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THE GALLEY SLAVE'S RING
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, _Karadeuoq 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
GALLEY SLAVE'S RING
OR
THE FAMILY OF LEBRENN
A Tale of The French Revolution of 1848
By EUGENE SUE
TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL FRENCH
By DANIEL DE LEON
NEW YORK LABOR NEWS COMPANY. 1911
Copyright, 1911, by the
NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.
INDEX
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE I
CHAPTER
I GILDAS AND JEANIKE 1
II GEORGE DUCHENE 19
III MARIK LEBRENN 40
IV PRADELINE 60
V CARDINAL AND COUNT 70
VI JOEL AND NEROWEG 82
VII "THE SWORD OF BRENNUS" 103
VIII ON THE EVE OF BATTLE 113
IX POPULAR JUSTICE 127
X ON THE BARRICADE 139
XI LONG LIVE THE REPUBLIC! 161
XII THE GALLEY-SLAVE AND THE GENERAL 168
XIII HOME AGAIN 181
XIV SACROVIR'S BIRTHDAY 190
XV THE MYSTERIOUS CHAMBER 198
EPILOGUE 219
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
With this story, _The Galley Slave's Ring; or, The Family of Lebrenn_,
closes the series of the nineteen historic novels comprised in Eugene
Sue's monumental work _The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a
Proletarian Family Across the Ages_.
They who have read the preceding eighteen stories will agree that from
the moment they began the first volume of the series, _The Gold Sickle;
or, Hena the Virgin of the Isle of Sen_, down to the eighteenth, _The
Sword of Honor; or, The Foundation of the French Republic_, they enjoyed
a matchless promenade as they followed Sue through the Ages of History,
from the time of the invasion of Gaul by Julius Caesar, shortly before
Christ, down to the great epoch marked by the French Revolution. Nor
will their expectations concerning this closing story be disappointed.
_The Galley Slave's Ring; or, The Family of Lebrenn_ is staged on the
Age that witnessed the downfall of Louis Philippe--the last of the
Bourbon line--and the aspirations that raised the Second Republic. While
several of the figures are historic, in this story historic characters
step forth less pronouncedly than historic principles. In this story are
found the Principles, the old and the newest, that have since occupied
the stage of man's history, and the clash of which, down to our own
days, occupies man's attention.
Inestimable as the previous stories are to the understanding of the Age
of the present story, the present story, enlivened with the vein of
romance, is inestimable to the understanding of our own Age.
DANIEL DE LEON.
Milford, Conn., February, 1911.
CHAPTER I.
GILDAS AND JEANIKE.
On February 23, 1848, the epoch when, for several days previous, all
France, and especially Paris, was profoundly stirred by the question of
the _reform_ banquets, there was to be seen on St. Denis Street, a short
distance from the boulevard, a rather large shop surmounted by the sign
LEBRENN, LINEN DRAPER.
THE SWORD OF BRENNUS.
In fact, a picture, pretty well drawn and painted, represented the well
known historic incident of Brennus, the chief of the Gallic army,
throwing with savage and haughty mien his sword into one of the scales
of the balance that held the ransom of Rome, vanquished by our Gallic
ancestors, about two thousand and odd years ago.
At first, the people of the St. Denis quarter derived a good deal of fun
from the bellicose sign of the linen draper. In course of time they
forgot all about the seemingly incongruous sign in the recognition of
the fact that Monsieur Marik Lebrenn was a most admirable man--a good
husband, a conscientious father of his family, and a merchant who sold
at reasonable prices excellent merchandise, among other things superb
Brittany linen, imported from his native province. The worthy tradesman
paid his bills regularly; was accommodating and affable towards
everybody; and filled, to the great satisfaction of his "dear comrades,"
the function of captain in the company of grenadiers of his battalion in
the National Guard. All told, he was held in general esteem by the
people of his quarter, among whom he was justified to consider himself
as a _notable_.
On the rather chilly morning of February 23, the shutters of the linen
draper's shop were as usual removed by the shop-lad, assisted by a
female servant, both of whom were Bretons like their master, Monsieur
Lebrenn, who was in the habit of taking all his attendants, clerks as
well as domestic servitors, from his own country.
The maid, a fresh and comely lass of twenty years, was named Jeanike.
