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32X

JOAN

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DE QUINCEY.

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MEMORIAL LIHRAUY

PRESENTED BY

Rev. C,H. JohnSvm.

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JOAN OF ARC.

THOMAS D

UINCEY.

WITH HXPLA

ORY NOTES.

■ '•-/ w^'

Authorized hy Council of Public Instruction for use in
Schools of Nova Scotia.

A. & W. MAC KIN LAY,

Halifax, N. S.

1900.

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Ra'Al,

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i'RDM

JOAX OF ARC.

IN IlKFEKKNCE TO M. MICIICI.ET's HISTORY OF FRANCE.

What is to be thought of her? What is to be thoufrht of
the poor shepherd girl from the hills and forests of Lorraine,
that -like the Ilelirew shepherd boy from the hills and
forests of Judea— rose suddenly out of the (luiet, out of the
safety, out of the religious insphation, rooted in deep
pastoral solitudes, to a station in the van of armies, and to
the n)ore perilous station at the right hand of kings? The
Hebrew boy inaugurated his i)atriotic mission by an (ict, Uiy
a victorious act, such as no man could denj'. But so did
the girl of Lorraine, if we read her story as it was read by
those who saw her nearest. Adverse armies bore witness
to the boy as no pretender ; but so they did to the gentle
girl. Judged by the voice of all who saw them from a
station of good-will, both were found true and loyal to any
promises involved in their first acts. Enemies it was that
made the difference between their subsequent fortunes.
The boy rose to a splendor and a noonday prosperitj^ both
personal and public, that rang through the records of his
people, and became a by-word amongst his posterity for a
thousand years, until the scepter was departing from Judah.
The poor, forsaken girl, on the contrary, drank not herself
from that cup of rest which she had secured for France. She
never sang together with the songs that rose in her native
Domremy.''' as echoes to the departing steps of invaders.
She mingled not in festal dances at Vaucouleurs which cele-
brated in rapture the redemption of France. No I for her

1. See I. Samuel, xvii.

2. Domremy : More generally called Domrtmy-la-Pucellc, in honor of
Joan of Arc. The house in which she was born is preserved as a national
relic. .Near it is a handsome mouunicnt. with a colossal statue of the
heroine. A chapel has also been built to her memory.

I\^%¥l^

SELECTIONS I'llOM l)E gUINCKY.

voice was then silent: no! for her feet were <lnst. Pure,
innocent, noble-hearted pitl ! whom, from earliest youth,
ever I believe in as full of truth and self-sacriliee, this was
amongst the strongest pledges for /A// truth, that never
once— no, not for a moment (<f wcalini'ss— didst thou revel
in the vi&inn of coronets and lionor from man. Coronetd
for thee! Oh no! Jlonors, if they come wlien all U over,
are for those that share thy blood/' Daughter of Donneiny,
when th(? gratitude of thy king shall awaken, thou wilt be
sleeping the i^leepof the dead. Call her. King of France,
but she will not hear thee ! Cite her by thy apparitors'* to
come and receive a robe of honor, but she will be foimd en
contumaccj' AVhen the tlnmders of universal France, as
even yet may happen, shall proclaim the grandeur of the
poor shepherd girl, that gave up all for her country, tliy
ear, young shepherd glil, will have been deaf for five
centuries. To suifer and to do, that was thy portion in this
life; that was thy destiny ; and not for a moment was it
hidden from thyself. Life, thou saidst, is short : and the
sleep which is in the grave is long ! Let me use that life,
so transitory, for the glory of those heavenly dreams des-
tined to comfort the sleep which is so long. This pure
creature— pure froin every siispicion of oven a visionary
self-interest, even as she was pure in senses more obvious —
never c.ice did this holy ciiild, as regarded herself, relax
from her belief in the darkness that was travelling to meet
her. She might not prefiguie the very manner of her
death ; she saw not in vision, perhaps, the aerial altitude
of the fiery scalfold, the spectators without end on every
road pouring into Iloiien as to a coronation, the surging
smoke, the volleying ilanies, the hostile faces all around, the
pitying eye that lurked but liere and there, until nature and
imperishable truth broke loose from artificial restraints ;
— these might not be apparent through the mists of the
hurrying future. But the voice that called her to death,
that she heard forever.

3. A relative of Joan of Arc, probably her brother, was ennobled by
the title of Dn Lis.

4. Apparitors : The summonert-, or attendants, upon the offlcers of
ccclesia8tical courts.

5. En contiiraace : A French legal term denoting the position of one
who being criminally charged does not appear for trial.

SEI.KCTIONH niOM DK QlMNCEY.

(ireat was lh« Ibiono of Fnincofvon in thoso days, and
great was he that sat upon it ; hut well .loatina know that
not the thro-.io, nor* he that sat upon it, was for hvr ; hut,
on the contrary, that ^ho was for thetn ; not s>he by thoni,
hut they hy lier, should rise from the dust. (iorg<'OUs wore
the lilies of Fi'aiice,*"' and for centurij's had the privilege to
spread their beauty ov<»r land and sea, until, in another
century, the wrath of (u>d and man combined to wither
them; but well Joantia knew, early at Domieniy, she had
read that bitter truth, that tlu' lilies of France would decor"
ate no garland for her. Flower nor bud, bell nor blossom,
would ever bloom for her.

But stay. What reason is th<?i'e for taking up this
subject of Joanna precisely in the spring of 1S17? i>[ight
it not have been left till the spring of U)17 ; or, perhaps,
left till called for? Yes, but it i.s called for ; and clamor-
ously. You are aware, reader, that amongst the n)any
original thinkers whom modern France has pioduced, one
of the reputed leaders is M. Michelet." All these writers
are of a revolutionary cast ; not in a politi('al sense merely,
but in all senses ; mad, oftentimes, as iNIarch hares;** crazy
with the laughing-gas of recovered liberty; drunk with the
wine-cup of their mighty revolution ; snorting, whinnying,
throwing up their heels, like wild horses in the boundless
pampas,aad running races of defiance with snipes, or with
the winds, or with their own shadows, if they can find
nothing else to challenge;. Some time or other f , that have
leisure to read, may introduce i/on, that have not, to two or
three dozen of these writers ; of whom I can ass\u*e you
beforehand, that they are often profound, and at intervals
are even as impassioned as if they were come of our best

('). Lilies of France ; The lily, or fleur-de-lis (flower of the lily) is said
to havo been the royal enibleiii of France from the time of Clovis. 'i'he
devolution of 1789-'.)3 caused the royal lily to " wither," when Louis XV'l.
was beheaded, and the people for a time ruled the kingdom.

7. Jules Michelet [meej;h-la ] (17U8-lS7i) : A French historian Professor
of history in the College of France. His principal works are *' History of
France," "History of the French Revolution," " Women of the He volu-
tion," and several books of a poetical and speculative character, sucii as
" The Bird," " The Insect," " Tiie Sea," and " Woman." His writings are
especially remarkable for their brilliancy of style.

8. *' As mad as a march hare" is a very old saying. In the month of
March hares are unusually wild and excitable.

si:i,i:( rioNs fi'.om dk i^uiNri-v.

Kiiglish blood. Hut now, confininj^ our at.tontiofi to M.
Micholi't, \vi? in KukI'IIhI — wIio know hitii best by bis worst
bi)ok," t.bo b(M)k ujifjiinst pilosis, otc— know biiu diHiidvan-
tugeoiisly. Tb.it book isarb;i|»s(Hly of incobn-cnco. Hut bis
** History of l'''r.'iiu'e " is <|uito anolbor tbijij^. A man, in
wbatKoevi'i- d'alL be sails, cannot strt'tcb away out of si^bt
when he is linked to tbe windin^^s of tbe sboie by towing-
ropes of bislory. Facts, and tbe conscijuenccs of facts,
draw tbe wiiler back to tbe falconer's lure from tbe giddiest
heij^bts of speculation. Here, tberefore,— in bis " France,"
— if not always free from flij^btiness, if now and tben oif
like a rocket for an airy wlieel in tlie clouds, M. Micbelet,
witb natural politeness, never forgets tbatbe lias left a large
audience wailing for bim on eaith, and gazing upwards in
anxiety for his return : return, tberefore, be does. liutbis-
tory, tiiough clear (.f certain temptations in one direction,
bas separate dangers of its own. It is impossible so to write
a history of France, or of England— works becoming every
hour more indispensable to tbe inevitably political man of
this day— without iM»rilous openings for error. If T, for
instance, on tbe part of England, should happen to turn my
labors in that channel, and (on tbe model of Lord Percy
going to Chevy Chase)

" A vow to God should make
My pleasure in the Mit^helet woods
Three suiniuer d;iys lo take,"'"

probably, from simple delirium, I might hunt M. Micbelet
into delirium trcinois. Two strong angels stand by the side
of history, whether French history or English, as heraldic
supporters : the angel of research on the left hand, that
must read millions of dusty parchments, and of pages blot-
ted with lies ; the angel of meditation on tbe right hand,
that must cle.anse these lying records with fire, even as of

9. His worst 1>ook ; A translation of the work *' Priests, Women, and
Families " had been published in London the year before.

