The Blacksmith's Hammer; or, The Peasant Code: A Tale of the Grand Monarch
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INTRODUCTION.
I, Salaun Lebrenn, the son of Stephan, who was the son of Antonicq, whofinished the legend of The Pocket Bible, begun by his grandfatherChristian the printer--I, Salaun Lebrenn, am the writer of the followingnarrative.
To you, my last-born, Alain Lebrenn, the child of my old age, I bequeaththis legend, a continuation of our plebeian annals. I shall join tothese pages the head of a blacksmith's hammer. It will increase thenumber of our family relics. You are to transmit it, jointly with ourannals, to your own descendants.
My grandfather Antonicq Lebrenn died in his sixty-eighth year, onNovember 11, 1616. Stephan, Antonicq's son, was twenty-three years ofage at the time of his father's decease. He continued to be a farmer onthe Karnak farm, a dependency of the fief of Mezlean, held under thesuzerainty of the seigniory of Plouernel. Obedient to the _law ofusage_, after a certain number of years Stephan became a vassal of theseigniory. At the age of twenty-six, in 1619, he married, and had twosons--myself, Salaun, born in 1625, and my brother Gildas, born in 1628.Our father Stephan, a good man, but timid and resigned, submittedwithout a murmur to all the impositions, all the affronts, and all thesufferings of vassalage. He died in his fifty-ninth year on February13, 1651. My brother Gildas, a man of as good, patient and submissive adisposition as my father, succeeded him in the holding of the Karnakfarm, located on the coast of Armorican Brittany. Myself, being of aless submissive disposition than Gildas, and having chosen a sailor'slife for my vocation, engaged as ship's boy on board one of the vesselsin the port of Vannes. I was then fifteen years old. I made manyvoyages, and attained the office of supercargo, and later of captain ofa merchant vessel. Thanks to my earnings, I was later enabled topurchase a ship, and sail it on my own account. In 1646--during thereign of Louis XIV who succeeded his father Louis XIII--I married forthe first time. My first wife was Janik Tankeru, the sister of ablacksmith of Vannes. My dear and lamented wife made my life as happy ascircumstances allowed, and I returned to her the happiness I owed her.In 1651 she bore me a son whom I named Nominoe. Alas! I was to survivehim. You will now read his history in this narrative that I leave toyou, son of Joel--a lamentable narrative which I have written, oftenmoistening it with my tears.
PART I.
HOLLAND.