now again zealously preached, although not +so universally entertained as that of the year 1000, was accompanied +with results that were no less horrible. In 999, the expectation of the +end of the world had put a stop to work; all the fields except those +belonging to the ecclesiastical seigneurs, lay fallow. The formidable +famine of the year 1000 was then the immediate result, and that was +followed by a wide-spread mortality. Agriculture pined for laborers; +every successive scarcity engendered an increased mortality; Gaul was +being rapidly depopulated; famine set in almost in permanence during +thirty years in succession, the more disastrous periods being those of +the years 1003, 1008, 1010, 1014, 1027, 1029 and 1031; finally the +famine of 1033 surpassed all previous ones in its murderous effects. The +serfs, the villeins and the town plebs were almost alone the victims of +the scourge. The little that they produced met the needs of their +masters--the seigneurs, counts, dukes, bishops or abbots; the producers +themselves, however, expired under the tortures of starvation. The +corpses of the wretches who died of inanition strewed the fields, roads +and highways; the decomposing bodies poisoned the air, engendered +illnesses and even pestilential epidemics until then unknown; the +population was decimated. Within thirty-three years, Gaul lost more than +one-half its inhabitants--the new-born babies died vainly pressing their +mother's breasts for nourishment. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +YVON THE FORESTER'S HUT. + + +Yvon--now no longer the Calf, but the Forester, since his appointment +over the canton of the Fountain of the Hinds--and his family did not +escape the scourge. + +About five years before the famine of 1033, his beloved wife Marceline +died. He still inhabited his hut, now shared with him by his son +Den-Brao and the latter's wife Gervaise, together with their three +children, of whom the eldest, Nominoe, was nine, the second, Julyan, +seven, and the youngest, Jeannette, two years of age. Den-Brao, a serf +like his father, was since his youth employed in a neighboring stone +quarry. A natural taste for masonry developed itself in the lad. During +his hours of leisure he loved to carve in certain not over hard stones +the outlines of houses and cottages, the structure of which attracted +the attention of the master mason of Compiegne. Observing Den-Brao's +aptitude, the artisan taught him to hew stone, and soon confided to him +the plans of buildings and the overseership in the construction of +several fortified donjons that King Henry I ordered to be erected on the +borders of his domains in Compiegne. Den-Brao, being of a mild and +industrious disposition and resigned to servitude, had a passionate love +for his trade. Often Yvon would say to him: + +"My child, these redoubtable donjons, whose plans you are sketching and +which you build with so much care, either serve now or will serve some +day to oppress our people. The bones of our oppressed and martyrized +brothers will rot in these subterraneous cells reared above one another +with such an infernal art!" + +"Alack! You are right, father," Den-Brao would at such times answer, +"but if not I, some others will build them ... my refusal to obey my +master's orders would have no other consequence than to bring upon my +head a beating, if not mutilation and even death." + +Gervaise, Den-Brao's wife, an industrious housekeeper, adored her three +children, all of whom, in turn, clung affectionately to Yvon. + +The hut occupied by Yvon and his family lay in one of the most secluded +parts of the forest. Until the year 1033, they had suffered less than +other serf families from the devastations of the recurring famine. +Occasionally Yvon brought down a stag or doe. The meat was smoked, and +the provision thus laid by kept the family from want. With the beginning +of the year 1033, however, one of the epidemics that often afflict the +beasts of the fields attacked the wild animals of the forest of +Compiegne. They grew thin, lost their strength, and their flesh that +speedily decomposed, dropped from their bones. In default of venison, +the family was reduced towards the end of autumn to wild roots and dried +berries. They also ate up the snakes that they caught and that, +fattened, crawled into their holes for the winter. As hunger pressed, +Yvon killed and ate his hunting dog that he had named Deber-Trud in +memory of the war-dog of his ancestor Joel. Subsequently the family was +thrown upon the juice of barks, and then upon the broth of dried leaves. +But the nourishment of dead leaves soon became unbearable, and likewise +did the sap-wood, or second rind of young trees, such as elders and +aspen trees, which they beat to a pulp between stones, have to be given +up. At the time of the two previous famines, some wretched people were +said to have supported themselves with a kind of fattish clay. Not far +from Yvon's hut was a vein of such clay. Towards the end of December, +Yvon went out for some of it. It was a greenish earth of fine paste, +soft but heavy, and of insipid taste. The family thought themselves +saved. All its members devoured the first meal of the clay. But on the +morrow their contracted stomachs refused the nourishment that was as +heavy as lead. