Latest / Legends of the Saints / Story of Joan of Arc-Andrew Lang

Transcript

Story of Joan of Arc-Andrew Lang · Legends of the Saints

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter one of the Story of Joan of Arc. This
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Tim Freeberg Renwick. The Story
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: of Joan of Arc by Andrew Lang, Chapter one, The
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Childhood of Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc was perhaps
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: the most wonderful person who ever lived in the world.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: The story of her life is so strange that we
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: could scarcely believe it to be true if all that
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: happened to her had not been told by people in
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: a court of law and written down by her deadly
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: enemies while she was still alive. She was burned to
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: death when she was only nineteen. She was not seventeen
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: when she first led the armies of France to victory
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: and delivered her country from the English. Joan was the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: daughter of a poor man in a little country village.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: She had never learned to read, or write, or mount
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: a horse. Yet she was so wise that many learned
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: men could not puzzle her by questions. She was one
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: of the best riders in France, one of the most
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: skilled in aiming cannons, and so great a general that
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: she defeated the English again and again, and her army
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: was never beaten till her king deserted her. She was
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: so brave that severe wounds could not stop her from
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: leading on her soldiers, and so tender hearted that she
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: would comfort the wounded English on the field of battle
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: and protect them from cruelty. She was so good that
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: her enemies could not find the one true story to
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: tell against her in the least thing. And she was
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: so modest that, in the height of her glory, she
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: was wishing to be at home in her father's cottage,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: sewing or spinning beside her mother. Joan, who was born
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: at dom Remi in the east of France on January sixth,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: fourteen twelve, lived in a very unhappy time. For nearly
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a hundred years, the kings of England had been trying
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: to make themselves kings of France, just as they had
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: been trying to make themselves kings of Scotland. Perhaps they
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: might have succeeded if they had confined themselves to one
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: conquest at a time, but they left Scotland alone while
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: they were attacking France, and then Scotland sent armies to
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: help the French, as at other times the French sent
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: armies to help Scotland. Eight years before Joan was born,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: a sad thing happened to her country. Henry the fifth
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: of England had married the Princess Catharine of France, and
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: the French, or some of them, tired of being beaten
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: in war, consented to let the child of Henry and
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the Princess Catharine be their king instead of the son
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: of their old king. The old king's son was called
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: the Dauphint. That was the title of the eldest son
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: of the French kings. This Dauphin was named Charles. His
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: friends went on fighting the English for his but he
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: was not crowned king. The coronations of French kings were
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: always done in the cathedral at Rheims, where they were
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: anointed with sacred oil. The oil was kept in a
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: very old flask, which was said to have been brought
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: from heaven to a saint by an angel. No eldest
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: son of the king was thought really king of France
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: after his father's death, till he had been anointed with
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: this heavenly oil at Rheims by the archbishop. It's important
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: to remember this. You'll see the reason afterwards. Now Riems
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: was in the power of the English, so the Dauphin
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: Charles could not go there and be made king in earnest.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: The English said that he was not the son of
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: his father, the late King, which made him very unhappy.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: We shall hear how Joan comforted him and made him
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: king for good and all what Scots and Frenchmen could
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: not do, she did. In the meantime, the French were
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: divided into two parties. Some sided with the Dauphin Prince Charles,
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: more and especially all the people of Burgundy and the
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: Duke of Burgundy, a great and rich country, were on
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: the side of the English. So they fought very cruelly.
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: For the land was full of companies of ill paid
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: soldiers who plundered the poor, so that towns fell into decay.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Many fields were empty of sheep and cows, and the
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: roads became covered with grass. In the villages, a boy
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: used to watch all day from the spire of the
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: church to see whether any soldiers were riding up. If
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: they came, the cattle were driven into the woods, and men,
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: women and children ran to hide themselves, carrying such things
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: away as they could. The soldiers of all sorts robbed equally,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: for they had often no regular pay, and the Scots
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: were not behindhand in helping themselves wherever they went. Even
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: gentlemen and knights became chiefs of troops of robbers, so
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: that whoever won in the wars, the country people were
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: always being plundered. In the middle of these miseries, Joan
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: was born in a village where almost everybody was on
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the side of the Dauphin, the right side. In the
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: village nearest to hers maxy, the people took the English side,
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: and the boys of the two places had pitched battles
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: with sticks and stones. It's true that they would have
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: found some other reason for fighting even if the English
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: had not been in France. Joan used to see her
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: brothers Peter and John come home from these battles with
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: their noses bleeding and with black eyes, but she did
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: not take part herself in these wars. Her village was
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: near a strong walled town called Vaucouleur, which was on
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: the side of the Douphin. When Joan was a little girl,
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: she did not see very much of the cruelty of
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: the soldiers the village was only visited once or twice
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: by enemies, but she heard of what was going on
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: in the rest of France. There was great pity in France,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: she said. She did once or twice see some of
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: the pity. There was a man called Henry Dordy, living
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: in a castle named Doulavant, who, like many other gentlemen
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: in these days, was a captain of robbers. One day,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: several spearmen of his rode into dom Remi Jones village
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and seized Jones's father's cows with all the other cows
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: that they could find, just as the Scots eliots and
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: armstrongs used to ride across the border and drive the
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: cattle of the English farmers. But a lady lived in
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: a strong castle near dome Remy, and when she heard
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: how the village people had been plundered, she sent the
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: news to a gentleman in the neighborhood, who gathered his
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: spearmen and rode after the robbers. The thieves, of course,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: could not ride faster than the stolen cows could trot.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: They pricked the poor beasts with their spears and made
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: them lumber along. But a cow is slow at best.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: The pursuers galloped and came on the cattle in a
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: little town while the thieves were drinking in the wine shops.
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: When they heard the horses of the pursuers galloped down
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: the street. They mounted their horses and spurred for their lives.
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: But now came their master, Henry Dorley, with more spearmen,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: who followed after the cattle and the gentlemen who were
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: driving them home. They turned and charged Henry Dorley and
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: cleared the road, and the cows came home to dome Remy,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: all safe. Another time, all the people in do Remy
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: had to fly from home and go to a town
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: called Neufchateau, where they were safe behind strong walls. They
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: only stayed there for a few days. But later the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: English said that Joan had been a servant in an
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: inn at this town and had learned to ride there,
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: which was quite untrue. There were beautiful woods near the village,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: and in one oak wood, an oak called the Fairy Tree.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: There was a story that a beautiful fairy used to
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: meet her lover at that tree, just as under the
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Eilden Hill the Queen of Fairyland met Thomas the Rhymer.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: The children used to take cakes and make feasts, and
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: hang garlands of flowers on the boughs of that oak.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: But Joan did not care much about fairies, and preferred
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: to lay her wild flowers beneath the statues of saints
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: in the village church, especially Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: Of course, all this was long before the Reformation, in
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: which the Protestants broke the images of saints in the
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: churches and smashed their pictures on the glass windows with stones,
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: and destroyed the beautiful statue of Joan on the bridge
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: at Orleans. These things were done more than a hundred
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: years after Joan was dead. Though Joan could run faster
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: than the other girls and boys and beat them when
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: they ran races, she liked to be quiet. Nobody could
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: sew and spin better than she, and she was very
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: fond of praying alone in church. She would even go
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: away from the other children into lonely places and implore
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: God to have pity on France. The services in church,
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: the singing and music, made her very happy, and when
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: she heard the church bells across the fields, she would
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: say her prayer. She was very kind and would give
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: up her bed to any poor traveler whom her father
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: took in for a night, and would sleep beside the hearth.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: She took care of the sick, and if ever she
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: had any money, she would spend it on masses to
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: be said in honor of God and for the sake
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: of men's souls. So Joan lived till she was thirteen.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: She was a strong, handsome girl, beautifully made, with black hair.
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: We do not know the color of her eyes, probably
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: brown or dark gray. A young knight wrote to his
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: mother when he first saw Joan, that she was a creature,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: all divine. Joe never sat to a painter for her portrait,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: though once she saw a kind of fancy picture of
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: herself in the hands of a Scottish archer. Young men
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: do not say so much about a girl who was
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: not beautiful, and indeed armies do not rush together to
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: follow a maiden with no good looks. But though Joan,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: when she came to command armies liked to be well
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: dressed and to have fine armor, that was partly because
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: she was a natural, healthy girl, and partly because she
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: was a kind of banner for men to follow and
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: to fight, and banners ought to be splendid. She took
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: no thought of her own beauty, and the young knights
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: and squires who fought later under her flag said that
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: they looked on her as a sacred thing and never
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: dreamed of making love to her. She let it be
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: known that she would never marry anyone while the English
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: were still in France. She was not a nun and
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: had not made a vow never to marry at all,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: But while her country was in danger, she never thought
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: of marriage. She had other things to do. End of
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: chapter one, chapters two, three, and four of the Story
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: of Joan of Arc by Andrew Lang. This LibriVox recording
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. How the voices came to
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: the maid. When Joan was about thirteen, a very wonderful
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: thing happened to her. One day she and the other
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: girls and boys were running a race for a crown
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: of flowers. Joan was easily the winner, and as she
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: was running, a child who was looking on cried, Joan,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: I see you flying along without touching the ground. After
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: the race, Joan had a curious feeling, as if she
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: did not know where she was, and then heard a
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: young man's voice near her, bidding her go home, for
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: her mother needed her. She did not know who spoke.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: She thought it might be her brother or one of
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: her neighbors, so she ran home. She found that her
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: mother had not sent for her, and she was going
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: back to her friends when a bright light like a
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: shining cloud appeared to her, and a voice told her
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: to go and save France from the English. Till that hour,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: she had been sorry for the sorrows in France, but
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: as she was only a little girl, she had never
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: thought that she could lead an army against the English.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: This is the first account that people heard of the
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: coming of the mysterious voices to Joan. It was written
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: down about four years after the voices first came, and
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: six weeks after Joan's first great defeat of the English
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: in May fourteen twenty nine. Two years later, after Joan
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: was a prisoner of the English, the French priests and
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: lawyers who took the English side asked her thousands of
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: questions about everything that she had done in her life,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: and the answers were written down in a book word
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: for word. They asked her about these wonderful voices. There
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: were things that she refused to tell these priests and lawyers,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: but she did say this. When I was about thirteen,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: there came to me a voice from God teaching me
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: how I was to behave and what I was to do.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: And the first time that voice came, I was afraid.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: I was standing about the middle of the day in
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: summer in my father's garden. The voice came from the
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: right hand, from where the church stands, and when it came,
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: I usually saw a great light on the side from
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: which its spoke. The voice told me to be a
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: good girl and go to church and go to save France.
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: I said that I was only a poor girl who
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: could not ride or lead the soldiers in the wars.
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: But the voice kept on for years, telling her that
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: she must go. She not only heard voices, but she
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: saw shining figures of the saints in heaven. She never
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: would tell the lawyers much about how the saints appeared
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: to her, but said, I saw them as clearly as
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: I see you, and I used to cry when they
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: went away, and I wished that they would take me
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: with them where they went. These saints were Saint Margaret,
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Saint Catharine, and the archangel Saint Michael. When Jones spoke
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: to her own friends about what she saw, and heard
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: they say that she seemed marvelously happy, lifting her eyes
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: to heaven. This is all that we know about these
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: wonderful things which kept joone company from the time when
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: she was thirteen to the day of her death, when
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: she was nineteen, advising her about what she was to
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: do for the saving of France. If the voices had
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: not spoken to her often, she would never have gone
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: to the wars. And for some years she told nobody
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: about the voices and stayed at home in her village.
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Even when she went to the wars, her friends could
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: not persuade her to say more than I have told
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: you about these strange things. She said that she had
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: a counsel which advised her in everything. If there was
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: much noise in a room where she might be, she
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: could not hear the voices distinctly. Only one person said
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: that he saw angels faces in her company. None of
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: her friends, who knew her best, saw or heard anything extraordinary.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: She very much disliked to speak about the Saints and Voices.
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: Chapter three, How the Maid obeyed the Voices. Time went on,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: and the douphin the Rightful Prince of France, was more
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: and more unfortunate. It is true that Henry the fifth,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: the King of England, died. He was a great soldier
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: and his son was only a baby. But the war
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: was carried down by the brother of the late king,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: the Duke of Bedford, by the Earl of Salisbury, by
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: the famous Talbot, by Sir John Fastolf, and many other
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: English generals. The Scots won a great victory over the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: English at bouge Bridge, where the Duke of Clarence, the
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: brother of Henry the fifth, was killed, but the French
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: and Scots were beaten at Vernoy, where most of the
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Scots fell fighting bravely. However, a new army came from
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: Scotland under Stuart of Darnley, and still the war went on.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: By that time the Dauphin only held France south of
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the great River Loire. The strongest place, which was true
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: to the Dauphin was the town of Orleans. If the
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: English could once take that city and fill it with
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: provisions and guns and other weapons, the French could not
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: hope to win it back again, and the English would
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: overrun the whole of the center and south of France
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: and drive the Dauphin out of his own country. He
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: was very poor and very unhappy. He could scarcely pay
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: his boot maker, as he was not a good fight man.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: He lived here and there idly, at towns south of Orleans,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: such as Blois and Poitiers. He used to wonder whether
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: he had not better give up the war and go
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: to Spain or Scotland. Another thing made him miserable. He
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: did not know for certain whether he had really the
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: right to be king or not, as many people said
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: he was not truly the son of the last King
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: of France. In his distress, he prayed privately and in silence,
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: that he might know whether or not he was the
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: rightful prince, and ought to be crowned and anointed as king.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: But he told nobody about this, and lived as best
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: he could, wandering from one town to another. Then he
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: heard that his great city of Orleans was being besieged
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: by the English in the autumn of the year fourteen
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: twenty eight. Orleans lies on the right bank of the
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: River Loire, which here is deep, broad and swift, with
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: several islands in the middle of the current. The bridge
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: was fortified on the farther side by two strong towers
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: called But the English took this fortification, and so the
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: people of Orleans could not cross the river by the bridge,
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: and they broke down in arched that the English might
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: not cross to them. One day, the English general came
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: to this fort at a time when the soldiers of
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: both sides dined to look out of a narrow window
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: and watch what was going on in the besieged town.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: Now it happened that a cannon lay ready loaded in
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: each of the gate tower of Orleans that looked straight
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: along the bridge to the torrels. The English general, the
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: Earl of Salisbury, was peeping through the narrow window, thinking
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: himself quite safe, as the French soldiers in Orleans had
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: gone to dinner. But a small French boy went into
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: the gate tower of Orleans, and, seeing a cannon ready loaded,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: he thought it would be amusing to set a light
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: to the touch hole. So he got a linstock, as
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: it was called, lighted it, put it to the touch
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: hole and fired off the cannon. The bullet went straight
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: into the narrow window out of which the English general
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: was peeping, and he fell back mortally wounded. This was
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: a piece of good fortune for the French, but there
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: were plenty of other English generals to take the place
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: of Salisbury. The English built strong fortresses here and there
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: outside the walls and gates of the town to prevent
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: help and food and wine and powder from being brought
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: to the besieged French. But the people of Orleans were
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: brave and were commanded by good officers such as de Noirs,
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: Young Sentrail Lahir, a rough swearing knight, and others who
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: became true friends of Joan of Arc, and food was
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: brought in easily enough. The English had won so many
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: battles that they despised the French, and so they did
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: not take pains. And besides, they had not men enough
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: to surround Orleans and prevent cattle from being driven in
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: from the country. The English seemed to have had no
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: more than four thousand soldiers. They were neither strong enough
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: to take the town by storm, nor many enough to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: surround it and starve the French into showing the white
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: flag and giving up the place. In fact, the English
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: had been beating the French just because they believed they
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: could beat them, and thought that one Englishman was as
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: good as three Frenchmen. At least, this was nonsense, But
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: under Henry the Fifth at Agincourt, a few English had
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: beaten a great French army, because the French fought foolishly,
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: trying to gallop to the charge over wet, heavy plowed land,
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: while the English archers shot them down in hundreds. But
• 19:24
  Speaker 1: the French, you will see, had learned the English way
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: of fighting on foot, and could have held their own
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: if they had not lost confidence. Chapter four, How Joan
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: heard news strangely. Joan, far away in dom Remi, would
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: hear of the danger in which Orleands lay now and then,
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: and her voices kept insisting that she must go and
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: drive away the English. She used to cry and say
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: that she would be quite useless, as she could not
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: ride or fight, and people would think her mad or
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: bad and laugh at her. The voices told her to
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: go to the nearest strong walled French town, Baucouleurs, and
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: asked the commander there, Robert de Baudricourt, to send her
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: to the Dauphin, who was then far away at Chinon,
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: a castle on the Loire south of Orleans. When she
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: saw the king, she was to tell him that she
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: had come to save France. This seemed quite a mad proposal.
