BONAIK AND SEPTIMINE
Daniel De Leon translation
A Tale of a Medieval Abbess
By EUGENE SUE
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH BY
DANIEL DE LEON
NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY, 1908
Copyright, 1908, by the New York Labor News Company
INDEX
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TRANSLATOR'S PREFACEv
PROLOGUE.
CHAPTER.
I.NARBONNE3
II.ABD-EL-KADER AND ROSEN-AER6
PART I—THE CONVENT OF ST. SATURNINE.
I.THE LAST OF THE MEROVINGIANS15
II.CHARLES MARTEL23
III.FATHER CLEMENT'S REFECTORY33
IV.MORDECAI THE SLAVE-DEALER40
PART II—THE ABBEY OF MERIADEK.
I.ELOI THE GOLDSMITH47
II.THE INTENDANT RICARIK57
III.THE ABBESS MEROFLEDE62
IV.IN SIGHT OF THE ABBEY69
V.ASYLUM78
VI.WARRIOR AND ABBESS83
VII.THE MOUSE-TRAP89
VIII.THE MIRACLE OF ST. LOUP'S TEETH94
IX.BRENN—KARNAK102
X.MISTRESS AND MAN117
XI.THE FLIGHT122
XII.MOTHER AND SON129
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
The turbulent epoch that rocked the cradle of the Carlovingian dynasty, the dynasty from which issued the colossal historic figure of Charlemagne, is the epoch of this touching story—the eighth of the series of Eugene Sue's historic novels known collectively under the title "The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages." From the seething caldron of the valleys of the western Rhine, inundated by the Arabs from the south, the Frisians from the north, the Saxons from the west, and in which the chants of Moslems, of Christians and of barbarians mixed into the one common cry of desolating war, the feudal social system, previously introduced by Clovis, and now threatened to be engulfed, emerged from the chaos as a social institution. Many a characteristic of feudalism would be missed if this, a crucial period of its existence, is not properly apprehended. As in all the others of this series of Eugene Sue's stories, the information is imparted without the reader's knowledge. What may be termed the plot seizes and keeps the interest from start to finish, steadily enriching the mind with knowledge historically inestimable, besides connecting with the era described in the previous story—The Branding Needle; or, The Monastery of Charolles—and preparing the ground for the thrilling events that are the subject of the succeeding narrative—The Carlovingian Coins; or, The Daughters of Charlemagne.
DANIEL DE LEON.
New York, 1904.