The Infant's Skull; Or The End of the World. A Tale of the Millennium Read online

  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 theNew 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 ofthe year 1000, together with its second or adjourned catastrophethirty-two years later. The end of the world, at first daily expected bythe Apostles, then postponed--upon the authority of Judaic apocalypticwritings, together with the Revelations of St. John the Divine,--to theyear 1000, and then again to thirty-two years later, until it wasfinally adjourned _sine die_, was one of those beliefs, called"theologic," that have had vast and disastrous mundane effect. _TheInfant's Skull; or, The End of the World_, figures at that period. It isone of that series of charming stories by Eugene Sue in which historicpersonages and events are so artistically grouped that, without thefiction losing by the otherwise solid facts, and without the solid factssuffering by the fiction, both are enhanced, and combinedly act as aflash-light upon the past--and no less so upon the future.

  As with all the stories of this series by the talented Sue, _TheInfant's Skull; or, The End of the World_, although, one of theshortest, rescues invaluable historic facts from the dark and dustyrecesses where only the privileged few can otherwise reach them. Thusits educational value is equal to its entertaining merit. It is a gem inthe necklace of gems that the distinguished author has felicitouslynamed _The Mysteries of the People; or The History of a ProletarianFamily 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 appropriatename of the "Fountain of the Hinds," empties its trickling stream underthe 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 atthe spot, leaving behind them numerous imprints of their steps on theborders of the rill, or on the sandy soil of the narrow paths that thesewild animals have worn across the copse.

  One early morning in the year 987, the sun being up barely an hour, awoman, plainly dressed and breathing hard with rapid walking, steppedout of one of these paths and stopped at the Fountain of the Hinds. Shelooked in all directions in surprise as if she expected to have beenpreceded by some one at the solitary rendezvous. Finding her hopesdeceived, 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 andeye-brows; her complexion was brown; and cherry-red her lips. Herfeatures were handsome, while the mobility of her inflated nostrils andthe quickness of her motions betokened a violent nature. She had restedonly a little while when she rose again and walked up and down withhurried steps, stopping every now and then to listen for approachingfootsteps. Catching at last the sounds of a distant footfall, shethrilled with joy and ran to the encounter of him she had beenexpecting. He appeared. It was a man, also in plain garb and in thevigor of age, large-sized and robust, with a piercing eye and somber,wily countenance. The young woman leaped at a bound into the arms ofthis personage, and passionately addressed him: "Hugh, I meant tooverwhelm you with reproaches; I meant to strike you; but here you areand I forget everything," and in a transport of amorous delight sheadded, suiting the deed to the words: "Your lips! Oh, give me your lipsto kiss!"

  After the exchange of a shower of kisses, and disengaging himself, notwithout some effort, from the embrace of the fascinated woman, Hugh saidto her gravely: "We cannot indulge in love at this hour."

  "At this hour, to-day, yesterday, to-morrow, everywhere and always, Ilove and shall continue to love you."

  "Blanche, they are foolhardy people who use the word 'always,' whenbarely fourteen years separate us from the term assigned for the end ofthe world! This is a grave and a fearful matter!"

  "What! Can you have given me this early morning appointment at thissecreted place, whither I have come under pretext of visiting thehermitage 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 loveends!"

  "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 itthe people who inhabit it?"

  Struck by the coldness of her lover's answers, Blanche brusquely steppedback. Her brows contracted, her nostrils dilated, her breast heaved inpain, and she darted a look at Hugh that seemed to wish to fathom thevery bottom of his heart. For a few instants her gaze remained fixedupon him; she then cried in a voice trembling with rage: "You love someother woman! You love me no more!"

  "Your words are senseless!"

  "Heaven and earth! Am I also to be despised.... I the Queen!... Yes, youlove some other woman, your own wife, perhaps; that Adelaide of Poitierswhom you promised me you would rid yourself of by a divorce!" Furtherutterances having expired upon her lips, the wife of King Louis theDo-nothing broke down sobbing, and with eyes that glistened with furyshe shook her fists at the Count of Paris: "Hugh, if I were sure ofthat, I would kill both you and your wife; I would stab you both todeath!"

  "Blanche," said Hugh slowly and watching the effect of his words uponthe face of the Queen, who, with eyes fixed upon the ground, seemed tobe meditating some sinister project: "I am not merely Count of Paris andDuke of France, as my ancestors were, I am also Abbot of Saint Martin ofTours and of Saint-Germain-des-Pres, abbot not only by virtue of mycowl--but by virtue of my faith. Accordingly, I blame your incredulityon the subject of the approaching end of the world. The holiest bishopshave prophesied it, and have urged the faithful to hasten to save theirsouls during the fourteen years that still separate them from the lastjudgment.... Fourteen years!... A very short period within which to gainthe eternal paradise!"