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: Baudricourt was a great rough sensible soldier, and how could
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: Joan go to him with a message of this kind?
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: He would merely laugh at the sunburned girl in her
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: short red curdle, a girl who probably had never spoken
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: to a gentleman before. Perhaps this was the hardest part
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: of Joan's duty, for she was modest, and she was
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: very quick to notice anything absurd and ridiculous. Now nothing
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: could seem more lappable than the notion that a little
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: country wench of sixteen could teach the French to defeat
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the English. But there was no help for it. The
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: voices and the shining cloud and the faces of saints
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: and angels came several times every week, and a voice said,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: Daughter of God God, go on, I will be with you.
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Joan had an uncle who lived near Vaucouleurs, and she
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: went to stay with him. It seems that she told
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: him she must go to the Dophin, and the first
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: thing needful was to get Robert de Baudricourt to send
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: her a few men at arms who would protect her
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: on her long journey to Chinon. The uncle must have
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: been very much astonished, but it seems he believed in her,
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: for he took her to Robert. Of course, Robert laughed
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: and told John's uncle to take her away and box
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: her ears. But she came again, and then a priest
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: wanted to exercise her, that is, to frighten the devil
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: out of her, with religious services in holy water, as
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: if she had been possessed like people in the New Testament.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: But Joan was not possessed, and the priest, after trying
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: the holy water, could only say so. By this time,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: the month of February fourteen twenty nine had come round.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: The besieged French in early ense now had a great misfortune.
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: The season of Lent was coming, that is a time
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: when they were not allowed to eat beef and mutton,
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: but only fish and eggs and vegetables. Now a great
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: number of wagons loaded with herrings were being sent to
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: feed the English who were besieging Orleans. The general of
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: the French and Orleands knew that, and he determined to
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: send out soldiers to attack the English, who would be
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: guarding the long line of wagons full of herrings. They
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: would wait for the English on the road, cut them
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: up and carry the fish into the town for their
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: own use. So a great many of the Scots and
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: some French slipped out of Orleans by night and went
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: to a place called Rouvray, on the road by which
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the Herrings were to pass. Here they were to be
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: joined by another small French army under a general named Claremont.
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: So they reached Rouvray, where they did not find Claremont
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: and his men, but did see the English soldiers far away,
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: marching by the side of the long line of wagons.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: Instead of waiting hidden under cover till the English passed by,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: and then rushing in among them, unexpectedly, Stuart of Darnley
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: cried charge and road with his lands in rest. At
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: the English front. The Scots were always in too great
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: a hurry to fight. The English saw them coming, arranged
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: the heavy wagons in a square and went inside the
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: square so that the Scots could not get at them.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Safe behind their carts, the English archers shot down the Scots,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: who thought bows and arrows rather mean weapons, and wanted
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to cut down their enemies with the sword, but they
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: could not reach the English. They fell in piles of
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: slain men round the square, and Claremont, the French general
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: who was to have joined them, would not fight, and
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: took away his army, so very many brave Scots were killed,
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: with Steward of Darnley at their head, and the rest
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: retreated sadly to Orleans, where they heard the English hurraying
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: in their camp. This was called the Battle of Rouvre
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: or the Battle of the Herrings. It was fought on
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: February twelfth, fourteen twenty nine. Now, on February twelfth, Joan
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: went to Boudrucourt and told him that a terrible misfortune
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: had happened that day to the army of the Douphin
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: near Orleans. The news could not possibly reach Vauclaires for
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: several days, for the distance between Vauclaires and orleanses great,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: and the roads were dangerous and might be beset by
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: English soldiers and robbers who would stop messengers. Joan had
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: been told of the defeat by her voices. At last, however,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: the bad news did come. Joan had been right. The
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: French and Scots had been defeated on the day when
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: she told Bodricoor of it February twelfth. So Boudricourt saw
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: there was something uncommon in this country. Girl who knew
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: what was happening far away, and he lent her two
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: young gentlemen and a few men at arms to guide
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: her and guard her on her way to the Dauphin.
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: Somebody gave her a horse, which, to the surprise of
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: all men, she rode very well. She had her long
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: black hair cut short and close, as soldiers wore it.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: She dressed in a gray doublet and black hose like
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: a boy. She wore this kind of dress till the
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: end of her life. And then she rode through the
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: gate of Euchelours, which is still standing, and away to
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: seek the Dauphin. This was on February twenty third, fourteen
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: twenty nine. After riding for several days, Joan and her
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: company reached a little town called Fierbois, near Chinone. Here
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: was the chapel dedicated to Saint Catharine of Fierbois, who
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: was a favorite saint of the French and Scots soldiers
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: and of Joan. In the chapel was a book in
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: which the miracles of the saint were written down. At
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: this very time, a Scottish archer, Michael Hamilton, from shots
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: was caught by some country people and was hanged by them.
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: During the night. A voice came to the priest of
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the village, saying, go and cut down that scot who
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: was hanged, for he is not dead. However, the priest
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: was sleepy and he did not go. Next day was
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: Easter day, and the priest went to church and did
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: the services. After that he thought he might as well
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: see about the Scot who was hanging from a tree
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: and seemed quite dead. To make certain, the priest took
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: his penknife and cut the dead man tow On this
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: the man gave a kick, so the priest cut the
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: rope and took good care of Michael Hamilton. When he
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: was able to ride, Michael went to this chapel of
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: Fierbois and took his oath that he had prayed to
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Saint Catherine before he was hanged up, and now he
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: came to thank her for his escape at her chapel.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: The book of the chapel is full of these strange stories,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: and probably some of them were read aloud to Joan,
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: who could not read, and said that she did not
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: know a from b. She attended three masses at Fierboys
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: and got some learned clerk to write a letter to
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: the king to say that she was coming. She also
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: had a letter written to her father and mother, asking
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: them to pardon her for going away without their permission.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: Her father she was to see once more, but her
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: mother she never saw again. As to Michael Hamilton, you
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: may believe his story or not, as you like many
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: of the other stories told in the Chapel Book by
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: Scott's soldiers and frenchmen and women are just as curious.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: I only know that the people made long journeys to
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: thank Madame Saint Catharine in her church at Gierbois, and
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: that their stories were written down in the book there.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: End of chapter four, chapters five through seven of the
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: Story of Joan of Arc by Andrew Lang. This LibriVox
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Chapter five, How the
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: Maid saw the dolphin. When Joan reached she known she
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: was lodged with the lady, who was very kind, and
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: she waited to see the dolphin. His advisers were not
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: sure that he ought to see the maid at all,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: but probably he was curious, and at last she was
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: brought to the castle and led up the stairs to
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: a great hall, where were many men in splendid dresses.
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: The castle is in ruins now, and the hall has
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: no roof over it, but you can still go in
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: and see the walls and empty windows and the great fireplace.
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: A man plainly dressed was in the crowd of magnificent
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: courtiers in silk and gold embroidery. Joan went straight up and,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: kneeling on one knee, said, fair sir, you are the
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Douphin to whom I am come. But the man pointed
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: to a knight, very richly dressed, and said that is
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: the King. No, fair sir, said Joan, it is to
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: you that I am sent the dolphin. For the man
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: was the Douphin. Was surprised at this, for she had
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: never seen him before. He allowed Joan to come to
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: the castle and talk to him, but he was not
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: sure that she was not an impostor or a silly girl.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: One day, however, she took him aside into a corner
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: where nobody could hear what they were talking about. When
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: their conversation was ended, the Dauphin looked very grave, and
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Joan looked very glad. She had told him something that
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: made him believe in her. What had Joan told the king?
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: It was known at the time that she had told
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: him something that amazed him, for it is mentioned in
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: a letter written a few weeks later by Alan Chartier,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: a famous poet, but nobody knew the secret. Joan would
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: never let anyone know. When she was a prisoner among
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: the English, the French priests and lawyers tried to make
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: her speak, but she would not. It was her king's secret.
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: Eight years after Joan was dead, a very strange thing happened.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: A woman who said that Joan had not died and
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: that she was Joan came to Orleans with Joan's brothers.
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: The people of Earlyannes, who had known the maid very well,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: believed that this woman was Joan come again, and feasted
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: her and gave her presents. Then she was taken to
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: the king. He himself was puzzled and said, maid, my dear,
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: I am glad to see you again. Do you remember
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: the secret between you and me? Then the false pretender
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: to be the maid confessed that she knew nothing. When
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: the king was old, he revealed the secret to a friend,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: and on that day, when they went apart together, as
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: she known, Joan reminded him of the secret prayer which,
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: as I told you, the Douphin had made when alone,
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: asking that he might know whether he really was the
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: son of the late king, and himself the rightful King
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: of France. You are the rightful king, Jones said. When
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: the dolphin heard her words, he made things go on quicker.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: Priests were sent to Jones's village to find out if
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: she had been a good girl when she was at home.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Then she was taken to Portiers to be examined by
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: many learned men, priests and lawyers. They tried to perplex
• 30:37
  Speaker 1: her by their questions, but she was straightforward and told
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: them how the voices had come to her. One man
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: asked her to give a sign by working a miracle.
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: I have not come to Portiers to give signs, said Joan.
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: But let me go to Orleans and you shall see
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: what I do. She never professed to work miracles. She
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: wanted to lead an army to or Leands, and the
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: sign to be given was the defeat of the English
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: and the rescue of the besieged town. For six weary weeks,
• 31:07
  Speaker 1: the learned men and priests examined Joan and tried in
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: every way to find some fault in her answers. At
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: last they drew up a report and signed it saying
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: that to doubt the maid would be to resist the
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit. What they were afraid of all the time
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: was that Joan might be advised by spirits. To be sure,
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: but evil spirits or devils. The English and the French.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: Lawyers on the English side declared that Joan was possessed
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: by devils. They thought that because they could not deny
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: her powers. But as she was not on their side,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: her powers could not come from God but from Satan.
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: To think in that way is common. People always believe
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: that their own side is the right side. But nobody
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: ever heard of evil spirits taking possession of any one
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: who was really good, And no man could ever find
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: any single bad thing in Joan the Maid. So now
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: the Dolphin began to collect an army to march with
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Joan to Orleans. Of course, he ought to have done
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: that before, even if there had been no Joan. It
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: was a shameful thing that a strong town full of
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: brave men should be taken by four thousand Englishmen without
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: an effort by the French to drive the English away.
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: But the French had lost all heart and courage. The
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: brave de Noint himself said that a large force of
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: French would run away from a little company of English.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: All that the French of the Dolphin's party needed was
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: courage and confidence. As soon as they believed in Joan,
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: they were full of confidence. They could not turn their
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: backs as long as a girl of sixteen ran forward
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: in front of them, through the rain of arrows and
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: bullets and cannon balls, waving her banner and crying come on.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: At this time Joan prophesied that she would be wounded
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: by an arrow at Orleands, but not to death. So
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: a Flemish ambassador at Chinon wrote to the magistrates of
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: his town at home, and his letter was copied into
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: the town council's book. Before the maid went to the war,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: white armor was made for Joan to wear, and a
• 33:10
  Speaker 1: Scottish painter made of banner with sacred pictures for her
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: to carry. His daughter was a great friend of Joan.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: The maid said that as for a sword, if they
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: dug in the ground behind the altarate the chapel of
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: Saint Catharine and Fierbois, they would find a buried sword
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: which she wished to carry, And it was found old
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: and rusty, with five crosses on the blade. The Duke
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: of Olentzonne, a young cousin of the King's who had
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: been a prisoner of the English, saw Joan riding one day,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: and was so pleased with her grace and good horsemanship
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: that he gave her a very good horse and became
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: one of her best friends. My fair Duke was what
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: she used to call him. Every One said that Joan's
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: manners were as gentle and courteous as those of the
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: greatest ladies. Though she had been brought up in a
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: poor cottage, everything that she did was done in the
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: best way and the noblest. Chapter six, how the maid
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: rode to Orleans. When then Jane's army was gathered with
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: plenty of good things and powder and shot in wagons
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: for the people of Orleans, she gave orders that no
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: loose people should follow them. The soldiers must not drink
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: and play dice and cards. They must pray, and must
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: never swear. One of the generals, the brave Lahir, asked
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: that he might be allowed one little oath, So she
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: said he might swear by his baton the short staff,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: which he carried as a leader. Then Joan mounted and
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: rode at the head of the army out of the
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: gate of Blois. The French commander at Orleans, Dunois had
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: sent to say that they must march up the bank
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: of the Loire opposite that on which Orland stands, For
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: the English were very strong, with many fortifications on the
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: road on the Orleande side, and would stop them. Dunois
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: seems to have thought that Jane's armies should go above
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: the town and be ferried across with the supplies for
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: the city, for the English held the bridge, but that
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: they could not cut their way through the main body
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: of the English army on the other side of the river.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: But to go straight through the English, where they were strongest,
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: was what Joan had intended. Therefore, she was angry when
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: she arrived at the place where Dounois was waiting for her,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: and saw that the river lay between her and the
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: town of Orleans. You may think that her voices should
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: have told her that she was marching on the wrong
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: bank of the river. However they did not. She asked
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: Dunos why he had ordered them to come by the
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: road they took. She said, I bring you better help
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: than has ever come to any town or captain, the
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: help of the King of Heaven. Dunois himself has left
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: this account of what Joan said, and as she was
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: speaking the wind changed. It had been blowing in such
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: a way as to make it hard for the boats
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: to carry Joan and the provisions across the river, but
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: now it went about, and they crossed easily some way
• 36:18
  Speaker 1: above the town. As for the army, Joan ordered them
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: back to Blois, to cross by the bridge there, and
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: marched early as again passed the forts and through the
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: midst of the English. Once across the river, Joan mounted
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: again with her banner of our Lord and the lilies
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: in her hand, and with Dunoir at her side, and
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: rode to the town. They passed an English fortress, the
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: Church of Saint Luke in safety, and the people came
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: out to meet them. Night had fallen, and the people
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: who crowded round the maid were carrying torches. One of
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: these set fire to the fringe of her banner and
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: made her horse plunge, But she crushed out the flame
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: with her left hand in its steel glove, and reined
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: in her horse easily, while the people cheered and the
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: women wished to kiss her hand, which she did not like,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: thinking the honor too great. It was a beautiful sight
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: to see the maid ride into Orlean's town. From that
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: hour there was no more fear among the French. Douneois said,
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: till that day two hundred English could scatter eight hundred
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: or a thousand of our men. But now they skulked
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: in their forts and dared not come out against us.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: This is an extraordinary thing. For Talbot, who led the English,
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: was the bravest of men, and was thought the greatest
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: captain living. Joan sent to him a letter to bid
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: him break up his camp and go away. The English laughed,
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: and one day when Joan went out to speak to them,
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: they called her ill names, so that she wept for shame.