10. A parody of the opening lines of the old ballad of " Chevy Chase :"

" The Percy out of Northumberland
And a vow to God made he.
That he would hunt in the mountains
Of Cheviot within day.s three."

yKLfCCTlONS FIU)M DK liLMMICV.

old llio (Ir.apoi'ie.s of nsltcsfos^^ wore ch'ansed, and must
<ini(k(Mi them int.) rrRouenited life. Willingly I acknow-
ledge that no man will ever avoid innmni'iable eriors of
detail; with so vast a compass of ground to traverse, this
is impossible ; hut siioli erroiv^ {thou;^h I have a htishel on
hand, at M. Michelet's service) are not tlie^ame I chase; it 18
the hiUer and unfair spii'it in which M. Miclielet writes
agaiuHt l*]n]Ljland. I^^ven //^(J^ after all, is hut my secondary
object ; the real o!ie is Joafina the Pucelle d'Orleans for
herself.

I am not going to write the Ilistoiyof La Pucelle :^'^ todo
this, or even circumstaiitially to report tl '» history of her
persecution and hitter death, of her struggle v'ith false wit-
nesHCH and with ensnaring judges, it would be necessary to
have before us al! the documents, and t ' t^refore tb^ collec-
tion onl" ri<\v forthcoming in Paris. But tJitj purpose is
narrower. There have been great thinkei s, disdaining tha
careless judgments of contemporaries, who have thrown
themselves boldly on the judgment of a far posterity, that
should liave had time to review, to ponder, to compare.
There have been great actors on the stage of tragic human-
ity that nn'ght, with the same depth of confidence, have
appealed from the levity of compatriot friends— too heart-
less for the sublime interest of their story, and too impatient
for the labor of sifting its perplexities— to the magnanimity
and justice of enemies. To this class belongs the Maid of
Arc. The ancient llomans were too faithful to the ideal of
grandeur in themselves not to relent, after a generation or
two, before the grandeur of Hannibal. ^'^ Mithridates"— a

11. AsbPStos; A form of hortibleiulo consistlnj? of flno crystfillino
fibers, with a silky luster, whieh may be woven into cloth. It is said lliat
the ancients wrapjx'd the bodies of Iheir dead in asbestos cloth, to keoj)
their ashes separate from those of t!io funeral pile. Ciiarleinat^ne, says
lcj,'end, was wont to astonisli his guests by throwing his asbestos table-
cloth into the fire after dinner.

12. La Pucello; '* The Maid," or " The Virgin ;" the common French
de-iignatioM for Joan of Arc.

13. Hannibxl ; The famous Carthaginian ,t;eneral, who when nine
years old was made by his fatlier, Ifamilcar, to swear eternal enmity to
Homo. In 217 H. c. ho led a vast army aci-oss the Alps, atul for a time
threatened the empire with total destruction. In 18;> u. v. he took poison
to escape falling into the hands of his old en.'mies.

14. Mitliridated; A ferocious king of I'unUis. who for many ycai's
waged war against the llomans. In the last war against I'ompey, 66
H. c. his 8on I'harnaccs having rebelled, INIilhridates, after attempting
inetrectually to poison himsulf, ordered one of his Gallic mercenaries to
dispatch him with his sword.

6 SELECTIONS FROM I)E QUINCE Y.

more doubLfnl person— yet merely for the mrij^ic persever-
ance of his indomitahlo n^dllco, won from the same Romans
the only real honor that ever he received on earth. And
we English have ever shown the same ho»n<ige to stubborn
enuiity. To work unflinchingly for the ruin of England ;
to say through life, by word and by deed, Delenda est
Anc/lia Vicfrix !^^ that one purpose of malice, faithfully
pursued, has quartered some people upon our national funds
of homage as by a perpetual annuity. Better than an
inherilance of service rendered to England herself, has
sometimes proved the most insane hatred to England.
Hyder Ali,^*^ even his son Tippoo, though so far inferioi', and
Napoleon, have all benefited by this disposition amongst
ourselves to exaggerate the merit of diabolic enmity. Not
one of these men was ever capable, in a solitary instance,
of praising an enemy [what do you say to that, reader?],
and yet in iliclr behalf, v.-e consent to forget, not their
crimes only, but (which is ^vorse) their hideous bigotry and
anti-magnanimous egotism, for nationality it was not.
Sulfrein,^' and some half-dozen of other French nautical
heroes, because rightly they did us all the mischief they
could (which was really great) are names justly reverenced
in England. On the same princl[)Ie, J^a Pncelle d'Orleans,
the victorious enemy of England, has been destined to
receive her deepest commensoration from the magnanimous
justice of Englishmen.

.Toanna, as we in England should call her, but, according
to her own statement, Jeanne, (or, as M. Michelet asserts,
Jean)d'Arc, was barn at Domrciny, a village on the marches
of Lorraine^** and Champagne, and dependent upon the
town of Vaucouleurs. I have called her a Lorrainer, not
simply because the word is prettier, but because Champagne

15. "Victorious Kn.^laiul must bn destroyed;" suggested by tho fam-
ous words with which the elder Cato is said to have ended all his
speeches, " Delenda est Carthago."

IG. Hyder All ; One of the most powerful princes of India, Sultan of
the state of IMysore. The defeat and death of his son Tippoo Sahib
occurred in 1791).

17. Suffreln Saint Tropez; A French admiral, wlio in 1780 captured
twelve merchant-ships from the British, and in 1781 defeated the British
commodore Joiiustone.

18. Marches ; An old French word for the border or frontier of a
country. See map of France in the loth century.

SELECTIONS FROM DE QUINCKY.

too odiously leminds us English of wh it are for ?/.s inicigin-
ary wines, which, undoubtedly, Ld Pucelle tiisted as rarely
as wo English; we English, because the chaujpagne of
London is chiefly grown in Devonshire ; La Pucelle^
because the champagne of (/hainpngne never, by any
chance, flowed into tlie fountain of Doniremy, from which
only she drank. M. Michelet will have her to be a Champe-
7wise, and for no better reason than that she " took after
her father," who happened to be a Cluunpenois.

These disputes, however, turn on refinements too nice.
Domremy stood upon the frontiers, and, like other frontiers,
produced a mired race representing tlie cis and the trans.^'^
A river (it is true) formed the boundary line at this point —
the river Meuse ; and tJuit, in old days, might have divided
the populations ; but in these days it did not : there were
bridges, there were ferries, and weddings cro-scd from the
right b ink to the left. Here lay two great roads, not so
niucli for travelers that were few, as for armies that were
too many by half. These two roads, one of which was the
great highroad between France Jind Germany, decussated
at this very point ; which is a learned way of saying that
they formed a St. Andrew's cross, or letter X. I hope the
compositor will choose a good large X, in which case the
point of intersection, the locus of conflux and intersection
for these four diverging arms, will finish the reader's
geographical education, by showing him to a hair's-breadth
where it was that Domremy stood. Those roads, so grandly
situated, as great trunk arteries between two mighty
realms, and haunted forever by wars, or rumors of wars
decussated (for anything I know to the contrary) absolutely
under Joanna's bedroom window ; one rolling away to the
right, past Monsieur d'Arc's old barn, and the other unac-
countably preferring to sweep round that odious man's
pig-sty to the left.

On whichever side of the border chance had thrown
Joanna, the same love to France would have been nurtured.
For it is a strange fact, noticed by M. Michelet and others,
that the Dukes of Bar and Lorraine had for generations
pursued the policy of eternal warfare with France on their

19. Tho cis and the trans ; Lat. on this side and on the other side.

SELECTIONS FROM DE QUINCKY.

own account, yet also of eternal amity and league with
France in caKe anybody else presumed to attack her. Let
peace settle upon France, and before long you might rely
\ipon seeing the little vixen Lorraine flying at the throat of
France. Let France be assailed by a formidable enemy,
and instantly you saw a duke of Lorraine insisting on
having his own throat cut in support of France; which
favor accordingly was cheerfully granted to him in three
great successive battles — twice by the English, viz, at
Crecy^'* and Agincourt,'^ once by the Sultan at Nicopolis.^'^

This sympathy with France during great eclipses, in
those that during ordinary seasons worL^ always teasing her
with brawls and guerilla inroads, strengthened the natural
piety to France of those that were confessedly the children
of her own house. The outpo.^ts of France, as one may
call the great frontier provinces, were of all localities the
most devoted to the Fleurs de Lis. To witness, at any great
crisis, the generous devotion to these lilies of the little fiery
cousin that in gentler weather was forever tilting at the
breast of France, c<nild not but fan the zeal of France's
legitimate daughters : whilst to occupy a post of honor on
the frontiers against an old hereditary enemy of France,
would naturally stimulate this zeal by a sentiment of u>ar-
tial pride, by a sense of danger always threatening, and of
hatred alwaj's smoldering. That great four-headed road
was a perjjetual memento to patriotic ardor. To say, this
way lies the road to Paris, and that other way to Aix-la-
Chapelle, this to Pra^^ue, that to Vienna, nourished the
warfare of the hrart by daily ministrations of sense. The
eye that watched for the giojuns of lance or helmet from
the hostile frontier, the e ir livit listened for the groaning
of wheels made the bi^^h-i-oad itself, with its relations to
centers so remote, into a manual of patriotic duty.

