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  "THE MENTOR 1916.01.01, No. 98,"
  Joan of Arc




              LEARN ONE THING
                 EVERY DAY

   JANUARY 1 1916         SERIAL NO. 98

                   THE
                 MENTOR

  [Illustration: The Statue by Ray Rivoire]

               JOAN OF ARC

            By IDA M. TARBELL
            Author and Editor

   DEPARTMENT OF               VOLUME 3
   BIOGRAPHY                  NUMBER 22

           FIFTEEN CENTS A COPY




The Maid of Orleans

[Illustration]


What is to be thought of _her_? What is to be thought of the poor
shepherd girl from the hills and forests of Lorraine, that--like the
Hebrew shepherd boy from the hills and forests of Judea--rose suddenly
out of the quiet, out of the safety, out of the religious inspiration,
rooted in deep pastoral solitudes, to a station in the van of armies,
and to the more perilous station at the right hand of kings?

       *       *       *       *       *

The boy rose to a splendor and a noonday prosperity, both personal and
public, that rang through the records of his people, and became a
by-word amongst his posterity for a thousand years, until the sceptre
was departing from Judah. The poor, forsaken girl, on the contrary,
drank not herself from that cup of rest which she had secured for
France.

       *       *       *       *       *

Pure, innocent, noble-hearted girl!... This was amongst the strongest
pledges for _thy_ truth, that never once didst thou revel in the
vision of coronets and honor from man.... To suffer and to do, that
was thy portion in this life; that was thy destiny; and not for a
moment was it hidden from thyself.

       *       *       *       *       *

Great was the throne of France even in those days, and great was he
that sat upon it: but well Joanna knew that not the throne, nor he
that sat upon it, was for _her_; but, on the contrary, that she was
for _them_; not she by them, but they by her, should rise from the
dust. Gorgeous were the lilies of France, and for centuries had the
privilege to spread their beauty over land and sea; ... but well
Joanna knew, early at Domrémy she had read that bitter truth, that the
lilies of France would decorate no garland for _her_. Flower nor bud,
bell nor blossom, would ever bloom for _her_!

                                                    THOMAS DE QUINCEY

[Illustration: IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART NEW YORK

JOAN OF ARC, BY JULES BASTIEN-LEPAGE]




THE YOUTH OF THE MAID

Monograph Number One in The Mentor Reading Course


Joan of Arc, whose name more properly was Jeanneton Darc, and who is
now known in France as Jeanne d'Arc, was one of the most wonderful
women that ever lived. It is hard to believe some of the strange
things that happened to her before she was twenty years old.

She was born at Domrémy, over in the eastern part of France, on
January 6, 1412. She was the daughter of a peasant, and never learned
to read or write; yet later in her life learned men could not puzzle
her by questions. She was so sympathetic that she would stop to
comfort her wounded enemies on the battlefield; yet she was so brave
that even when severely wounded she continued to lead her soldiers.

Before hearing the story of Joan of Arc, it is interesting to know
something of what was happening in France at the time she lived. For a
long time the English king had been trying to make himself also the
ruler of France. The ruler at that time was named Charles; but he had
never been crowned king, as the coronation should have taken place at
the Cathedral at Rheims (English pronunciation--Reemz.) But as Rheims
was in the power of the English, Charles could not go there to be
crowned.

The French themselves were divided into two parts. Some of them sided
with Charles; but more took the part of England. These latter people
lived in Burgundy. So at the time that Joan of Arc was born France was
in a most unhappy state.

The girl sometimes guarded her father's flocks, and she was always
glad to assist in the household work. She was noted for her physical
strength, and for this reason and for her unselfish kindness she was a
favorite in her village. She was of an extremely religious
temperament, and the church services made her very happy.

When Joan was about thirteen years old her Voices came to her for the
first time. She told of this great event later in her life:

"When I was about thirteen years old there came to me a Voice from
God, teaching me how I was to behave and what I was to do. And the
first time that Voice came I was afraid. I was standing about the
middle of the day, in summer, in my father's garden. The Voice came
from the right hand, from where the church stands, and when it came I
usually saw a great light on the side from which it spoke. The Voice
told me to be a good girl and go to church and go to save France. I
said I was only a poor girl, who could not ride or lead the soldiers
in the wars."

Joan also said that she saw figures of angels, and she enjoyed talking
to them and listening to their counsel. However, no one else ever saw
the angels or heard the Voices.

About this time Henry V of England died, and his son became heir to
the throne. But the war against France was still being carried on.
Just then the English were besieging the town of Orléans. This was in
the fall of 1428. It seemed as though the city would be captured and
the last stronghold of Charles would be lost to him. There were about
4,000 English besieging the city, and they planned to starve Orléans
into surrender. It was then that the Voices advised Joan to save
France.