• 37:57
  Speaker 1: But somehow the English had certainly lost heart, or they
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: had some reason which we do not know, for merely
• 38:04
  Speaker 1: defending their strong fortresses. On the day after Joan entered Orleance,
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: she wanted do Noir to sally out of the town
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: with his men and to sail the English. He did
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: not think it wise to do so, and Joan went
• 38:17
  Speaker 1: up to her own room. Suddenly she rushed down and
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: asked her page why he had not told her that
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: the French were fighting. She did not know where it
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: was at the fort and Church of Saint Lup, which
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: Joan had passed on her way into Orleans. On this side,
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: namely farther up the river above the town, the English
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: were weakest, as they did not expect to be attacked
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: on that side. The French were victorious. When they saw
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: Joan ride up, they were filled with courage. Joan saw
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: a frenchman strike down an English prisoner. She dismounted, laid
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: the poor prisoner's head in her lap, and did her
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: best to comfort him. Chapter seven, How the Maid Saved Orleans.
• 39:07
  Speaker 1: The Dauphin had given Joan a gentleman of good character
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: to be with her always and take care of her.
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: This gentleman was named Jean Dolon, and as he has
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: left an account of what Joan did at Orleans, we
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: give what he said. On the day after Joan took
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: the fortress of Saint Lup from the English, she led
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: her men to attack another English work on the farther
• 39:33
  Speaker 1: side of the river. They could not cross by the bridge,
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: of course, for the English held the strong building Late
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Torel's at the bridge end, the place where the Earl
• 39:43
  Speaker 1: of Salisbury was killed by the cannon shot. Moreover, an
• 39:47
  Speaker 1: arch of the bridge had been broken lest the English
• 39:50
  Speaker 1: should cross, so they went in boats to an island
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: in the middle of the river, and then made a
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: bridge of boats across the other branch of the Loire.
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: But they found that the English had left the place
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: which they meant to attack, and were in a much
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: stronger fortress. The French therefore were returning to their boats
• 40:09
  Speaker 1: when the English rushed out of the second fortress to
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: attack them when off their guard. But Joan and her
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: friend Lahi, who had crossed the river with their horses,
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: saw the English coming on, and put their lances in
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: rest a kind of support for the level's spear, and
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: spurred their horses at their enemies. The rest of the
• 40:30
  Speaker 1: French followed Joan and drove the English back into their fortress. Meanwhile,
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Dolon and a Spanish gentleman on the French side took
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: each other by the hand and ran as fast as
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: they could till they struck their swords against the outer
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: fence or strong wooden palisade of the English. But in
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: the narrow gateway stood a tall and very strong Englishman
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: who drove back the French. Sir Dolon asked a Frenchman
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: a good shot to aim at the englishmen, whom he killed,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: and then Dolon and the Spaniard ran into the gateway
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: and held it, while Joan and the rest of the
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: French rushed in and all the English were killed or
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: gave themselves up as prisoners. By this time, the French
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: army which went down to Blois to cross the bridge,
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: had returned to Orleands and had gone past the English
• 41:20
  Speaker 1: fortresses without being attacked, so there were now many fighting
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: men in Orleands. Next day, therefore, Joan insisted that they
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: should attack the strongest of all the English forts, lay Torelles,
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: at the end of the bridge, farthest from the town.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: The generals thought this plan too dangerous as the fortress
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: was so strong, but no doubt Joan was right, because
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: the English on the town side of the river could
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: not cross over to help their countrymen. If they crossed
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: in boats, they would be shot and cut down as
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: they landed. If the French generals did not understand that
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: Joan did. She was full of confidence. A man asked
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: her to wait for breakfast and offered her a big
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: trout caught in the Loire. She said, keep it for supper.
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: I will bring back an English prisoner to help eat it,
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: and I will come back by the bridge. Now the
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: bridge we saw was broken. Dolon heard her say this,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: and no doubt he wondered what she meant. He understood
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: her at night, so Joane caused the gate to be
• 42:30
  Speaker 1: thrown open, and the townspeople, who were very eager, rushed
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: to the river bank and crossed in boats. The regular
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: soldiers followed, and all day long they attacked the walls,
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: carrying ladders to climb them with, while Jones stood under
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: the wall, waving her banner and crying forward. But from
• 42:52
  Speaker 1: behind the battlement the English kept shooting with arrows and muskets,
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: so that many of the French were killed, and a
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: strong englishmen threw down the ladders as they were pushed
• 43:03
  Speaker 1: to the top of the walls. There were five or
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: six hundred of the best of the English in this castle,
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: under two leaders, whom the French called Boomis and Glassidas.
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: The name of Glassidas was Glasdale. We do not know
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: who Boomis was. So all day companies of the French
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: and Scots, carrying ladders and with banners flying, went down
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: into the deep ditch below the wall and were shot
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: or driven out. Now the Great de Nois, the most
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: famous of the French leaders, tells us what Joan did.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: It was about one o'clock in the afternoon when the
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: thing that she had prophesied happened to her. A bolt
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: from an English crossbow passed through her armor between the
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: collarbone and the shoulder blade, and stood out six inches
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: behind her shoulder. She was carried out of range and
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: the arrow was drawn out. Another witness says that a
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: soldier wished to sing a magical song over the wound
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: to heal it, but she would not allow this to
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: be done and went back into the battle. Hurt as
• 44:13
  Speaker 1: she was, she cried a little. They fought on. They
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: had begun in the early morning, and it was eight
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: o'clock and passed sunset when Denois said that they could
• 44:25
  Speaker 1: not take the fort that day, and wished to call
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: off the soldiers from the ditch. But Joan came to
• 44:31
  Speaker 1: them and asked him to wait a little while she
• 44:35
  Speaker 1: mounted her horse and rode to a vineyard, and there
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: she prayed for half a quarter of an hour. Then
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: she rode back and went through the hail of shot
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: and arrows to the edge of the ditch. While Delon
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: covered her, he says, with his shield. She saw that
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: a soldier had taken her standard into the ditch. She
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: seized the standard, and it waved so that all her
• 45:01
  Speaker 1: men saw it and rushed up. We shall take the fort,
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: said Joan. When my standard touches the wall. The wind
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: blew the banner fringe against the wall, and the French
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: made one more rush. They climbed the ladders. They tumbled
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: into the fort, and the English were slain or taken,
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: and Glasdale, their leader, who tried to cross to another
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: tower by a plank, fell into the river and was drowned.
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: Then Joan crossed back to Orleans by the bridge, as
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Dolon heard her say that she would when she set
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: out in the morning for the townspeople laid a beam
• 45:39
  Speaker 1: across the broken arch, and on this she walked over,
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: after winning so great a victory by her own courage.
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: For Denois says that the English were terrified when they
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: saw her under the wall again in the growing darkness,
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: and that they had no more heart to fight. Joan
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: was very tired. She had her wound dressed by a surgeon,
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: and for supper she had four or five little pieces
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: of toast dipped in weak wine and water. That was
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: all she ate. Dunama says all that long day. Early
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: next morning, the English left their forts and drew up
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: in a line of battle. Joan had put on a
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: very light shirt of mail made of steel rings, because
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: her wound did not permit her to wear the usual
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: armor made of heavy steel plates. She said that the
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: English must be allowed to go away and must not
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: be attacked. Thus the town of Orleans was delivered on
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: eighth of May, and ever since to this day they
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: keep a festival on eighth May in every year and
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: rejoice in honor of the maid. All the expense and
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: labor of the English in the seven months siege had
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: been turned to waste by Joan. In four days, France
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: was free south of the Loire, and Joan had kept
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: her word. She had shown a sign at Orleans. It
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: sounds like a fairy tale, but it certainly happened. Joan
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: made the French able to do what they did merely
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: by giving them courage. Her army would not have come
• 47:21
  Speaker 1: together if she had not given them something to believe
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: in herself. She thought that she led about ten thousand men,
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: but it is not easy to be sure of the numbers.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: The English, if they were only four thousand, could not
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: resist the new army and the old garrison of Orleans,
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: if the French had faith in themselves and Joan gave
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: them faith. At the same time, the English seemed to
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: have arranged their army in a very foolish way. About
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: one thousand were on the farther side of a river
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: which the three thousand on the right bank could not
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: or did not try to cross to help their friends.
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: The larger part of the English army might have attacked
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: one of the gates of Orleans and frightened Joan's army,
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: who would have come back across the river to defend
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: the town. The English in the fortress at the farther
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: end of the bridge would then have been safe. But
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: the English on the right bank did nothing at all,
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: for some reason which we do not understand. End of
• 48:27
  Speaker 1: chapter seven, Chapters eight and nine of the Story of
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: Joan of Arc by Andrew Lang. This LibriVox recording is
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Chapter eight how the maid took
• 48:47
  Speaker 1: the town of Jarjeau after Arliance was quite safe, and
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: when Talbot had led the English army to the town
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: of Meune, Joan wanted to take the Dauphin two Reems,
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: to be crowned and anointed with the holy oil, and
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: made king in earnest. But the way was long, and
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: the road passed through towns which were held by friends
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: of the English. So the Douphin loitered about in pleasant
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: castles near the Loire in the bright may weather, and
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: held councils and wondered what he ought to do. Then
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: Joan rode with the brave Dunois to Loshe, where the
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: Dauphin was. Some lords and priests were in the room
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: with him, but Joan went straight in and knelt before him, saying,
• 49:38
  Speaker 1: fair Dauphin, do not hold so many weary councils, but
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: come to Reems and take your crown. So they said
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: that they would think about it, but was it safe
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: to leave English armies behind them at Meun, where Talbot was,
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: and at Jarjoh, where the Earl of Suffolk was. The
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: English captain Jones said that she and the young Duke
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: of Alenson would make their minds easy on that point,
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: and would begin by taking Jarjou, where the French without
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: Joan had fought already and been beaten. The Duke was
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: newly married to a young wife, who was anxious about him.
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: But Jone said, madam, I will bring back the Duke
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: to you, safe and well. So they rode away six
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: hundred lances, some with infantry, and slept in a wood.
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: The Duke of Helenson has left an account of all
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: that they did. Next day Dunois and other captains joined
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: them with another six hundred lances, so that with the
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: infantry they would be about five thousand men. Some of
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: the captains thought they were not strong enough, as jarjo
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: has thick walls and towers and cannon. But Joan insisted
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: on fighting, and first she led her men to drive
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: the English from the houses lying under the walls on
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: the outside, which is dangerous fighting, as all the garden
• 51:07
  Speaker 1: walls would protect English crossbowmen men with muskets who could
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: shoot in safety, many of them from windows of houses
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: at the French in the open. The French, however, drove
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: the English from the houses and gardens and brought up
• 51:23
  Speaker 1: their cannon and fired at the town. In these days,
• 51:27
  Speaker 1: cannon were small and shot small balls which did not
• 51:31
  Speaker 1: carry far and could do no damage to thick stone walls.
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: There were no shells which explode. But there were a
• 51:40
  Speaker 1: few very large iron guns like mouse Meg in Edinburgh Castle.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Out of these they shot huge heavy stone balls, and
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: if one of them fell into a street and broke,
• 51:53
  Speaker 1: the splinters flew about dangerously, But somehow they seldom did
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: much harm. Besides, Joan's army had none of these great guns,
• 52:02
  Speaker 1: which are not easily dragged about. So for days the
• 52:06
  Speaker 1: French fired at the town. And it is to be
• 52:09
  Speaker 1: supposed that they broke a hole or breach in a
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: part of the wall, for they decided to rush in
• 52:15
  Speaker 1: and take the place. Sword in hand, forward, fair Duke,
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: said Joan to the Duke of Alenson, who rather thought
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: that they had not made a good enough breach in
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: the wall. You know that I told the Duchess I
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: would bring you back safe. But do not stand there,
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: she said, or that English cannon on the wall will
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: kill you. The Duke moved from the place where he was,
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: and a gentleman named Delude went to it and was killed.
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: So Joan saved the Duke as she had promised. Then
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: they ran together to the wall, and Joan was climbing
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: up a ladder when a heavy stone thrown by the
• 52:55
  Speaker 1: English struck her. Helmet, and she fell. She rose again
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: at once, crying forward, we shall take them all. And
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: the English ran through the streets to the bridges, the
• 53:06
  Speaker 1: French following and cutting them down or taking them prisoners.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: It is said that the Earl of Suffolk surrendered to
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: Joan as the bravest woman in the world. If this
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: is true, she might have made a great deal of
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: money out of his ransom, that is the price which
• 53:24
  Speaker 1: a prisoner paid for his freedom. There is another story
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: that Suffolk was taken by a squire, and that he
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: dubbed him knight before he surrendered, as it was more
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: honorable to yield to a knight. This is more likely
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: to be true for the English thought that Joan was
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: a witch. Now, as Suffolk was general of all the
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: English forces on the Loire, he would not choose to
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: surrender to a lass of sixteen, whether he believed in
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: witches or not. Besides, he could not dub Joan a knight.
• 53:59
  Speaker 1: Chapter nine, how Joan defeated the English in fair Field.
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: The maid had now driven the English away from Orleans
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: and had taken a strong town which they held, a
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: thing the French without her had failed to do. She
• 54:17
  Speaker 1: was next to beat their army in the open country
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: and in fair Field. We know most about this battle
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: from a book written by a gentleman named Pierre de Cagny,
• 54:28
  Speaker 1: who rode with the Duke of Ellenson and knew what happened,
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: and wrote all down very soon afterwards. He says that
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: the maid placed a garrison of soldiers to keep Jarjou,
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: and then wrote to Orleans with the Duke, where the
• 54:43
  Speaker 1: townspeople gave a great feast to her and her friends.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: But she did not stay long to be petted and praised.
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: At Orleans. In the evening she said to the Duke,
• 54:54
  Speaker 1: I am going after dinner tomorrow to see the English
• 54:57
  Speaker 1: at Mayune. Have the men ready to march? She easily
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: made Miune surrender, and then her guns fired at the
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: town of Bojeancy. Then news came to Joan that the
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: whole English army, under Talbot and Sir John Fastolf, who
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: cannot be Sir John Falstaff and Shakespeare, for the Fat
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: Knight was dead, were marching against her. Now. Sir John Fastolf,
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: though a very brave captain, thought like the Fat Knight,
• 55:29
  Speaker 1: that discretion was the better part of valor. He wished
• 55:32
  Speaker 1: to be cautious and to avoid a battle, for he
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: saw that the French were in high spirits while the
• 55:38
  Speaker 1: English soldiers had lost heart. This is told in the
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: book written by a knight named Jean do Wavrin, a Burgundian.