The situation, therefore, locafli/, of Joanna was full of

20. Crecy (Knor. Creasy): This famous battle was fought in 1346
between tlio Enu;li>'li under Edward III. and the TJlack t'rinoc and the
French under Philip VI.; 1200 French knights and 30,000 footnu?n wcro
slain. It marks the downfall of foiidalisni. C'onsulta history of England.

21. Aglncourt [aj'in-kort] : This victory was won by Henry V. in 1415.
The French lost 10,000 men, including many pi-incos and nobles.

22. Nicopolis; The allied armies of Hungary, Poland, and France,
under Kinr^ Sigismund. were signally defeated at this place in 1396 by the
Sultan Bajazct.

SELECTIONS FUO.M DE t^UlNCEV.

profound suggestions to a heart that listened for the stealthy
steps of change and fear that too surely were in motion.
But, if the place were grand, the time, the burden of the
time, was far more so. The air overhead in its upper cham-
bers WIS Inirtling with the obscure sound ; was dark with
sullen fermenting of storms that had been gathering lor a
hundred and thirty years. The battle of Agincourt, in
Joanna's childhood, had reopened the wounds of France.
Crecy and Poictiers,-*^ those withering overthrows for the
chivalry of France, had, before Agincourt occurred, been
tranquilized V^y more than half a century ; but this resurrec-
tion of their trumpet wails made the whole series of battles
and endless skirmishes take their stations as parts in one
drama. The graves that had closed sixty years ago, seemed
^o fly open in sympathy with a sorrow that echoed their
own. The monarchy of France labored in extremity, rocked
and reeled like a ship fighting with the darkness of mon-
soons. The madness of the poor king'-^* (Charles VI.) falling
in at such a crisis, like the case of women laboring in child-
birth during the storming of a city, trebled the awfulness
of the time. Even the wild story of the incident which had
immediately occasioned the explosion of this madness— the
case of a man unknown, gloomy, and perhaps maniacal
himself, coming out of a forest at noonday, laying his hand
upon the bridle of the king's horse, checking him for a
moment to say, ' O king, thou art betrayed,' and then
vanishing, no man knew whither, as he had appeared for
no man knew what— fell in with the universal prostration
of mind that laid France on her knees, as before the slow
unweaving of some ancient prophetic doom. The famines,
the extraordinary diseases, the insurrections of the peas-
antry up and down p]urope— these were chords struck from
the same mysterious harp ; but these were transitory
chords. There have been others of deeper and more

23. Poictiers (or Poitiers) [poi-terz'J : Here in 1356 Edward tho Black
Prince, with 800U men, defeated a French army of about 50,000 men, and
captured the king, John the Good.

24. The poor King: C'has. Vr. reigned nominally from lliSO to 1422.
He became deranged in 1392, and the rivalry of his uncles, who seized tho
reins of government, brought on civil war. Henry V. of England, taking
advantage of the intestine troubles, invaded France, won the battle of
Agincourt, and secured a treaty which stipulated that he should become
king of France on the death of Charles.

SELECTIONS FHOM DE QUINCEY.

ominous sound. The termination of the Crusades, the
destruction of the Templars,'-'^ the Papal interdicts, the
tragedies caused or suifered by the house of Anjou,'*^'^ and
by the emperor,-"— these were full of a more peiinanent
significance. But, since then, the colossal figure of feudal-
ism was seen standing, as it were, on tiptoe, at ('recy, for
flight from earth : that was a revolution miparallelcd ; yet
that was a trifle, by comparison with the more fearful
revolutions that wert; mining below the ('luucli. By hei-
own internal schisms, by the abominable spectacle of a
double pope-^— so that no man, except through political
bias, could even guess which was Heaven's vicegerent, and
which the creature of hell— the Church was rehearsing, as
in still earlier forms she had already rehearsed, tliose vast
rents in her foundations which no man should ever heal.

These were the loftiest peaks of the cloudland in the
skies, that to the scientific gazer first caught the colors of
the }iciv tnorning in advance. Bub the v/hole vast range alike
of sweeping glooms overhead, dwelt upon all meditative
minds, even upon those that could not distinguish the
tendencies nor decipher the forms. It was, therefore, not
her own age alone, as nlfected by its inunediate calamities,
that lay with such weight upon Joanna's mind; but her
own age, as one section in a vast mysterious drama, unweav-
ing through a century back, and drawing nearer continually
to some dreadful crisis. Cataracts and rapids were heard

25. The celebrated "Order of the Templars," or " KnighH of the
Temple," was orf^aiiized at Jerusalem in 1)17, for the purpose of protcct-
in.u: Piltjrims ; so called l)ecau.se IJieir lodKnn^ was in a palace iKuir tlie
Temple. The number was at th'st limited to nine ; but in time the order
spread Ihroughout Europe, becoming v<!ry wealthy, corrupt and power-
ful. In l.'51'J many of its leaders were burned at the stake and the order
abolislied by decree of the i)0]te.

2G. The house of Anjou was an old and powerful one, numbering among
its dukes and thtnr d(\s;;cndanl s many royal persotuiges. From 1 his house
sjirung the royal house of IMantiigenet in Kngland. The early Ange\ ins
were especially famous for their monstrous deeds. After the assassina-
tion of diaries of Durazzo in Hungary, in 11)85, Louis of An.jou seized tln^
throne of Xaples, but was soon (,'xpellcd by Ladislaus, son of Durazzo.

27. The Emperor iSigismund, by whose treachery John Huss was
burned, in 1415, and the Hussite war brought on.

28. In 1378 two popes were chosen, l.'rban VI. and Clement VIT. ; the
one held court at kome, and the other at Avignon. For 38 years there
wore two rival popes, hurling anathemas and foulest accusations at eacli
other; like " two dogs snarling over a bone." said Wyclif. In 1402 there
wi'Te even three recognized popes ; but in 1418 a General Council deposed
all three, and ended the great dispute.

SELECTIONS FROM DE QUINCHV.

roaring ahead ; and signs were seen far hack, hy help of old
men's memories, which answered secretly to signs now
coming forward on the eye, even as locks answer to keys.
It was not wonderful that in such a haunted solitude, with
such a haunted heart, Joanna should see anj^elic visions
and hear angelic voices. These voices whispered to her
forever the duty, self imposed, of delivering France. Five
years she listened to these monitory voices with internal
struggles. At length she could resist no longer. Douht
gave way ; and she left her home forever in order to pre-
sent herself at the dauphin's coiu't.

The educatioii of this poor- gill was mean, according to
the present standard : was imir.ably grand, according'to a
purer philosop.liic standard : and only not good for our age
because for us it would he unattainable. 8he read nothing,
for she con Id not read ; hut she had heard others read parts
of the Ilonian mattyrology. S!ie wept in sympathy with
the sad Miscreres-^'> of the h'omish Church; she rose to
heaven with the gbid trium])hant Te Dcuins^-^ of Rome :
she drew her comfort and her vital strength from the rites
of the same Church. But, next after these spiritual advan-
tages, she owed most to the advantages of her situation.
The fountain of DomrOmy was on the brink of a boundless
forest; and it was haunted to that degree by fairies that
the parish priest (curJ) was obliged to read mass there once
a year, in order to keep them in any decent bounds. Fairies
are important, even in a statistical view: ceitain weeds
mark poverty in the soil, fairies mark its solitude. As
surely as the wolf retires before cities, does the fairy
sequester herself from the haunts of the licensed victualler.
A village is too much foi- her nervous delicacy : at most, she
can tolerate a distant view of a hamlet. We may judge,
therefore, by the uneasiness and extra trouble which they
gave to the parson, in what strength the fairies mustered
at Doinremy ; and, by satisfactory conse(jUfnce, how thiidy
sown witji men and women nnist have been that region

2'J. Misercro: A inTisinal composition for the oL-^i [v^hn. whiciriii
Latin begins with the word nusnrrr,-hiiyc lucivy : usuallv anpuii le
m the (ailiohcCliurch for penitential at-t^. ' ''•'''^""'-'i

30. Te Deum : An old Latin hymn of which the first words arc; Tr Dcum
Svl 'f/''""-^^'-' I^^'^^'^c tiiee. O (iod; sun^^ in service-, of public iliank!!-

SELECTION'S FROM DK QUINCEY.