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ON THE BUCK'S TRACK. + + +Thirty-six hours of fast had followed upon the meal of clay in Yvon's +hut. Hunger gnawed again at the family's entrails. + +During these thirty-six hours a heavy snow had fallen. Yvon went out. +His family was starving within. He had death on his soul. He went +towards the nets that he had spread in the hope of snaring some bird of +passage during the snow storm. His expectations were deceived. A little +distance from the nets lay the Fountain of the Hinds, now frozen hard. +Snow covered its borders. Yvon perceived the imprint of a buck's feet. +The size of the imprint on the snow announced the animal's bulk. Yvon +estimated its weight by the cracks in the ice on the stream that it had +just crossed, the ice being otherwise thick enough to support Yvon +himself. This was the first time in many months that the forester had +run across a buck's track. Could the animal, perhaps, have escaped the +general mortality of its kind? Did it come from some distant forest? +Yvon knew not, but he followed the fresh track with avidity. Yvon had +with him his bow and arrows. To reach the animal, kill it and smoke its +flesh meant the saving of the lives of his family, now on the verge of +starvation. It meant their life for at least a month. Hope revivified +the forester's energies; he pursued the buck; the regular impress of its +steps showed that the animal was quietly following one of the beaten +paths of the forest; moreover its track lay so clearly upon the snow +that he could not have crossed the stream more than an hour before, else +the edges of the imprint that he left behind him would have been less +sharp and would have been rounded by the temperature of the air. +Following its tracks, Yvon confidently expected to catch sight of the +buck within an hour and bring the animal down. In the ardor of the +chase, the forester forgot his hunger. He had been on the march about +an hour when suddenly in the midst of the profound silence that reigned +in the forest, the wind brought a confused noise to his ears. It sounded +like the distant bellowing of a stag. The circumstance was +extraordinary. As a rule the beasts of the woods do not cry out except +at night. Thinking he might have been mistaken, Yvon put his ear to the +ground.... There was no more room for doubt. The buck was bellowing at +about a thousand yards from where Yvon stood. Fortunately a turn of the +path concealed the hunter from the game. These wild animals frequently +turn back to see behind them and listen. Instead of following the path +beyond the turning that concealed him, Yvon entered the copse expecting +to make a short cut, head off the buck, whose gait was slow, hide behind +the bushes that bordered the path, and shoot the animal when it hove in +sight. + +The sky was overcast; the wind was rising; with deep concern Yvon +noticed several snow flakes floating down. Should the snow fall heavily +before the buck was shot, the animal's tracks would be covered, and if +opportunity failed to dart an arrow at it from the forester's ambuscade, +he could not then expect to be able to trace the buck any further. +Yvon's fears proved correct. The wind soon changed into a howling storm +surcharged with thick snow. The forester quitted the thicket and struck +for the path beyond the turning and at about a hundred paces from the +clearing. The buck was nowhere to be seen. The animal had probably +caught wind of its pursuer and jumped for safety into the thicket that +bordered the path. It was impossible to determine the direction that it +had taken. Its tracks vanished under the falling snow, that lay in ever +thicker layers. + +A prey to insane rage, Yvon threw himself upon the ground and rolled in +the snow uttering furious cries. His hunger, recently forgotten in the +ardor of the hunt, tore at his entrails. He bit one of his arms and the +pain thus felt recalled him to his senses. Almost delirious, he rose +with the fixed intent of retracing the buck, killing the animal, +spreading himself beside its carcass, devouring it raw, and not rising +again so long as a shred of meat remained on its bones. At that moment, +Yvon would have defended his prey with his knife against even his own +son. Possessed by the fixed and delirious idea of retracing the buck, +Yvon went hither and thither at hap-hazard, not knowing in what +direction he walked. He beat about a long time, and night began to +approach, when a strange incident came to his aid and dissipated his +mental aberration. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +GREGORY THE HOLLOW-BELLIED. + + +Driven by the gale, the snow continued to fall, when suddenly Yvon's +nostrils were struck by the exhalations emitted by frying meat. The odor +chimed in with the devouring appetite that was troubling his senses, and +at least bestowed back upon him the instinct of seeking to satisfy his +hunger. He stood still, whiffed the air hither and thither like a wolf +that from afar scents carrion, and looked about in order to ascertain by +the last glimmerings of the daylight where he was. Yvon was at the +crossing of a path in the forest that led from the little village of +Ormesson. The road ran before a tavern where travelers usually put up +for the night. It was kept by a serf of the abbey of St. Maximim named +Gregory, and surnamed the Hollow-bellied, because, according to him, +nothing could satisfy his insatiable appetite. An otherwise kind-hearted +and cheerful man, the serf often, before these distressful times, and +when Yvon carried his tithe of game to the castle, had accommodatedly +offered him a pot of hydromel. A prey now to the lashings of hunger and +exasperated by the odor of fried meat which escaped from the tavern, +Yvon carefully approached the closed door. In order to allow the smoke +to escape, Gregory had thrown the window half open without fear of being +seen. By the light of a large fire that burned in the hearth, Yvon saw +Gregory seated on a stool placidly surveying the broiling of a large +piece of meat whose odor had so violently assailed the nostrils of the +famishing forester. + +To Yvon's great surprise, the tavern-keeper's appearance had greatly +changed. He was no longer the lean and wiry fellow of before. Now his +girth was broad, his cheeks were full, wore a thick black beard and +tinkled with the warm color of life and health. Within reach of the +tavern-keeper lay a cutlass, a pike and an ax--all red with blood. At +his feet an enormous mastiff picked a bone well covered with meat. The +spectacle angered the forester. He and his family could have lived a +whole day upon the remnants left by the dog; moreover, how did the +tavern-keeper manage to procure