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: He was, like all of them of Burgundy on the
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: English side, and he wrote, under the banner of Sir
• 55:52
  Speaker 1: John Fastolf, I tell you generally how we come to
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: know the things done by the Maid, to show that
• 55:58
  Speaker 1: the story is true, as the people who described it
• 56:01
  Speaker 1: were present and saw what happened. The other English captains
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: thought Sir John rather too cautious, and Talbot said, by
• 56:11
  Speaker 1: Saint George, I will fight if I have only my
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: own few men with me. Next morning the English rode
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: out with banners flying, and again Sir John said that
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: they were too few, and that they were risking all
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: that Henry the Fifth had gained in France. But Talbot
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: and the rest would not listen to him. So the
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: trumpets blew, and the horsemen rode on towards Miune, which
• 56:34
  Speaker 1: Joan had taken. When they came to a place about
• 56:38
  Speaker 1: three miles from Miune and three from Bogeancy, they saw
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: the banner of the Maid with our Lord, and the
• 56:45
  Speaker 1: Lilies of France, and the banners of the Duke of Ellenson,
• 56:49
  Speaker 1: and do Noois, and Laher and young Poton de Santrey,
• 56:54
  Speaker 1: a very gallant boy waving over the ranks of six
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: thousand men. The English then did what Henry the fifth
• 57:03
  Speaker 1: had taught them to do. They dismounted from their horses
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: to fight on foot, and made each bowman plant his
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: sharp stake in front of him to stop a cavalry charge.
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: This plan usually succeeded. The French were fond of charging
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: with their cavalry at full speed and then were usually
• 57:21
  Speaker 1: shot down in heaps by the English bowmen, whom they
• 57:24
  Speaker 1: could not reach as they were safe behind their fence
• 57:27
  Speaker 1: of pikes. Then the dismounted English would rush out sword
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: in hand among the disordered French cavalry. You see, this
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: was much like part of the Battle of Waterloo, when
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: the French cavalry many times rode at the English squares
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: and could not break through the bayonets while the English
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: were shooting at them not very straight. By this plan
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: of fighting, the English had often defeated the French, and
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: usually defeated the Scots, who generally made a wild rush
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: at them at the Battle of deus Pippeland, soon after
• 58:01
  Speaker 1: Robert Bruce died. The English archers shot from each flank
• 58:05
  Speaker 1: till the Scots as they charged, fell dead in heaps
• 58:09
  Speaker 1: as high as a tall spear. But Donois and the
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: fair Duke and the Maid knew this plan. They sent
• 58:17
  Speaker 1: a herald to bid the English go home to bed.
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: It was late tomorrow, we shall have a nearer view
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: of each other. The English therefore went off to Mijune,
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: where nobody resisted them except the French soldiers who guarded
• 58:31
  Speaker 1: the bridge over the Loire. The English, meant to beat
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: the French from the bridge with their cannons, crossed the
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: river and marched to help their friends in Bogency, which
• 58:42
  Speaker 1: had not yet yielded to Joan. The English would thus
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: take Joan's army between two fires, that of Bogency and
• 58:50
  Speaker 1: that of Talbot's army. But that very night the English
• 58:55
  Speaker 1: in Bogency lost heart and yielded to the Maid, being
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: allowed to march away with their arms and horses. Joan
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: now bade the French captains to go with her army
• 59:06
  Speaker 1: and look for Talbots and Fastolf's force, who would hear
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: of the surrender of Bogency and retreat to Paris through
• 59:14
  Speaker 1: the country called Labosse. But how are we to find
• 59:19
  Speaker 1: the English, the French leaders asked Joan, For they would
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: be in a wild, empty country covered with forests. Ride forth.
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: She said, we shall take them all. As to finding them,
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: you shall have a good guide. They had a strange guide,
• 59:36
  Speaker 1: as you shall hear. The English were marching along. In
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: front was their advanced guard under a knight who carried
• 59:44
  Speaker 1: a white banner. Next came the guns with the wagons
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: full of provisions. Third was the main body of the
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: army under Talbot and Fastolf, and last rode the rear guard.
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: When they were near a place called Pathay, their scouts
• 1:00:00
  Speaker 1: galloped in with news that they had seen the French army.
• 1:00:04
  Speaker 1: The English halted and sent out more scouts, who rode
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: back with the same news. So Talbot sent his advanced guard,
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: the guns, and the wagons behind some tall hedges. The
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: main body of the English army was being placed at
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: the end of a long lane between two thick hedges,
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: and Talbot set five hundred of his best archers to
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: lurk behind these hedges, between which the French would have
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: to pass. Before they could attack the center of his forces.
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: If the French once entered this long lane, they would
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: be shot down and fall into such confusion among their
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: own fallen men and wounded horses that they would neither
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: be able to go forward nor back, and would all
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: be killed or taken prisoners. The French of Jane's army
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: could not see what Talbot was doing and the trap
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: he had set, nor where his army was, the country
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: being covered with wood and bracken, and the English being
• 1:01:03
  Speaker 1: concealed by the swelling of the ground. However, they rode
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: forward fast, and would have been between the fire of
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: the two hidden lines of English bowmen in a minute.
• 1:01:14
  Speaker 1: When lo and behold, they had the good guide that
• 1:01:18
  Speaker 1: Joan had promised them. As they rode, they roused a
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: stag from the bracken where he was lying. The stag
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: rushed forward into the concealed lines of English archers, and they,
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: being hunters like robin Hood's men, forgot to lie still,
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: and raised a view halloo and shot at the stag.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: Then the foremost riders of the French heard them and
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: knew where the English were lying in ambush. When Talbot
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: saw that his ambush was found out, he hurried the
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: main body of his army up to the hedges. Sir
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: John Fastoff's men were spurring their horses on to join
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: their advanced guard. But the English Knight of the White Banner,
• 1:02:02
  Speaker 1: who led, thought that Fastolf's cavalry were French, and that
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: the French were attacking his men both in front and rear,
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: so he and his company ran away, leaving the lane unguarded. Thus,
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: when the battle began, Talbot was defeated by Joan's cavalry
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: and taken prisoner, and twenty two hundred of the English
• 1:02:24
  Speaker 1: were killed or taken before Fastolf came up. He and
• 1:02:28
  Speaker 1: his horsemen then rode away as fast as they could
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: to save their lives. And for this behavior Sir John
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 1: got into very deep disgrace, though according to Wavren, who
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: was with him, he really could have done nothing else,
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: as Talbot was beaten before he could arrive. As Wavren
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: had taken part in the flight, he had to make
• 1:02:50
  Speaker 1: as good a defense of Sir John as he could.
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: At all events, Joan and her party won a very
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 1: great victory the Battle of Pathay. Look what Joan had done.
• 1:03:02
  Speaker 1: She drove the English from Orleans on eighth of May.
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: Then the Dauphin took to holding long and weary councils,
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: and she did not get another chance to fight the
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 1: English till about fourth of June, so nearly a month
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 1: of her one year of time was wasted. On eleventh
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: of June she took jar Joh. On fifteenth June she
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: took Miune. On seventheenth June she took Bogency, and on
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 1: eighteenth June she destroyed Talbot's chief army at Pathae. The
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: Duke of Aalensoune tells us that he himself heard Joan
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: tell the Doauphin again and again that she would only
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: last for a year, or not much longer, and that
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: he must make haste. She had four things to do,
• 1:03:46
  Speaker 1: she said, to drive the English in flight, to crown
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: the King at Rheims, to deliver Orleands, and to set
• 1:03:53
  Speaker 1: free the Duke of Orleans, who was a prisoner in England.
• 1:03:57
  Speaker 1: She did drive the English in flight, she did save Orleands,
• 1:04:02
  Speaker 1: she did have the Dauphin crowned. But the French would
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: not make haste. The Dauphin was always slow, and the
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: stupid political advisers who never fought, but only talked made
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: him more slow. And when Joane's year was over, for
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: her prophecy was true, she was taken prisoner by the English.
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: Therefore they were not driven quite out of France till
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: about twenty years or more after the end of the
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: year of Joan the Maid. It was not her fault.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: She knew that her time was short, and she told
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: them to make haste. When she was asked how she
• 1:04:40
  Speaker 1: knew things that were to happen, she said that her
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: voices told her. My counsel she called them. But there
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: was a French noble, La Tremois, the King's favorite, and
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: he was jealous of Joan and de Noirs, and the
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: Constable of Brittany, an enemy of his, who had now
• 1:04:57
  Speaker 1: come to ride under Jones's flag. This Tremois and others
• 1:05:03
  Speaker 1: did not want to fight, and hoped to make friends
• 1:05:06
  Speaker 1: with the Duke of Burgundy, whose army, though really French,
• 1:05:10
  Speaker 1: fought on the side of the English. Now, the one
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: chance was to keep hitting the English hard and often,
• 1:05:16
  Speaker 1: while they were shaken by their defeats, and before they
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: had time to bring a new host from home. In England,
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: there was an army ready which had been collected by
• 1:05:27
  Speaker 1: Cardinal Beaufort to fight the Hussites, a kind of warlike
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: Protestants who were active in Germany. As soon as Joan
• 1:05:35
  Speaker 1: had beaten the English at Orleans, they made up their
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: minds to send this new army of Theirs to protect Paris,
• 1:05:41
  Speaker 1: where most of the people and the university were on
• 1:05:44
  Speaker 1: the English side. They also made an arrangement with James
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: the First of Scotland, so that they had nothing to
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: fear from the Scots coming over the border to attack them.
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: The English were able to do all this because La
• 1:05:58
  Speaker 1: Tremoi and his friends advised the Dauphin to loiter about
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: instead of making haste as Joan desired to keep on
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: beating the English. End of chapter nine, Chapters ten, eleven,
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: and twelve of the Story of Joan of Arc by
• 1:06:20
  Speaker 1: Andrew Lang. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: Chapter ten, How Joan led the Douphin to be crowned.
• 1:06:32
  Speaker 1: We may think that Joan's best plan would have been
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: to attack the English in Paris at once while they
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: were still in affright after their great defeat at Pathay.
• 1:06:43
  Speaker 1: But she thought that if the Douphin was once crowned
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: and anointed with the Holy Oil at Reims. The French,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: who were of the English party would join him more readily.
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: Robert the Bruce, in the same way, had himself crowned
• 1:06:59
  Speaker 1: at Scone, which in Scotland was the usual place for coronations,
• 1:07:04
  Speaker 1: when he had only very few followers and very little
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: chance of beating the English Rhems. As you can see
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: in the map, is a long way farther from Orleans
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: than Paris on the northeast. But Joan made up her
• 1:07:17
  Speaker 1: mind to drag the Dauphin to Reims to be crowned.
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: The dolphin was lingering at Guienne, which is some distance
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: south of Orleans, instead of being at the head of
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: his army and in front of the fighting, where he
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: should have been. His lazy and cowardly favorites told him
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: that it was a long way to Rheims, and on
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: the road there were several towns with strong walls and
• 1:07:41
  Speaker 1: castles full of Englishmen and Burgundians who would not let
• 1:07:45
  Speaker 1: him pass. Drone answered that she knew this very well
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: and cared nothing about it. All the towns and castles
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: would yield and open their gates, so she left the
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: Douphin to do as he pleased, and went away with
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: her company into the country. The dolphin had no money
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: to pay his troops, but men at arms came in,
• 1:08:06
  Speaker 1: hundreds of them, saying that they would fight for the
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: love of the maid and of chivalry. No doubt they
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: would have been very glad to crown her in place
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: of the stupid Dauphin, but the French law did not
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: allow it, and Joan wanted nothing for herself, only to
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: make France free and go back to her mother, as
• 1:08:26
  Speaker 1: she said. However, the Douphin, who was grateful in his
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: lazy way, made her and her brothers Peter and John, nobles,
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: and gave her a coat of arms, a sword supporting
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: the crown with the lilies of France on each side,
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: and changed their name to do Lies. But Joan never
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: used her coat of arms, but bore a dove silver
• 1:08:51
  Speaker 1: on a blue shield. Her brothers were with her and
• 1:08:54
  Speaker 1: seemed to have fought very well, though in most ways
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: they were quite ordinary young men. When Joan went away,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: the Dauphin made up his mind at last to march
• 1:09:05
  Speaker 1: to Reims, going first to Troyus, a strong town on
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: the road. All the castles and fortresses on the way.
• 1:09:14
  Speaker 1: Instead of resisting him, submitted to him, as Joan had
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: said that they would at Troyus, where he came on
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: eighth July. The English garrison and the people of the town,
• 1:09:26
  Speaker 1: who were on the English and Burgundian side, wanted to
• 1:09:29
  Speaker 1: oppose him. They fought on the eighth and ninth of July.
• 1:09:34
  Speaker 1: The Dolphin's advisers did not want to fight the brave,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Dunois tells us, But Jones said, gentle Dauphin, bid your
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 1: army besiege the town, and do not hold these long councils,
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: for in three days I will bring you into the town.
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: Then down she went to the great ditch or fosse
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: round the town and worked harder, says Dunois, than two
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: or three of the most famous knights could have done.
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: The people of Troyus then yielded to Joan, and they
• 1:10:04
  Speaker 1: had a great feast in the city, which they needed,
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: for the army had been living on soup made from
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: the beans in the fields. Then they went on to Reims,
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: and the archbishop and all the people came out to
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: meet them with shouts of joy. On seventeenth July, the Dauphin,
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: with Joan and all his nobles, went to the cathedral,
• 1:10:27
  Speaker 1: and there he was crowned and anointed and made king
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: in earnest, Joan standing beside him with her banner in
• 1:10:34
  Speaker 1: her hand. This was her happiest day, perhaps, and the
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: last of her great days. She had done so much.
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: In the beginning of May, there was every chance that
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: the English would take orleands and sweep across the Loire
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: and seize all France, and drive the Dauphin into Spain,
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: or across the sea to Scotland, and France would have
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: been under the English for who knows how long. But
• 1:11:00
  Speaker 1: in two months Joan had driven the English behind the
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: walls of Paris, and her Douphin was king. Indeed, then
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: the maid knelt at the king's feet and wept for
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: joy in the great cathedral, among the splendid nobles and
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: the lights, in the bright colored coats of arms, and
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: the sweet smoke of incense. Gentle King, she said, calling
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: him king for the first time. Now is the will
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: of God fulfilled. And the knights themselves wept for joy.
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: Somewhere in the crowd was an elderly countryman in his
• 1:11:36
  Speaker 1: best clothes Joan's father, whom now she saw for the
• 1:11:40
  Speaker 1: first time since she left her village, and for the
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: last time in her life. The King asked her to
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: choose a gift and reward, and she asked that the
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: people of her village, Domrami, should be free from paying taxes,
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: and they were made free and never paid taxes again
• 1:12:00
  Speaker 1: for three hundred years. On the books of the accounts
• 1:12:03
  Speaker 1: of money paid by every town and village of France,
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: as written after the names of dom Remi and the
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: village nearest it grew nothing for the sake of the maid.