The lad who tended the shop was called Gildas Pakou. He was a robust
youngster from the region of Vannes, whose open countenance bore the
impress of wonderment, seeing he was only two days in Paris. He spoke
French quite passably; but in his conversations with Jeanike, his
"country-woman," he preferred the idiom of lower Brittany, the old
Gallic tongue that our ancestors spoke before the conquest of Gaul by
Julius Caesar.[1]
Gildas Pakou seemed preoccupied, although busy carrying to the interior
of the shop the shutters that he removed from the outside. He even
paused for a moment in the middle of the shop, and, leaning both his
arms and his chin upon the edge of one of the boards that he had
unfastened, seemed profoundly steeped in thought.
"What are you brooding over, Gildas?" inquired Jeanike.
"Lassy," he answered in his Breton tongue, and with a distant and almost
comical look, "do you remember the song of our country--Genevieve and
Rustefan?"[2]
"Sure! I was sung to sleep in my cradle with it. It starts this way:
"When little John led his sheep out to pasture,
He then little thought that a priest he would be."
"Well, Jeanike, I am like little John. When I was at Vannes I little
dreamed of what I was to see in Paris."
"And what do you find so startling in Paris, Gildas?"
"Everything, Jeanike."
"Indeed!"
"And a good many other things, besides!"
"That's a good many."
"Now listen. Mother said to me: 'Gildas, Monsieur Lebrenn, our
countryman, to whom I sell the linen that we weave in the evenings,
takes you as an assistant in his shop. His is a home of the good God.
You, who are neither bold nor venturesome, will find yourself there as
comfortable as here in our little town. St. Denis Street in Paris, where
your employer lives, is a street inhabited only by honest and peaceful
merchants.' Well, now, Jeanike, no later than yesterday evening, the
second day after my arrival, did you not hear cries of: 'Close the
shops! Close the shops!' And did you not thereupon see the
night-patrols, and hear the drums and the hurried steps of large numbers
of men who came and went tumultuously? There were among them some whose
faces were frightful to behold, with their long beards. I positively
dreamed of them, Jeanike! I did!"
"Poor Gildas!"
"And if that were only all!"
"What! Is there still more? Have you, perchance, anything to blame our
master for?"
"Him? He is the best man in all the world. I'm quite sure of that.
Mother told me so."
"Or Madam Lebrenn?"
"The dear, good woman! She reminds me of my own mother with her sweet
temper."
"Or mademoiselle?"
"Oh! As to her, Jeanike, we may say of her in the words of the Song of
the Poor:[3]
"Your mistress is handsome and brimful of kindness;
As lovely her face, yet her deeds with it vie,
And her looks and her kindness have won all our hearts."
"Oh, Gildas! How I do love to hear those songs of our country. That
particular one seems to have been composed expressly for Mademoiselle
Velleda, and I--"
"Tush, Jeanike!" exclaimed the shop-assistant, breaking in upon his
companion. "You asked me what there is to astonish me. Tell me, do you
think that mademoiselle's name is a Christian woman's name? _Velleda!_
What can that mean?"
"What do I know! I suppose 'tis a fancy of monsieur and madam's."
"And their son, who went back yesterday to his business college."
"Well?"
"What another devil's own name is that which he also has? One ever seems
to be about to swear when pronouncing it. Just pronounce that name,
Jeanike. Come, pronounce it."
"It is very simple. The name of our master's son is Sacrovir."
"Ha! ha! I knew it would be so. You did look as if you were
swearing--Sacr-r-r-rovir."
"Not at all! I did not roll the r's like you."
"They roll of themselves, my lassy. But, after all, do you call that a
name?"
"That also is a fancy of monsieur and madam's."
"Very well, and what about the green door?"
"The green door?"
"Yes, in the rear of the room. Yesterday, at broad noon, I saw our
master go in with a light in his hand."
"Quite natural, seeing the shutters are always kept closed--"
"And you find that natural, do you, Jeanike? And why should the shutters
always be kept closed?"
"How do I know! It may be another--"
"Notion of monsieur and madam's, are you going to tell me?"
"Sure!"
"And what is kept in that apartment where it is night in broad day?"
"How do I know, Gildas! Only madam and monsieur ever go in there; never
their children."
"And nothing of all that seems to you at all surprising, Jeanike!"
"No, because I have become accustomed to it. You will presently feel
about it as I do."
The girl stopped short, and after casting a furtive look in the
direction of the street, she said to her companion:
"Did you see that?"
"What?"
"The dragoon."
"A dragoon, Jeanike!"
"Yes; and I beg you go out and see if he is coming back--towards the
shop. I shall tell you more about it later. Go, quick! quick!"