so large a loin? Cattle had become so +dear that only the seigneurs and the ecclesiastics could afford to +purchase any; beef cost a hundred gold sous, sheep a hundred silver +sous! A sense of hate rose in Yvon's breast against Gregory whom he had +until then looked upon very much as a friend. The forester could not +take his eyes from the meat, thinking of the joy of his family if he +were to return home loaded with such a booty. For a moment Yvon was +tempted to knock at the door of the serf and demand a share, at least +the chunks thrown at the dog. But judging the tavern-keeper by himself, +and noticing, moreover, that the former was well armed, he reflected +that in days like those bread and meat were more precious than gold and +silver; to request Gregory the Hollow-bellied to yield a part of his +supper was folly; he would surely refuse, and if force was attempted he +would kill the intruder. These thoughts rapidly succeeded one another in +Yvon's troubled brain. To add to his dilemma, his presence was scented +by the mastiff who, at first, growled angrily without, however, dropping +his bone, and then began to bark. + +At that moment Gregory was removing the meat from the spit. "What's the +matter, Fillot? Be brave, old boy! We shall defend our supper. You are +furnished with good strong jaws and fangs, I with weapons. Fear not. No +one will venture to enter. So be still, Fillot! Lie down and keep +quiet!" But so far from lying down and keeping quiet, the mastiff +dropped his bone, stood up, and approaching the window where Yvon stood, +barked louder still. "Oh, oh!" remarked the tavern-keeper depositing the +meat in a large wooden platter on the table. "Fillot drops a bone to +bark ... there must be someone outside." Yvon stepped quickly back, and +from the dark that concealed him he saw Gregory seize his pike, throw +the window wide open and leaning out call with a threatening voice: "Who +is there? If any one is in search of death, he can find it here." The +deed almost running ahead of the thought, Yvon raised his bow, adjusted +an arrow and, invisible to Gregory, thanks to the darkness without, took +straight aim at the tavern-keeper's breast. The arrow whizzed; Gregory +emitted a cry followed by a prolonged groan; his head and bust fell over +the window-sill, and his pike dropped on the snow-covered ground. Yvon +quickly seized the weapon. It was done none too soon. The furious +mastiff leaped out of the window over his dead master's shoulders and +made a bound at the forester. A thrust of the pike nailed the faithful +brute to the ground. Yvon had committed the murder with the ferocity of +a famished wolf. He appeased his hunger. The dizziness that had assailed +his head vanished, his reason returned, and he found himself alone in +the tavern with a still large piece of meat beside him,--more than half +of the original chunk. + +Feeling as if he just woke from a dream, Yvon looked around and felt +frozen to the marrow. The light emitted by the hearth enabled him to see +distinctly among the bloody remnants near where the mastiff had been +gnawing his bone, a human hand and the trunk of a human arm. Horrified +as he was, Yvon approached the bleeding members. + +There was no doubt. Before him lay the remains of a human body. The +surprising girth that Gregory the Hollow-bellied had suddenly developed +came to his mind. The mystery was explained. Nourished by human flesh, +the monster had been feeding on the travelers who stopped at his place. +The roast that had just been hungrily swallowed by Yvon proceeded from a +recent murder. The forester's hair stood on end; he dare not look +towards the table where still lay the remains of his cannibal supper. He +wondered how his mouth did not reject the food. But that first and +cultivated sense of horror being over, the forester could not but admit +to himself that the meat he had just gulped down differed little from +beef. The thought started a poignant reflection: "My son, his wife and +children are at this very hour undergoing the tortures of hunger; mine +has been satisfied by this food; however abominable it may be, I shall +carry off the rest; the same as I was at first ignorant of what it was +that I ate, my family shall not know the nature of the dish.... I shall +at least have saved them for a day!" The reasoning matured into +resolution. + +As Yvon was about to quit the tavern with his load of human flesh, the +gale that had been howling without and now found entrance through the +window, violently threw open the door of a closet connecting with the +room he was in. The odor of a charnel house immediately assailed the +forester's nostrils. He ran to the hearth, picked up a flaming brand, +and looked into the closet. Its naked walls were bespattered with blood; +in a corner lay a heap of dried twigs and leaves used for kindling a +fire and from beneath them protruded a foot and part of a leg. Yvon +scattered the heap of kindling material with his feet ... they hid a +recently mutilated corpse. The penetrating smell obviously escaped from +a lower vault. Yvon noticed a trap door. Raising it, there rose so +putrid an odor that he staggered back; but driven despite himself to +carry his investigation to the end, he approached the flaming brand to +the opening and discovered below a cavern that was almost filled with +bones, heads and other human members, the bloody remnants of the +travelers whom Gregory the Hollow-bellied had lived upon. In order to +put an end to the horrible spectacle, Yvon hurled his flaming brand into +the mortuary cellar; it was immediately extinguished; for a moment the +forester remained in the dark; he then stepped back into the main room; +and overcoming a fresh assault of human scruple, darted out with the +remains of the roast in his bag, thinking only of his famishing family. + +Without, the gale blew violently; its rage seemed to increase. The moon, +then at its fullest, cast enough light, despite the whirls of snow, to +guide Yvon's steps. He struck the road to the