Chapter I: Preface: To the Translation

_The Brass Bell_; or, _The Chariot of Death_ is the second of Eugene Sue's monumental serial known under the collective title of _The Mysteries of the People; or History of a Proletarian Family Across the Ages_.

The first story--_The Gold Sickle; or, Hena, the Virgin of the Isle of Sen_--fittingly preludes the grand drama conceived by the author. There the Gallic people are introduced upon the stage of history in the simplicity of their customs, their industrious habits, their bravery, lofty yet childlike--such as they were at the time of the Roman invasion by Caesar, 58 B. C. The present story is the thrilling introduction to the class struggle, that starts with the conquest of Gaul, and, in the subsequent seventeen stories, is pathetically and instructively carried across the ages, down to the French Revolution of 1848.

D. D. L.

TABLE OF CONTENTS.

Preface to the Translation