[Illustration: THE LUXEMBOURG, PARIS

JOAN OF ARC, BY HENRI CHAPU]




THE MAID OBEYS THE VOICES

Monograph Number Two in The Mentor Reading Course


Joan lived far away from Orléans; but her Voices kept saying to her
that she must go and drive away the English from that town. She did
not want to do this, as she preferred to live quietly in her native
village. But the Voices were urgent, and so at last Joan went to a
nearby town, Vaucouleurs, and asked the commander there to lend her an
escort, so that she might go to King Charles of France at Chinon
(Shee-nong). This commander, whose name was Robert de Baudricourt
(Bó-dree-koor), laughed at her; but when Joan told him of a great
disaster that had happened to the French army near Orléans at the time
that it happened, whereas he did not hear of it until sometime later,
he was convinced of her miraculous power, and sent her to Charles.

This was on February 23, 1429. After riding for several days, the maid
and her band reached Chinon. Then there was more delay; but at last
she was allowed to have an audience with the king. To test her power,
Charles stood among a crowd of courtiers, clothed very simply; but
without hesitation Joan knelt before him and said:

"Fair sir, you are the Dauphin to whom I am come."

Charles pointed to another and said, "That is the king."

"No, fair sir," said Joan, "It is to you that I am sent."

This assured the king; but to convince him further of her power, she
told him of his own private secret. This was that he prayed every
night to know whether or not he was the rightful king of France. As
Charles had not told this secret to a living soul, he was amazed. He
was also encouraged when the girl told him he _was_ the rightful king.

Then Joan was examined by the wise men of the court, and finally
everyone agreed that she was advised by supernatural powers. An army
was then collected, with which she was to march to the relief of
Orléans.

White armor was made for her and a sacred banner presented to her. Her
sword was dug from the ground behind the altar of Saint Catharine, in
a little town named Fierbois (Fyere-bwah). She had prophesied that
this sword would be found there.

Then the Maid led the French to Orléans.

[Illustration: AT CHINON, FRANCE

JOAN OF ARC, BY J. ROULLEAU]




THE RELIEF OF ORLÉANS

Monograph Number Three in The Mentor Reading Course


Joan entered Orléans at nightfall. The people were all glad to see
her, and lighted her way with torches. They tried to kiss her hands.
In her white armor she was an inspiration to the French.

Joan wanted to sally out from Orléans immediately and attack the
English; but the commander of the French forces did not think it wise
to do so. Shortly afterward, however, Joan had her way.

The French planned an attack on the strongest of the English forts
besieging Orléans. This was placed at the end of the bridge over the
river Loire (Lwahr). It was a dangerous thing to do, as the fort was
very strong; but Joan herself led the soldiers against its walls. The
English were brave, and repulsed the attack throughout the day. At
about one o'clock in the afternoon Joan was wounded by an arrow. She
had prophesied this sometime before. The wound was not serious,
however, and she went back into the battle. At eight o'clock Dunois,
the commander of the French, wanted to withdraw, saying that they
could not capture the fort that day; but Joan would not give up. She
went away for awhile and prayed. When she returned, she seized her
standard and led the soldiers up to the walls of the fort. The French,
inspired by her bravery, followed, climbing the walls and killing or
capturing all the English in the fort.

This defeat discouraged the English, and they withdrew from Orléans on
May 8, 1429. In four days Joan had accomplished more than the French
had been able to do in seven long months.

Joan next planned to take Charles to Rheims (English
pronunciation--Reemz) and have him crowned with the holy oil; but most
of the country was held by the English. So Joan determined to capture
the cities, and thereby make it safe for the king to go to Rheims. She
first captured Jargeau, then Meun, and after that Beaugency.

Shortly after this the English army was near a little town called
Pathay. The French were pursuing them; so the main part of the English
army was placed at the end of a long lane between two thick hedges.
Then they hid their archers behind these hedges. They planned to trap
the French in this long lane and shoot them down.

The French would have gone right into this trap, if a stag had not
been roused by them and run up the lane into the English lines. The
English archers could not resist a chance like this. They shot at the
stag. This revealed their ambush to the French, and saved Joan's army
from defeat. The English were beaten, and the Maid won a great
victory.

[Illustration: IN THE PLACE DU MARTROI, ORLÉANS, FRANCE

JOAN OF ARC, BY FOYATIER]




THE CORONATION OF CHARLES VII

Monograph Number Four in The Mentor Reading Course


After Joan of Arc had beaten the English at Pathay, she wanted to
carry out her plan to have Charles VII crowned King of France in the
Cathedral at Rheims. But Charles was badly advised. His counselors
were lazy and cowardly, and they told him that it was unsafe for him
to attempt to go to Rheims.

