Bulwer Lytton observes of fiction that, when aspiring at something higher than mere romance, it does not pervert, but elucidates the facts of the times in which the scene is placed; hence, that fiction serves to illustrate those truths which history is too often compelled to leave to the tale-teller, the dramatist and the poet. In this story, _The Blacksmith's Hammer; or, The Peasant Code_--the seventeenth of the charming series of Eugene Sue's historic novels, _The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages_--the author reaches a height in which are combined all the elements that Bulwer Lytton distributes among history, tale, drama and poetry. The history is clean cut; the tale fascinates; its dramatic presentation is matchless; last, not least, the poetic note is lyric. As historian, as tale-teller, as dramatist and as a poet the author excels himself in this narrative, that serves at once as a sequel of the age described in the previous story, _The Pocket Bible; or, Christian the Printer_, and as prelude to the great epopee of the next story that deals with the French Revolution. DANIEL DE LEON. New York, March, 1910. INTRODUCTION. I, Salaun Lebrenn, the son of Stephan, who was the son of Antonicq, who finished the legend of The Pocket Bible, begun by his grandfather Christian the printer--I, Salaun Lebrenn, am the writer of the following narrative. To you, my last-born, Alain Lebrenn, the child of my old age, I bequeath this legend, a continuation of our plebeian annals. I shall join to these pages the head of a blacksmith's hammer. It will increase the number of our family relics. You are to transmit it, jointly with our annals, to your own descendants.