The Project Gutenberg EBook of Penguin Island, by Anatole France

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Title: Penguin Island

Author: Anatole France

Release Date: February 25, 2006 [EBook #1930]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PENGUIN ISLAND ***

Produced by Aaron Cannon and David Widger

PENGUIN ISLAND

by ANATOLE FRANCE

CONTENTS

BOOK I. THE BEGINNINGS
BOOK II. THE ANCIENT TIMES
BOOK III. THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE RENAISSANCE
BOOK IV. MODERN TIMES: TRINCO
BOOK V. MODERN TIMES: CHATILLON
BOOK VI. MODERN TIMES
BOOK VII. MODERN TIMES
BOOK VIII. FUTURE TIMES

BOOK I. THE BEGINNINGS

I. LIFE OF SAINT MAEL

Mael, a scion of a royal family of Cambria, was sent in his ninth year
to the Abbey of Yvern so that he might there study both sacred and
profane learning. At the age of fourteen he renounced his patrimony and
took a vow to serve the Lord. His time was divided, according to the
rule, between the singing of hymns, the study of grammar, and the
meditation of eternal truths.

A celestial perfume soon disclosed the virtues of the monk throughout
the cloister, and when the blessed Gal, the Abbot of Yvern, departed
from this world into the next, young Mael succeeded him in the
government of the monastery. He established therein a school, an
infirmary, a guest-house, a forge, work-shops of all kinds, and sheds
for building ships, and he compelled the monks to till the lands in the
neighbourhood. With his own hands he cultivated the garden of the Abbey,
he worked in metals, he instructed the novices, and his life was gently
gliding along like a stream that reflects the heaven and fertilizes the
fields.

At the close of the day this servant of God was accustomed to seat
himself on the cliff, in the place that is to-day still called St.
Mael's chair. At his feet the rocks bristling with green seaweed and
tawny wrack seemed like black dragons as they faced the foam of the
waves with their monstrous breasts. He watched the sun descending into
the ocean like a red Host whose glorious blood gave a purple tone to the
clouds and to the summits of the wa