And all the bards and all the druids, the female druids and the virgins of the Isle of Sen repeated in chorus to the sound of the harps and the cymbals:
"Happy, Happy Julyan! Glory to Julyan!"
And all the tribes, feeling the thrill of curiosity of death and certain that they all would eventually become acquainted with the marvels of the other worlds, repeated with their thousands of voices:
"Happy Julyan! Happy Julyan!"
Standing erect upon his pyre, his face radiant, and at his feet the body of Armel, Julyan raised his inspired eyes towards the brilliant moon, opened his blouse, drew his long knife, held up the nosegay of vervain to heaven with his left hand, and with his right firmly plunged his knife into his breast, uttering as he did so in a strong voice:
"Happy—happy am I. I am to join Armel!"
The pyre was immediately lighted. Julyan, raised for a last, time his nosegay of vervain to heaven, and then vanished in the midst of the blinding flames, while the chants of the bards and the clang of harp and cymbals resounded far and wide.
In their impatience to see and know the mysteries of the other world, a large number of men and women of the tribes rushed towards Julyan's pyre for the purpose of departing with him and of offering to Hesus an immense hecatomb with their bodies. But Talyessin, the eldest of the druids, ordered the ewaghs to restrain and hold these faithful people back. He cried out to them:
"Enough blood has flown without that which is still to flow.But the hour has come when the blood of Gaul should flow only for freedom. The blood that is shed for liberty is also an agreeable offering to the All-Powerful."
It was not without great effort that the ewaghs prevented the threatened rush of voluntary human sacrifices. The pyre of Julyan and Armel burned until the flames had nothing more to feed upon.
Again profound silence fell upon the crowd. Hena, the virgin of the Isle of Sen, had ascended the third pyre.
Joel and Margarid, their three sons, Guilhern, Albinik and Mikael, Guilhern's wife and little children all of whom so dearly loved Hena, all her relatives and all the members of her tribe held one another in a close embrace, and said to one another:
"There is Hena.... There is our Hena!"
As the virgin of the Isle of Sen stood upon the pyre that was ornamented with white veils, greens and flowers, the crowds of the tribes cried in one voice: "How beautiful she is!... How holy!"
Joel writes it now down in all sincerity. His daughter Hena was indeed very beautiful as she stood erect on the pyre, lighted by the mellow light of the moon and resplendent in her black tunic, her blonde hair and her green chaplet, while her arms, whiter than ivory, embraced her gold harp!
The bards ordered silence.
The virgin of the Isle of Sen sang in a voice as pure as her own soul:
"The daughter of Joel and Margarid comes to offer gladly her life as a sacrifice to Hesus!
"Oh, All-Powerful! From the stranger deliver the soil of our father!
"Gauls of Britanny, you have the lance and the sword!
"The daughter of Joel and Margarid has but her blood. She offers it voluntarily to Hesus!
"Oh, Almighty God! Render invincible the Gallic lance andsword! Oh, Hesus, take my blood, it is yours ... save our sacred fatherland!"
The eldest of the female druids stood all this while on the pyre behind Hena with the sacred knife in her hand. When Hena's chant was ended, the knife glistened in the air and struck the virgin of the Isle of Sen.
Her mother and her brothers, all the members of her tribe and her father Joel saw Hena fall upon her knees, cross her arms, turn her celestial face towards the moon, and cry with a still sonorous voice:
"Hesus ... Hesus ... by the blood that flows.... Mercy for Gaul!"
"Gauls, by this blood that flows, victory to our arms!"
Thus the sacrifice of Hena was consummated amidst the religious admiration of the tribes. All repeated the last words of the brave virgin:
"Hesus, mercy for Gaul!... Gauls, victory to our arms!"
Several young men, being fired with enthusiasm by the heroic example and beauty of Hena sought to kill themselves upon her pyre in order to be re-born with her. The ewaghs held them back. The flames soon enveloped the pyre and Hena vanished in their dazzling splendor. A few minutes later there was nothing left of the virgin and her pyre but a heap of ashes. A high wind sat in from the sea and dispersed the atoms. The virgin of the Isle of Sen, brilliant and pure as the flame that consumed her, had vanished into space to be re-born and to await beyond for the arrival of those whom she had loved.