• 1:12:15
  Speaker 1: The paper in which the king ordered that they should
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: pay nothing may still be seen, dated the last of
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 1: July fourteen twenty nine. How glad the people at dome
• 1:12:25
  Speaker 1: Remi must have been when Joan's father came home with
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: the good news. This was the last glad day of
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: the maid. As she rode to Rheims, some people from
• 1:12:37
  Speaker 1: dom Remi met her and asked her if she was
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: afraid of nothing. Of nothing but treachery, she said, And
• 1:12:45
  Speaker 1: from this day she met treachery among the king's advisers,
• 1:12:49
  Speaker 1: who held long councils and did not fight. As she
• 1:12:53
  Speaker 1: rode from Riems towards Paris. The people shouted round her,
• 1:12:58
  Speaker 1: and she said that they were kind, and she would
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: like to be buried in their cathedral, She who was
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: never to be buried in the earth. Joan said the archbishop,
• 1:13:10
  Speaker 1: in what place do you expect to die? Where God pleases? For?
• 1:13:15
  Speaker 1: Of that hour and that place? I know nothing more
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: than you do, but would to God that now I
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 1: might take off my armor and go home to my
• 1:13:22
  Speaker 1: father and mother. For as she had seen her father,
• 1:13:26
  Speaker 1: she was longing for her mother more than ever. After this,
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: the people about the king, and the king himself did
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: not obey Joan, and all went wrong. Chapter eleven, How
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: the Maid was betrayed at Paris. The French should have
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 1: followed the maid straight to Paris, as she bade them do.
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: But they went here and went there. And one day
• 1:13:54
  Speaker 1: their army and that of the Duke of Bedford met,
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: but did not fight. And another day there were skirmishes
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: between the English and the Scots, who fought very bravely,
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: says the Burgundian Knight in Gerand de Monstrelet, who wrote
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: a history of those times. The strong town of Compeigne,
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: which had often been taken and retaken yielded to Joan's army,
• 1:14:17
  Speaker 1: and the King stayed there doing nothing, which was what
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: he liked, and the Duke of Burgundy gave him excuses
• 1:14:23
  Speaker 1: for loitering by sending ambassadors and pretending that he would
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: give up Paris, for at this time there was no
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: English garrison there. The poor people of the town were
• 1:14:34
  Speaker 1: on the side of Joan and the King, and now,
• 1:14:37
  Speaker 1: when the English were out of the great city, was
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: the time to take it. But the King kept hoping
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: to make peace with the Duke of Burgundy. So Joan,
• 1:14:46
  Speaker 1: with her friend, the Duke of Alenson, went to Saint Denis,
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: quite close to Paris, where the kings of France used
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 1: to be buried. Saint Denis was the Saint of France,
• 1:14:57
  Speaker 1: as Saint George was the Saint of England and Saint
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: Andrew of Scotland. There fought the Duke and the Maid,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: but the king came on very slowly, while Joan was
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: in the front of the battle every day at one
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: gate of Paris or another. At last, by often going
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: to him and urging him to come, Alnson brought the
• 1:15:18
  Speaker 1: King to Saint Denis, but not before a strong new
• 1:15:21
  Speaker 1: English army had arrived in the town of which the
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: walls and towers were very high and thick, and the
• 1:15:27
  Speaker 1: fosces broad and deep and full of water. Then Joan
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: led on her men and the dukes with her banner
• 1:15:35
  Speaker 1: in her hand, and cried them on to break down
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: a gate called the Porte Saint Honore. Perceval de Cagny,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: who rode under the standard of Alenson, was in the battle,
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: and he says the fight was long and fierce, and
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: it was wonderful to hear the noise of guns and
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: culverins from the walls, and to see the arrows fly
• 1:15:56
  Speaker 1: like clouds. Few of those who went down into the
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: dry ditch with the maid were hurt, though many others
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: were wounded with arrows and stone cannonballs. But by God's
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: grace and the maid's favor, there were none but could
• 1:16:09
  Speaker 1: return without help. We fought from noon till darkness began.
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: After the sunset, the maid was wounded by a bolt
• 1:16:17
  Speaker 1: from a crossbow in the thigh, but she only shouted
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: louder to come on, and the place was ours. But
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: when it was dark and all were weary, men came
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: from the king and brought her up out of the
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: ditch against her will. Next day, the maid rose early
• 1:16:35
  Speaker 1: and went to the Duke of Elenson, who never failed her.
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: The trumpets blew and a new ally came, the Baron
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: de Montmorency, with sixty gentlemen and their men at arms,
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: and they were riding to attack Paris again when the
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: king sent messengers to forbid them to do as their
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: hearts desired, so they had to go see him at
• 1:16:56
  Speaker 1: Saint Denis. But the Duke of evelenin scis Zon was
• 1:17:00
  Speaker 1: having a bridge of wood thrown across the River Seine
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: at a new place, and they meant to cross by
• 1:17:05
  Speaker 1: that bridge next day and attack Paris again. Shameful to say,
• 1:17:11
  Speaker 1: the King had that bridge taken to pieces during the night,
• 1:17:15
  Speaker 1: and when Joan and the Duke led their men there
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: next day, they found only the river, which they could
• 1:17:20
  Speaker 1: not ford. So the King of France saved Paris from
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: delenceon and the maid. Richard the First of England would
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: have battered down the Paris gate with his own battle axe.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: Henry the fifth or James the Fourth of Scotland or
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: Prince Charley would have been foremost in the fight. But
• 1:17:38
  Speaker 1: this King of France, Charles the seventh, unworthy of his
• 1:17:42
  Speaker 1: country and his ancestors, sneak off to his pretty little
• 1:17:46
  Speaker 1: town of Guienne on the Loire. And thus was the
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: will of the Maid broken and the army of the king,
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: says Perceval to Cagney, the Duke of Helenson kept his
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: men together and told the King that if he would
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: let the Maid ride with him, they would march into
• 1:18:02
  Speaker 1: Normandy and attack the English where they were strongest. But
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: the King would not hear of it, and the Maid,
• 1:18:08
  Speaker 1: with almost a broken heart, hung up her armor at
• 1:18:11
  Speaker 1: the altar of Saint Denis in his cathedral. Half of
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: her year was spent, and the King made her stay
• 1:18:18
  Speaker 1: with him in the towns on the Loire, when he
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: might have been in Paris, his capital, if he had
• 1:18:23
  Speaker 1: only trusted Joan. In the meantime, the English retook some
• 1:18:29
  Speaker 1: of the French towns that Joan had given to the King,
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: and seized her sacred armor in the church of Saint Denis,
• 1:18:35
  Speaker 1: and punished and plundered the people who were worse off
• 1:18:38
  Speaker 1: than before, while the Maid was only allowed now and
• 1:18:42
  Speaker 1: then to attack the English and defeat them in the
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: old way. Chapter twelve, how the Maid took certain towns.
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: The wise King had arranged with the Duke of Burgundy
• 1:18:56
  Speaker 1: that they too should be at peace till Easter fourteen thirty,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: while he might fight the English as much as he liked,
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: which was not at all now. The English let the
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: Duke of Burgundy be governor of Paris. It was always
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: Paris that the maid wished to take for her king,
• 1:19:14
  Speaker 1: as it was the greatest city and the capital of France.
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: But the King said she must not attack Paris, for
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: it was now under the Duke of Burgundy, not under
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: the English. All this was mere pretense to avoid fighting.
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: Joan's aim was to turn the English and their child,
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: King Henry the sixth out of her country, and the
• 1:19:35
  Speaker 1: English were not likely to go out till they were
• 1:19:37
  Speaker 1: driven out. The English still held towns on the River Loire,
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: such as Saint Pierre le Moustier and La Charitee. Joan
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: went to Bourges and gathered an army with a gentleman
• 1:19:50
  Speaker 1: named del Bret to help her, and besieged the town
• 1:19:54
  Speaker 1: of Saint Pierre le Moustier. When they had battered the
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: walls for some time with their guns and made a brief,
• 1:20:00
  Speaker 1: the French tried to rush through it, but the English
• 1:20:04
  Speaker 1: were too strong and too many, and drove them out.
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: At this time, Joane's master of the household, Dolon, who
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: had been with her at Orleans, was wounded in the
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: heel by an arrow, and he could not walk without crutches.
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: He saw that while the rest of the French had
• 1:20:22
  Speaker 1: retired out of shot from the breach, Joan was there
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: almost alone with a very small company. Dolon therefore got
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: a horse and rode to her to ask her to
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: come out of danger. What are you doing here alone,
• 1:20:37
  Speaker 1: he asked her. She took off her helmet and said,
• 1:20:40
  Speaker 1: I am not alone here. I have with me fifty
• 1:20:43
  Speaker 1: thousand of my own by which she seems to have
• 1:20:47
  Speaker 1: meant an invisible army of angels, and I will not
• 1:20:50
  Speaker 1: leave this place till I take the town. Dolon told
• 1:20:54
  Speaker 1: her that she had but four or five men with her,
• 1:20:56
  Speaker 1: to which she only answered by bidding him to make
• 1:20:59
  Speaker 1: her army bring fagots of wood to fill up the
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: ditch with that they might cross to the town. Then
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: she shouted, in a loud voice, bring up fagots, all
• 1:21:08
  Speaker 1: of you, and they obeyed, filling up the ditch, attacked
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: the breach in the wall again rushed through, beat the
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: English and took the town. This was just like what
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: Joan had done when her army was on the point
• 1:21:23
  Speaker 1: of retreating from the attack on Lesterrell's at Orleans. One
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: charge more was what she called for, and her men
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: were inspired with courage, while the English were terrified by
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: their refusal to be beaten. This was the last time
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: that Joan led the French to such a victory. She
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: besieged another town, La Cherite, which was held by Burgundians,
• 1:21:47
  Speaker 1: but the king did not send food enough for her
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: men and she had to go away unsuccessful. About this
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: time she was troubled by a woman called Catharine of
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: La Rochelle, a married woman who declared glared that a
• 1:22:00
  Speaker 1: lovely lady came to her at night, dressed all in
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: cloth of gold, and told her where treasures of money
• 1:22:06
  Speaker 1: were hidden, which were much needed for the wars. Joane
• 1:22:10
  Speaker 1: said that she must see this wonderful lady before she
• 1:22:13
  Speaker 1: could believe in her, and she sat up all night
• 1:22:15
  Speaker 1: with Catherine, but the lady never came. Joan told Catherine
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: to go back to her husband and her children and
• 1:22:22
  Speaker 1: mind her own affairs. There were several people who went
• 1:22:26
  Speaker 1: about saying that they had visions, but they were of
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: no use, for visions are none. They had not Joan's
• 1:22:32
  Speaker 1: courage and wisdom. It is true that Katherine might have
• 1:22:36
  Speaker 1: said to Joan, you can't see my golden lady, but
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: I can't see your saints nor hear your voices. The
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: difference was that Joan's saints and voices had enabled her
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: to do a great many wonderful things, while Catherine's golden
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: Lady never led to the finding of treasures or anything
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: else that was of any use. End of Chapter twelve,
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: Chapters thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen of the Story of Joan
• 1:23:10
  Speaker 1: of arc by Andrew Lang. This LibriVox recording is in
• 1:23:14
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter thirteen, how the Voices prophesied evil.
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: The end of the year of the Maid was at hand.
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: She had often said that she would last but a
• 1:23:28
  Speaker 1: year or a little more. Counting from May fourteen twenty nine,
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: perhaps you remember that the king had made a truce
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: with the Burgundians, and useless truce, for the Burgundians went
• 1:23:40
  Speaker 1: on fighting not under their own flag but under the
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: Leopards of England. The King, as usual, was loitering about
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: doing nothing. Joan heard in spring fourteen thirty that three
• 1:23:54
  Speaker 1: or four hundred English were crossing the Isle of France,
• 1:23:57
  Speaker 1: which is not a real island, but a district of
• 1:23:59
  Speaker 1: that name. She was then at Lagny on the River Marne,
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: not far from Paris. So she rode out from Lagny
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: to meet them with a gentleman whom the French called Kennedy.
• 1:24:12
  Speaker 1: Can you guess what quenetti means? He was Sir Hugh Kennedy,
• 1:24:17
  Speaker 1: of the Great Kennedy clan in Galloway and Ayrshire. He
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: had fought at the Battle of the Herrings and at Orleans,
• 1:24:24
  Speaker 1: and he made a great deal of money in France,
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: so that when he went back to Scotland he was
• 1:24:29
  Speaker 1: called Hugh, Come with the penny. When Joan with her
• 1:24:34
  Speaker 1: French and Scots, came in sight of the enemy, the
• 1:24:38
  Speaker 1: English drew themselves up on foot along the side of
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: a hedge, and Joan and the rest charged them, some
• 1:24:45
  Speaker 1: on foot, some on horse, and there was hard fighting,
• 1:24:49
  Speaker 1: for the numbers were about equal. But at last all
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: the English were killed or taken prisoners. There was also
• 1:24:57
  Speaker 1: taken a robber knight Franquat Dara, who was tried for
• 1:25:01
  Speaker 1: his crimes and put to death, and the English party
• 1:25:04
  Speaker 1: among the French thought it very wicked in Joan to
• 1:25:07
  Speaker 1: allow the rogue to be punished. In Easter week, Joan
• 1:25:11
  Speaker 1: was at Meloune one day, examining the ditch round the
• 1:25:15
  Speaker 1: walls to see that it was in good order. Then
• 1:25:18
  Speaker 1: suddenly the voices of Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret spoke
• 1:25:21
  Speaker 1: to her and said that she should be taken prisoner
• 1:25:24
  Speaker 1: before Midsummer day, and thus it needs must be, and
• 1:25:29
  Speaker 1: that she was to be resigned to this and God
• 1:25:31
  Speaker 1: would help her. Often after this terrible day, the voices
• 1:25:35
  Speaker 1: made the same prophecy, but they would never tell her
• 1:25:38
  Speaker 1: the time and the hour. She prayed that she might
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: die in that hour, for the English had often threatened
• 1:25:45
  Speaker 1: her that they would burn her as a witch if
• 1:25:47
  Speaker 1: they caught her. Often she asked the voices to warn
• 1:25:50
  Speaker 1: her of the hour of her capture, for she would
• 1:25:53
  Speaker 1: not have gone into battle on that day, but they
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: would not tell her. And after that she did what
• 1:25:59
  Speaker 1: the captain of her party thought best. And it seems
• 1:26:03
  Speaker 1: that as to where or when she was to fight,
• 1:26:05
  Speaker 1: she had no advice from the voices. But she fought
• 1:26:09
  Speaker 1: on as bravely as ever, and This was the bravest
• 1:26:12
  Speaker 1: thing that ever was done by anyone. For was not
• 1:26:15
  Speaker 1: as if the voices had said that she should be
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: killed in battle, of which she had no fear. But
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: they said she was to be captured, and she knew
• 1:26:25
  Speaker 1: that meant she was to be burned alive. Nobody but
• 1:26:29
  Speaker 1: Joan would have gone on risking herself every day, not
• 1:26:33
  Speaker 1: to danger of war, which is the duty of every soldier,
• 1:26:37
  Speaker 1: but to the death by fire. If any one says
• 1:26:41
  Speaker 1: that the voices were only her fancy and her fear
• 1:26:44
  Speaker 1: taking a fanciful shape, we must reply that whatever they
• 1:26:48
  Speaker 1: really were, she believed all that they said, and thought
• 1:26:52
  Speaker 1: that they were the voices of her sisters, the saints.
