Front matter

THE EXECUTIONER'S KNIFE

COMPLETE FOR FIRST THE TIME IN ENGLISH

EUGENE SUE'S The Mysteries of the People

OR

History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages

A fascinating work, thrilling as fiction, yet embracing a comprehensive history of the oppressing and oppressed classes from the commencement of the present era.

These stories are nineteen in number, and their chronological order is the following:

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 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 efforts 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.—N. Y. Sun. THE GOLD SICKLE50c.

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THE EXECUTIONER'S KNIFE : : : : OR : : : : J O A N O F A R C

A Tale of the Inquisition

B y E U G E N E S U E

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH BY

DANIEL DE LEON

NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY, 1910

Copyright 1910, by the NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.

INDEX

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACEVII

PART I. DOMREMY.

CHAPTER.

I.JEANNETTE3

II.GILLON THE FURTIVE7

III.AT THE FOUNTAIN OF THE FAIRIES11

IV.THE HARP OF MERLIN16

V.THE PROPHECY OF MERLIN23

VI.THE LEGEND OF HENA29

VII.GERMINATION34

VIII."THE ENGLISH"37

IX.THE FLIGHT44

X."BURGUNDY!"—"FRANCE!"47

XI.THE VISION58

XII.RETURNING VISIONS63

XIII.WRESTLING WITH THE ANGELS68

XIV."THE TIME HAS ARRIVED!"72

XV.CAPTAIN ROBERT OF BAUDRICOURT76

XVI.AT THE CASTLE OF VAUCOULEURS80

XVII.JOHN OF NOVELPONT87

XVIII."GOOD LUCK, JOAN!"92

PART II. CHINON.

I.THE COUNCIL OF CHARLES VII101

II.ALOYSE OF CASTELNAU112

III.THE TEST118

IV.THE HALL OF RABATEAU123

PART III. ORLEANS.

I.FRIDAY, APRIL 29TH, 1429137

II.SATURDAY, APRIL 30TH, 1429147

III.SUNDAY, MAY 1ST, 1429155

IV.MONDAY, MAY 2ND, 1429157

V.TUESDAY, MAY 3RD, 1429159

VI.WEDNESDAY, MAY 4TH, 1429161

VII.THURSDAY, MAY 5TH, 1429177

VIII.FRIDAY, MAY 6TH, 1429186

IX.SATURDAY, MAY 7TH, 1429203

X.THE KING CROWNED214

PART IV. ROUEN; OR, THE MYSTERY OF THE PASSION OF JOAN DARC.

I.BISHOP AND CANON229

II.IN THE DUNGEON262

III.THE INQUISITION277

IV.THE TEMPTATION302

V.THE SENTENCE312

VI.PHYSICAL COLLAPSE326

VII.REMORSE348

VIII.THE RELAPSE354

IX.THE WORM TURNS357

X.TO THE FLAMES360

XI.THE PYRE365

EPILOGUE378

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

Whether one will be satisfied with nothing but a scientific diagnosis in psychology, or a less ponderous and infinitely more lyric presentation of certain mental phenomena will do for him; whether the student of history insist on strict chronology, or whether he prize at its true value the meat and coloring of history; whether a reader prefer in matters canonical the rigid presentation of dogma, or whether the tragic fruits of theocracy offer a more attractive starting point for his contemplation;—whichever the case might be, The Executioner's Knife; or, Joan of Arc will gratify his intellectual cravings on all the three heads.

This, the fifteenth story of the series of Eugene Sue's matchless historic novels entitled The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages, presents the picture of the Fifteenth Century—a historic elevation climbed up to from the hills of the era sketched in the preceding story, The Iron Trevet; or Jocelyn the Champion, and from which, in turn, the outlines become vaguely visible of the critically historic era that forms the subject of the next story, The Pocket Bible; or, Christian the Printer.

As in all the stories of this stupendous series bestowed by the genius of Sue upon posterity, the leading characters are historic, the leading events are historic, and the coloring is true to history. How true to the facts are the historic revelations made by the author in this series, and how historically true are the conclusions he draws, as they rise in relief on the canvas of these novels, appears with peculiar conspicuousness in The Executioner's Knife; or, Joan of Arc, above all in this century, when the science of history has remodeled its theory, and, instead of, as in former days, basing man's acts upon impulse, has learned to plant impulse upon material facts.

In the pages of this story the central figure is the charming one generally known to history as the Maid of Orleans. If ever there was in the annals of man a figure that superstitious mysticism combined with grovelling interests to annihilate, it was the figure of the pure-minded, self-sacrificing, intrepid shepherdess of Domremy. Even the genius of a Voltaire succumbed. In righteous revolt against man-degrading superstition, his satire "La Pucelle" in fact contributed, by the slur it placed upon Joan, to vindicate the very lay and prelatical interests he fought, and whose predecessors dragged her name through the ditch and had consigned her body to the flames. Harried by the political interests whom her integrity of purpose menaced and actually thwarted; insulted and put to death by the allies of these, ambushed behind religion; the successors of both elements perpetuating the wrong with false history; and even the enlightened contributing their sneers out of just repugnance for supernaturalism;—all this notwithstanding, the figure of Joan triumphed. Even the head of the prelatic political machine, which had presumed to speak in the name of the Deity with Anathema over Joan's head, has felt constrained to fall in line with the awakened popular knowledge. The Papal beatification of Joan of Arc in this century is a public retraction and apology to the heroine born from the lowly.

Of the many works of art—poetic, dramatic, pictorial—that have contributed to this conspicuous "reversal of judgment" Sue's The Executioner's Knife; or, Joan of Arc has been the most powerful. The pathetic story cleanses Joan of the miraculous, uncovers the grovelling influences she had to contend against, exposes the sordid ambitions she had to overcome and that finally slaked their vengeance in her blood. The master's hand weaves together and draws, in the garb of fiction, a picture that is monumental—at once as a work of science, of history and of art.

DANIEL DE LEON.

Milford, Conn., October, 1909.