Copyright, 1905, by the
NEW YORK LABOR NEWS CO.

TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.

Etienne Marcel, John Maillart, William Caillet, Adam theDevil and Charles the Wicked, King of Navarre, are the fiveleading personages in this story. Their figures and actions, thevirtues and foibles of the ones, the vices of the others, the errorsof all, are drawn with strict historic accuracy, all the fivebeing historic characters. Seeing the historic importance ofthe epoch in which they figured, and the types that these fivemen represent, the story of "The Iron Trevet; or, Jocelyn, theChampion" is more than an historic narrative, it is more thana treatise on the philosophy of history, it is a treatise on humannature, it is a compendium of lessons inestimable to whomsoeverhis or her good or evil genius throws into the clash of humancurrents, and to those who, though not themselves participants,still may wish to understand that which they are spectators ofand which, some way or other, they are themselves affected byand, some way or other, are bound to either support or resist.

In a way, "The Iron Trevet; or, Jocelyn the Champion" isthe uniquest of the series of brilliant stories that the genius ofEugene Sue has enriched the world with under the collective titleof "The Mysteries of the People"—we can recall no other instancein which so much profound and practical instruction is soskillfully clad in the pleasing drapery of fiction, and one withinso small a compass.

To America whose youthful years deprive her of historic perspective,this little story, or rather work, can not but be of service.To that vast English-speaking world at large, now throbbingwith the pulse of awakening aspirations, this translation disclosesanother treasure trove, long and deliberately held closed to itin the wrappage of the foreign tongue in which the originalappeared.

DANIEL DE LEON.

New York, April 13, 1904.

INDEX