Fountain of the Hinds in +haste, moving with firm though rapid strides. The infernal food he had +just partaken of returned to him his pristine strength. About two +leagues from his hut, he stopped, struck with a sudden thought. The +mastiff he had killed was enormous, fleshy and fat. It could furnish his +family with food for at least three or four days. Why had he forgotten +to bring it along? Yvon turned back to the tavern, long though the road +was. As he approached the house of Gregory he noticed a great brilliancy +from afar and across the falling snow. The light proceeded from the door +and window of the tavern. Only two hours before when he left, the hearth +was extinct and the place dark. Could someone have gone in afterwards +and rekindled the fire? Yvon crept near the house hoping to carry off +the dog without attracting notice, but voices reached him saying: + +"Friends, let us wait till the dog is well roasted." + +"I'm hungry! Devilish hungry!" + +"So am I ... but I have more patience than you, who would have eaten the +dainty raw.... Pheu! What a smell comes from that charnel room! And yet +the door and window are open!" + +"Never mind the smell!... I'm hungry!" + +"So, then, Master Gregory the Hollow-bellied slaughtered the travelers +to rob them, I suppose.... One of them must have been beforehand with +him and killed him.... But the devil take the tavern-keeper! His dog is +now roasted. Let's eat!" + +"Let's eat!" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE DELIRIUM OF STARVATION. + + +Too old a man to think of contesting the spoils for which he had +returned to Gregory's tavern, Yvon hurried back home and reached his hut +towards midnight. + +On entering, a torch of resinous wood, fastened near the wall by an iron +ring, lighted a heart-rending spectacle. Stretched out near the hearth +lay Den-Brao, his face covered by his mason's jacket; himself expiring +of inanition, he wished to escape the sight of the agony of his family. +His wife, Gervaise, so thin that the bones of her face could be counted, +was on her knees near a straw pallet where Julyan lay in convulsions. +Almost fainting, Gervaise struggled with her son who was alternately +crying with fury and with pain and in the frenzy of starvation sought to +apply its teeth to his own arms. Nominoe, the elder, lay flat on his +face, on the pallet with his brother. He would have been taken for dead +but for the tremor that from time to time ran over his frame still more +emaciated than his brother's. Finally Jeannette, about three years old, +murmured in her cradle with a dying voice: "Mother ... I am hungry.... I +am hungry!" + +At the sound of Yvon's steps, Gervaise turned her head: "Father!" said +she in despair, "if you bring nothing with you, I shall kill my children +to shorten their agony ... and then myself!" + +Yvon threw down his bow and took his bag from his shoulders. Gervaise +judged from its size and obvious weight that it was full. She wrenched +it from Yvon's hands with savage impatience, thrust her hand in it, +pulled out the chunk of roasted meat and raising it over her head to +show it to the whole family cried out in a quivering voice: "Meat!... +Oh, we shall not yet die! Den-Brao.... Children!... Meat!... Meat!" At +these words Den-Brao sat up precipitately; Nominoe, too feeble to rise, +turned on his pallet and stretched out his eager hands to his mother; +little Jeannette eagerly looked up from her cradle; while Julyan, whom +his mother was not now holding, neither heard nor saw aught but was +biting into his arms in the delirium of starvation, unnoticed by either +Yvon or any other member of the family. All eyes were fixed upon +Gervaise, who running to a table and taking a knife sliced off the meat +crying: "Meat!... Meat!" + +"Give me!... Give me!" cried Den-Brao, stretching out his emaciated +arms, and he devoured in an instant the piece that he received. + +"You next, Jeannette!" said Gervaise, throwing a slice to the little +girl who uttered a cry of joy, while her mother herself, yielding to the +cravings of starvation bit off mouthfuls from the slice that she reached +out to her oldest son, Nominoe, who, like the rest, pounced upon the +prey, and fell to eating in silent voracity. "And now, you, Julyan," +continued Gervaise. The lad made no answer. His mother stooped down over +him: "Julyan, do not bite your arm! Here is meat, dear boy!" But his +elder brother, Nominoe, having swallowed up his own slice, brusquely +seized that which his mother was tendering to Julyan. Seeing that the +latter continued motionless, Gervaise insisted: "My child, take your arm +from your teeth!" But hardly had she pronounced these words than, +turning towards Yvon, she cried: "Come here, father.... His arm is icy +and rigid ... so rigid that I cannot withdraw it from his jaws." + +Yvon rushed to the pallet where Julyan lay. The little boy had expired +in the convulsion of hunger, although less unfeebled than his brother +and sister. "Step aside," Yvon said to Gervaise; "step aside!" She +realized that Julyan was dead, obeyed Yvon's orders and went on to eat. +But her hunger being appeased, she approached her son's corpse and +sobbed aloud: + +"My poor little Julyan!" she lamented. "Oh, my dear child! You died of +hunger!... A few minutes longer and you would have had something to eat +like the others ... at least for to-day!" + +"Where did you get this roast, father?" asked Den-Brao. + +"I found the tracks of a buck," answered Yvon dropping his eyes; "I +followed the animal but failed to come up to it. In that way I went as +far as the tavern of Gregory the Hollow-bellied. He was at supper.... I +shared his repast, and he gave me what you have just eaten." + +"Such a gift! and in days of famine, father! in such days when only +seigneurs and the clergy do not suffer of hunger!" + +"I made the tavern-keeper sympathize with our distress," Yvon answered +brusquely, and, in order to put an end to the subject he added: "I am +worn out with fatigue; I must rest," saying which he