• 1:26:56
  Speaker 1: Thus the end of Joan was the most glorious thing
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: in her glofe glorious life. For many could be brave
• 1:27:03
  Speaker 1: enough when the saints prophesied victory, But only she could
• 1:27:07
  Speaker 1: give her body to be burned for her country. End
• 1:27:12
  Speaker 1: of Chapter thirteen. Chapter fourteen, How the Maid was taken.
• 1:27:20
  Speaker 1: We have heard how the town of Compeigne came over
• 1:27:23
  Speaker 1: to Joan and the king after the coronation at Reims.
• 1:27:28
  Speaker 1: The city had often been taken and retaken and held
• 1:27:31
  Speaker 1: by both sides. But now they made up their minds
• 1:27:35
  Speaker 1: that come what might, they would be true to France.
• 1:27:39
  Speaker 1: And now in May the English and Burgundians besieged campaign
• 1:27:43
  Speaker 1: with a very large army. Joan, who was at Magny,
• 1:27:48
  Speaker 1: heard of this, and she made up her mind to
• 1:27:50
  Speaker 1: help the good and loyal town or perish with it.
• 1:27:54
  Speaker 1: She first tried to cut the roads that the Duke
• 1:27:56
  Speaker 1: of Burgundy used for his soldiers and supplies of food,
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: but she failed to take Sooissons and pont le Vec,
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: and so shut the Duke off from his bridges over
• 1:28:06
  Speaker 1: the rivers. So she rode into Compaigne under cloud of night,
• 1:28:11
  Speaker 1: with her brother Pierre and two or three hundred men.
• 1:28:15
  Speaker 1: This was before dawn on May twenty third. The town
• 1:28:20
  Speaker 1: of Compagne is on the left bank of the river.
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: Was behind the town was a forest through which Joan
• 1:28:27
  Speaker 1: road and got into the town, to the great joy
• 1:28:30
  Speaker 1: of the people. From Compeigne to the right bank of
• 1:28:34
  Speaker 1: the Wahs, where the English and Burgundians had their camps,
• 1:28:37
  Speaker 1: there was a long bridge fortified to lead to a
• 1:28:41
  Speaker 1: great level meadow about a mile broad. In wet weather,
• 1:28:45
  Speaker 1: the meadow was often under water from the flooded river,
• 1:28:48
  Speaker 1: so a causeway or raised road was built across it,
• 1:28:53
  Speaker 1: high and dry. At the end of the causeway, farthest
• 1:28:57
  Speaker 1: from Compagne was the village of mar Arny, with the
• 1:29:01
  Speaker 1: steeple of its church, and here a part of the
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: Burgundian army was encamped. Two miles and a half farther
• 1:29:09
  Speaker 1: on was the village of Clairoy, where lay another part
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: of the Burgundian force. About a mile and a half
• 1:29:16
  Speaker 1: to the left of the causeway was the village of Venette,
• 1:29:18
  Speaker 1: which was held by the English, and about three miles
• 1:29:22
  Speaker 1: off was Coudun, where the Duke of Burgundy himself had
• 1:29:25
  Speaker 1: his quarters. There were very large forces in front and
• 1:29:30
  Speaker 1: on the side of the only road by which Joan
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: could get at them with her own men, only three
• 1:29:36
  Speaker 1: hundred probably, and any of the townspeople who liked to
• 1:29:40
  Speaker 1: follow her on foot with clubs and scythes and such weapons.
• 1:29:45
  Speaker 1: Thus it was really a very rash thing of Joan
• 1:29:47
  Speaker 1: to lead so few men by such a narrow road
• 1:29:51
  Speaker 1: to attack the nearest Burgundians, those at Marni at the
• 1:29:55
  Speaker 1: end of the causeway, the other Burgundians farther off, and
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: the English from Vignette, quite near and on Jones's left flank,
• 1:30:03
  Speaker 1: would certainly come up to attack her and help their
• 1:30:06
  Speaker 1: friends at Marni, she would be surrounded on all sides
• 1:30:10
  Speaker 1: and cut off. For the garrison of Compeigne stayed in
• 1:30:14
  Speaker 1: the town under their General de Flavie, who was a
• 1:30:18
  Speaker 1: great Ruffian, but a brave man and loyal to France.
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: Why Joan, about five o'clock in the evening on May
• 1:30:25
  Speaker 1: twenty third, rode out with her little force, crossed the bridge,
• 1:30:30
  Speaker 1: galloped down the causeway, and rode through and through the
• 1:30:34
  Speaker 1: Burgundians at Marni. We do not know. Her voices seemed
• 1:30:38
  Speaker 1: to have ceased to give her advice, only saying that
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: she would certainly be captured. Perhaps she only meant to
• 1:30:46
  Speaker 1: take Marnie, though now it is not easy to understand
• 1:30:49
  Speaker 1: how she expected to hold it when the whole Burgundian
• 1:30:53
  Speaker 1: and English armies came up to recover it, as they
• 1:30:55
  Speaker 1: would certainly do if she aimed at Moore. Her her
• 1:31:00
  Speaker 1: charge was very brave, but very ill judged. Joan said
• 1:31:05
  Speaker 1: that her voices did not tell her to make her
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: desperate sally. It was her own idea Nearly seventy years afterwards,
• 1:31:13
  Speaker 1: two very old men said that when they were young
• 1:31:16
  Speaker 1: at Compeigne, they heard Joan tell the crowd of children
• 1:31:19
  Speaker 1: before she wrote out that I am betrayed and soon
• 1:31:23
  Speaker 1: will be delivered to death. Pray God for me, for
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: I shall never again be able to help France and
• 1:31:29
  Speaker 1: the King. One of the men was ninety eight, so
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: he would be quite twenty eight when he heard Joane
• 1:31:35
  Speaker 1: say this, if he really did hear her. But long
• 1:31:39
  Speaker 1: before men are ninety eight or even eighty six, Like
• 1:31:42
  Speaker 1: the other man, they are apt to remember things that
• 1:31:45
  Speaker 1: never happened. But Joan may have told children of whom
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: she was very fond, that she knew she was soon
• 1:31:52
  Speaker 1: to be taken. Her enemies declared that she said she
• 1:31:56
  Speaker 1: would take the Duke of Burgundy himself, but as he
• 1:31:59
  Speaker 1: was miles away in the middle of a large army,
• 1:32:03
  Speaker 1: while she had only three hundred of her own men,
• 1:32:06
  Speaker 1: this cannot be true. Probably she only meant to break
• 1:32:10
  Speaker 1: up the Burgundians at Marni and to show that she
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: was there to encourage the people at Compeigne. Her own
• 1:32:17
  Speaker 1: account is that she charged the Burgundians at Marni, the
• 1:32:21
  Speaker 1: nearest village, and drove them twice back to Clairoi, where
• 1:32:25
  Speaker 1: they were reinforced by the Great Burgundian army there, and
• 1:32:29
  Speaker 1: thrust her back to the middle of the causeway, where
• 1:32:32
  Speaker 1: she turned again charged them and made them retreat. But
• 1:32:37
  Speaker 1: then the English came up from Vignette on her flank
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: and came between her and the bridge of Compaigne, and
• 1:32:45
  Speaker 1: she leaped her horse off the raised causeway into the meadow,
• 1:32:49
  Speaker 1: where she was surrounded and pulled off her horse and taken.
• 1:32:53
  Speaker 1: Though she would not surrender, no doubt, she hoped that
• 1:32:56
  Speaker 1: as she refused to surrender, she would be killed on
• 1:32:59
  Speaker 1: the spot. When they cried to her to yield, she said,
• 1:33:04
  Speaker 1: I have given my faith to another than you, and
• 1:33:07
  Speaker 1: I will keep my oath to him, meaning our lord.
• 1:33:12
  Speaker 1: But she was too valuable to be killed. The captors
• 1:33:16
  Speaker 1: might either get a great ransom, a king's ransom, or
• 1:33:20
  Speaker 1: sell her to the English to burn. The French would
• 1:33:23
  Speaker 1: not pay the ransom, and Jean de Luxembourg, who got
• 1:33:27
  Speaker 1: possession of her, sold her to the English. The Burgundian historian,
• 1:33:31
  Speaker 1: who was with the Duke and did not see the battle,
• 1:33:34
  Speaker 1: says the English feared not any captain nor any chief
• 1:33:38
  Speaker 1: in war, as they feared the maid. She had done
• 1:33:43
  Speaker 1: great deeds passing the nature of woman, says another Burgundian writer.
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: She remained in the rear of her men, as their
• 1:33:52
  Speaker 1: captain and the bravest of all there where fortune granted
• 1:33:56
  Speaker 1: it for the end of her glory and for that
• 1:33:58
  Speaker 1: last time of her bearing eyes arms. But indeed her
• 1:34:02
  Speaker 1: glory never ceased, for in her long cruel imprisonment and martyrdom,
• 1:34:08
  Speaker 1: she showed more courage than any man at arms can display.
• 1:34:11
  Speaker 1: Where blows are given and taken end of chapter fourteen,
• 1:34:19
  Speaker 1: Chapter fifteen, the Captivity of the Maid. We might suppose
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: that there was not a rich man in France, or
• 1:34:28
  Speaker 1: even a poor man, who would not have given what
• 1:34:30
  Speaker 1: he could much or little, to help to pay the
• 1:34:34
  Speaker 1: ransom of the maid. John de Luxembourg only wanted the money,
• 1:34:39
  Speaker 1: and as she was a prisoner of war she might
• 1:34:42
  Speaker 1: expect to be ransomed like other prisoners, it was the
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: more needful to get the money and buy her freedom.
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: As the priests of the University of Paris, who were
• 1:34:52
  Speaker 1: on the English side, at once wrote to Jean de
• 1:34:55
  Speaker 1: Luxembourg and asked him to give Joan up to the
• 1:34:57
  Speaker 1: Inquisition to be tried by the the laws of the
• 1:35:00
  Speaker 1: Inquisition for the crimes of witchcraft, idolatry, and wrong doctrines
• 1:35:05
  Speaker 1: about religion. The inquisitor was the head of a kind
• 1:35:10
  Speaker 1: of religious court which tried people for not holding the
• 1:35:14
  Speaker 1: right belief or for witchcraft or other religious offenses. The
• 1:35:20
  Speaker 1: rules of the court and the way of managing the
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: trials were what we think very unfair, but they were
• 1:35:27
  Speaker 1: not more unfair than the methods used in Scotland after
• 1:35:30
  Speaker 1: the Reformation. With us. Old women were tortured till they
• 1:35:35
  Speaker 1: confessed that they were witches, and then were burned alive,
• 1:35:38
  Speaker 1: sometimes seven or eight of them at once, for crimes
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: which nobody could possibly commit. That went on in Scotland
• 1:35:47
  Speaker 1: till the country was united to England at the beginning
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: of the eighteenth century, and the laws against witchcraft were
• 1:35:53
  Speaker 1: not abolished till seventeen thirty six. Many of the Presbyterian ministers,
• 1:35:59
  Speaker 1: who were active in hunting for witches and having them
• 1:36:02
  Speaker 1: put to horrid tortures, were very angry that the witchcraft
• 1:36:06
  Speaker 1: laws were abolished. The Inquisition was better than the ministers
• 1:36:11
  Speaker 1: and magistrates in one way. If a witch confessed and
• 1:36:15
  Speaker 1: promised not to do it again, she was not put
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: to death, but kept in prison. In Scotland, the people
• 1:36:22
  Speaker 1: accused of witchcraft had not even this chance, which did
• 1:36:26
  Speaker 1: not help Joan. As we shall see. All this is
• 1:36:30
  Speaker 1: told here to show that the French were not more
• 1:36:33
  Speaker 1: stupid and cruel four hundred years ago than we were
• 1:36:37
  Speaker 1: in Scotland two hundred years ago. But it was a
• 1:36:40
  Speaker 1: fearful thing to fall into the hands of the inquisition,
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: and therefore the French king and his subjects should have
• 1:36:47
  Speaker 1: paid Joan's ransom at once or rescued her by force
• 1:36:51
  Speaker 1: of arms. But not a coin was paid, and not
• 1:36:55
  Speaker 1: a sword was drawn to ransom or to rescue her.
• 1:36:59
  Speaker 1: The people who advised the king had never liked her,
• 1:37:03
  Speaker 1: and now the king left her to her fate. She
• 1:37:06
  Speaker 1: could have taken a bitter revenge on him if she
• 1:37:09
  Speaker 1: had chosen to tell tales, but she was loyal to
• 1:37:13
  Speaker 1: the last, like Montrose to Charles the second. Of course,
• 1:37:18
  Speaker 1: Joan was not a witch, and was a most religious girl.
• 1:37:22
  Speaker 1: But she did not deny that she had talked with spirits,
• 1:37:25
  Speaker 1: the spirits of the saints, and her judges, who hated her,
• 1:37:30
  Speaker 1: could say, and did say, that these spirits were devils
• 1:37:34
  Speaker 1: in disguise, and that therefore she was a witch. She
• 1:37:40
  Speaker 1: always had known that they would do this if they
• 1:37:42
  Speaker 1: got the chance. Jean de Luxembourg did not hand Joan
• 1:37:47
  Speaker 1: over to the priests at once, probably he was waiting
• 1:37:51
  Speaker 1: to see if he could not get a better price
• 1:37:53
  Speaker 1: from her French friends than from her English enemies. The
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: Bishop of Beauvais was Joan's word enemy. His odious name
• 1:38:02
  Speaker 1: was Pierre Couchan, and in July he kept pressing the
• 1:38:06
  Speaker 1: Duke of Burgundy, then still besieging Compaigne, to make Jean
• 1:38:11
  Speaker 1: give up the maid. Jean kept the maid in a
• 1:38:14
  Speaker 1: castle called Beaulu till August, and then sent her to
• 1:38:18
  Speaker 1: another castle, beau Revoir, near Cambray, far to the north,
• 1:38:23
  Speaker 1: where it would be more difficult for her friends like
• 1:38:26
  Speaker 1: Dunois and Dalnson to come and rescue her by force,
• 1:38:29
  Speaker 1: which we do not hear that they ever try to do,
• 1:38:32
  Speaker 1: though perhaps they did. The brave Zantrees was doing a
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: thing that Joan longed for, even more than her freedom.
• 1:38:40
  Speaker 1: She was taken in fighting to help the town of Compeigne,
• 1:38:43
  Speaker 1: of which she was very fond, and her great grief
• 1:38:46
  Speaker 1: at Beaulieu and beau revoire was that Campaigne was likely
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: to be taken by the Burgundians and the English, who
• 1:38:52
  Speaker 1: threatened to put the people to death. All this while
• 1:38:56
  Speaker 1: Zintrey was preparing a small army to deliver Compaigne. At
• 1:39:00
  Speaker 1: beau Revoir, the ladies of the castle were kinsfolk of
• 1:39:03
  Speaker 1: Jean de Luxembourg. They were good women and very kind
• 1:39:07
  Speaker 1: to Joan, and they knelt to Jean, weeping and asking
• 1:39:11
  Speaker 1: him to give her back to her friends. But he
• 1:39:14
  Speaker 1: wanted his money, like the men who sold Sir William
• 1:39:17
  Speaker 1: Wallace to the English and the Great Mantrose to the
• 1:39:20
  Speaker 1: preachers in Parliament, so Jean sold the maid to the English.
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: Joan knew this and knew what she had to expect.
