III. THE SPECTRE OF WISIGARDE 161 IV. THE LION OF POITIERS 170 V. IN THE TREASURE-CHAMBER 184 VI. THE BEAR OF MONT-DORE 194 VII. IN THE ERGASTULA 203 VIII. IN THE BANQUET HALL 211 IX. THE RESCUE 235 X. COUNT AND VAGRE 242 PART IV. GHILDE. CHAP. I. AT THE HEARTH OF JOEL 251 II. ON THE HILL NEAR MARCIGNY 258 III. THE DEATH OF CHRAM 272 EPILOGUE 281 TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE The invasion of Gaul by Clovis introduced feudalism in France, which is equivalent to saying in Europe, France being the teeming womb of the great historic events of that epoch. It goes without saying that so vast a social system as that of feudalism could not be perfected in a day, or even during one reign. Indeed, generations passed, and it was not until the Age of Charlemagne that feudalism can be said to have taken some measure of shape and form. Between the Ages of Clovis and Charlemagne a period of turbulence ensued altogether peculiar to the combined circumstances that feudalism was forced to struggle with two foes--one internal, the disintegrating forces that ever accompany a new movement; the other external, the stubborn and inspiring resistance, on the part of the native masses, to the conqueror from the wilds of Germania. Historians, with customary levity, have neglected to reproduce this interesting epoch in the annals of that social structure that is mother to the social structure now prevalent. The task was undertaken and successfully accomplished by Eugene Sue in this boisterous historic novel entitled _The Poniard's Hilt; or, Karadeucq and Ronan_, the sixth of his majestic series of historic novels, _The Mysteries of the People; or, History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages_. The leading characters are all historic. It required the genius, the learning, the poetry, the tact, withal the daring of a Sue to weave these characters into a fascinating tale and draw a picture as vivid as the quartos, from which the facts are gathered, are musty with old age. DANIEL DE LEON. January, 1908. PART I THE KORRIGANS CHAPTER I. ARAIM. Occasionally they are long-lived, these descendants of the good Joel, who, five hundred and fifty years ago and more lived in this identical region, near the sacred stones of the forest of Karnak. Yes, the descendants of the good Joel are, occasionally, long-lived, seeing that I, Araim, who to-day trace these lines in the seventy-seventh year of my life, saw my grandfather Gildas die fifty-six years ago at the advanced age of ninety-six, after having inscribed in his early youth a few lines in our family archives.