even in its inhabited spots. But the forests of Domieiny —
those were the glories of the land : for in them abode
mysterious power and ancient secrets that towered into
tragic strength. "Abbeys there were, and abbey windows,'*
— •' like Moorish temples of the Hindoos," that exercised
even princely power both in Lorraine and in the German
Diets."^ These had their sweet bells that pierced the forests
for many a league at matins or vespers, and each its own
dreamy legend. Few enough, and scattered enough, were
these abbeys, so as in no degree to disturb the deep soli-
tude of the region ; yet many enough to spread a network
or awning of Christian sanctity over what else might have
seemed a heathen wilderness. This sort of religious talis-
man being secured, a man the most afraid of ghosts (like
myself, suppose, or the reader) becomes armed into courage
to wander for days in their sylvan recesses. The moun-
tains of the Vosges, on the eastern frontier of France, have
never attracted much notice from Europe, except in 1813-14
for a few brief months, when they fell within Napoleon's
line of defense against the Allies. But they are interesting
for this, amongst other features, that they do not, like some
loftier ranges, repel woods : the forests and the hills are on
sociable terms. Live and let live is their motto. For this
reason, in part, these tracts in Lorraine were a favorite
hunting-ground with the Ciirlovingian princesr'. About six
hundred years before Joanna's childhood, Charlemagne was
known to have hunted there. That, of itself, was a grand
incident in the traditions of a forest or a chase. In these
vast forests, also, were to be found (if any were to be found)
those mysterious fawns that tempted solitary hunters into
visionary and perilous pursuits. Here was seen (if any-
where seen) that ancient stag who was already nine
hundred years old, but possibly a hundred or two more,
when met by Charlemagne ; and the thing was pub
beyond doubt by the inscription upon his golden collar. I
believe Charlemagne knighted the stag ; and, if ever he is
met again by a k ing, he ought to be made an earl— or, being

31. German Diets: The Imperial Parliament, or Diet, was composed
of three houses, the Seven Electors, the Princes, lay and ecclesiastical,
and the Free Imperial Cities. Three of the Prince Electors were the
Archbishops of Treves, Mayence, and Cologne.

SELECTIONS FROM I)E QUIN'CEY. 13

upon the marches of France, a marquis. Observe, I don't
absohitely vouch for all these things : my own opinion
varies On a fine breezy forenoon I am audaciously skepti-
cal ; but, as twilight sets in, my credulity grows steadily,
till it becomes equal to anything that could be desired.
And I have heard candid sportsmen declare that, outside
of these very forests, thoy laughed loudly at all the dim
tales connected with their haunted solitudes; but, on reach-
ing a spot notoriously eighteen miles deep within them,
they agreed with Sir Roger de Coverley, that a good deal
might be said on both sides. ^^

Such traditions, or any others that (like the stag) con-
nect distant generations with each other, are, for that cause,
sublime; and the sense of the shadowy, connected with
such appearances that reveal themselves or not according
to circumstances, leaves a coloring of sanctity over ancient
forests, even in those minds that utterly reject the legend
as a fact.

But, apart from all distinct stories of that order, in any
solitary frontier between two great empires, as here, for
instance, or in the desert between Syria and the Euphrales,
there is an inevitable tendency in minds of any deep
sensibility, to people the solitudes with phantom images of
powers that w^ere of old so vast. Joanna, therefore, in her
quiet occupation of a shepherdess, would be led continually
to brood over the political condition of her country, by the
traditions of the p.ist no less than by the mementoes of
the local present.

M. Michelet, indeed, says that La Pucelle was 7iot a
shepherdess. I beg his pardon : she icns. ^V'hat he rests
upon, I guess pretty well : it is the evidence of a woman
called Haumette, the most confidential friend of Joanna.
Now, she is a good witness, and a good girl, and I like her ;
for she makes a natural and affectionate report of Joanna's
ordinary life. But still, however good she may be as a
witness, Joanna is better ; and she, wiicn speaking to the
dauphin, calls herself in the Latin report Bergerela.^-^ Even

32^ Sir Roger de Coverley: Addison'^ rliarniini,' hero, who. in

Spectator pap^T No. 122. decides the disDute between his two friends

aboxit the flshinj,' by tolliUK them. " with ! he air of a man who would not

give his judgment rashly, that much might be said on both sides."

33. Bergcreta : Latin form of the French bcnjcrdtc, a shepherd girl.

SRf-ECTIONH KROM DE QUINCEV.

Haumette confpsses that Joanna tended sheep in her girl-
hood. And I believe that if Miss Haumette were taking
colTee alone witli nie this very evening (February 12,
18n)— in which there would be no aul>ject for scandal or for
maiden blushes, because I am an intense philosopher, and
Miss II. would be hard upon four hundred and fifty years-
she would admit the following comment upon her evidence
to be right. A Frenchman, about forty years ago, M.
Simond, in his " Travels," mentions incidentally the follow-
ing hideous scene as one steadily observed and watched by
himself, in chivalrous France, not very long before the
French Revolution : A peasant was plowing ; the team
that drew his plow was a donkey and a woman. Both were
regularly harnessed : both pulled alike. This is bad enough ;
but the Frenchmnn adds that, in distributing his lashes, the
peasant was obviously desirous of being impartial ; or, if
either of the yoke fellows had aright to complain, certainly
it was not the donkey. Now, in any country where such
degradation of females could be tolerated by the state of
manners, a woman of delicacy would shrink from acknow-
ledging, either for herself or her friend, that she had ever
been addicted to any mode of labor not strictly domestic ;
because, if once owning herself a pratvlial'^* servant, she
would be sensible that this confession extended bj'- prob-
ability in the hearer's thoughts to the having incurred
indignities of this horrii)le kind. Haumette clearly thinks
it more dignified for .loanna to have been darning the
stockings of her horny-hoofed fathei', Monsieur D'Arc, than
keeping sheep, lest she might then be suspected of having
ever done something worse. Bat, luckily, there was no
danger of that: Joanna never was in service; and my
opinion is that her father should have mended his own
stockings, since proV)ably he was the party to make holes
in them, as many a better man th m D'Arc doe^ ; meaning
by that not myself, because, though probably a better man
than D'Arc, I protest against doing anything of the kind.
If 1 lived even with Friday-^^ in Juan Fernandez, either
Friday must do all the darning, or else it must go inidone.

34. Prsedial: From X^mi. i)ra'liuin, ii farm ; liGiice, attached to land
or farm^.

35. Friday : Robinson Crusoos " man " Friday.

1»

SELECTIONS FllOM DE QUINCE V. 15

The better men that I meant were the sailors in the British
navy, every man of whom mends his own stockings. Who
else is to do it ? Do yon snppose, reader, that the junior lords
of the admiralty are under articles to darn for the navy ?

Tiie reason, meantime, for my systematic hatred of D'Arc
is this : There was a story current in France before the Revo-
lution, framed to ridicule the pauper aristocracy, who hap-
pened to have long pedigrees and short rent rolls, viz., that
a head of such a house, dating from the Crusades, was over-
heard saying to his son, a Chevalier of St. Louis,'''^ "CVjcra-
ru'}\ ((s-fn doniie ail cochona Diimgcr T ^' Now, itisclearly
made out by the surviving evidence that D'Arc would much
have preferred continuing to say, " Ma fiJIc, as-fn donneau
cucIlou a manger T' to saying, ^'PuccHe (VOrlcanfi, (is-tK.
sauvt.' les Jlcnrfi-de-lifi ? " '^' There is an old English copy of
verses which argues thus :

" If the man tliat turnips cries
Cry not when his father dies —
Tlion 'tis phiin the man had rather
Have a turnip than his father."

T cannot say that the logic in these verses was over entirely
to my satisfaction. I do not see my way through it as
clearly as could be wished. But T see my way most clearly
through D'Arc ; and the result is — that he would greatly
have preferred not merely a turnip to his father, but saving
a pound or so of bacon to saving the Oritlajume of France.^

It is probable (as JM. l.lichelHt suggests) that the title of
Virgin, or Pncelle. had in itself, and apart frofu the miracu-
lous stories about her, a secret power over the rude soldiery
and partisan chiefs of that period ; for, in such a person,
they saw a representative manifestation of the Virgin
Mary, who in a course of centuries, had gi-own steadily
upon the popular heart.

As to .Joanna's supernatural detection of the dauphin
(Charles VII.) amongst three hundred lords and knights, I

.%. St. Louis : Louis IX., the " Ifoyal Haint " and leader of the Eighth
Crusade. His rclif^ion was that of an Ancliorite, his government that of
exact justice. "lie was, "says Voltaire, "in all respects a model for men,"

37. "Chevalier, have you fed the 1)0K ?" My girl, have you fed the
hogi Maid of Orleans, have you saved the royal lilie> {

[\S- Oriflamme; The ancient royal standard of Jb'rancc ; a red flag,
deeply s]>lit into flame-shaped streamers, and borne on a gilded lance.
From Lat. axrutn. gold, tiud^ttam^na, a flame.