The cymbals and harps resounded anew, and the chief of the bards struck up the chant:
"To arms, ye Gauls, to arms!
"The innocent blood of a virgin flowed for your sakes, and shall not yours flow for the fatherland! To arms! The Romans are here. Strike, Gauls, strike at their heads! Strike hard! See the enemy's blood flow like a stream! It rises up to your knees! Courage! Strike hard! Gauls, strike the Romans! Still harder!Harder still! You see the enemy's blood extend like a lake! It rises up to your chests! Courage! Strike still harder, Gauls! Strike the Romans! Strike harder still! You will rest to-morrow.... To-morrow Gaul will be free! Let, to-day, from the Loire to the ocean, but one cry resound—'To arms!'"
As if carried away by the breath of war, all the tribes dispersed, running to their arms. The moon had gone down; dark night set in. But from all parts of the woods, from the bottoms of the valleys, from the tops of the hills where the signal fires were burning, a thousand voices echoed and re-echoed the chant of the bards:
"To arms! Strike, Gauls! Strike hard at the Romans! To arms!"
* * *
The above truthful account of all that happened at our poor home on the birthday of my glorious Hena, a day that also saw her heroic sacrifice—that account has been written by me, Joel, the brenn of the tribe of Karnak, at the last moon of October of the first year that Julius Cæsar came to invade Gaul. I wrote it upon the rolls of white skin that my glorious daughter Hena gave me as a keepsake, and my eldest son, Guilhern has attached to them the keepsake he received from her—the mystic gold sickle of the virgin druid priestess. Let the two ever remain together.
After me, my eldest son Guilhern shall carefully preserve both the writing and the emblem, and after Guilhern, the sons of his sons are charged to transmit them from generation to generation, to the end that our family may for all time preserve green the memory of Hena, the virgin of the Isle of Sen.
(The End.)
THE INFANT'S SKULL;ORTHE END OF THE WORLD.By EUGENE SUE.Translated from the original FrenchBy DANIEL DE LEON.This is one of that series of thrilling stories by Eugene Sue in which historic personages and events are so artistically grouped that, without the fiction losing by the otherwise solid facts and without the solid facts suffering by the fiction, both are enhanced and combinedly act as a flash-light upon the past—and no less so upon the future.PRICE, FIFTY CENTS.New York Labor News Co.2, 4 & 6 New Reade StreetNew York, N. Y.
THE INFANT'S SKULL;ORTHE END OF THE WORLD.
By EUGENE SUE.
Translated from the original FrenchBy DANIEL DE LEON.
This is one of that series of thrilling stories by Eugene Sue in which historic personages and events are so artistically grouped that, without the fiction losing by the otherwise solid facts and without the solid facts suffering by the fiction, both are enhanced and combinedly act as a flash-light upon the past—and no less so upon the future.
PRICE, FIFTY CENTS.
New York Labor News Co.2, 4 & 6 New Reade StreetNew York, N. Y.
THE PILGRIM'S SHELLORFERGAN THE QUARRYMANBy Eugene Sue.Translated by Daniel De Leon.283 pp., on fine book paper, cloth 75 cents.This great historical story by the eminent French writer is one of the majestic series that cover the leading and successive episodes of the history of the human race. The novel treats of the feudal system, the first Crusade and the rise of the Communes in France. It is the only translation into English of this masterpiece of Sue.The New York Sun says: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 effort 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.NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.,2, 4 & 6 New Reade St., New York.
THE PILGRIM'S SHELL
OR
FERGAN THE QUARRYMAN
By Eugene Sue.
Translated by Daniel De Leon.
283 pp., on fine book paper, cloth 75 cents.
This great historical story by the eminent French writer is one of the majestic series that cover the leading and successive episodes of the history of the human race. The novel treats of the feudal system, the first Crusade and the rise of the Communes in France. It is the only translation into English of this masterpiece of Sue.
The New York Sun says:
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 effort 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.
NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.,2, 4 & 6 New Reade St., New York.