  "By the hell that burns in my heart, the man is delivering a sermon tome!" cried the Queen with an outburst of caustic laughter. "What are youdriving at? Are you spreading a snare for me? Malediction! this man is acompound of ruse, artifice and darkness, and yet I love him! I aminsane!... O
h, there must be some magic charm in this!" and biting intoher handkerchief with suppressed rage, she said to him: "I shall notinterrupt again, even if I should choke with anger. Proceed, Hugh theCapet! Explain yourself!"

  "Blanche, the approach of the dreadful day when the world is to endmakes me uneasy about my salvation. I look with fright at our doubleadultery, seeing we are both married." Stopping with a gesture a freshexplosion of rage on the part of the Queen, the Count of Paris addedsolemnly raising his hand heavenward: "I swear to God by the salvationof 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 bythe salvation of my soul, I wish no longer to brave eternal punishmentby continuing a criminal intercourse with a woman bound, as I am myself,by the sacrament of marriage. I wish to spend in the mortification ofthe flesh, in fasting, abstinence, repentance and prayer the years thatstill separate us from the year 1000, to the end that I may obtain fromour 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 yourlove led you, you have alternately boasted over and cursed theinflexibility of my character. Now, what I have said is said. This shallbe the last day of our adulterous intercourse. Our carnal relationsshall then end."

  While Hugh the Capet was speaking, the wife of Louis the Do-nothingcontemplated his face with devouring attention. When he finished, so farfrom breathing forth desperate criminations, she carried both her handsto her forehead and seemed steeped in mediation. Looking askance uponBlanche, the Count of Paris anxiously waited for the first word from theQueen. Finally, a tremor shook her frame, she raised her head, as ifstruck by a sudden thought, and curbing her emotions she asked: "Do youbelieve that King Lothaire, the father of my husband Louis, died ofpoison in March of last year?"

  "I believe he was poisoned."

  "Do you believe that Imma, his wife, was guilty of poisoning herhusband?"

  "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 loverAdalberon, bishop of Laon?"

  "It was a great scandal to the church!"

  "After the poisoning of Lothaire, the Queen and the bishop, finallydelivered from the eyes of her husband, indulged their love morefreely."

  "A double and horrible sacrilege!" cried the Count of Paris withindignation. "A bishop and a Queen adulterers and homicides!"

  Blanche seemed astonished at the indignation of Hugh the Capet and againcontemplated him attentively. She then proceeded with her interrogatory:

  "Are you aware, Count of Paris, that King Lothaire's death is a happycircumstance for you--provided you were ambitious? Bishop Adalberon, theaccomplice and lover of the Queen, that bishop, expert in poisons, wasyour friend!"

  "He was my friend before his crime."

  "You repudiate his friendship, but you profit by his crime. That is highstatecraft."

  "In what way, Blanche, have I profited by that odious crime? Does notthe son of Lothaire reign to-day? When my ancestors, the Counts ofParis, aspired at the crown they did not assassinate the kings, theydethroned 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 Charlesthe Fat from re-ascending the throne, the same as Louis Outer-mer, theson 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 thebishops, nor for the eternal flames."

  "Hugh, if perchance my husband, although young, should die?... Thatmight happen."

  "The will of the Lord is all-powerful," answered Hugh with a contriteair. "There be those who to-day are full of life and youth, andto-morrow are corpses and dust! The designs of God are impenetrable."

  "So that if perchance the King, my husband, should die," rejoinedBlanche, 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 willthen 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, Iswear to God by the salvation of my soul, if you should become a widow Ishall separate from my wife Adelaide of Poitiers, and I shall marry youwith a pure and holy joy.' ... Will you be faithful to that oath?"

  "Blanche, I repeat it," answered Hugh the Capet avoiding the Queen'seyes that remained obstinately fixed upon him. "I swear to God by thesalvation of my soul, if you become a widow I shall demand of the Popepermission to divorce Adelaide of Poitiers, and I shall marry you. Ourlove 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 thedecrees of God."

  "My husband, Louis, the Do-nothing, is, like all other people, subjectto death and the decrees of Providence."

  "Indeed, kings as well as subjects."

  "It may then happen, although he is now barely twenty, that he diesuddenly ... 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 youradvice."

  "What, my dear Blanche?"

  "Calumniators, seeing Louis dies so suddenly, might talk ... aboutpoison."

  "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 thecurse of heaven fall upon me if I ever could be infamous enough toconceive such a suspicion against you!" cried Hugh the Capet taking theQueen in his arms with passionate tenderness. "What! If the Lord shouldcall your husband to Him He would fulfil the most cherished dreams of mylife! He would allow me to sanctify with marriage the ardent love that Iwould 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 alow and tremulous voice: "Oh, joy of my heart, if some day you should bemy wife before God, our souls would then merge in one and in a love thatwould 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 ofardor and love!" saying which the Count of Paris drew his mouth close tothe lips of the Queen. The latter closed her eyes and muttered a fewwords in a faint voice. Hugh the Capet, however, suddenly and with greateffort disengaged himself from Blanche's arms exclaiming: "A superhumancourage 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 theQueen, overpowered with passion and the struggle within herself,followed him with her eyes: "Hugh, my lover, I shall be a widow, and youKing!"