walked into the +contiguous room to stretch himself out on his couch, while his son and +daughter remained on their knees near the body of little Julyan. The +other two children fell asleep, still saying they were hungry. After a +long and troubled sleep, Yvon woke up. It was day. Gervaise and her +husband still knelt near Julyan. His brother and sister were saying: +"Mother, give us something to eat; we are hungry!" + +"Later, dear little ones," answered the unhappy woman to console them; +"later you shall have something to eat." + +Den-Brao raised his head and asked: "Where are you going, father?" + +"I am going to dig the grave of my little grandson.... I wish to save +you the sad task." + +"Dig ours also, father," Den-Brao replied with a dejected mien. "We +shall all die to-night. For a moment allayed, our hunger will rise more +violent than last night ... dig a wide grave for us all." + +"Despair not, my children. It has stopped snowing. I may be able to find +again the traces of the buck." + +Yvon picked up a spade with which to dig Julyan's grave near where the +boy's great-grandfather, Leduecq, lay buried. Near the place was a heap +of dead branches that had been gathered shortly before by the woodsmen +serfs to turn into coal. After the grave was dug, Yvon left his spade +near it and as the snow had ceased falling he started anew in pursuit of +the buck. It was in vain. Nowhere were the animal's tracks to be seen. +It grew night with the prospect of a long darkness, seeing the moon +would not rise until late. Yvon was reminded by the pangs of hunger, +that began to assail him, that in his hut the sufferings must have +returned. A spectacle, even more distressing than that of the previous +night now awaited him--the convulsive cries of starving children, the +moaning of their mother, the woe-begone looks and dejectment of his son +who lay on the floor awaiting death, and reproaching Yvon for having +prolonged his own and the sufferings of his family with their lives. +Such was the prostration of these wretched beings that, without turning +their heads to Yvon, or even addressing a single word to him, they let +him carry out the corpse of the deceased child. + +An hour later Yvon re-entered his hut. It was pitch dark; the hearth was +cold. None had even the spirit to light a resin torch. Hollow and +spasmodic rattlings were heard from the throats of those within. +Suddenly Gervaise jumped up and groped her way in the dark towards Yvon +crying: "I smell roast meat ... just as last night ... we shall not +die!... Den-Brao, your father has brought some more meat!... Come, +children, come for your share.... A light quick!" + +"No, no! We want no light!" Yvon cried in a tremulous voice. "Take!" +said he to Gervaise, who was tugging at the bag on his shoulders. +"Take!... Divide this venison among yourselves, and eat in the dark!" + +The wretched family devoured the meat in the dark; their hunger and +feebleness did not allow them to ask what kind of meat it was. But Yvon +fled from the hut almost crazed with horror. Abomination! His family was +again feeding upon human flesh! + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE FLIGHT TO ANJOU. + + +Long, aimless, distracted, Yvon wandered about the forest. A severe +frost had succeeded the fall of snow that covered every inch of the +ground. The moon shone brilliantly in the crisp air. The forester felt +chilled; in despair he threw himself down at the foot of a tree, +determined there to await death. + +The torpor of death by freezing was creeping upon the mind of the +heart-broken serf when, suddenly, the crackling of branches that +announce the passage of game fell upon his ears and revived him with the +promise of life. The animal could not be more than fifty paces away. +Unfortunately Yvon had left his bow and arrows in his hut. "It is the +buck! Oh, this time I shall kill him!" he murmured to himself. His +revived will-power now dominated the exhaustion of his forces, and it +was strong enough to cause him to lose no time in vain regrets at not +having his hunting arms with him, now when the prey would be certain. +The crackling of the branches drew nearer. Yvon found himself under a +clump of large and old oaks, a little distance away was the thick copse +through which the animal was then passing. He rose up and planted +himself motionless close to and along the trunk of the tree at the foot +of which he had thrown himself down. Covered by the tree's thickness and +the shadow that it threw, with his neck extended, his eyes and ears on +the alert, the serf took his long forester's knife between his teeth and +waited. After several minutes of mortal suspense--the buck might get the +wind of him or come from cover beyond his reach--Yvon heard the animal +approach, then stop an instant close behind the tree against which he +had glued his back. The tree concealed Yvon from the eyes of the animal, +but it also prevented him from seeing the prey that he breathlessly lay +in wait for. Presently, six feet from Yvon and to the right, he saw +plainly sketched upon the snow, that the light of the moon rendered +brilliant, the shape of the buck and the wide antlers that crowned his +head. Yvon stopped breathing and remained motionless so long as the +shadow stood still. A moment later the shadow began to steal towards +him, and with a prodigious bound Yvon rushed at and seized the animal by +the horns. The buck was large and struggled vigorously; but clambering +himself around the horns with his left arm, Yvon plunged his knife with +his right hand into the animal's throat. The buck rolled over him and +expired, while Yvon, with his mouth fastened to the wound, pumped up and +swallowed the blood that flowed in a thick stream. + +The warm and healthy blood strengthened and revivified the serf.... He +had not eaten since the previous night. + +Yvon rested a few moments; he then bound the hind legs of the buck with +a flexible twig and dragging his booty, not without considerable effort +by reason of its weight, he