HKLKCn'IONS FROM DC QUINCEV.

am surprised at the credulity which could ever lend itself
to that theatrical jugj^le.''^ Who admires more than myself
the sublime enthusiasm, the rapturous faith in herself, of
this pure creature? But I am far from admiring stage
artifices, which not La Piicelfe, hut the coiu't, must have
arranged ; noi* can I surrender myself to the conjurer's
le(jer<lcina'in, such as may be seen every day for a shilling.
Southey's " .Joan of Arc "*^ was published in 17U6. Twenty
years after, talking with Southej', I was surprised to find
him still owning a secret bias in favor of .loan, founded on
her detection of the dauphin. The story, for the benefit
of (he reader new to the case, whs this : La ViirnUe was
first made known to the dauphin, and presented to his
court, at (yhinon, and here came her first trial. By way of
testing lier supernatural pretentions, she was to find out
the royal personage amongst the whole ark of clean and
imclean creatures. Failing in this coup fZ'e.s'.sfr/,^^ she would
not simply disappoint many a beating heart in the glitter-
ing crowd that on different motives yearned for her success,
but she would ruin herself—and, as the oracle within had
told her, would, by ruining herself, ruin France. Our own
sovereign lady Victoria rehearses annually a trial not so
severe in degree, but the same in kind. She "pricks" for
sheriifs.^^ Joanna pricked for a king. But observe the
difference : our own lady pricks for two men out of three ;
Joanna for one man out of three hundred. Happy Lady
of the islands and the orient !—shi? can go astray in her
choice only by one half ; to the extent of one half she must

39. Michelet's account is as follows : " At last the KiiiK received her,
and surrounded by all the splendor of his ('ourt, in the hope, apparently,
of disconcertiiiK her. It was evening : the li.Kht of fifty torches illumined
the hall, and a brilliant array of nobles and above three hundred knights
\vere aHsembled round the monarch. Every one was curious to see the
sorceress, or, as it might be. the inspired maid. . . . She entered the
.splendid circle witl> all humility, 'like a i)Oor little shepherdess,' distin-
guished at the lirst glance the King, who liad ])urposely kept himself
amidst tlie crov d of courtiers ; and although at iirst he maintained that
ho was not the King, she fell down and eiul)raced his knees. But as he
had nf>t been crowned, she only styled liim danphin : 'Gentle dauphin.'
she addressed him, ' my name is .Jeanne la Pucelle. The King of heaven
scnd.s you word by me tiiat you shall be consecrated and crowned in the
city of Rlielins, and shall be lieutenant of the King of heaven, who is
King of France.'"

40 Robert Southey (1774-1843) : His " .loan of Arc " is a blank verse
poem in ten books, readable but not poetical.

41. Coup d'essai ; Fr., tirst trial

42. •• Pricking tor Sheriffs" is the annual ceremony of appointing
sheriffs for each county : so called from the fact that the names of the
persons chosen are marked by the prick of a pin.

HKI.LJCTIONS FUOM 1)E QUINCE f. 17

have the satisfaction of heing right. And yet, even with
these tight limits to the misery of a houndloss discretion,
permit nie, liege Lady, with all loyalty, to suhmit — that
now and then you prick with your pin the wrong man. But
the poor child from Domieiny, shrinking under the gaze of
a dazzling court— not because dazzling (for in visions she
had seen those that were more so), hut because some of
them wore a scofling smile on their features— how should
aJic throw her line into so deep a river to angle for a king,
where many a gay creature was sporting that masciueraded
as kings in dress? Nay, even more than any true king
would have done: for, in Southey's version of the story,
the dauphin says, by way of trying the virgin's magnetic
sympathy with royaltj-,

" On tho llirono.

I tlic while iniii;,'lin}< wilh Ww incniiil tlirong,

Some courtier slwill bo seated."
This usurper is even crowned : " the jeweled crown shines
on a menial's head." But, really, that is " iin j)cn Jovt ;"*'
and the moh of spectators might raise a scruple whether
our friend the jackdaw upon the tlirone, and the dauphin
himself, were not grazing the shins of treason. For the
dauphin could not lend more than belonged to him.
According to the popular notion, he had no crown for him-
self ; consequently none to lend, on any pretense whatever,
until the consecrated Maid should take him to liheims.
This was the popular notion in France. But, certainly, it
was the dauphin's interest to support the popular notion,
as he meant to use the services of Joanna. For, if he were
king alreadj% what was it that she could do for him l)eyond
Orleans? That is to say, what more than a mere inUitary
service could she render iiim? And, above all, if he were
king without a coronation, and without the oil from the
sacred ampulla,** what advantage was yet open to him by
celerity above his cornpetitor the English boy ?^'' Now was

43. Un pcu fort : A little strong.

44. The sacred ampullaof Itheims was a glass flask filled with holy oil,
according to tradition, brought from heaven by a dove at the coronation
of Clovis in 4915. The kings of France down to Louis XVI. were anoijited
with this oil. The flask was destroyed in the Kevolution, a piece with a
little oil being saved, which was exhausted in anointing Charles X.

45. THe English Boy: Henry V. died in 1422, a few weeks before the
death of Charles VI., for whose throne ho had bargained, llis son,
Henry VI., who had been proclaimed kuig at Paris when about nine
months old, was now eight years old.

SKM'XTIONS FIIO.M DE tiUINCKV.

to bo .'I race for a coronation : he that should win flint race,
(•aniL'd the superstition of France nlonjif with him : he that
should first i)e drawn from the ovens of Ilheinis, was under
tliat superv-^tlLion baked into a king.

La Piicelle, before she could b.^ allowed to practice as a
warrior, was puttlirough her manual and platoon exercise,
as i\ pupil in divinity, at the bar of six eminent men in wigs.
According to S.)uthey (v. J3l).J, Book III, in the original
edition of his "Joan of Arc"), she "appalled the doctors."
It's not easy to do t/nit : but they had some reason to feci
bothered as that surgeon woidd assuredly feel bothered,
who, upon proceeditig to dissect a subject, should find the
sui)ject retaliating as a dissector upon himself, especially if
.Toanna ever made the speech to them which occupies v.
l3ol-;j91, B. III. It is a double impossibility : 1st, because a
piracy froniTindal's "Christianity as Old as the Creation "^"^
— a piracy « parte unte,'^' and by three centuries ; 2dly, it is
quite contrary to the evidence on .Joanna's trial. Southey's
"Joan," of A. D. 17.)(5 (Cottle, Bristol), tells the doctors,
among other secrets, that she never in her life attended —
1st, Mass; nor 2d, the Sacramental table; nor od, Confession.
In the mean time, all this deistical confession of Joanna's,
besides being suicidal for the interest of her cause, is
opposed to the depositions upon butli trials. The very best
witness called from first to last,, deposes that Joanna
attended these rites of her Church even too often ; was
taxed with doing so ; and, by blushing, owned the charge
as a fact, though certainly not as a fault. Joanna was a girl
of natural piety, that saw God in forests, and hills, and
fountains; but did not the less seek him in chapels and
consecrated oratories.

This pleasant girl was self-educated through her own
natural meditativeness. If the reader turns to that divine
passage in " Paradise Regained," which Milton has put into
the mouth of our Saviour when first entering the wilder-
ness, and musing upon the tendency of those great impulses
growing within himself, —

46. Matthew Tlndal : A deistical writer whose book here mentioned
appeared in 1730.

47. A parte ante : In relation to a part gone before.

HEI.ECTION.S riloM DE QL'INCKY.

" Oh. whal .'I tnultltudo of thoiit^lit?^ nt oiico
A\v;iki'iiM it) mc swiii-m. wliih; I 'oti'^idc'i'
W'li.il from within \ fci;! my-iclf, .uxl Ix-iir
Wlj.it from willumt coincs ofUMi to my curs^.
Ill sort iiiij; witli my present slivto foiii])iirc(l !
Wlicii I Wiis yt't, II cliild. no rliildi-h play
'I'o mc was plciisjnjj; ; all my mind was sot.
.Serious to learn and know, and tluMiee lo do
^Vllilt miyflil l»t> pnMic f^ood ; mysi-lf I tliouKlit
Morn to that end " *^
he will havo soiiio notion of tho vast roverlea which brooded
over the heart of Joantia in earl}' girlhood, wlien tlie wings
wen; hiidding that should carry her from Orleans to
Ilheiins ; when the gulden chariot was dimly revealing
itself, that should carry her from the kingdom of France
delircrcd*^ ti the etern/il kingdom.

It is not rciiinslte, for the honor of Joanna, nor is there,
in this place, room to pursue her brief career of action.
That, though wonderful, forms the earl hly part of lier story :
the spiritual part is the saintly jiassion of her imprison-
ment, trial, and execution. It is unforttmate, therefore,
for Southey's "Joan of Arc" (which, however, should
always be regarded as a jticcnllc effort), that, precisely
when her r(?al glory begins, the poem ends. Bub this limi-
tation of the interest grew, no doubt, fi'om the constraint
inseparably attached to the law of epic unity. Joanna's
history bisects into two opposite hemispheres, and both
could not have been presented to the eye in one ])oem,
unless by sacrificing all unity of theme, or else by involving
the earlier half, as a narrative episode, in the latter ; which,
however, might have been done, for it ujight have been
communicated to a fellow-prisoner, or a confessor, by
Joanna herself. It is sufficient, as concerns fh'iN section of
Joanna'u life, to say that she fulfilled, to the height of her
promises, tho restoration of the prostrate throne. France
had become a province of England ; and for the ruin of
liotb, if such a yoke could be maintained. Dieadiul pecun-
iary exhaustion caused the English energy to droop ; and
that critical opening La Pacelle used with a corresponding
felicity of audacity and suddenness (that were in them-

48. Paradise Regained, Rook T. iw;-20fj.

40. France rtoJivereii : In imitutiun of "Jerusalem Delivered,"
Tusso's greal epic of tiio Crusades.

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selves portentous) for introducing tlie wedge of French
native resources, for rekindling the national pride, and for
planting the dauphin once more upon his feet. When
Joanna appeared, he had heen on the point of giving up the
struggle with the English, distressed as they were, and of
flying to the south of France. She taught him to blush for
such abject counsels. She liberated Orleans, that great
city, so decisive by its fate for the issue of the war, and
then beleaguered by the English with an elaborate applica-
tion of engineering skill unprecedented in P]urope. Enter-
ing the city after sunset, on the 2i)Lh of April, she sang mass
on Sunday, May 8, for the entire disappearance of the
besieging force. On the 29th of June, she fought and
gained over the English the decisive battle of Patay ; on the
9th of July, she took Troyes by a coup-de-main ^^ from a
mixed garrison of English and Burgundians ; on the 15th
of that month, she carried the dauphin into Rheims ; on
Sunday the 17th, she crowned him ; and there she rested
from her labor of triumph. All that was to be done she
had now accomplished ; what remained was — to sifffer.

