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 JOAN 
 
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 MOl NT .IJSON 
 MEMORIAL LIHRAUY 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 Rev. C,H. JohnSvm. 
 
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 JOAN OF ARC. 
 
 BY 
 
 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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 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. 
 
 3 
 
 (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. 
 
8 
 
 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. 
 
 9 
 
 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. 
 
10 
 
 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. 
 
 11 
 
 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!!- 
 
12 
 
 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. 
 
14 
 
 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 
 
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. 
 
16 
 
 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. 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
 t 
 
I 
 
 I 
 
 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. 
 
18 
 
 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, — 
 
 \ 
 
 I 
 
 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. 
 
 10 
 
 I 
 
 1 
 
 " 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. 
 
20 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM DE QU'INCEY. 
 
 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 
 
SELECTIONS FROM DE QUINX'EY. 
 
 21 
 
 I 
 
 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." 
 
90 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM DE QUINCEV. 
 
 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- 
 
SELECTIONS FROM DE QUINCEY. 
 
 23 
 
 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. 
 
24 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM DK QUINCEY. 
 
 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. 
 
 s 
 
SELECTIONS FROM DE QUINCET. 
 
 25 
 
 ^^ 
 
 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 
 
26 
 
 SELECirONS FROM DE QUINCEY. 
 
 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. 
 
 ■ 
 
 i 
 
 *' 
 
SET.ECTIONS FROM DE QUINCEY. 
 
 27 
 
 ' 
 
 
 \ 
 
 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. 
 
f 
 
 28 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM DE QUIXCEY. 
 
 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. 
 
 J 
 
 1 
 
 i 
 
! 
 
 1 
 
 \ 
 
 SELECTIONS FIIOM UE QUINXEY. 29 
 
 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. 
 
30 
 
 SELECTIONS FROM DE QUINCKY. 
 
 ! 
 
 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 
 
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 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. 
 
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