• 1:39:30
  Speaker 1: She was allowed to take the air on the flat
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: roof of the Great Tower at beau Revoir, which was
• 1:39:35
  Speaker 1: sixty feet high. She was not thinking so much of
• 1:39:39
  Speaker 1: herself as of Compaigne. If she could escape, she would
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: try to make her way to Campaigny and help the
• 1:39:45
  Speaker 1: people to fight for their liberty and their lives. But
• 1:39:49
  Speaker 1: how could she escape. She hoped that if she leaped
• 1:39:53
  Speaker 1: from the top of the tower, her saints would bear
• 1:39:55
  Speaker 1: her up in their arms and not let her be
• 1:39:58
  Speaker 1: hurt by the fall. So she asked them if she
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: might leap down, but Saint Catherine said no, she must
• 1:40:06
  Speaker 1: not leap. God would help her and the people of
• 1:40:09
  Speaker 1: compaign But Joan would not listen this time to the voice.
• 1:40:15
  Speaker 1: She said that if the leap was wrong, she would
• 1:40:18
  Speaker 1: rather trust her soul to the mercy of God than
• 1:40:21
  Speaker 1: her body to the English, and she must go to Compaigne,
• 1:40:25
  Speaker 1: for she heard that when the town was taken, all
• 1:40:29
  Speaker 1: the people, old and young were to be put to
• 1:40:31
  Speaker 1: the sword. Then she leaped, and there she lay. She
• 1:40:37
  Speaker 1: was not hurt. Not a bone of her was broken,
• 1:40:40
  Speaker 1: which is an extraordinary thing. But she could not move
• 1:40:43
  Speaker 1: a limb. The people of the castle came and took
• 1:40:47
  Speaker 1: her back to her prison room. She did not know
• 1:40:50
  Speaker 1: what had happened, and for three days she ate nothing.
• 1:40:54
  Speaker 1: Then her memory came back to her and to her sorrows.
• 1:40:58
  Speaker 1: Why was she not allowed to Saint Catherine told her
• 1:41:03
  Speaker 1: that she had sinned and must confess and ask the
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: divine mercy, but she was to go through with her
• 1:41:09
  Speaker 1: appointed task. Take no care for thy torment, said the voice.
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: Thence shalt thou come into paradise. Moreover, Saint Catherine promised
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: that compaign should be rescued before Martinmus. That was the
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: last good news and the last happy thing that came
• 1:41:28
  Speaker 1: to Joane in the days of her life. For just
• 1:41:31
  Speaker 1: before Martinmus, her friend Pothon d Zantry rode with his
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: men at arms through the forest of Compigne, whilst others
• 1:41:39
  Speaker 1: of the French attacked the English and Burgundians on the
• 1:41:41
  Speaker 1: farther side of the Oas. And so the Saint kept
• 1:41:45
  Speaker 1: her promise and Compaigne was saved. End of chapter fifteen,
• 1:41:56
  Speaker 1: Chapter sixteen seventeen eighteen nineteen of the Story of Joan
• 1:42:02
  Speaker 1: of Arc by Andrew Lang. This LibriVox recording is in
• 1:42:05
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Chapter sixteen the Trial of the Maid.
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: As Joan was a woman and a prisoner of the
• 1:42:15
  Speaker 1: Church when the English had handed her over to the priests,
• 1:42:19
  Speaker 1: she ought to have been kept in a gentle prison
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: and with only women about her. But the English were
• 1:42:25
  Speaker 1: very cruel. They had a kind of cage made, called
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: a hooch, and put in a strong room in the
• 1:42:33
  Speaker 1: castle of Rouen. In this cage they kept Joan with
• 1:42:37
  Speaker 1: chains on her legs, which were fastened to a strong
• 1:42:40
  Speaker 1: post or beam of the bed. Five common soldiers kept
• 1:42:45
  Speaker 1: watch in the room day and night. The eyes of
• 1:42:48
  Speaker 1: men were always on the most modest of girls. We
• 1:42:52
  Speaker 1: see how much they feared her. They wished to have
• 1:42:55
  Speaker 1: her proved a witch and one who dealt with devils,
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: to take away the shame of having been defeated by
• 1:43:01
  Speaker 1: a girl, and also to disgrace the French king by
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: making the world believe he had been helped by a
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: sorceress and her evil spirits. In truth, if you read
• 1:43:11
  Speaker 1: Henry the sixth Part one by Shakespeare, you will see
• 1:43:15
  Speaker 1: just what the English thought about the maid. Shakespeare, of course,
• 1:43:19
  Speaker 1: did not know the true story of Joan, and he
• 1:43:22
  Speaker 1: makes her say abominable things which not even her enemies
• 1:43:26
  Speaker 1: brought up against her at her trial. If Shakespeare wrote
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: the play, he did not care a penny for the
• 1:43:32
  Speaker 1: truth of the story. He sends Joan to Bordeaux, where
• 1:43:36
  Speaker 1: she never was in her life, and makes fiends, that is,
• 1:43:40
  Speaker 1: her saints appear to her and show that they will
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: help her no longer. So she offers her very soul
• 1:43:47
  Speaker 1: as a sacrifice for the sake of France. Quote then
• 1:43:51
  Speaker 1: take my soul, my body, soul, and all before that
• 1:43:55
  Speaker 1: England give the French the foil. Later she turned on
• 1:44:00
  Speaker 1: the English and says what she might have said with truth, quote,
• 1:44:04
  Speaker 1: I never had to do with wicked spirits, but you
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: that are polluted with your lusts, stained with the guiltless
• 1:44:10
  Speaker 1: blood of innocence, corrupt and tainted with a thousand vices.
• 1:44:14
  Speaker 1: Because you want the grace that others have you judge
• 1:44:18
  Speaker 1: it straight a thing impossible to compass wonders, but by
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: help of devils unquote. The English had devils on their
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: own side, the cruel priests and Bishop Koshun, whom they
• 1:44:31
  Speaker 1: had promised to make archbishop of Rowan, but he never
• 1:44:34
  Speaker 1: got it. For three months, these people examined Joan every day,
• 1:44:40
  Speaker 1: sometimes all shouting at her at once, so that she said, gentlemen,
• 1:44:44
  Speaker 1: if you please one at a time. She had no
• 1:44:48
  Speaker 1: advocate who knew the law to help her to defend herself.
• 1:44:52
  Speaker 1: But once when she appealed to the Council of Basel,
• 1:44:56
  Speaker 1: a council of the Church, which was then sitting, they
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: bade her beside island and told the clerk, who took
• 1:45:01
  Speaker 1: down everything in writing in French, not to write down
• 1:45:05
  Speaker 1: her appeal. There is nothing about this in the Latin
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: book of the trial translated from the French. But in
• 1:45:12
  Speaker 1: the French copy made in court you can see the
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: place where the clerk's pen has stopped at the words,
• 1:45:18
  Speaker 1: and she appeals at Requier in French he was going
• 1:45:23
  Speaker 1: to write the rest. Now she had a right to appeal,
• 1:45:27
  Speaker 1: and as the clergy at the Council of Basil were
• 1:45:30
  Speaker 1: of many countries, they would not have taken the English side,
• 1:45:33
  Speaker 1: but pronounced Joan innocent. The bishops and clergy of the
• 1:45:38
  Speaker 1: loyal French party at Poitiers, before she went to the war,
• 1:45:42
  Speaker 1: had declared her innocent and a thing of God. After
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: a long examination of her life up till April fourteen
• 1:45:48
  Speaker 1: twenty nine, Joan often asked her judges to send for
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: the Portier's book, where they would find answers to their
• 1:45:56
  Speaker 1: questions about her early days. But they vexed her at everything,
• 1:46:01
  Speaker 1: even about the fairy tree on which the children used
• 1:46:04
  Speaker 1: to hang their garlands. Their notion seems to have been
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: that the fairies were her helpers, not the saints, and
• 1:46:11
  Speaker 1: that the fairies were evil spirits. Joan had shown that
• 1:46:16
  Speaker 1: in war and politics she was wiser than the soldiers
• 1:46:19
  Speaker 1: and statesmen. She went straight at the work to be
• 1:46:23
  Speaker 1: done to beat the English, and to keep attacking them
• 1:46:27
  Speaker 1: before they got back their confidence. At her trial, she
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: showed that she was far wiser than the learned priests.
• 1:46:36
  Speaker 1: They tried to prove that she was helped by fairies.
• 1:46:40
  Speaker 1: She said that she did not believe there were any fairies,
• 1:46:44
  Speaker 1: and though I would not say that there are none,
• 1:46:47
  Speaker 1: there certainly are not so many or so busy and
• 1:46:49
  Speaker 1: powerful as the priests supposed. They kept asking her about
• 1:46:55
  Speaker 1: the prophecies of Merlin the Wizard. She thought nothing of
• 1:46:58
  Speaker 1: Merlin the Wizard. She vowed to speak truth in answer
• 1:47:02
  Speaker 1: to questions, but she would not answer questions about her
• 1:47:06
  Speaker 1: saints and voices except when they gave her permission. The
• 1:47:10
  Speaker 1: judges troubled her most about the secret of the king
• 1:47:14
  Speaker 1: and what she had told him about that before she
• 1:47:16
  Speaker 1: went to the wars. You remember that the king had
• 1:47:20
  Speaker 1: secretly prayed to know whether he really was the son
• 1:47:23
  Speaker 1: of the late King or not, and that Joan told
• 1:47:27
  Speaker 1: him of his prayer and told him that he was
• 1:47:30
  Speaker 1: the son of the late King and had the right
• 1:47:33
  Speaker 1: to be king himself. But she would tell the judges
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: nothing about all this matter. If she had, the English
• 1:47:41
  Speaker 1: would have cried everywhere. You see, he is not certain
• 1:47:44
  Speaker 1: himself that he is what he pretends to be. Our
• 1:47:48
  Speaker 1: King of England is the only king of France. Joan
• 1:47:52
  Speaker 1: would not betray her king's doubts. She never would tell
• 1:47:56
  Speaker 1: what happened. At last she told a simple peril. An
• 1:48:01
  Speaker 1: angel came with a rich crown for the king. But
• 1:48:05
  Speaker 1: later she explained that by the angel she meant herself,
• 1:48:09
  Speaker 1: and that by the crown she meant her having him
• 1:48:11
  Speaker 1: crowned at Reims. They never could get the king's secret
• 1:48:16
  Speaker 1: out of her. At last they said they would put
• 1:48:19
  Speaker 1: her to the torture. They took her to a horrible
• 1:48:22
  Speaker 1: vault full of abominable instruments for pinching and tearing, and
• 1:48:27
  Speaker 1: roasting and screwing the bodies of men. There stood the executioner,
• 1:48:33
  Speaker 1: with his arms bare and his fire lit, and all
• 1:48:36
  Speaker 1: his pincers and ropes and pulleys ready. Now will you
• 1:48:41
  Speaker 1: tell us? They said? Brave men had turned faint with
• 1:48:46
  Speaker 1: terror in that vault and had said anything that they
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: were asked to say rather than face the pain. There
• 1:48:53
  Speaker 1: was a marshal of France, Guille's Deray, a nobleman who
• 1:48:58
  Speaker 1: fought besides Joan at Orleans, at Lesterrell's, at Jarjeau, at Pathay,
• 1:49:04
  Speaker 1: and at Paris, and who carried the sacred vessel which
• 1:49:07
  Speaker 1: the angel brought long ago with holy oil at the
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: king's coronation. Later, this man was accused by the Inquisition
• 1:49:16
  Speaker 1: of the most horrible crimes. Among other things, he was
• 1:49:20
  Speaker 1: said to have sacrificed children to the devil and to
• 1:49:24
  Speaker 1: have killed hundreds of little boys for his own amusement.
• 1:49:28
  Speaker 1: But the hundreds of little boys were not proved to
• 1:49:31
  Speaker 1: be missing, and none of their remains were ever found.
• 1:49:36
  Speaker 1: Guille's de ray denied these horrible charges. He said that
• 1:49:40
  Speaker 1: he was innocent, and for all we know he was.
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: But they took him to the torture vault and showed
• 1:49:46
  Speaker 1: him the engines of torment, and he confessed everything so
• 1:49:50
  Speaker 1: that he might be put to death without torture, which
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: was done. Joan did not fear and turn faint. She said,
• 1:50:00
  Speaker 1: torture me, if you please tear my body to pieces.
• 1:50:05
  Speaker 1: Whatever I say in my pains will not be true,
• 1:50:08
  Speaker 1: and as soon as I am released, I will deny
• 1:50:10
  Speaker 1: that it was true. Now go on. Many priests wished
• 1:50:16
  Speaker 1: to go on, but more even of these cruel enemies
• 1:50:19
  Speaker 1: said no, they would not torture the girl. What a
• 1:50:24
  Speaker 1: brave lass. Pity she is not English, one of the
• 1:50:27
  Speaker 1: English lords said, when he saw Joan standing up against
• 1:50:31
  Speaker 1: the crowd of priests and lawyers, Remember that for six
• 1:50:36
  Speaker 1: weeks during lent, Joan took no food. All day there
• 1:50:42
  Speaker 1: she stood, starving and answering everybody, always bravely, always courteously,
• 1:50:50
  Speaker 1: always wisely, and sometimes even merrily. They kept asking her
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: the same questions on different days to try to make
• 1:50:58
  Speaker 1: her very in her anser. All the answers were written
• 1:51:02
  Speaker 1: down once, they said she had answered differently before, and
• 1:51:06
  Speaker 1: when the book was examined it proved that there was
• 1:51:09
  Speaker 1: some mistake in the thing, and that Joan was in
• 1:51:12
  Speaker 1: the right. She was much pleased and said to the clerk,
• 1:51:17
  Speaker 1: if you make mistakes again, I will pull your ears.
• 1:51:21
  Speaker 1: They troubled her very much about wearing boys dress. She
• 1:51:25
  Speaker 1: said that when among men in war, it was better
• 1:51:28
  Speaker 1: and more proper. She was still among men, with soldiers
• 1:51:32
  Speaker 1: in her room day and night, which was quite unlawful.
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: She should have had only women about her. She would
• 1:51:39
  Speaker 1: not put on women's dress while she was among men,
• 1:51:42
  Speaker 1: and was quite in the right she could hear her
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: voices in court, but not clearly on account of the noise.
• 1:51:50
  Speaker 1: Once I suppose she heard them, for she suddenly said,
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: in the middle of an answer to a question about
• 1:51:56
  Speaker 1: the letters which were written for her when she was
• 1:51:58
  Speaker 1: in the wars, before seven years are past, the English
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: will lose a greater stake than they have lost at Orlandes.
• 1:52:06
  Speaker 1: They will lose everything in France. Before the seven years
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: were out, they lost Paris, a much greater stake than Orleans,
• 1:52:16
  Speaker 1: as Paris was the chief town and the largest. They
• 1:52:20
  Speaker 1: went on losing till they lost everything in France, even
• 1:52:24
  Speaker 1: all that they had held for hundreds of years. The
• 1:52:28
  Speaker 1: judges insisted that she should submit to the church. Joan asked,
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: nothing better. Take me to the Pope, and I will
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: answer him, for I know and believe that we should
• 1:52:39
  Speaker 1: obey our Holy Father, the Pope who is in Rome,
• 1:52:43
  Speaker 1: or she would answer the council of the whole church
• 1:52:45
  Speaker 1: at Basel. But as I said, the Bishop Caushin stopped
• 1:52:49
  Speaker 1: the clerk when he was writing down the words. The
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: judges said, we are the Church, answer us and obey us.