All this forward movement was her own : excepting one
man, the whole council was against her. Her enemies were
all that drew power from earth. Her supporters were her
cwn strong enthusiasm, and the headlong contagion by
which she carried this sublime frenzy into the hearts of
women, of soldiers, and of all who lived by labor. Ilence-
forwards she was thwarted ; and the worst error she com-
mitted was, to lend the sanction of her presence to counsels
which she had ceased to approve. But she had now
accomplished the capital objects which her own visions had
dictated. These involved all the rest. ]']rrors were now
less important ; and doubtless it had now become more
difficult for herself to pronounce authentically what locre
errors. The noble girl had achieved, as by a rapture of
motion, the cijjital end ot c-learing out a free space around
her sovereign, giving him the power to move his arms with
elfect ; and, secondly, the i>i;ip[)reciable end of winning for
that sovereign whil seemed to all France th<? heavenly rati-
fication of his rights, by crowni.ig him with the ancient

50. Goxm-de-main : Fr., stroke of hand ;
Hiuldcn and rapid at lack.

utiliiary term, denoting a

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solemnities. She had made it impossible for the English
now to step before her. They were caught in an irretriev-
able blunder, owing partly to discord amongst the uncles
of Henry VI., partly to a want of funds, but partly to the
very impossibility which they believed to press with tenfold
force upon any French attempt to forestall theirs. They
laughed at such a thought ; and whilst they laughed, she
did it. Henceforth the single redress for the English of
this capital oversight, but which never coiddhnye redressed
it effectually, was, to vitiate and taint the coronation of
Charles VII., as the work of a witch. That policy, and
not malice (as M. Michelet is so happy to believe), was the
moving principle in the subsequent prosecution of Joanna.
Unless they unhinged the force of the first coronation in
the popular mind, by associating it with power given from
hell, they felt that the scepter of the invader was broken.

But she, the child that, at nineteen, had wrought won-
ders so great for France, was she not elated ? Did she not
lose, as men so often have lost, all sobriety of mind when
j-tanding upon the pinnacle of success so giddy ? Let her
enemies declare. During the progress of her movement,
and in the center of ferocious struggles, she had manifested
the tamper of her feelings, by the pity which she had
everywhere expressed for the suffering eneuiy. She for-
warded to the English leaders a touching invitation to unite
with the French, as brothers, in a common crusade against
infidels, thus opening the road for a soldierly retreat. She
interposed to protect the captive or the wounded— she
mourned '^ver the excesses of her countrymen— she threw
herself off her horse to kneel by the dying English soldier,
and to comfort him with such ministrations, physical or
spiritual, as his situation allowed. " Nolebat," says the
evidence, " uti ense suo, aut quemquam interficere.'"'^^ She
sheltered the P^nglish, that invoked her aid, in her own
quarters. She wept as she beheld, stretched on the field of
battle, so many brave enemies that had died without con-
fession. And, as regarded herself, her elation expressed
itself thus :— On the day when she had finished her work,
she wept ; for she knew that, when her trlamphid task

51. •' She did not wish to use her bwo- d, or to kill any one."

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was done, her end must be approaching. Her aspirations
pointed only to a pla(3e, which seemed to her more than
usually full of natural piety, as one in which it would give
her pleasure to die. And she uttered, between smiles and
tears, as a wish that inoxprcssiblj' fascinated her heart,
and yet was half-fantastic, a broken prayer, that God would
return her to the solitudes from which he luid di-awn her,
and suit'er her to become a shepherdess once more. It was
a natural piayer, because nature has laid a necessity upoii
every human heai t to seek for rest, and to shrink from
torment. Yet, again, it was a half-fantastic prayer, beca\ise,
from childhood upwards, visions that she had no power to
mistrust, and the voices which founded in her ear forever,
had long since persuaded her mind, that for her no such
prayer could be granted. Too well she felt that her mi.-sion
must be worked out to the end, and that th,^ end was now
at hand. All wer.t wrong from this t irne. She herself had
created the funds out of which the French restoration
should grow; but she v/as not sulYored to witr'esa their
development, or their pr(;sperou;s ajiyilication. More than
one military plan was entered upon which she did not
approve. But she still continued to expose her person as
before. Severe womids had not taught, lier caution. And
at length, in a sortie from ('om]>iegne (whether through
treacherous collusion on the part o/ her own friends is
doubtful to this day),*^- she was jnade pj'isoner by the IJur-
gundians, and (inally surrendered to the English.

Now came her trial. This trial, moving of course under
English influence, was conducted in chief by the Bishop of
Beauvais. He was a Frenchman, sold to Er.glish interests,
and hoping, by favor of the English leaders, to reach the
highest preferujent. Bishop ihni arf, Arvhhisliop (hat .<;h(t!t
be, Canluial that nutycst be,^^ were the words that sounded
continually in his ear ; and doubtless, a whisper of visions
still higher, of a triple crown, "^ and feet upon the necks of

;'>2. ]\licliclot iirfjfacs tliut Ihcre vas " trijiichei'ouri collusion." "The
probability is tliiU the IMu-cllo was barKained for and bought.'' Her captor
sold her totlio Duke of Hurgundy, and the Duke sold her to the Englisli.

63. An echo of tlic witches' words in Alacbeth : "Glands tliou art, and
Cawdor, and shall be what thou art promised.'' Act 1., 3 and 5.

54, Triple crown : Tlie Pope's crown con.sists of a long cap, or tiara,
of 'golden cloth, encircled by three coronets, and surmounted by a ball
and cross of gold. The second coronet was added to indicate the prero-

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kings, sometimes stole into his heart. M. Michelet is anx-
ious to keep 113 in mind that this bishop was but an agent of
the English. True. But it does not better the case for his
countryman— that, being an accomplice in crime, making
himself the leader in the persecution against the helpless
girl, he was willing to be all this in the spirit, and with the
conscious vileness of a cat's-paw. Never from the founda-
tions of the earth was there such a trial as this, if it were
laid open in all its beauty of defense, and all its heliishness
of attack. Oh, child of France ! shopherdesy, i)easant girl !
trodden under foot by all around thee, how I honor thy
flashing intellect, quick as God's lightning, and true as God's
lightning to its mark, that ran before France ai]d laggard
Europe by many a century, confounding the malice of the
ensnarer, and making dutnb the oracles of falsehood ! Is it
not scandalous, is it not humiliating to civilization, that,
even at this day, France exhibits the horrid spectacle of
judges examining the prisoner against himself; seducing
him, by fraud, into treacherous conclusions against his own
head ; using the terrors of their power for extorting con-
fessions from the frailty of hope; nay (whicli is worse),
using the blandishments of condescension and snaky kind-
ness for thawing into compliances of gratitude those whom
they had failed to freeze into teri'or ? Wicked judges!
Barbarian jurisinnidence ! that, sitting in your own conceit
on the summits of social wisdom, have yet failed to learn the
first principles of criminal justice ; sit yo huud)ly and vrith
docility at the feet of tMs girl from Domiemy, that tore
your webs of cruelty into shreds and dust. " Would you ex-
amine me as a witness against myself ? " was a question by
which many times she delied their arts. Continually she
showed that their interrogations were ii-relevant toany busi-
ness before the court, or that enteied into t'ne ridiculous
charges against her. General questions were proposed to
her on points of casuistical divinity ; two-edged (juestions,
which not one of themselves could have answered without,
on the o:.e side, landing himself in heiesy (as then inter-
preted), or, on the other, in some presumptuous expressi(>n

jj^ntivos of spirituiil and temporal powcu". The third was added (probably
by Urban v., 13G2) to indicate the Trinity.