But at last he decided to march there with his army, and on July 16,
1429, he entered the city. The next day Charles was crowned King of
France, while Joan stood beside him holding her sacred banner.

When the coronation was over, Joan knelt at the king's feet and said,
"Gentle King, now is the will of God fulfilled."

Charles wished to reward her and asked what she wanted. She said that
her only wish was that Domrémy, her native village, should ever after
be free from taxes. Her wish was granted.

The next plan of the Maid was to capture Paris from the English. But
she received no assistance from the king and his followers. He did not
want to make war; for he hoped to gain the friendship of the Duke of
Burgundy. Finally, however, Charles was persuaded to go to a little
town called St. Denis (Song-Den-ee), which is near Paris. But he was
not much help.

Joan led her soldiers against a gate in Paris called the Porte St.
Honoré (On-er-ray). One of the men who fought in the battle tells of
it in this manner:

"The fight was long and fierce, and it was wonderful to hear the noise
of guns and culverins from the walls, and to see the arrows fly like
clouds. Few of those who went down into the dry ditch with the Maid
were hurt, though many others were wounded with arrows and stone
cannon balls; but, by God's grace and the Maid's favour, there were
none but could return without help. We fought from noon till darkness
began. After the sun set, the Maid was wounded in the thigh by a bolt
from a crossbow, but she only shouted louder, 'Come on and the place
was ours.' But when it was dark and all were weary, men came from the
King and brought her up out of the ditch against her will."

The next day, when Joan and her followers were riding to attack Paris,
King Charles sent messengers forbidding them to do it. So they gave up
their plans for the day, planning to seize the city the following day.
But the king kept putting off the attack, until finally Joan gave up
in despair, and her troops were disbanded.

Later Joan went to Normandy, but in December returned to the court of
Charles, where on the 29th her family were ennobled with the surname
of du Lis (Lee). She did not care for honors, however, but
concentrated all her energies on driving the English from her native
country.

In March, 1430, she went away from the court to assist in the defense
of Compiègne against the Duke of Burgundy, who was attacking the
city.

[Illustration: THE MAID OF ORLEANS, BY ROWLAND WHEELWRIGHT]




THE CAPTURE OF THE MAID

Monograph Number Five in The Mentor Reading Course


Joan had often prophesied that her mission would last but a year, and
this year was now fast drawing to a close. Her Voices also spoke to
her about this time, saying that she would be taken prisoner soon.
They would never tell her when. Joan prayed that she might die before
she was captured; for the English had often threatened that they would
burn her as a witch if they caught her. She fought on bravely,
however, and did not allow her fear to overcome her courage.

When the Duke of Burgundy began to besiege Compiègne, Joan, before
dawn, on May 23, 1430, stole into the city with two or three hundred
men. The people were overjoyed to see her.

That evening she led her little force out of Compiègne in a sortie
against the besiegers. She charged the Burgundians at Margny,
(Marn-yee) which is near Compiègne, and drove them twice back to
another village called Clairoix (Klare-wah). But her enemies were
there reinforced and finally drove her back. Again she rallied her men
and charged them. But there were very few of her followers with her
this time, and she was surrounded and captured. She would not yield at
first, hoping to be killed; but the Burgundians did not wish this, as
she was more valuable to them alive than dead. They hoped to get a
great ransom for her.

It might be imagined that the king and the people of France would have
been glad to pay any sum for the safe return of the Maid, who had so
greatly helped their native land. But Charles was indolent, and his
advisers, who did not like Joan, counseled him not to ransom her.
Therefore, he never made an effort to save her, nor did he show any
interest in her fate.

Jean de Luxembourg was Joan's captor, and he sold her to the English.
She knew what her fate would be in their hands, and one day when she
was taking the air on the flat roof of the great tower at Beaurevoir,
(Bo-re-vwar), where she was imprisoned, she leaped, hoping to kill
herself. Strangely, she was not hurt,--not a bone in her body was
broken,--but after the fall she found that she could not move a limb.
It was destined that she should not escape. She was recaptured and
turned over to the English, who put her into a new prison.

[Illustration: ERECTED AT ORLEANS

JOAN OF ARC, BY PRINCESS MARIE OF ORLEANS]




THE TRIAL AND DEATH OF THE MAID[*]

Monograph Number Six in The Mentor Reading Course


The English turned Joan of Arc over to the Inquisition on January 3,
1431. The Inquisition was a court which tried people for religious
offenses against the church. They put her into a cage in the castle of
Rouen. Chains were placed on her legs, and five rough soldiers kept
watch in the room day and night. Her captors wished to prove her a
witch to take away the sting of having been defeated by a girl. The
principal enemy of Joan was Pierre Cauchon (co-shong), the Bishop of
Beauvais (bo-vay´), who hoped to be made Archbishop of Rouen by the
English.

