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.