"The dragoon has not come back," answered the lad, naively. "But what
can you have in common with the dragoon, Jeanike?"
"Nothing at all, thank God; but they have their barracks near by."
"A bad neighborhood for young girls, close to these men with helmets and
sabers," remarked Gildas sententiously. "A bad neighborhood. That
reminds me of the song, The Demand:
"In my dove-cote a little dove
Once had I,
When low the sparrow hawk swooped down
Upon her like a gust of wind;
He frightened my wee dove away
And now none
Knows what has become of her.[4]
"Do you understand, Jeanike? The doves are young girls; the
sparrow-hawk--"
"Is the dragoon. You are speaking more wisely than you know, Gildas."
"What, Jeanike! Can you have realized that the neighborhood of
sparrow-hawks--that is, dragoons--is unwholesome for you?"
"I was not thinking of myself."
"Of whom, then?"
"Tush, Gildas! You are a loyal fellow. I must ask your advice. This is
what has happened: Four days ago, mademoiselle, who usually stays in the
rear of the shop, was at the desk in the absence of madam. I happened to
look out on the street, when I saw a military man stop before our
windows."
"A dragoon? A sparrow-hawk of a dragoon? Was it, Jeanike?"
"Yes; but he was not a soldier; he wore large gold epaulettes, and a
cockade on his hat. He must have been at least a colonel. He stopped
before the shop, and looked in."
The conversation of the two Breton country folks was interrupted by the
brusque entrance of a man of about forty years, clad in a cutaway coat
and trousers of black velvet, the usual railway employees' garb. His
energetic face was partially covered with a thick brown beard. He seemed
uneasy, and stepped into the shop precipitately, saying to Jeanike:
"Where is your master, my child? I must see him immediately. Pray, go
and tell him that Dupont wants him. Remember my name well--Dupont."
"Monsieur Lebrenn went out this morning at daybreak, monsieur," answered
Jeanike. "He has not yet come back."
"A thousand devils! Can he have gone there?" the new arrival muttered to
himself.
He was about to leave the shop as precipitately as he had stepped in
when a new thought struck him, and turning back to Jeanike he said:
"My child, tell Monsieur Lebrenn, the moment he comes back, that Dupont
has arrived."
"Yes, monsieur."
"And that if he--Monsieur Lebrenn," added Dupont, hesitating like one
hunting for a word; and then having found it, he proceeded saying: "Say
to your master that, if he did not go this morning to inspect his
_supply of grain_--you catch those words: _his supply of grain_--he
should not go there before seeing Dupont. Can you remember that, my
child?"
"Yes, monsieur. But if you would like to leave a note for Monsieur
Lebrenn--"
"Not at all!" answered Dupont impatiently. "That's unnecessary--only
tell him--"
"Not to go and inspect his supply of grain before seeing Monsieur
Dupont," Jeanike completed the sentence. "Is that it, monsieur?"
"Exactly," the latter answered. "Good-bye, my child." So saying, he went
away in hot haste.
"Well, now, Monsieur Lebrenn, it seems, is also a groceryman," observed
Gildas in amazement to his companion. "He seems to keep supplies of
grain in store."
"That's the first I heard of it."
"And that man! He looked very much disconcerted. Did you notice him? Oh,
Jeanike! There is no doubt about it, this is a puzzling sort of a
house."
"You have just landed from the country. Everything surprises you. But
let me finish my story about the dragoon."
"The story of that sparrow-hawk with gold epaulettes and a cockade in
his hat, who stopped to look at you through the show-window, Jeanike?"
"It was not me he looked at."
"Whom, then?"
"Mademoiselle Velleda."
"Indeed?"
"Mademoiselle was busy sewing. She did not notice that the military man
was devouring her with his eyes. And I felt so ashamed for her sake that
I did not dare notify her that she was being glowered at."
"Oh, Jeanike, that reminds me of a song that--"
"Let me first come to the end of my story, Gildas. You may then sing
your song to me, if you like. The military man--"
"The sparrow-hawk--"
"Be it so--stood there glowering at mademoiselle with both his eyes
aflame."
"With his two sparrow-hawk eyes, Jeanike!"
"But let me finish. Presently mademoiselle noticed the attention that
she was the object of. She colored like a ripe cherry, told me to watch
the shop, and withdrew to the room in the rear. And that's not yet all.