Her examination by the Court of the Inquisition began on January 9th.
For three months these wise men examined the Maid every day. She had
no advocate, and was forced to defend herself. But she showed that she
was far wiser than her learned judges. She would never answer
questions about her Saints and Voices except when the Voices gave her
permission to do so.

In particular the judges wished to know the secret of the king, which
secret they knew Joan possessed. But in spite of the king's neglect of
the Maid, she would never betray him. Finally they told her they would
torture her. They took her to the torture chamber and asked her if she
would tell them then. But Joan said:

"Torture me if you please. Tear my body to pieces. Whatever I say in
my pains will not be true, and as soon as I am released I will deny
that it was true. Now go on!"

They did not torture her, but continued to harass her with questions.
They said she should not wear man's dress as she did. She answered
that when among men in war it was better and more proper. Once during
the trial she seemed to hear her Voices and stopped speaking suddenly.
Then after listening a moment she said, "Before seven years are passed
the English will lose a greater stake than they have lost at Orléans:
they will lose everything in France." This prophecy came true, as we
know.

At last, on May 24, 1431, her judges took Joan to the graveyard of the
Church of St. Ouen (Oo-ong) at Rouen. There was a stake and <DW19>s
all ready for the burning, and they said that she would be burned to
death unless she signed a paper saying that she would wear woman's
dress and would submit to the judges. She said that she would be
willing to do this if she would receive pardon. But as Joan could not
read, the judges substituted another paper for her to make her mark
on. On this paper was a statement that her saints were evil spirits,
and that she had done all sorts of wrong things.

She was still a prisoner of the English, and they kept her in prison.
Her jailers by trickery induced her to put on her man's dress once
more. When she had done this she was judged to have relapsed. This was
the greatest crime, and she was sentenced to death.

On May 30, 1431, she was burned to death in the marketplace of Rouen.
Eight hundred soldiers surrounded the stake for fear that someone
might attempt to save her. Only one kind priest who pitied her brought
a cross and held it before her eyes while she was burning.

In 1436 a woman appeared who said she was Joan of Arc escaped from the
flames. Many people believed her; but afterward she confessed to being
an impostor.

On July 7, 1456, the pope revoked the sentence passed on the Maid. In
February, 1903, a formal proposal was entered for her canonization,
and on December 13, 1908, she was made a saint.


 [*   PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
      ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 3, No. 22, SERIAL No. 98
      COPYRIGHT, 1916, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.]




JOAN OF ARC[*]

By IDA M. TARBELL

[Illustration: Joan of Arc

From a Drawing by George Alfred Williams]

_MENTOR GRAVURES_

  JOAN OF ARC
  _By Foyatier_

  JOAN OF ARC
  _By J. Roulteau_

  JOAN OF ARC
  _By Princess Marie of
  Orleans_

  JOAN OF ARC
  _By Henri Chapin_

  THE MAID OF
  ORLEANS
  _By R. Wheelwright_

  JOAN OF ARC
  _By Jules Bastien-Lepage_


THE MENTOR · DEPARTMENT OF BIOGRAPHY JANUARY 1, 1916

Aside from the story of the Christ there is none in history which
offers so complete a picture of the heights and depths of human
character as that of Joan of Arc. So perfect is its symbolism that one
coming for the first time to the records of the world might well
believe it the invention of some consummate master of the intricacies
of human nature, intent on showing to men the extremes of evil and of
good of which they are capable.

[Illustration: THE HOME OF JOAN OF ARC AT DOMRÉMY, FRANCE

A modern Photograph]

[* Entered at the Postoffice at New York, N. Y., as second-class
matter. Copyright, 1916, by The Mentor Association, Inc.]

Full of subtleties and mysteries as the story is, there is none in
history more perfectly documented. We have not merely the proofs of
what the Holy Maid claimed to be and what she did, but the details of
her childhood, the inmost experiences of her spiritual and physical
life. And these events and experiences stand on the evidences of not
one, but of many, of those who were with her from her birth on January
6, 1412, in the little village of Domrémy, some 125 miles southeast of
Paris, to the day nineteen years later, when, before the eyes of a
great multitude of the people of Rouen (roo-ong), she was burned at
the stake. She suffered her fate because a body of eminent lawyers and
divines had found that she was, as their restrained and Christian
language has it, "a liar, an inventor of revelations and apparitions,
a deceiver, pernicious, presumptuous, light of faith, rash,
superstitious, a soothsayer, a blasphemer against God and His saints,
a contemner of God even in His sacraments, a prevaricator of divine
law and of sacred doctrines and of ecclesiastical sanction, seditious,
cruel, apostate, schismatic, having committed a thousand errors
against religion, and by all these tokens rashly guilty towards God
and Holy Church!"

