The turbulent epoch that rocked the cradle of the Carlovingian dynasty, the dynasty from which issued the colossal historic figure of Charlemagne, is the epoch of this touching story--the eighth of the series of Eugene Sue's historic novels known collectively under the title "_The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages_." From the seething caldron of the valleys of the western Rhine, inundated by the Arabs from the south, the Frisians from the north, the Saxons from the west, and in which the chants of Moslems, of Christians and of barbarians mixed into the one common cry of desolating war, the feudal social system, previously introduced by Clovis, and now threatened to be engulfed, emerged from the chaos as a social institution. Many a characteristic of feudalism would be missed if this, a crucial period of its existence, is not properly apprehended. As in all the others of this series of Eugene Sue's stories, the information is imparted without the reader's knowledge. What may be termed the plot seizes and keeps the interest from start to finish, steadily enriching the mind with knowledge historically inestimable, besides connecting with the era described in the previous story--_The Branding Needle; or, The Monastery of Charolles_--and preparing the ground for the thrilling events that are the subject of the succeeding narrative--_The Carlovingian Coins; or, The Daughters of Charlemagne_. DANIEL DE LEON. New York, 1904. PROLOGUE CHAPTER I. NARBONNE.