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THE EXECUTIONER'S KNIFE
COMPLETE FOR THE FIRST 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 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 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.
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THE INFANT'S SKULL 50c.
THE PILGRIM'S SHELL 75c.
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THE IRON TREVET 75c.
EXECUTIONER'S KNIFE $1.00
POCKET BIBLE, Vol. 1 $1.00
POCKET BIBLE, Vol. 2 $1.00
BLACKSMITH'S HAMMER 75c.
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SWORD OF HONOR, Vol. 2 $1.00
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THE EXECUTIONER'S
KNIFE
:: :: OR :: ::
JOAN OF ARC
A Tale of the Inquisition
By EUGENE SUE
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 PREFACE 1
PART I. DOMREMY.
CHAPTER.
I. JEANNETTE 3
II. GILLON THE FURTIVE 7
III. AT THE FOUNTAIN OF THE FAIRIES 11
IV. THE HARP OF MERLIN 16
V. THE PROPHECY OF MERLIN 23
VI. THE LEGEND OF HENA 29
VII. GERMINATION 34
VIII. "THE ENGLISH" 37
IX. THE FLIGHT 44
X. "BURGUNDY!"--"FRANCE!" 47
XI. THE VISION 58
XII. RETURNING VISIONS 63
XIII. WRESTLING WITH THE ANGELS 68
XIV. "THE TIME HAS ARRIVED!" 72
XV. CAPTAIN ROBERT OF BAUDRICOURT 76
XVI. AT THE CASTLE OF VAUCOULEURS 80
XVII. JOHN OF NOVELPONT 87
XVIII. "GOOD LUCK, JOAN!" 92
PART II. CHINON.
I. THE COUNCIL OF CHARLES VII 101
II. ALOYSE OF CASTELNAU 112
III. THE TEST 118
IV. THE HALL OF RABATEAU 123
PART III. ORLEANS.
CHAPTER.
I. FRIDAY, APRIL 29TH, 1429 137
II. SATURDAY, APRIL 30TH, 1429 147
III. SUNDAY, MAY 1ST, 1429 155
IV. MONDAY, MAY 2ND, 1429 157
V. TUESDAY, MAY 3RD, 1429 159
VI. WEDNESDAY, MAY 4TH, 1429 161
VII. THURSDAY, MAY 5TH, 1429 177
VIII. FRIDAY, MAY 6TH, 1429 186
IX. SATURDAY, MAY 7TH, 1429 203
X. THE KING CROWNED 214
PART IV. ROUEN; OR, THE MYSTERY OF THE PASSION OF JOAN DARC.
I. BISHOP AND CANON 229
II. IN THE DUNGEON 262
III. THE INQUISITION 277
IV. THE TEMPTATION 302
V. THE SENTENCE 312
VI. PHYSICAL COLLAPSE 326
VII. REMORSE 348
VIII. THE RELAPSE 354
IX. THE WORM TURNS 357
X. TO THE FLAMES 360
XI. THE PYRE 365
EPILOGUE 378
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.
PART I.
DOMREMY
CHAPTER I.
JEANNETTE.
Domremy is a frontier village of Lorraine that cosily nestles on the
slope of a fertile valley whose pasture grounds are watered by the
Meuse. An oak forest, that still preserves some mementoes of druid
tradition, reaches out almost to the village church. This church is the
handsomest of all in the valley, which begins at Vaucouleurs and ends at
Domremy. St. Catherine and St. Marguerite, superbly painted and gilded,
ornament the sanctuary. St. Michael, the Archangel, with his sword in
one hand and the scales in the other, glistens from the depths of a dark
recess in the chapel. Happy is the valley that begins at Vaucouleurs and
ends at Domremy! A royal seigniory, lost on the confines of Gaul, it has
not yet suffered from the disasters of war that for more than a half
century have been desolating the center of the country. Its inhabitants,
profiting by the civil broils of their sovereign and his distance from
them, being separated from his main domains by Champagne, which had
fallen into the power of the English, had emancipated themselves from
serfdom.
James Darc, a member of a family that had long been serfs of the Abbey
of St. Remy, and subsequently of the Sire of Joinville before the fief
of Vaucouleurs was consolidated with the royal domain, an honest
laborer, stern head of his household and rather rude of manners, lived
by the cultivation of the fields. His wife was called Isabelle Romée;
his eldest son, Peter; the second, John; and his daughter, born on "the
day of Kings" in 1412, was named Jeannette. At the time when this
narrative commences, Jeannette was a little over thirteen years of age.
She was of pleasant appearance, a sweet and pious child and endowed with
precocious intelligence. Her disposition was serious for her age. This
notwithstanding, she joined in the games of other girls, her friends,
and never gloried in her own superior agility when, as usually happened,
she won in the races. She could neither read nor write. Active and
industrious, she helped her mother in the household, led the sheep to
pasture and was skilful with the needle and at the distaff. Often
pensive, when alone in secluded spots of the woods she watched over her
flock, she found an inexpressible delight in listening to the distant
sound of the church bells, to the point that at times she made little
presents of fruits or skeins of wool to the parish clerk of Domremy,
joining to the gifts the gentle request that he prolong a little the
chimes of the vespers or of the Angelus.[1] Jeannette also took delight
in leading her sheep in the ancient forest of oaks, known as the "Bois
Chesnu",[2] towards a limpid spring shaded by a beech tree that was
between two and three hundred years old and which was known in the
region as the "Fairies' Tree". The legend had it that the priests of the
old gods of Gaul sometimes appeared, dressed in their long white robes,
under the dark vaults of the oaks of this forest, and that often little
fairies approached the fountain by moonlight to see their reflection in
its waters.
Jeannette did not fear the fairies, knowing that a single sign of the
cross would put any malignant sprite to flight. She entertained a
special spirit of devotion for St. Marguerite and St. Catherine, the two
beautiful saints of the parish. When, on feast days, she accompanied her
venerated parents to divine service, she was never tired of
contemplating and admiring the good saints, who were at once smiling and
majestic under their golden crowns. Likewise did St. Michael attract her
attention. But the severity of the archangel's face and his flaming
sword somewhat intimidated the young shepherdess, while, on the
contrary, her dear saints inspired her with ineffable confidence.
Jeannette's god-mother was Sybille, an old woman, originally from
Brittany, and a washerwoman by occupation. Sybille knew a mass of
marvelous legends; and she spoke familiarly about the fairies, genii and
other supernatural beings. Some people took her for a witch;[3] but her
good heart, her piety and upright life in no way justified the
suspicion. Jeannette, of whom her god-mother was very fond, drank in
with avidity the legends narrated by the latter when they met on the way
to the "Fountain of the Fairies" whither the former frequently took her
sheep to water while her god-mother spun her hemp on the banks of a
nearby stream. The narratives of her god-mother of the miraculous doings
of the fairies and genii impressed themselves profoundly on the
imaginative spirit of Jeannette, who grew ever more serious and pensive
as she approached her fourteenth year. She was frequently subject to a
vague sense of sadness. Often, when alone in the woods or on the
meadows, the distant sounds of the church bells, that she so much loved
to hear, struck her ears, and she would weep without knowing why. The
involuntary tears comforted her. But her nights grew restless. She no
longer slept peacefully as is the wont of rustic children after their
wholesome labors. She dreamed much; and her visions would raise before
her the spirits of the legends of her god-mother or present to her St.
Marguerite and St. Catherine smiling tenderly upon her.