[Illustration: THE DOORWAY TO THE HOUSE]


THE VOICES

The girl against whom these vindictive and hysterical charges were
made was of peasant origin, not yet twenty years of age, and knew not
A from B. She had come to her cruel end because from the time she was
thirteen she had heard Voices--the Voices of saints--which she never
had doubted had come from God and had never failed to obey, though the
orders they gave her were so extraordinary that they had at the
beginning filled her with terror. She had wept and pled her youth, her
ignorance, her unfitness for the mission on which they would send her.

It was an amazing mission; nothing less than to save France from the
clutches of England. Her instructions were detailed. She was to go to
the governor of a nearby town and ask for an escort to conduct her to
Charles VII, who called himself king of France, though he had never
been crowned. She was to go to Charles and announce herself as sent by
God to raise the siege of Orléans and to conduct him to Rheims
(Reemz), where he was to be crowned. The English in the end were to be
driven from all France, the Voices assured her.

[Illustration: JOAN OF ARC

Admonished by an angel to liberate France by the sword. From the
painting by J. E. Lenepveu]

To Joan of Arc this mission was of supremest importance. She lived in
the path of war, and, like many a Belgian, a French, or a Polish girl
of today, she had seen her village sacked, her family and her friends
obliged to flee saving what they could. Domrémy lived in constant
danger of the Burgundian allies of England and of all the pitiless
riffraff war breeds. Joan was an ardent patriot and suffered with her
country; she loved her king too, looking on him as sent of God. To
rescue him was the noblest work which one could be given. After the
first revolt she accepted the call without misgivings. It was not for
her to question Voices sent by God.

The key to the career of Joan of Arc is this unfaltering confidence.
She did things from the start utterly preposterous by human standards
of conduct. What more unlikely of success than that the governor of a
tormented district should turn over for the asking to a child of
seventeen, of whom he had never heard, an escort to take her to the
king of the land! yet the governor of Vaucouleurs (vo-koo-lurr) did
this: not on the first or second asking, to be sure, but on the third,
and Joan had never doubted that she would get her escort--"the Voices
had told me it would be thus."


THE MAID AND THE KING

[Illustration: THE ROOM IN WHICH JOAN WAS BORN

She was born at Domrémy, France, on January 6, 1412]

Her mind was so full of the command laid upon her that once accepted
nothing could divert or frighten her. One might expect a girl of her
origin to be awestruck at the thought of presenting herself before a
court and a king; but not Joan. She passed unabashed through the
throng that had gathered to witness her first meeting with Charles,
and kneeling told him composedly, "Most noble Lord Dauphin, I am come,
and am sent to you from God to give succor to the kingdom and to you."

She won Charles from the start, for he was much of a person in spite
of his vacillating and his weakness, and he answered to the nobility
of her call. She won the better part of his court, and as for the
people they flocked to her. She was sent to be examined by experts in
law and religion; for without assurance that her Voices were indeed
from God Charles did not dare risk it. Joan might of course be what
the English and the cynical of the court declared,--a witch and her
Voices of the devil.

For six weeks the girl was questioned by the ablest lawyers and
churchmen of the kingdom. A selected body of women gave her a physical
examination. The end of it was complete justification: "It is found
and hereby declared that Joan of Arc, called the Maid, is a Christian
and a Catholic, and that there is nothing in her presence or her words
contrary to the faith, and that the king may and ought to accept the
succor she offers; for to repel it would be to offend the Holy
Spirit, and render him unworthy of the aid of God."

[Illustration: THE GRAND HALL OF THE PALACE AT CHINON (Shee-nong)

Where Joan first met Charles VII. From the painting by P.
Carrier-Belleuse]

Before this ratification all opposition to Joan fell. She was
proclaimed by the king as one sent by God to assist him. She was given
armor, a guard, soldiers, and under her orders a theatrical campaign
was conducted. Orléans fell before her; though it was so invested that
Charles had ceased to hope for its recovery. The winning of Orléans
converted some who had doubted her in spite of learned jurists and
theologians. It was with them as with d'Aulon, her steward: "It was
not possible for so young a maid to do such things without the will
and guidance of our Lord." Those who, because of personal ambition,
did not believe in her, those who hated her purity and the habits of
restraint and temperance she imposed on the army, those who called her
witch, still did not dare oppose her openly. She _might_ be from God,
and whether she was or not she was in the saddle, adored of the
people, supported by the king, a terror to the English.