arrived with it at his hut near the Fountain +of the Hinds. His family was now for a long time protected from hunger. +The buck could not yield less than three hundred pounds of meat, which +carefully prepared and smoked after the fashion of foresters, could be +preserved for many months. + +Two days after these two fateful nights, Yvon learned from a woodsman +serf, that one of his fellows, a forester of the woods of Compiegne like +himself, having discovered the next morning the body of Gregory the +Hollow-bellied pierced with an arrow that remained in the wound, and +having identified the weapon as Yvon's by the peculiar manner in which +it was feathered, had denounced him as the murderer. The bailiff of the +domain of Compiegne detested Yvon. Although the latter's crime delivered +the neighborhood of a monster who slaughtered the travelers in order to +gorge himself upon them, the bailiff ordered his arrest. Thus notified +in time, Yvon the Forester resolved to flee, leaving his son and family +behind. But Den-Brao as well as his wife insisted upon accompanying him +with their children. + +The whole family decided to take the road and place their fate in the +hands of Providence. The smoked buck's meat would suffice to sustain +them through a long journey. They knew that whichever way they took, +serfdom awaited them. It was a change of serfdom for serfdom; but they +found consolation in the knowledge that the change from the horrors they +had undergone could not but improve their misery. The famine, although +general, was not, according to reports, equally severe everywhere. + +The hut near the Fountain of the Hinds was, accordingly, abandoned. +Den-Brao and his wife carried the little Jeannette by turns on their +backs. The other child, Nominoe, being older, marched besides his +grandfather. They reached and crossed the borders of the royal domain, +and Yvon felt safe. A few days later the travelers learned from some +pilgrims that Anjou suffered less of the famine than did any other +region. Thither they directed their steps, induced thereto by the +further consideration that Anjou bordered on Britanny, the cradle of the +family. Yvon wished eventually to return thither in the hope of finding +some of his relatives in Armorica. + +The journey to Anjou was made during the first months of the year 1034 +and across a thousand vicissitudes, almost always accompanied by some +pilgrims, or by beggars and vagabonds. Everywhere on their passage the +traces were met of the horrible famine and not much less horrible +ravages caused by the private feuds of the seigneurs. Little Jeannette +perished on the road. + + + + +EPILOGUE. + + +The narrative of my father, Yvon the Forester, breaks off here. He could +not finish it. He was soon after taken sick and died. Before expiring he +made to me the following confession which he desired inserted in the +family's annals: + +"I have a horrible confession to make. Near by the grave to which I took +the body of Julyan, lay a large heap of wood that was to be reduced to +coal by the woodsmen. My family was starving in the hut. I saw no way of +prolonging their existence. The thought then occurred to me: 'Last night +the abominable food that I carried to my family from Gregory's human +charnel house kept them from dying in the agonies of starvation. My +grandson is dead. What should I do? Bury the body of little Julyan or +have it serve to prolong the life of those who gave him life?' + +"After long hesitating before such frightful alternatives, the thought +of the agonies that my family were enduring decided me. I lighted the +heap of dried wood. I laid upon it the flesh of my grandson, and by the +light cast from the pyre I buried his bones, except a fragment of his +skull, which I preserved as a sad and solemn relic of those accursed +days, and on which I engraved these fateful words in the Gallic tongue: +_Fin-al-bred_--The End of the World. I then took the broiled pieces of +meat to my expiring family!... You all ate in the dark.... You knew not +what you ate.... The ghastly meal saved your lives!" + +My father then delivered to me the parchment that contained his +narrative, accompanied with the lettered bone from the skull of my poor +little Julyan, and also the iron arrow-head which accompanied the +narrative left by our ancestor Eidiol, the skipper of Paris. Some day, +perhaps, these two narratives may be joined to the chronicle of our +family, no doubt held by those of our relatives who must still be living +in Britanny. + +My father Yvon died on the 9th of September, 1034. + +This is how our journey ended: Following my father's wishes and also +with the purpose of drawing near Britanny, we marched towards Anjou, +where we arrived on the territory of the seigneur Guiscard, Count of the +region and castle of Mont-Ferrier. All travelers who passed over his +territory had to pay tribute to his toll-gatherers. Poor people, unable +to pay, were, according to the whim of the seigneur's men, put through +some disagreeable, or humiliating, or ridiculous performance: they were +either whipped, or made to walk on their hands, or to turn somersaults, +or kiss the bolts of the toll-gatherer's gate. As to the women, they +were subjected to revolting obscenities. Many other people as penniless +as ourselves were thus subjected to indignity and brutality. Desirous of +sparing my father and my wife the disgrace, I said to the bailiff of the +seigniory who happened to be there: "The castle I see yonder looks to me +weak in many ways. I am a skillful mason; I have built a large number of +fortified donjons; employ me and I shall work to the satisfaction of +your seigneur. All I ask of you is not to allow my father, wife and +children to be maltreated, and to furnish us with shelter and bread +while the work lasts." The bailiff accepted my offer gladly, seeing that +the mason, who was killed during the last war against the castle of +Mont-Ferrier, had not yet been replaced, and besides I furnished ample +evidence of knowing how to