The next day, at the same hour, the colonel turned up again, but this
time in civilian dress, and there he planted himself again at the
window. Madam happened to be in the shop, and he did not stay long. Day
before yesterday he turned up again without being able to see
mademoiselle. Finally, yesterday, Madam Lebrenn being in the shop, he
stepped in and asked her--his language was very polite--whether she
could furnish him with a certain grade of linen. Madam said she could,
and it was agreed that the colonel would come back to-day to close the
bargain with Monsieur Lebrenn."
"And do you believe, Jeanike, that madam was aware that the military
man had come several times before, and peeped through the window?"
"I don't know, Gildas; and I am not sure whether I should notify madam.
A minute ago I begged you to look and see if the dragoon did not come
back. I feared he was charged to spy upon us. Fortunately it was not so.
Would you advise me to notify madam, or to say nothing? To speak may
alarm her; to keep silent may, perhaps, be wrong. What is your opinion?"
"It is my opinion that you should notify madam. She may become justly
suspicious of that big order for linen. Hem!--hem!"
"I shall follow your advice, Gildas."
"And you will be wise if you do! Oh, my dear lassy, these men with
helmets--"
"Well, now, I am ready. Let's have your song."
"It is an awful story, Jeanike! Mother told it to me a hundred times in
the evenings, just as my grandmother had told it to her, and just as my
grandmother's grandmother--"
"Come, Gildas," broke in Jeanike, laughing. "If you keep up at that rate
from grandmother to grandmother, you are bound to go back to our mother
Eve."
"Sure! Do our countrypeople not transmit from generation to generation
narratives that go back to--"
"A thousand and fifteen hundred years, and even further back, like the
stories of Myrdin and of The Baron of Jauioz, with which I have been
rocked to sleep in my cradle. I am well aware of it, Gildas."
"Well, Jeanike, the song that I have in mind is about people who wear
helmets, and prowl around young girls. It is a frightful story. It is
called The Three Red Monks," said Gildas, looking formidable;--"The
Three Red Monks; or, The Sire of Plouernel."
"What's that?" asked Jeanike interestedly, being struck by the name.
"The Sire of--"
"The Sire of Plouernel."
"Singular!"
"Singular what?"
"I've heard Monsieur Lebrenn mention that name, more than once."
"The name of the Sire of Plouernel? On what occasion?"
"I'll tell you later. First of all, let's have the song of the Three Red
Monks. It will interest me doubly."
"You must know, first of all, my lassy, that the red monks were
Templars, and wore a sword and helmet, just like that sparrow-hawk of a
dragoon."
"Very well, now go on. Madam may come down any moment, and monsieur is
due here now."
"Listen attentively, Jeanike."
And Gildas commenced the following recitative. It was not sung, exactly,
but was chanted like a psalm in a grave and melancholic voice:
"At every limb I shudder,
I shudder at the sorrows that afflict our people.
I shudder at the thought of the event that took place,
That has just taken place in the town of Kemper,
That took place at Kemper just a year ago.
"Katelik walked her way as she counted her beads,
When three monks in red, all three Templars were they,
And armed at all points, joined Katelik; three monks,
Astride of their huge barbed steeds,
Barbed from mane down to hoofs.
"'Come with us, you pretty young maid;
Come to the convent with us.
Neither gold will you want for,
Nor eke silver coin.'
'May it please, Sires, your graces,
Not I will join you in your ride,'
Said young Katelik. 'I fear your swords,
That hang by your sides.
No, Sires,
I shall not, nor can I go with you.
Too wicked the tales that one hears about you.'
"'Come with us, come to the convent, young maid.
Feel not alarmed about us.'
'No, I shall not proceed to the convent.
Seven young maids of the fields
Once went there, 'tis said;
Seven handsome maids, ripe for their nuptials they were.
Yet they never came out from the convent again.'
"'If seven young maids,' cried up Gonthram of Plouernel,
One of the three monks in red,
'If seven young maids went in,
You, pretty maid, the eighth will be.'
With this she was seized,
And pulled up on horseback;
With this the three rode to the convent in hot haste,
The maid laid across the saddle,
And gagged to smother her cries."
"Oh, the poor dear girl!" exclaimed Jeanike, clasping her hands. "And
what is to become of her in that convent of the red monks?"
"You will learn presently, my lassy," answered Gildas with a sigh; and
he proceeded with his recitation:
"Seven months later, or eight,
Or perhaps even more,
Great was the dilemma of the monks in their Abbey,
'What, brothers,' they said,
'Shall with this girl now be done?'
'Let us bury her, to-night let us bury her,
At the foot of the main altar.
None of her folks will there seek to find her.'"