CORONATION OF CHARLES VII.

[Illustration: KING CHARLES VII OF FRANCE

From an engraving]

[Illustration: KING CHARLES VII OF FRANCE

From an engraving published in 1805]

The complete ascendancy Joan of Arc had won in France in two months
from the time of her first interview with the king lasted from the
fall of Orléans to the coronation of Charles at Rheims, on July 17,
1429. The march which proceeded the crowning was most of it through
land which the English held. There were sieges and battles, dangers
and escapes. It was managed by the Maid with a calm authority, an
unwavering reliance on her Voices, which lifted her even in the minds
of her most cynical associates quite out of the ranks of human
leaders. She was a greater general than them all. She foresaw all, she
never feared nor hesitated--and she a girl of seventeen! She must be
of God! And when finally the impossible had been accomplished, and, in
spite of English, Burgundians, and the plotters, Charles was crowned,
there were few of the French who even secretly denied her claim.

How could they when all she foretold promptly came true? It was by the
success or failure of their prophesying that men of those days judged
largely whether one came from God or not. It was because she told the
governor of Vaucouleurs of a distant battle on the day it occurred and
days before the news could reach him that he finally yielded to her
demands for an escort. It was because she selected the king from a
throng in which he mingled and told him that which no one but he knew
that he accepted her. She had said that she would be wounded at
Orléans--and she was. She had warned a wicked fellow that he would be
dead shortly--and he was. Who could deny the holy origin of such a
Maid? Certainly not the average man or woman of the fifteenth century;
certainly not the loyal and devout French she succored. As for the
English who fled before her, they acknowledged her powers; but they
declared them to be of the devil--as was natural, since they were the
sufferers!

[Illustration: THE PALACE AT CHINON

The ruins of the Hall]

[Illustration: JOAN OF ARC

From the painting by J. Ingres]


THE CHARACTER OF JOAN

But outside of her divine guidance and her unquestionable military and
political genius, Joan of Arc had human qualities calculated to make
even the roughest of men love and respect her. Peasant though she was,
she was beautiful to see. This fresh, untouched young girl with the
flame of inspiration in her eye and the authority of the divine in her
bearing, clad in her pure-white armor and mounted on a warhorse as
spirited as the best of them, must have been a sight to stir the
heart.

Her sympathy for the afflicted poor of the country was as genuine as
her devotion to the king. They knew it, and no little of her power
came from their perception. There was no shadow of self-seeking in
her; she never asked honor or wealth or pleasure. There were clever
and designing ones who sought to trap her with such baubles,--a
well-known and usually quite successful method of sidetracking
troublesome people with ideas of their own,--but Joan was quite
outside of all worldliness. It looked small and thin to one who
consorted with saints and followed the orders of the Most High. What
she took of the gifts showered upon her she gave to the poor. When at
the coronation the king told her to ask what she would, she asked that
Domrémy be freed forever from taxes.

[Illustration: BLESSING THE STANDARD OF THE MAID

After the painting by Michel]

She was devout. No Catholic in France was more faithful to the church,
no one partook of its holy mysteries with more humility or with more
worship in his heart.

[Illustration: HOUSE IN ORLEANS OCCUPIED BY THE MAID]

But good and devout and charitable as she was she was no colorless
person. There are numerous delightful human outbreaks recorded in the
documents of her life. She wept like an ordinary girl when she
received her first wound. She flew often into a passion when her
commands had been disobeyed. She was particularly hard on the wanton
women who followed the camp, often herself chasing them off. Once she
broke a sword over the head of one, and again killed one by the blow
she gave.

She guarded her own divine prerogative with quite human jealousy. As
there were many women prophesying in those days, a company of them
were enlisted to help the king after Joan's first success. Joan never
liked them. "Folly and futility," was her characterization of the work
of the most prominent of these women, Catherine de la Rochelle. "Send
her home to her husband and children," was her order. A common enough
point of view of the Maid who has made a career for herself and sees a
married woman seeking to do the same! However, in Catherine's case
Joan suspected fraud, and there seems to have been reason.


THE END OF HER MISSION AND CAPTURE

[Illustration: THE VICTORIOUS ENTRANCE INTO ORLÉANS

From the painting by J. J. Scherrer]

With the crowning of the king at Rheims Joan seemed to feel that her
mission was at an end. She was homesick when she saw her father and
those who had come from Domrémy to witness her miraculous elevation.
She prayed Charles to release her, to send her back to her spinning
and her flocks, her mother and her friends. But she was too precious
at the moment. The king and his counselors would have more of her aid;
but they wanted it without admitting her to their councils and without
heeding the orders she gave as coming from her Voices. She was severe
and outspoken about this treatment. "Truces have been made," she wrote
once to the people of Rheims, "that are not pleasing to me, and I know
not whether I shall keep them; but if I keep them, it will be solely
to maintain the king's honor."

