th Severine followed. For the first time
Lantier's blood lust was not aroused; the knowledge that this woman
had killed seemed to constitute her a being apart and sacred. After the
murder of Grandmorin a gradual disintegration of Roubaud's character set
in, and he became in time a confirmed gambler. His relations with his
wife were ultimately so strained that she induced Lantier to promise to
murder him, in order that they might fly together to America with
the proceeds of a small legacy she had received from Grandmorin. The
arrangements were made, but at the last moment Lantier's frenzy overtook
him, and it was Severine who was struck down by the knife destined for
her husband. Lantier escaped without suspicion; but Roubaud, who
was found on the scene of the crime under circumstances considered
compromising, was tried, and along with a companion equally innocent,
was sentenced to penal servitude for life. But Nemesis was not distant;
Jacques had aroused the jealous fury of his fireman, Pecqueux, who, one
night in 1870, attacked him as they were driving a train loaded with
soldiers bound for the war. A fierce struggle followed, and in the end
the two men fell from the engine and were cut in pieces beneath the
wheels of the train, which, no longer under control, rushed on into the
darkness with its living freight.

Germinal.

A novel dealing with the labour question in its special relation to
coal-mining. The scene of the book is laid in the north of France at a
time preceding and during a great strike; the hero is Etienne Lantier
(_La Fortune des Rougon_ and _L'Assommoir_). In a moment of passion
Lantier had struck one of his superiors, and having been dismissed from
his employment as an engineer, found it difficult to get work, till,
after drifting from place to place, he eventually became a coal-miner.
The hardships of the life and its miserable remuneration impressed
him deeply, and he began to indoctrinate his comrades with a spirit of
revolt. His influence grew, and he became the acknowledged leader of the
strike which followed. The result was disastrous. After weeks of misery
from cold and hunger the infuriated workmen attempted to destroy one of
the pits, and were fired upon by soldiers sent to guard it. Many were
killed, and the survivors, with their spirits crushed, returned to work.
But worse was yet to come. Souvarine, an Anarchist, disgusted with the
ineffectual struggle, brought about an inundation of th