• 1:52:58
  Speaker 1: But of course they were not church. They were only
• 1:53:01
  Speaker 1: a set of disloyal French priests who sided against their
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: own country and helped the English. End of Chapter sixteen,
• 1:53:12
  Speaker 1: Chapter seventeen, how the priests betrayed the maid At last,
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: on May twenty fourth, fourteen thirty one, they determined to
• 1:53:23
  Speaker 1: force her to acknowledge herself in the wrong and to
• 1:53:27
  Speaker 1: deny her saints. On that day they took her to
• 1:53:30
  Speaker 1: the graveyard of the Church of Saint Owen. Two platforms
• 1:53:35
  Speaker 1: had been built. On one stood the wretched coachon with
• 1:53:38
  Speaker 1: his gang. Joan was placed. On the other there was
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: also a stake with faggots for burning Joan. They had
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: ready two written papers. On one it was written that
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: Joan would submit to them and wear woman's dress. On
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: the other was a long statement that her saints were
• 1:53:57
  Speaker 1: evil spirits and that she had done all sso sorts
• 1:54:00
  Speaker 1: of wrong things. She was told that if she would
• 1:54:04
  Speaker 1: sign the short paper and wear woman's dress, she would
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: be put in gentle prison with women about her instead
• 1:54:11
  Speaker 1: of English soldiers. Seeing the fire ready, Joan repeated the
• 1:54:16
  Speaker 1: short form of the words and made her mark, smiling
• 1:54:20
  Speaker 1: on the piece of paper that they gave her. But
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: it was the paper with a long speech accusing her
• 1:54:27
  Speaker 1: of crimes and denying her saints. This is what we
• 1:54:31
  Speaker 1: are told. But later she showed that she thought she
• 1:54:35
  Speaker 1: had denied her saints. So it is not easy to
• 1:54:37
  Speaker 1: be quite sure of what happened. It is certain that
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: Kaushan broke his word. She was not taken away from
• 1:54:44
  Speaker 1: her cruel prison and the English soldiers as was promised.
• 1:54:48
  Speaker 1: She was given woman's dress, but as they were determined
• 1:54:52
  Speaker 1: to make her relapse, that is, returned to the sin
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: of wearing man's dress, for then they could burn her,
• 1:54:59
  Speaker 1: they put her boy's dress in her room, and so
• 1:55:02
  Speaker 1: acted that she was obliged to put it on. It
• 1:55:06
  Speaker 1: is a horrid story, not fit to be told, of
• 1:55:09
  Speaker 1: cruelty and falseness. Now we have her, said Kaushan to
• 1:55:13
  Speaker 1: an englishman. They went to her and asked her if
• 1:55:17
  Speaker 1: the voices had come to her again. Yes, what did
• 1:55:22
  Speaker 1: they say? Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret told me that
• 1:55:27
  Speaker 1: I had done very wrong when I said what I
• 1:55:30
  Speaker 1: did to save my life, and that I was damning
• 1:55:32
  Speaker 1: myself to save my life. Then you believe that the
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: voices were the voices of the saints. Yes, I believe that,
• 1:55:41
  Speaker 1: and that the voices come from God. And she said
• 1:55:45
  Speaker 1: that she did not mean ever to have denied it.
• 1:55:49
  Speaker 1: On the day of her burning, the Bishop and the
• 1:55:51
  Speaker 1: rest went to Joan again and wrote out a statement
• 1:55:55
  Speaker 1: that she left it to the Church to say whether
• 1:55:57
  Speaker 1: her voices were good or bad. The Church has decided
• 1:56:01
  Speaker 1: that they were good and has given Joan the title
• 1:56:04
  Speaker 1: of venerable, which is the first step towards proclaiming her
• 1:56:08
  Speaker 1: to be one of the saints. Whatever the voices were,
• 1:56:12
  Speaker 1: she said they were real, not fancied things. But this
• 1:56:17
  Speaker 1: paper does not count for the clerk who took all
• 1:56:20
  Speaker 1: the notes refused to go with the bishop to see
• 1:56:23
  Speaker 1: Joan that time, saying that it was no part of
• 1:56:26
  Speaker 1: the law, and that they went as private men, not
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: as judges, and he had the courage not to sign
• 1:56:32
  Speaker 1: the paper. He was an honest man and thought Joan
• 1:56:37
  Speaker 1: a good girl unlawfully treated, and was very sorry for her.
• 1:56:43
  Speaker 1: He never wept so much for any sorrow in all
• 1:56:46
  Speaker 1: his life, and for a month he could not be
• 1:56:48
  Speaker 1: quiet for sorrow, and he bought a book of prayers
• 1:56:52
  Speaker 1: and prayed for the soul of the maid. This honest
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: man's name was Gilbert Mansion. End of chapter seventeen, Chapter eighteen,
• 1:57:08
  Speaker 1: the end of the mead, they burned her cruelly to
• 1:57:13
  Speaker 1: death in the market place of Ruenes, with eight hundred
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: soldiers round the stake, lest any should attempt to save her.
• 1:57:21
  Speaker 1: They had put a false accusation on a paper cap
• 1:57:24
  Speaker 1: and set it on her head. It was written that
• 1:57:27
  Speaker 1: she was perretic, relapsed, apostate, idolatrous. This was her reward
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: for the bravest and best life that was ever lived.
• 1:57:40
  Speaker 1: She came to her own, and her own received her.
• 1:57:43
  Speaker 1: Not there was with her a priest who pitied her.
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: Not one of her judges, brother is Ambert de la Pierre,
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: of the Order of Saint Augustine. Joan asked him to
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: bring her across and to hold it up before her
• 1:57:58
  Speaker 1: eyes while she was burning. Saith. Moreover, that while she
• 1:58:03
  Speaker 1: was in the fire, she ceased never to call loudly
• 1:58:07
  Speaker 1: on the holy name of Jesus. All was too imploring
• 1:58:12
  Speaker 1: ceaselessly the help of the saints in paradise. And more,
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: when the end was now come, she bowed her head
• 1:58:20
  Speaker 1: and gave up her spirit, calling on the name of Jesus.
• 1:58:25
  Speaker 1: The saints had said to her long before, bear your
• 1:58:29
  Speaker 1: torment lightly, thence shall you come into the Kingdom of Paradise,
• 1:58:36
  Speaker 1: So died Joan the Maid. It is said by some
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: who were present that even the English cardinal Beaufort wept
• 1:58:44
  Speaker 1: when he saw the maid die crocodile's tears. One of
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: the secretaries of Henry the sixth, who himself was only
• 1:58:53
  Speaker 1: a little boy, said, we are all lost. We have
• 1:58:57
  Speaker 1: burned a saint. They they were all lost. The curse
• 1:59:02
  Speaker 1: of their cruelty did not depart from them. Driven by
• 1:59:06
  Speaker 1: the French and Scots from province to province, from town
• 1:59:09
  Speaker 1: to town, the English returned home, tore and rent each other,
• 1:59:15
  Speaker 1: murdering their princes and nobles on the scaffold and slaying
• 1:59:19
  Speaker 1: them as prisoners of war on the field, and stabbing
• 1:59:22
  Speaker 1: and smothering them in chambers of the tower. York and Lancaster,
• 1:59:27
  Speaker 1: devouring each other. The mad Henry the sixth was driven
• 1:59:31
  Speaker 1: from home to wander by the waves at Saint Andrew's
• 1:59:34
  Speaker 1: before he wandered back to England, and the Daggers stroke.
• 1:59:38
  Speaker 1: These things were the reward the English won after they
• 1:59:41
  Speaker 1: had burned a saint. They ate the bread and drank
• 1:59:44
  Speaker 1: the cup of their own greed in cruelty all through
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: the wars of the Roses. They brought shame upon the name,
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: which time can never wash away. They did the devil's
• 1:59:56
  Speaker 1: work and took the devil's wages. Soon Henry the abh
• 2:00:00
  Speaker 1: was butchering his wives and burning Catholics and Protestants, now
• 2:00:04
  Speaker 1: one now the other, as the humor seized him. Joan
• 2:00:09
  Speaker 1: had said to the Archbishop at Reims that she knew
• 2:00:13
  Speaker 1: not where she would die, or where she would be buried.
• 2:00:17
  Speaker 1: Her ashes were never laid in the earth. She had
• 2:00:20
  Speaker 1: no grave. The English that men might forget her threw
• 2:00:24
  Speaker 1: her ashes into the sea. There remains no relic of
• 2:00:29
  Speaker 1: Joan of Arc, no portrait, nothing she ever wore, no cup,
• 2:00:34
  Speaker 1: or sword or jewel that she ever touched. But she
• 2:00:38
  Speaker 1: is not forgotten, she never will be forgotten. On every
• 2:00:42
  Speaker 1: eighth of May, the day when she turned the tide
• 2:00:45
  Speaker 1: of English conquest, a procession in her honor goes through
• 2:00:49
  Speaker 1: the streets of Orleans, the city that she saved. And
• 2:00:53
  Speaker 1: though the Protestants at the Reformation destroyed her statue that
• 2:00:57
  Speaker 1: knelt before the fair Cross on the bridge, she has
• 2:01:01
  Speaker 1: statues in many of the towns in France. She was
• 2:01:05
  Speaker 1: driven from the gate of Paris but near the place
• 2:01:08
  Speaker 1: where she lay wounded in the ditch is her statue,
• 2:01:11
  Speaker 1: showing her on horseback in armor. End of Chapter eighteen.
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: Chapter nineteen, the Second Trial of the Maid. The rich
• 2:01:26
  Speaker 1: and the strong had not paid a frank or drawn
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: a sword to ransom or to rescue Joan. The poor
• 2:01:33
  Speaker 1: had prayed for her, and the written prayers which they
• 2:01:36
  Speaker 1: used may still be seen. Probably the others would have
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: been glad to let Joan's memory perish, but to do
• 2:01:43
  Speaker 1: this was not convenient. If Joan had been a witch,
• 2:01:47
  Speaker 1: a heretic, an impostor an apostate, as was declared in
• 2:01:52
  Speaker 1: her condemnation, then the king had won his battles by
• 2:01:56
  Speaker 1: the help of a heretic and a witch. Twenty years
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: after after Jones martyrdom, when the King had recovered Normandy
• 2:02:03
  Speaker 1: and Ruenne, he thought it time to take care of
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: his own character and to inquire into the charges on
• 2:02:08
  Speaker 1: which she was found guilty. It is fair to say
• 2:02:12
  Speaker 1: that he could not do this properly till he was
• 2:02:15
  Speaker 1: master of Ruenne, the place at which she was tried.
• 2:02:19
  Speaker 1: Some of the people concerned were asked questions, such as
• 2:02:23
  Speaker 1: the good clerk Manchun and Beaupaire, one of the judges.
• 2:02:28
  Speaker 1: He was a man of some sense. He did not
• 2:02:31
  Speaker 1: think that Joan was witch, but that she was a
• 2:02:33
  Speaker 1: fanciful girl who thought that she saw saints and heard
• 2:02:37
  Speaker 1: voices when she neither saw nor heard anything. Many mad
• 2:02:42
  Speaker 1: people hear voices, which are also mad. Jones's voices were
• 2:02:46
  Speaker 1: perfectly saying and wise, and told her things that she
• 2:02:50
  Speaker 1: could not have known of herself. Not much came of
• 2:02:54
  Speaker 1: this examination, but two years later Jones's mother and brothers
• 2:02:58
  Speaker 1: prayed for a new trial to the character of the family.
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: It is the most extraordinary thing that up to this
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: year fourteen fifty two, Jones brothers and cousins seemed to
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: have been living on the best terms with the woman
• 2:03:13
  Speaker 1: who pretended to be Joan and said that she had
• 2:03:15
  Speaker 1: not been burned but had escaped. This was a jolly
• 2:03:19
  Speaker 1: kind of woman, fond of eating and drinking and playing tennis.
• 2:03:24
  Speaker 1: Why jones brothers and cousins continued to be friendly with
• 2:03:28
  Speaker 1: her after the King found her out because she did
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: not know his secret is the greatest of puzzles. For
• 2:03:35
  Speaker 1: she was a detected impostor, and no money could be
• 2:03:38
  Speaker 1: got from the connection with her. Another very amazing thing
• 2:03:43
  Speaker 1: is that in fourteen thirty six, an aunt of the
• 2:03:46
  Speaker 1: Duke of Burgundy, Madame de Luxembourg, entertained the Impostor, while
• 2:03:51
  Speaker 1: the whole town of Orleans welcomed her and made her
• 2:03:54
  Speaker 1: presence and ceased holding a religious service on the day
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: of Jones's death. For here they said she was whitewell
• 2:04:00
  Speaker 1: and merry. Moreover, the town's books of accounts at Earleands
• 2:04:04
  Speaker 1: show that they paid a pension to Jones's mother as
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: mother of the maid till fourteen fifty two, when they
• 2:04:10
  Speaker 1: say mother of the late maid. For now, as Jones'
• 2:04:15
  Speaker 1: family were trying to have her character cleared, they admitted
• 2:04:19
  Speaker 1: that she was dead burned to death in fourteen thirty one,
• 2:04:23
  Speaker 1: as of course she really was. There are not many
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: things more curious than this story of the false maid. However,
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: at last, Jones's family gave up the Impostor, and five
• 2:04:36
  Speaker 1: years later she was imprisoned and let out again, and
• 2:04:40
  Speaker 1: that is the last we hear of her. The new
• 2:04:43
  Speaker 1: trial lingered On, was begun and put off, and begun
• 2:04:48
  Speaker 1: again in fourteen fifty five. Cauchamp was dead. By this
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: time nothing could be done to him. Scores of witnesses
• 2:04:56
  Speaker 1: came and told the stories given at the beginning of
• 2:04:58
  Speaker 1: this book, showing how Joan was the best and most
• 2:05:01
  Speaker 1: religious of girls, and very kind to people even more
• 2:05:04
  Speaker 1: poor than herself, and very industrious in knitting and sewing
• 2:05:08
  Speaker 1: and helping her mother. Every one who was still alive
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 1: that had known her in the Wars came, like delensonn
• 2:05:16
  Speaker 1: and de Noir and Dolon and her confessor, and many
• 2:05:20
  Speaker 1: others came and told about Joan in the Wars, how
• 2:05:24
  Speaker 1: brave she was and modest, and the stories of what
• 2:05:27
  Speaker 1: she had suffered in prison and about the unfairness of
• 2:05:30
  Speaker 1: her trial were repeated. The end was that the Court
• 2:05:35
  Speaker 1: of Inquiry declared her trial to have been full of
• 2:05:37
  Speaker 1: unlawfulness and cruelty, and they abolished the sentence against her,
• 2:05:42
  Speaker 1: and took off all the shameful reproaches, and ordered a
• 2:05:45
  Speaker 1: beautiful cross to be erected to her memory in the
• 2:05:48
  Speaker 1: place where she was burned to death. So here ends
• 2:05:52
  Speaker 1: the story of the life and death of Joan the Maid.
• 2:05:58
  Speaker 1: End of the Story of Joan of by Andrew Lang.
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: Recording by Tim Freeberg. Renwick