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of self-esteem. Next came a wretched Dominican, that
pressed her with an objection, whicii, if applied to the Bible
would tax every one of its miracles with unsoundness. The
monk had the excuse of never having read the Bible. M.
Michelet has no such excuse ; and it makes one blush for
him, as a philosopher, to find him describing such an argu-
ment as *' weighty," whereas it is but a varied expression
of rude Mahometan metaphysics. Her answer to this, if
there were room to place the whole in a clear light, was as
shattering as it was rapid. Another thought to entrap her
by asking what language the angelic visitors of her solitude
had talked ; as though heavenly counsels could want poly-
got interpreters for every word, or that God needed lan-
guage at all in whispering thoughts to a human heart. Then
came a worse devil, who asked her whether the archangel
Michael had appeared naked. Not comprehending the
vile insinuation, Joanna, whose poverty suggested to her
simplicity that it might be the costliness of suitable robes
which caused the demur, asked them if they fancied God,
who clothed the flowers of the valleys, unable to find
raiment for his servants. The answer of Joanna moves a
smile of tenderness, but the disappointment of her judges
makes one laugh exultingly. Others succeeded by troops,
who upbraided her with leaving her father ; as if that
greacer Father, whom she believed herself to have been
serving, did not retain the power of dispensing with his
own rules, or had not said, that, for a less cause than
martyrdom, mian and women should leave both father and
mother.

On Easter Sunday, when the trial had been long proceed-
ing, the poor girl fell so ill as to cause a belief that she had
been poisoned. It was not poison. Nobody had any interest
in hastening a death so certain. M. Michelet, whose sympa-
thies with all feelings are so quick that one would gladly see
them always as justly directed, reads the case most truly.
Joanna had a twofold malady. She was visited by a parox-
ysm of the complaint called hovicsickness ; the cruel nature
of her imprisonment, and its length, could not but point her
solitary thoughts, in darkness and in chains (for chained she
was), to Domremy. And the season, which was the most
heavenly period of the spring, added stings to this yearning.

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That was one of her imihidles—nosfolgia, as medicine calls
it ; the other was weariness and exhaustion from daily com-
bats with malice. She saw that everybody hated her, and
thirsted for her blood; nay, many kind-hearted creatures
that would have pitied her profoundly, as regarded all
political charges, had their natural feelings warped by the
belief that she had dealings with fiendish powers. She
knew she was to die ; that was not the misery : the misery
was that this consummation could not be reached without
so much intermediate strife, as if she were contending for
some chance (where chance was none) of happiness, or were
dreaming for a Uioment of escaping the inevitable. Why,
then, did she contend? Knowing that she would reap
nothing i'votn answering her persecutors, why did she not
retire by silence from the superfluous contest? It was
because her quick and eagar loyalty to truth would not
suffer her to see it darkened by frauds, which she could
expose, but others, even of candid listeners, perhaps could
not; it was through that imperishable grandeur of soul,
which taught her to submit meekly and without a struggle
to her punishment, but taught her not to submit— no, not
for a moment— to calumny as to facts, or to misconstruction
as to motives. Besides, there were secretaries all around
the court taking down her words. That was meant for no
good to Jicr. But the end does not always correspond to
the meaning. And Joanna might say to herself: These
words that will be used against me to-morrow and the next
day, perhaps in some nobler generation may rise again for
my justification. Yes, Joanna, they arc rising even now in
Paris, and for more than justification.

Woman, sister— there are some things which you do not
execute as well as your brother, man ; no, nor ever will.
Pardon me, if I doubt whet her you will ever i-'roduce a great
poet fr om your chiurs, or a Mozart, or a Phidias, or n ^lichael
Aijgelo, or a great piiiiosopher, or a great scholar. By which
last is meant— not one who depends simply on an infinite
memory, but also on an hilinite nndi^ectiical power of com-
bination ; bi ingijig together from the four winds like the
angel of the resurrection, what elsft were dust from dead
men's bones, into the unity of breathing life. If you can

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create yourselves into any of these great creators, why
have you not ?

Yet, sister, woman, thouj^h I cannot consent to find a
Mozart or a Michael An^^elo in your sex, cheerfully, and
with tlie love that hums in depths of admiration, I acknow-
ledge that you can do one thing as well as the hest of us
men— a greater thing than even Milton is known to have
done, or Michael Angelo — you can die grandly, and as
goddesses would die, were goddesses mortal. If any distant
worlds (which may he the case) are so far ahead of us Tell-
uriansj"^^ in optical resources, as to see distinctly through
their telescopes all that we do on earih, what is the grandest
sight to which we ever treat them ? St Peter's at Rome,
do you fancy, on Easter Sunday, or Luxor,*^' or perhaps the
Himalayas ? Oh no ! my friend : suggest something hetter ;
these are baubles to tlieni ; they see in other worlds, in their
own, far better toys of the same kind. These, take my
word for it, are nothing. Do yon give it up? The finest
thing, then we have to show them, is a scaffold on the
morning of execution. I assure you there is a strong muster
in those far telescopic worlds, on any such morning, of those
who happen to find themselves occupying the right hemi-
sphere for a peej> at ;/.*?. How, then, if it be aniiounced in
some such telescopic world by those who make a livelihood
of catching giimpses nt our newspapers, whose language
they have long since deciphered, that the poor victim in the
morning's saciilice is a woman ? How, if it be published in
thai distant world, that the sii^Terer wears upon her head,
in the ej^'es of many, the garlands of martyrdom ? How, if
it should be some Marie Antoinette, ''^ the widowed queen
coming forward on the scaffold, and presenting to the
morn-Mg air her head turned gray by sorrow, daughter of
Ci:' J' kneeling down humbly to kiss the guillotine, as one
V. :■ ■ orshlp:^ death ? How, if it were the noble Charlotte

56. Tel/UTiaus : Dwellers upon earth ; L telliis, the earth.

56. Luxor : A palace temple fortnin:? part of the ruhm of Thebes in
Egypt- Of the temple of Karnak. another part of these ruins, Fergunson
says, " It is perhaps the noblest elfort of architectural majuificonce ever
produced by the hand of man."

57. Marie Antoinette : The queen of Louis XVI., daujj;hlerof the im-
perial house of Austria. For an account of the career of this brilliant
and ill-starred queen, consult histories of the French Revolution.

■

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Corday,58 that in the bloom of yoiitli, that \vith the loveliest
of persons, that with homa.c^o waiting upon hor smiles wher-
ever slie turned her face to scatter them— homage that fol-
lowed those smiles as surely as the carols of birds, after
showers in spring, follow the reappearing sun and the racing
of sunbeams over the hills— yet thought all these things
cheaper than the dust upon her sandals, in comparison of
deliverance from hell for her dear suffering France ! Ah !
these were spectacles indeed for those sympathizing people
in distant worlds ; and some perhaps wo\ild suffer a sort of
martyrdom themselves, because they could not testify their
wrath, could not bear witness to the strength of love and
to the fury of hatred that burned within them at such
scenes ; could not gather into golden urns some of that
glorious dust which rested in the catacombs of earth.

On the Wednesday after Trinity Sunday in 1431, being
then about nineteen years of age, the Maid of Arc under-
went her martyrdom. She was conducted before midday,
guarded by eight hundred spearmen, to a platform of pro-
digious height, constructed of wooden billets supported by
occasional walls of lath and plaster, and traversed by hollow
spaces in every direction for the creation of air currents.
The pile " struck terror," says M. Michelet, " by its height ;"
and, as usual the English purpose in this is viewed as one
of pure malignity. But there are two ways ofexpliining
all th;it. It is probable that the purpose was merciful. On
the circumstances of the execution I shall not linger. Yet,
to mark the almost fatal felicity of M. Michelet in finding
out whatever may injure the English name, at a mon)ent
when every reader will be intei-ested in .Joanna's personal
appearance, it is really edifying to notice the ingenuity by
which he draws into light from a dark corner a very unjust
account of it, and neglects, though lying upon the high-
road, a very pleasing one. Both are from English pens.
Grafton,"^ a chronicler but little read, being a stiff-necked
John Bull, thought fit to say that n?) wonder Joanna .should

58. Charlotte Corday : Daughter of a Xornian nobleman ; deeply im-
pressed bj^ the atrocities of the lloi,u:ii of Terror, she made her way to Paris,
afi.sas.sinated Marat, arid was immediately after irnillotiued, Jidy 17, 179.3.

50. Grafton's " Chronicle at larj,'e and.meere History of the Allayrcs of
Englande and Kinoes of the same," from the creation to the date of
publication, appeared in 15G9.

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be a virgin, since her '* foule ftxca " was a satisfactory solu-
tion of that particular merit. Holinshead,^'^ on the other
hand, a chronicler somewhat later, every way more import-
ant, and at one time universally read, has given a very
pleasing testimony to the interesting character of Joanna's
person and engaging manners. Neither of these men lived
till the following century, so that personally this evidence
is none at all. Grafton sullenly and carelessly believed as
he wished to believe; Holinshead took pains to inciuire,
and reports undoubte<Ily the general impression of France.
But T cite the case as ilhi.^trating M. JMichelet's candor.