build. The bailiff assigned us to a hut where +we were to receive a serf's pittance. My father was to cultivate a +little garden attached to our hovel, while Nominoe, then old enough to +be of assistance, was to help me at my work which would last until +winter. We contemplated a journey to Britanny after that. We had lived +here five months when, three days ago, I lost my father. + + * * * * * + +To-day the eleventh day of the month of June, of the year 1035, I, +Den-Brao add this post-script to the above lines that I appended to my +father's narrative. I have to record a sad event. The work on the castle +of Mont-Ferrier not being concluded before the winter of 1034, the +bailiff of the seigneur, shortly after my father's death proposed to me +to resume work in the spring. I accepted. I love my trade. Moreover, my +family felt less wretched here than in Compiegne, and I was not as +anxious as my father to return to Britanny where, after all, there may +be no member of our family left. I accepted the bailiff's offer, and +continued to work upon the buildings, that are now completed. The last +piece of work I did was to finish up a secret issue that leads outside +of the castle. Yesterday the bailiff came to me and said: "One of the +allies of the seigneur of Mont-Ferrier, who is just now on a visit at +the castle, expressed great admiration for the work that you did, and as +he is thinking of improving the fortifications of his own manor, he +offered the count our master to exchange you for a serf who is a +skillful armorer, and whom we need. The matter was settled between +them." + +"But I am not a serf of the seigneur of Mont-Ferrier," I interposed; "I +agreed to work here of my own free will." + +The bailiff shrugged his shoulders and replied: "The law says--_every +man who is not a Frank, and who lives a year and a day upon the land of +a seigneur, becomes a serf and the property of the said seigneur, and as +such is subject to taille at will and mercy_. You have lived here since +the tenth day of June of the year 1034; we are now at the eleventh day +of June of the year 1035; you have lived a year and a day on the land of +the seigneur of Mont-Ferrier; you are now his serf; you belong to him, +and he has the right to exchange you for a serf of the seigneur of +Plouernel. Drop all thought of resisting our master's will. Should you +kick up your heels, Neroweg IV, seigneur and count of Plouernel, will +order you tied to the tail of his horse, and drag you in that way as +far as his castle." + +I would have resigned myself to my new condition without much grief, but +for one circumstance. For forty years I lived a serf on the domain of +Compiegne, and it mattered little to me whether I exercised my trade of +masonry in one seigniory or another. But I remember that my father told +me that he had it from his grandfather Guyrion how an old family of the +name of Neroweg, established in Gaul since the conquest of Clovis, had +ever been fatal to our own. I felt a sort of terror at the thought of +finding myself the serf of a descendant of the Terrible Eagle--that +first of the Nerowegs that crossed our path. + +May heaven ordain it so that my forebodings prove unfounded! May heaven +ordain, my dear son Nominoe, that you shall not have to register on this +parchment aught but the date of my death and these few words: + +"My father Den-Brao ended peaceably his industrious life of a mason +serf." + + +(THE END.) + + + * * * * * + + +The Gold Sickle; + +...OR... + +Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen. + +By EUGENE SUE. + +Translated from the original French + +By DANIEL DE LEON. + +This story is the first of the gems in the necklace of gems +that Eugene Sue felicitously named "The Mysteries of the +People; or The History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages." +It is a story of Druid Gaul, captivating in its simplicity and +superbly preluding the grand drama that is gradually unfolded +from story to story, ending in the great French Revolution. + +PRICE 50 CENTS. + +New York Labor News Co. + +2, 4 & 6 New Reade St., New York, N. Y. + + * * * * * + + +THE PILGRIM'S SHELL + +----OR---- + +FERGAN THE QUARRYMAN + +By Eugene Sue. + +Translated By Daniel De Leon. + +283 pp., on fine book paper, cloth 75 cents. + +This great historical story by the eminent +French writer is one of the majestic +series that cover the leading and successive +episodes of the history of the human +race. The novel treats of the feudal +system, the first Crusade and the rise of +the Communes in France. It is the only +translation into English of this masterpiece +of Sue. + +The New York Sun says: + +Eugene Sue wrote a romance which seems to have disappeared in a curious +fashion, called "Les Mysteres du Peuple." It is the story of a Gallic +family through the ages, told in successive episodes, and, so far as we +have been able to read it, is fully as interesting as "The Wandering +Jew" or "The Mysteries of Paris." The French edition is pretty hard to +find, and only parts have been translated into English. We don't know +the reason. One medieval episode, telling of the struggle of the +communes for freedom, is now translated by Mr. Daniel De Leon, under the +title "The Pilgrim's Shell" (New York Labor News Co.). We trust the +success of his effort may be such as to lead him to translate the rest +of the romance. It will be the first time the feat has been done in +English. + +NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO., + +2, 4 & 6 New Reade St., New York. + + * * * * * + + +Woman +Under +Socialism + +By August Bebel + +Translated from the Original +German of the Thirty-third +Edition by Daniel De Leon, +Editor of the New York Daily +People, with translator's preface +and foot notes. + +Cloth, 400 pages, with pen +drawing of the author. + +Price, $1.00 + +The complete emancipation of woman, and her complete +equality with man is the final goal of our social development, +whose realization no power on earth can prevent;--and this +realization is