E-text prepared by Chuck Greif and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from scanned images of public domain material generously made available by the Google Books Library Project (http://books.google.com/) Note: Images of the original pages are available through the the Google Books Library Project. See http://books.google.com/books?vid=XvMYAAAAYAAJ&id THE INFANT'S SKULL Or The End of the World A Tale of the Millennium by EUGENE SUE Translated from the Original French by Daniel De Leon New York Labor News Company, 1904 Copyright, 1904, by the New York Labor News Company TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE Among the historic phenomena of what may be called "modern antiquity," there is none comparable to that which was witnessed on the first day of the year 1000, together with its second or adjourned catastrophe thirty-two years later. The end of the world, at first daily expected by the Apostles, then postponed--upon the authority of Judaic apocalyptic writings, together with the Revelations of St. John the Divine,--to the year 1000, and then again to thirty-two years later, until it was finally adjourned _sine die_, was one of those beliefs, called "theologic," that have had vast and disastrous mundane effect. _The Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World_, figures at that period. It is one of that series of charming 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. As with all the stories of this series by the talented Sue, _The Infant's Skull; or, The End of the World_, although, one of the shortest, rescues invaluable historic facts from the dark and dusty recesses where only the privileged few can otherwise reach them. Thus its educational value is equal to its entertaining merit. It is a gem in the necklace of gems that the distinguished author has felicitously named _The Mysteries of the People; or The History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages_. DANIEL DE LEON. New York, April 20, 1904. INDEX Translator's Preface iii Part I. The Castle of Compiegne. Chapter 1. The Fountain of the Hinds 3 Chapter 2. The Idiot 11 Chapter 3. Louis the Do-Nothing 15 Chapter 4. A Royal Couple 18 Chapter 5. The Founding of a Dynasty 23 Chapter 6. Yvon and Marceline 27 Chapter 7. The Stock of Joel 33 Part II. The End of the World. Chapter 1. The Apocalyptic Frenzy 39 Chapter 2. Yvon the Forester's Hut 46 Chapter 3. On the Buck's Track 48