[Gutenberg 33618] • The Branding Needle; or, The Monastery of Charolles / A Tale of the First Communal Charter

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. Semiramis, Brunhild, Catherine of Medicis constitute a trinity of historic women unique in their greatness. Their ambition was boundless, their intellectual powers matchless, the depths of their immorality unfathomable. As such they were the scourges of their respective ages. Queen Brunhild, a central figure in this superb story, may be said to be the Sixth Century heiress of the Semiramis of over ten centuries earlier, and the progenitor of the Catherine of nearly ten centuries later, who figures later in the sixteenth story of this series of Eugene Sue's of historic novels named by him The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages.

This story—The Branding Needle; or The Monastery of Charolles—is the seventh of the series. Both in the tragic picture of Brunhild, and of the rustic, industrial and peaceful picture of the settlement of Charolles, the story constitutes a connecting link between the turbulence of the previous story—The Poniard's Hilt; or, Karadeucq and Ronan—and the renewed turbulence of the age depicted in the story that follows—The Abbatial Crosier; or, Bonaik and Septimine.

With much color of truth does Eugene Sue look upon the settlement of Charolles as the remote yet initial step to the Communes which, a few centuries later, constituted a marked feature of the history of France; and ultimately led to historic events of world-wide importance. The circumstances under which the royal charter of Charolles was granted, described with historic accuracy, its perils and its vicissitudes, unfold a page of history of no slight value to the student of history, and of fascinating interest to the lover of historic narratives.

Daniel De Leon. New York, February, 1908.