possible only by a social change that shall +abolish the rule of man over man--hence also of capitalists over +working-men. Only then will the human race reach its highest +development. The "Golden Age" that man has been dreaming of for +thousands of years, and after which they have been longing, will +have come at last. Class rule will have reached its end for all +time, and along with it, the rule of man over woman. + +CONTENTS: + +WOMAN IN THE PAST. + Before Christianity. + Under Christianity. +WOMAN IN THE PRESENT. + Sexual Instinct, Wedlock, Checks and Obstructions to Marriage. + Further Checks and Obstructions to Marriage, Numerical Proportion of + the Sexes, Its Causes and Effects. + Prostitution a Necessary Institution of the Capitalist World. + Woman's Position as a Breadwinner. Her Intellectual Faculties, + Darwinism and the Condition of Society. + Woman's Civic and Political Status. + The State and Society. + The Socialization of Society. +WOMAN IN THE FUTURE. +INTERNATIONALITY. +POPULATION AND OVER-POPULATION. + +NEW YORK +LABOR NEWS CO. +2-6 New Reade St. +New York City + + * * * * * + + +The Paris Commune + +By Karl Marx, with the elaborate introduction +of Frederick Engels. It includes +the First and Second manifestos +of the International Workingman's Association, +the Civil War in France and the +Anti-Plebiscite Manifesto. Near his close +of the Civil War in France, turning from +history to forecast the future, Marx +says: + +"After Whit-Sunday, 1871, there can be +neither peace nor truce possible between +the Workingmen of France and the appropriators +of their produce. The iron +hand of a mercenary soldiery may keep +for a time both classes tied down in +common oppression. But the battle +must break out in ever growing dimensions, +and there can be no doubt as to +who will be the victor in the end--the +appropriating few, or the immense working +majority. And the French working +class is only the vanguard of the modern +proletariat." + +Price, +50 Cents. + +New York Labor News Co. +2, 4, & 6 New Reade Street, +New York City. + + * * * * * + + +DEVELOPMENT +OF ... +SOCIALISM + +From +Utopia +to +Science. + +BY +Frederick Engels. + +This is the first complete American +edition of Frederick Engels' popular essay +on Socialism, Utopian and Scientific. +As an introduction to the work itself, it +contains an essay on Historical Materialism, +written by Engels in 1892, and also +a short but instructive essay as an appendix, +written in the same year, treating +of the primitive form of collective +land ownership in Germany, and the subsequent +development of private property. + +PRICE 50 CENTS. + +New York Labor News Co. +2, 4 & 6 NEW READE STREET +NEW YORK CITY + + * * * * * + + +VALUE, +PRICE +AND +PROFIT + +From a Mechanical Standpoint + +it is the first one of Marx's works published in +America that can be looked upon as a careful +piece of publishing. It is to be hoped that this +excellent volume is the forerunner of other +volumes of Marx, and that America will have +the honor of publishing an edition that is accurate +as to text, thorough in annotations, convenient +in size and presentable in every way. +The present book will delight the lover of +Marx, and every Socialist will desire a copy +of it.--N. Y. Daily People. + +By KARL MARX. Edited by his daughter, +ELEANOR MARX AVELING. + +PRICE 15 CENTS. + +This book is especially timely, like everything else that Marx +wrote. Written a couple of years before his "Capital" appeared, +it is an address to workingmen, and covers in popular form many +of the subjects later scientifically expanded in "Capital." + +It is universally considered as the best epitome we have of the +first volume of "Capital," and as such is invaluable to the +beginner in economics. It places him squarely on his feet at +the threshold of his inquiry; that is, in a position where his +perceptive faculties cannot be deceived and his reasoning power +vitiated by the very use of his eyesight; whereas, by the very +nature of his capitalist surroundings, he now stands on his head +and sees all things inverted. + +Special interest attaches to what Marx says relative to +strikes. Were the working class thoroughly acquainted with the +subject matter of this little work, we should hear no more of the +"common ground" on which capital and labor might meet to +settle their differences. + +The thousand and one schemes that are daily being flaunted +in the faces of the working class by the lieutenants of the +capitalists show the necessity there is on the part of the working +class for a comprehensive understanding of the matter of wages, +the relation of the wage worker to the employer, the source of +profits, and the relation between profits and wages. These and +other subjects are here presented, and so clearly does Marx +present them that all he has to say can be understood by any +person willing to pay close attention to his words. + +NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY, + +2-6 New Reade Street, New York City. + + * * * * * + + +_Two Pages +From +Roman +History_ + +_I. Plebs Leaders and +Labor Leaders_ + +_II. The Warning +of the Gracchi_ + +Two Lectures by +DANIEL DE LEON +Editor of The Daily People + +The Trades Union Question is becoming the Burning Question +of the day. Reform movements are simultaneously growing +into political factors. In this work the "pure and simple" union +labor leader is held up to the light of the plebeians' experience +with the leaders of their time; and, through the failure of the +Gracchian movement, it is shown how modern reforms are pitfalls +for the labor movement of to-day. + +A 96-PAGE PAMPHLET SELLING AT +15 CENTS. + + +_New York Labor News Co._ + +_2-6 New Reade Street, New York._ + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE INFANT'S SKULL*** + + +******* This file should be named 31759.txt or 31759.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/1/7/5/31759 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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