[Illustration: THE CATHEDRAL OF RHEIMS

In the lower right corner may be seen the equestrian statue of Joan of
Arc]

After Rheims there followed campaigns in which she had little or no
support, treaties of which she did not approve, intrigues which,
though she frequently divined and frustrated them, slowly produced
their effect on king and people. She failed in September to take
Paris; though she had been as confident that it would fall as that
Orléans would. She scandalized the church by attacking it on the
anniversary of the birth of the Virgin Mary. She was sorely wounded
too in this attack and had to be carried from the field. It hurt her
prestige.

In the winter following the failure to take Paris Joan wrought many
marvels in the Loire country to which the king had retreated. The
greatest was that, among doubters and flatterers, and in spite of
intrigue and discouragement, she kept her purpose clear, her
confidence unshaken. She was still Joan, the Maid sent by God to drive
the English from all France. But she was no longer a Maid with full
power over the king.

[Illustration: JOAN OF ARC

Equestrian statue by Anna V. Hyatt]

She stood it until spring; then the certainty that there was danger of
losing all Champagne led her to set out with a band of perhaps a
hundred horse and still fewer archers, her objective Compiègne
(cong-pyen) which the Duke of Burgundy was threatening. It was the
thirteenth of May when she reached Compiègne. The aid she rendered
seems futile enough at this distance. The truth was Joan had no
knowledge of the situation, and could have no plans for relief. She
was not admitted into the counsels of those who defended the town. For
her attack on Orléans and her march on Rheims she had had the
knowledge which during three years of devout belief in her mission she
had collected unconsciously no doubt; but at Compiègne she had nothing
but her Voices. She had almost full command from Orléans to Rheims:
now she was little more in the minds of the commanding officers than a
painted saint, a bejeweled reliquary, to be used on their sallies and
in their attacks.

The result was her capture. It came at a moment when she was crying,
"Go forward! They are ours!" though as a matter of fact all of the
French but her and her little guard had fled.

If in the few months Joan of Arc held sway over the minds of the
French king and his people she showed as none outside of the Christ
have ever shown the divinity in man and its power to elevate human
nature, surely that which followed is as perfect an illustration of
the deviltry in the human heart and what it can do to corrupt and
harden men. Never were human minds so put to it to prove a saintly
thing evil. All the learning that was in the University of Paris, all
the authority there was in the church and state in the part of the
world where Joan was finally taken for trial, was summoned to find
out: not the truth,--they had no interest in the truth,--but plausible
reasons for declaring her a heretic. The orders from the English
government were that she should not be allowed to die save by what
they called "the hand of justice"; that is, she must be proved to be
of the devil. This was the business of the church.

[Illustration: THE CORONATION OF CHARLES VII

The King of France was crowned in the Cathedral at Rheims, on July 17,
1429. In this painting by Bartolini, Joan of Arc stands with her
banner near the kneeling king]


TRIAL AND TORTURE AND DEATH

At this noble work there now was set a band of some sixty of the most
learned and distinguished scholars, judges, and ministers in the land.
There was an occasional one for whom the work was too abominable. One
such declared boldly that to force this simple girl to reply without
guidance to such great doctors, to so many masters, was mocking
justice. "They mean to catch her," was his verdict. "I will stay no
longer. I cannot witness it." And indeed they did mean to catch her;
but what a chase she gave them! I doubt if there is such a test of wit
and courage and faith in all the history of disputation.

At every point they taxed their devilish ingenuity to put her at a
disadvantage. They drained her physical strength by abominable prison
conditions. Joan had been a captive for seven months when she was
finally taken to Rouen to trial. In the dungeon tower room given her
it is said she was at first chained in an iron cage in which it was
impossible to stand erect; certain it is that shackles were always on
her feet, a chain round her waist by which she was padlocked to a
beam. Five English guards slept in her room jeering at and insulting
her. It was in this room they came to her with promises, bribes,
flatteries, and threats.

It was from here that she went in chains in February, 1431, for six
public examinations by the sixty or more doctors and lawyers. These
open meetings proved too damaging to her judges. She was too truthful,
too unafraid, too confident in God and her Voices. The subtlety of
some of her answers confused and shamed the most relentless of her
examiners. They had that overpowering quality which the direct
unadulterated truth gives. What chance in the long run has a
university dialectician before the truth?