"Great God!" cried Jeanike. "They must have killed her, those bandit
monks, and were in a hurry to rid themselves of the body."
"I tell you once more, my lassy, these people with helmets and swords
are always up to some mischief or other," remarked Gildas dogmatically;
and he proceeded:
"Lo, toward night-fall the vault of heaven is rent.
Rain, wind, hail; thunder the most frightful cracks the air.
A poor knight, his clothes drenched with rain,
Looks about for asylum,
Arrives at the church-door of the Abbey.
He peeps through the key-hole.
He sees a small taper burning;
He sees monks digging at the foot of the altar;
He sees the young girl lying prostrate,
Her little bare feet tied together;
He hears her, desolate, moaning, lamenting,
Begging for mercy.
"'Oh, Sires,' she cried, 'for our dear Lord's sake,
Let me live.
I shall wander about in the dark by night;
By day I shall hide.'
The taper went out.
But the knight, he budged not away from the door,
And he heard the voice of the young girl
Imploring from the depth of the grave,
And praying:
_'Pray give me some oil, and baptismal
For the babe I carry with me!_'
"The knight, he galloped away to Kemper,
To the Count-Bishop's palace he rode in full haste.
'Sire Bishop of Cornouailles, wake up!
Wake up quick!' cried the knight,
As he battered at the gate.
'You lie snugly in your bed,
Stretched out cosily upon soft down;
But a young girl there is who is now groaning
At the bottom of a pit of hard earth,
And is praying for some oil,
And baptismal for the babe that is with her;
Extreme unction she prays for herself.'
"By orders the Count-Bishop hastened to issue in advance,
The grave at the foot of the altar was dug open; and,
Just as the Bishop arrived, the poor young girl
Was drawn up from the depths of her grave.
She was drawn up, her babe sound asleep on her breast.
Her teeth had torn the flesh on her arms,
Her nails had torn the flesh on her breast,
On her white breast down to her heart.
"And the Bishop,
When this sight he saw,
Fell down on both knees, and wept by the grave.
Three days and three nights he spent there in prayer.
At the end of the third day,
All the red monks standing round,
The babe of the dead girl stirred by the light of the tapers,
It opened its eyes,
It rose,
It walked,
It walked straight to the three monks in red,
And it spoke, and said:
'It is he--
Gonthram of Plouernel."[5]
"Well, now, my lassy," asked Gildas as he shook his head warningly, "is
not that a terrible story? Did I not tell you that those helmet-wearers
were ever prowling around young girls like so many ravishing
sparrow-hawks? But Jeanike, what are you pondering? You do not answer
me. You seem steeped in revery."
"It is, indeed, quite extraordinary, Gildas. Was that bandit of a red
monk named the Sire of Plouernel?"
"Yes."
"Often have I heard Monsieur Lebrenn mention the name of that family as
if he had some cause of complaint against them, and say, whenever he
referred to some wicked man: He must be a son of Plouernel!' as one
would say: 'He must be a son of the devil!'"
"That is a puzzle--a puzzling house this is," remarked Gildas
meditatively, and even in a tone of uneasiness. "To think of Monsieur
Lebrenn having complaint against the family of a red monk, who has been
dead eight or nine hundred years. All the same, Jeanike, I hope the
story may stand you in good stead."
"Go to, Gildas!" exclaimed Jeanike, laughing. "Do you imagine there are
any red monks in St. Denis Street, and that they carry off young girls
in omnibuses?"
As Jeanike was saying this, a valet in morning livery stepped into the
shop and asked for Monsieur Lebrenn.
"He is not in," said Gildas.
"Then, my good lad," answered the valet, "you will please tell your
master that the colonel expects to see him this morning, before noon, to
settle with him a matter about some linen that he spoke about with your
mistress yesterday. Here is my master's address," added the valet,
placing a visiting card upon the counter. "Above all be certain to urge
your master to be punctual. The colonel does not like to be kept
waiting."
The valet left. Gildas took up the card mechanically, read it and cried
out, turning pale:
"By St. Anne of Auray! It is incredible--"
"What is it, Gildas?"
"Read, Jeanike!"
And with a trembling hand he reached out the card to the young girl who
read:
COUNT GONTHRAM OF PLOUERNEL.
Colonel of Dragoons.
18 Paradis-Poissonniere Street.
"A puzzling, a fear-inspiring house this is!" Gildas repeated several
times, raising his hands to heaven, while Jeanike herself looked as
astonished and almost as frightened as the young shop-assistant.