The circumstantial incidents of the execution, unless
with more space than I can now conmiand, I should be
unwilling to relate. I should fear to injure, by imperfect
report, a martyrdom which to myself appiMrs so unspeak-
ably grand. Yet for a {purpose, pointing not at Joanna,
but M. Michelet, — viz., to convince him that an Englishman
is capable of thinking more highly of La Pucelle than even
her admiring countryman,— I shall, in parting, allude to one
or two traits in Joanna's demeanor on the scaiYold, and to
one or two in that of tlie bystanders, which authorize me
in questioning an opinio»i of his upon this martyr's fii'niness.
The reader ouglit to be reminded that Joanna d'Arc was
subjected to an unusually imfair trial of o])inion. Any of
the elder Christian martyrs had not much to fear of personal
rancor. The martyr was chiefly regarded as the enemy of
Caesar; at times, also, where any knowledge of the Chris-
tian faith and morals existed, with the enmity that arises
spontaneously in the worldly against the spiritual. But the
martyr, though disloyal, was not supposed to be, therefore,
anti-national : and still less was indivuiually hateful.
What was hated (if anything) belonged to his class, not to
himself separately. Now, Joanna, if hated at all, was
hated personally, and in Rouen on national grounds.
Hence there would be a certainty of calumny arising against
Tier, such as would not affect martyrs in gener.il. That
being the case, it would follow of necessity that some people
would impute to her a willingness to recant. No innocence

60. TToliii.-nlicart's Chronicle (1587) hns the particular fame of having fur-
nished .Shiike.-pcure with tlie facts for his English hi^^torical plays.

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could escape tliat. Now, had she really testified this will-
ingness on the s(;iillfold, it would have argued nothing at all
but the weakness of a genial nature shrinking from the
instant approach of torment. And those will often pity-
that weakness most, who, in tlieir own persons, would
yield to it least. Meantime, there never was a calumny
uttered that drew loss support from the recorded circum-
stances. It rests upon no positive testimony, and it has a
weight of contradicting testimony to stem. And yet»
strange to say, M. Michelet, who at times seems to admire
the Maid of Arc as much as I do, is the one sole writer
amongst hev friends who lends some countenance to this
odious slander. His words are that, if she did not utter this
word recant with her lips, she uttered it in her heart.
*' Whether she said the word is uncertain ; but I affirm
that she thought it."

Now, I atfirm that she did not ; not in any sense of the
word '^ thought '' applicable to the case. Here is France
calumniating La Pucelle : here is England defending her,
M. Michelet can only mean that, on a priori principles,^!
every woman must be liable to such a weakness : that
Joanna was a woman ; ergo, that she was liable to such a
weakness. That is, he only supposes her to have uttered
the word by an argument which presumes it impossible for
anybody to have done otherwise. I, on the contrary, throw
the onus^'^ of the argument not on presumable tendencies
of nature, but on the known facts of that morning's execu-
tion, as recorded by multitudes. What else, I demand,
than mere weight of metal, absolute nobility of deport-
ment, broke the vast line of battle then arrayed against
her ? W^hat else but her meek, saintly demeanor won from
the enemies, that cill now had believed her a witch, tears of
rapturous admiration?" "Ten thousand men," says M.
Michelet himself, " ten thousand men wept ;" and of these
ten thousand the majority were political enemies knitted
together by cords of superstition. What else was it but
her constancy, united with her angelic gentleness, that

61. A priori principles : General or necessary principles. Ergo :
therefore.

62. Onus : The burden. More often, onus probandi, the burden of
proving.

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drove the fanatic English soldier— who had sworn to throw
a faggot on her scalt'oid, as his tribute of abhorrence, that
did so, that fulfilled his vow — suddenly to turn away a
penitent for life, saying everywhere that he had seen a dove
rising upon wings to heaven from the ashes where she had
stood ? What else drove the executioner to kneel at everv
shrine for pai-don to his .^hare in the tragedy ? And if all
this were insuflHcient, then 1 cite the closing act of her life,
as valid on her bohalf, wore all other testitnonies against
her. The executioner had been directed to apply his torch
from below. He did so. The (iery smoke rose upwards in
billowing volumes. A Dominican monk was then standing
almost at her side. V/ rapped up in his sublime ollice, he
saw not the danger, but still in'rslsted in his prayers. Kven
then, when the huit enemy was racing up the liery stairs to
seize her, even at that moment did this noblest of girls
think only for Jiim, the one friend tiuit would not forsake
her, and not for herself; bidding him with her last breath
to care for his own preservation, but to leave her to God.
That girl, whose latest breath ascended in this sublime
expression of self-oblivion, did not utter the word recant
either with her lips or in her heart. No ; she did not,
though one should rise from the dead to swear it.

Bishop of Beauvais ! thy victim died in fire upon a scaf-
fold,— thou upon a down bed. But for the depaiting
minutes of life, both are oftentimes alike. At the farewell
crisis, when the gates of death are opening, and flesh is
resting from its struggles, oftentimes the tortured and
torturer have the same truce from carnal torment ; both
sink together into sleep ; together both, sonjetimes, kindle
into dreams. When the mortal mists were gathering fast
upon yon two, bishop and shepherd girl — when the pavil-
ions of life were closing up their shadowy curtains about
you— let us try, through the gigantic glooms, to decipher
the flying features of your separate visions.

The shepherd girl that had delivered France— she, from
her dungeon, she, from her baiting at the stake, she, from
her duel with fire, as she entered her last dream— saw
Domremy, saw the fountain of Domremy, saw the pomp of

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forests in which her childhood had wandered. The Easter
festival, which man had denied to her languishinpf heart —
that resurrection of spring-time, which the darkness of
dungeons had intercepted from her, hungering after the
glorious liherty of forests— were hy God given hack into
her hands, as jewels that had heen stolen from her by
robbers. With those, perhaps (for the minutes of dreams
can stretch into ages), was given hack to her by God the
))liss of childhood. By special privilege, for her might be
created, in this farewell dream, a second childhood, inno-
cent as the first ; but not, like that, sad with the gloom of
a fearful mivssion in the rear. The mission had now been
fulfilled. The storm was weathered, the skirts even of that
mighty storm were drawing olf. The blood that she was
to reckon for had been exacted ; the tears that she was to
shed in secret had been paid to the last. The hatred to her-
self in all eyes had been faced steadily, had been suffered,
had been survived. And in her last fight upon the scaffold
she had triumphed gloriously ; victoriously she had tasted
the stings of death. For all, except this comfort from her
farewell dream, she had died— died, amidst the tears of ten
thousand enemies— died, amidst the drums and trumpets
of armies — died, amidst peals redoubling upon peals,
volleys upon volleys, from the saluting clarions of martyrs.
Bishop of Beauvais ! because the guilt-burdened man is in
dreams haunted and wavlaid l)V the most frightful of his
crimes, and because upon that fluctuating mirror— rising
(like the mocking mirrors of iniraye in Arabian deserts) from
the fens of death— most of all are reflected the sweet coujite-
nances which the man has laid in ruins ; therefore I know ;
bishop, that you also, entering your final dream, saw
Domremy. That fountain, of which the witnesses sjioke so
much, showed itself to your eyes in pure morning dews: but
neither dews nor the holy dawn, could cleanse away the
bright spots of innocent blood upon its surface. By the
fountain, bishop, you saw a wonian seated, that hid her face,
but as you draw near, the woman raises her wasted features.
Would Domrdmy know them again for the features of her
child ? Ah, but you know them, bishop, well ! Oh, mercy I
what a groan was that which the servants, waiting outside

f/^'

SEl.ECTIONS FIIOM PE QUINCEY.

Uie bishop's droatii at his hedsiJe, heard from his laboring'
heart, as at this moment he tiu-nrd away from t he fountain
and the woman, seeking rest in the forests afar olf. Yet not
fio to escape the woman, whom once a^ain he must behold
before h(; dies. In the forests to which he prays for pity,
will he find a respite ? What a tumult, what a gathering
of feet is there ! In gl.ides, where only wild deer should
run, armies and nations are assembling; towering in the
fluctuating crowd are phantoms that belong to departed
hours. There is the great Englisli Prince, Regent of France.
There is my Lord of Winchester, the princely cardinal, that
died and made no sign. Tliere is the i3isliop of Beauvais,
clinging to the shelter of tliickets. What building is that
which liands so rapid are raising? Is it fa martyr's scaffold ?
Will they burn the child of Domremy a second time ? No :
it is a tribunal that rises to the clouds ; and two nations
stand around it waiting for a trial. Shall my Lord of
Beauvais sit again upon the judgment-seat, and again num-
ber the hours for the innocent? Ah! no: he is the prisoner
at the bar. Already all is waiting : the miglity audience is
gatliered, the Court is hurrying to their seats, the witnesses
are .arrayed, the trumpets are sounding, the judge is taking
his place. Oh I but this is sudden. My lord, have you no
counsel ? " Counsel I have none : in heaven above, or on
eai th beneath, counselor there is none now that would take
a brief from me : all are silent," Is it, indeed, come to this?
Alas the time is short, the tumult is wondrous, the crowd
stretclies away into infinity, but yet I will search in it for
somebody to take your brief : I know of somebody that will
be your counsel. Who is this that cometh fn )iri Domremy ?
W^ho is she in bloody coronation robes from Rheums ? Who
is slie that cometh with blackened flesh from walking the
furnaces of Rouen ? This is she, the shepherd girl, coun-
selor that had none for herself, whom I choose, bishop, for
yours. She it is, I engage, that shall take my lord's brief.
She it is, bishop, that would plead for you : yes, bishop, she
— when heaven and earth are silent.