The Blacksmith's Hammer; or The Peasant Code: A Tale of the Grand Monarch Read online

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Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book wasproduced from scanned images of public domain materialfrom the Google Print project.)

THE BLACKSMITH'S HAMMER

THE FULL SERIES OF

The Mysteries of the People

:: OR ::

History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages

By EUGENE SUE

_Consisting of the Following Works:_

THE GOLD SICKLE; or, _Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen_. THE BRASS BELL; or, _The Chariot of Death_. THE IRON COLLAR; or, _Faustina and Syomara_. THE SILVER CROSS; or, _The Carpenter of Nazareth_. THE CASQUE'S LARK; or, _Victoria, the Mother of the Camps_. THE PONIARD'S HILT; or, _Karadeucq and Ronan_. THE BRANDING NEEDLE; or, _The Monastery of Charolles_. THE ABBATIAL CROSIER; or, _Bonaik and Septimine_. THE CARLOVINGIAN COINS; or, _The Daughters of Charlemagne._ THE IRON ARROW-HEAD; or, _The Buckler Maiden_. THE INFANT'S SKULL; or, _The End of the World_. THE PILGRIM'S SHELL; or, _Fergan the Quarryman_. THE IRON PINCERS; or, _Mylio and Karvel_. THE IRON TREVET; or, _Jocelyn the Champion_. THE EXECUTIONER'S KNIFE; or, _Joan of Arc_. THE POCKET BIBLE; or, _Christian the Printer_. THE BLACKSMITH'S HAMMER; or, _The Peasant Code_. THE SWORD OF HONOR; or, _The Foundation of the French Republic_. THE GALLEY SLAVE'S RING; or, _The Family Lebrenn_.

Published Uniform With This Volume By THE NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO. 28 CITY HALL PLACE NEW YORK CITY

THE BLACKSMITH'SHAMMER

: : OR : :

THE PEASANT CODE

A Tale of the Grand Monarch

By EUGENE SUE

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCHBy DANIEL DE LEONNEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY. 1910

INDEX

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE v

INTRODUCTION 1

PART I. HOLLAND.

CHAPTER

I. THE ST. ELOI 5

II. BERTHA OF PLOUERNEL 11

III. THE HUGUENOT COLONEL 25

IV. THE LOST LETTER 33

V. JOHN DE WITT 54

VI. CORNELIUS DE WITT 79

VII. MOB-VERDICT 91

VIII. THE FLIGHT 103

PART II. BRITTANY.

I. NOMINOE 113

II. A BRETON WEDDING 122

III. THE RED-COATS 140

IV. DESERTED! 155

V. THE MYSTERY AT PLOUERNEL 164

VI. BERTHA AND NOMINOE 190

VII. EZ-LIBR 229

VIII. THE MANOR OF PLOUERNEL 251

IX. THE PEASANTS' DEFEAT 258

X. UNITED 265

EPILOGUE 282

FOOTNOTES

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

Bulwer Lytton observes of fiction that, when aspiring at somethinghigher than mere romance, it does not pervert, but elucidates the factsof the times in which the scene is placed; hence, that fiction serves toillustrate those truths which history is too often compelled to leave tothe tale-teller, the dramatist and the poet. In this story, _TheBlacksmith's Hammer; or, The Peasant Code_--the seventeenth of thecharming series of Eugene Sue's historic novels, _The Mysteries of thePeople; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages_--the authorreaches a height in which are combined all the elements that BulwerLytton distributes among history, tale, drama and poetry.

The history is clean cut; the tale fascinates; its dramatic presentationis matchless; last, not least, the poetic note is lyric. As historian,as tale-teller, as dramatist and as a poet the author excels himself inthis narrative, that serves at once as a sequel of the age described inthe previous story, _The Pocket Bible; or, Christian the Printer_, andas prelude to the great epopee of the next story that deals with theFrench Revolution.

DANIEL DE LEON.

New York, March, 1910.

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