



Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books






Transcriber's Note:
  1. Page scan source:
     http://books.google.com/books?id=PWUTAAAAYAAJ&dq






                                 Regina
                                   or
                        The Sins of the Fathers






                                 REGINA
                       OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS


                                   BY
                           HERMANN SUDERMANN




                            _TRANSLATED BY_
                          _BEATRICE MARSHALL_




                   LONDON: JOHN LANE, THE BODLEY HEAD
                  NEW YORK: JOHN LANE COMPANY. MCMVII






                          COPYRIGHT, 1898, BY
                               John Lane.

                               *   *   *

                          COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY
                           John Lane Company.






                                 REGINA
                       OR THE SINS OF THE FATHERS




                               CHAPTER I


Peace was signed, and the world, which for so long had been the great
Corsican's plaything, came to itself again. It came to itself, bruised
and mangled, bleeding from a thousand wounds, and studded with
battle-fields like a body with festering sores. Yet, in the rebound
from bondage to freedom, men did not realise that there was anything
very pitiable in their condition. The ground from which their wheat
sprang, they reflected, would bear all the richer fruit from being
soaked in blood, and if bullets and bayonets had thinned their ranks,
there was now more elbow-room for those who were left.

The yawning vacuums in the seething human caldron gave a man space to
breathe in. One great chorus of rejoicing from the Rock of Gibraltar to
the North Cape ascended heavenwards. Bells in every steeple were set in
motion, and from every altar and from every humble hearth arose prayers