[Illustration: THE LAST COMMUNION OF JOAN OF ARC

From the painting by Michel]

They took her to closed chambers, and hardly did better. They went to
her when she was ill and likely to die. But they could not touch this
clean white thing. It slipped through their fingers like a ray of
light. And on what unimportant matters they badgered her! Her dress,
for one. The trial seems at points to have been hung on the crime of
her wearing man's apparel. "Dress is but a little thing, less than
nothing," she told them.

[Illustration: THE JOAN OF ARC PRISON TOWER AT ROUEN]

They threatened her finally with torture if she did not reply to
questions she said her Voices had forbidden her to answer. In the very
torture chamber with the horrid irons before her eyes she cried,
"Verily, if you were to tear my limbs asunder and drive my soul out of
my body, naught else would I tell you, and if I did say anything unto
you, I would always maintain afterward that you dragged it from me by
force."

[Illustration: THE BURNING OF JOAN OF ARC AT ROUEN

From the fresco in the Panthéon, Paris, by J. E. Lenepveu]

For months this unbelievable torment went on, until finally, lost in
the maze they had prepared for her, worn by confinement and incessant
mental and physical strain, she broke under the threat of burning,--a
child's horror of a fate she had persuaded herself God would not
permit. Her Voices had deceived her. She signed the deed of
abjuration they had prepared for her: only to find it did not mean
what she thought.

Back in her prison, her courage and her confidence reasserted
themselves and she recanted, "All that I said I uttered through fear
of fire, and I recanted nothing that was not contrary to the truth. I
had liefer do my penance once and for all, to wit by dying, than
endure further anguish in prison. Whatsoever abjuration I have been
forced to make, I never did anything against God and religion. I did
not understand what was in the deed of abjuration, wherefore I did not
mean to abjure anything unless it were Our Lord's will."

It was this that caught her, such is the dexterity of the human
intellect bent on proving that which is good to be evil. Joan had been
pronounced a heretic, she had confessed to being one, so they
declared: now she recanted. The Holy Church could have nothing to do
with so monstrous a creature. At last the learned doctors had
unimpeachable authority for turning her over to the English, who now
had the undeniable right of burning her alive.

They lost no time. It was on a Tuesday (May 29) that she was declared
a relapsed heretic. It was on the morning of the following day that
she died by fire. A rough wooden cross, fashioned, at her request, by
a pitying English soldier, was on her breast, the words "Jesus, Jesus"
on her lips. On her head was a great fool's cap on which was written
_Hérétique, relapse, apostate, idolâtre_.


SUPPLEMENTARY READING

JEANNE D'ARC--HER LIFE AND DEATH

      _By Mrs. M. O. Oliphant_

THE LIFE OF JOAN OF ARC

      _By D. W. Bartlett_

JOAN OF ARC (Illustrations in color)

      _By L. M. Boutet de Monvel_

THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC FOR BOYS AND GIRLS

      _By K. E. Carpenter_

JOAN OF ARC

      _By Thomas De Quincey_

MAID OF FRANCE

      _By Andrew Lang_

THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC

      _By Andrew Lang_

JOAN OF ARC

(Heroines that Every Child Should Know series)

      _Edited by H. W. Mabie_

JEANNE D'ARC

      _By M. R. Bangs_

JOAN OF ARC

      _By F. C. Lowell_

JOAN OF ARC

Translated from the French of Jules Michelet

JEANNE D'ARC

      _By M. M. Maxwell-Scott_

PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF JOAN OF ARC

      _By S. L. Clemens (Mark Twain)_

    ⁂Information concerning the above books and articles may be had on
    application to the Editor of The Mentor.




THE OPEN LETTER


This is a New Year number of The Mentor--so let us look backward and
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       *       *       *       *       *

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       *       *       *       *       *

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      [Illustration: W. D. Moffat
      EDITOR]




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NUMBERS TO FOLLOW

Jan. 15. FURNITURE OF THE REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD.

_By Esther Singleton._

Miss Singleton told the readers of The Mentor about American Colonial
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after the American Revolution that could be called "Colonial," for
then our nation became a republic.

Feb. 1. THE RING OF THE NIBELUNGEN

_By Henry T. Finck, Author and Music Critic._

In February of each year the Nibelungen dramas are performed at the
great opera houses. There is, therefore, a special timeliness in
coming out with a fine, intelligent, simple number devoted wholly to
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Transcriber's Notes:

Italic text is denoted by _underscores_.

Minor punctuation and printer errors repaired.

p.2: 'a contumner of God even in His sacraments' assumed to be typo,
corrected to 'contemner'





End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mentor: Joan of Arc, v. 3, Num.
22, Serial No. 98, January 1, 1916, by Ida M. Tarbell

*** 