Woman Under SocialismBy August BebelTranslated from the Original German of the Thirty-third Edition by Daniel De Leon, Editor of the New York Daily People, with translator's preface and foot notes.Cloth, 400 pages, with pen drawing of the author.Price, $1.00The complete emancipation of woman, and her complete equality with man is the final goal of our social development, whose realization no power on earth can prevent;—and this realization is possible only by a social change that shall abolish the rule of man over man—hence also of capitalists over working-men. Only then will the human race reach its highest development. The "Golden Age" that man has been dreaming of for thousands of years, and after which they have been longing, will have come at last. Class rule will have reached its end for all time, and along with it, the rule of man over woman.CONTENTS:WOMAN IN THE PAST.Before Christianity.Under Christianity.WOMAN IN THE PRESENT.Sexual Instinct, Wedlock, Checks and Obstructions to Marriage.Further Checks and Obstructions to Marriage, Numerical Proportion ofthe Sexes, Its Causes and Effects.Prostitution a Necessary Institution of the Capitalist World.Woman's Position as a Breadwinner. Her Intellectual Faculties,Darwinism and the Condition of Society.Woman's Civic and Political Status.The State and Society.The Socialization of Society.WOMAN IN THE FUTURE.INTERNATIONALITY.POPULATION AND OVER-POPULATION.NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.2-6 New Reade St.New York City
Woman Under Socialism
By August Bebel
Translated from the Original German of the Thirty-third Edition by Daniel De Leon, Editor of the New York Daily People, with translator's preface and foot notes.
Cloth, 400 pages, with pen drawing of the author.
Price, $1.00
The complete emancipation of woman, and her complete equality with man is the final goal of our social development, whose realization no power on earth can prevent;—and this realization is possible only by a social change that shall abolish the rule of man over man—hence also of capitalists over working-men. Only then will the human race reach its highest development. The "Golden Age" that man has been dreaming of for thousands of years, and after which they have been longing, will have come at last. Class rule will have reached its end for all time, and along with it, the rule of man over woman.
CONTENTS:
WOMAN IN THE PAST.Before Christianity.Under Christianity.WOMAN IN THE PRESENT.Sexual Instinct, Wedlock, Checks and Obstructions to Marriage.Further Checks and Obstructions to Marriage, Numerical Proportion ofthe Sexes, Its Causes and Effects.Prostitution a Necessary Institution of the Capitalist World.Woman's Position as a Breadwinner. Her Intellectual Faculties,Darwinism and the Condition of Society.Woman's Civic and Political Status.The State and Society.The Socialization of Society.WOMAN IN THE FUTURE.INTERNATIONALITY.POPULATION AND OVER-POPULATION.
NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.2-6 New Reade St.New York City
The Paris CommuneBy Karl Marx, with the elaborate introduction of Frederick Engels. It includes the First and Second manifestos of the International Workingman's Association, the Civil War in France and the Anti-Plebiscite Manifesto. Near his close of the Civil War in France, turning from history to forecast the future, Marx says:"After Whit-Sunday, 1871, there can be neither peace nor truce possible between the Workingmen of France and the appropriators of their produce. The iron hand of a mercenary soldiery may keep for a time both classes tied down in common oppression. But the battle must break out in ever growing dimensions, and there can be no doubt as to who will be the victor in the end—the appropriating few, or the immense working majority. And the French working class is only the vanguard of the modern proletariat."Price, 50 cents.New York Labor News Co.2, 4, & 6 New Reade Street,New York City.
The Paris Commune
By Karl Marx, with the elaborate introduction of Frederick Engels. It includes the First and Second manifestos of the International Workingman's Association, the Civil War in France and the Anti-Plebiscite Manifesto. Near his close of the Civil War in France, turning from history to forecast the future, Marx says:
"After Whit-Sunday, 1871, there can be neither peace nor truce possible between the Workingmen of France and the appropriators of their produce. The iron hand of a mercenary soldiery may keep for a time both classes tied down in common oppression. But the battle must break out in ever growing dimensions, and there can be no doubt as to who will be the victor in the end—the appropriating few, or the immense working majority. And the French working class is only the vanguard of the modern proletariat."
Price, 50 cents.
New York Labor News Co.2, 4, & 6 New Reade Street,New York City.