The Story of Joan of Arc

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Lang Andrew. The Story of Joan of Arc

CHAPTER I. THE CHILDHOOD OF JOAN OF ARC

CHAPTER II. HOW THE VOICES CAME TO THE MAID

CHAPTER III. HOW THE MAID OBEYED THE VOICES

CHAPTER IV. HOW JOAN HEARD NEWS STRANGELY

CHAPTER V. HOW THE MAID SAW THE DAUPHIN

CHAPTER VI. HOW THE MAID RODE TO ORLEANS

CHAPTER VII. HOW THE MAID SAVED ORLEANS

CHAPTER VIII. HOW THE MAID TOOK THE TOWN OF JARGEAU

CHAPTER IX. HOW JOAN DEFEATED THE ENGLISH IN FAIRFIELD

CHAPTER X. HOW JOAN LED THE DAUPHIN TO BE CROWNED

CHAPTER XI. HOW THE MAID WAS BETRAYED AT PARIS

CHAPTER XII. HOW THE MAID TOOK CERTAIN TOWNS

CHAPTER XIII. HOW THE VOICES PROPHESIED EVIL

CHAPTER XIV. HOW THE MAID WAS TAKEN

CHAPTER XV. THE CAPTIVITY OF THE MAID

CHAPTER XVI. THE TRIAL OF THE MAID

CHAPTER XVII. HOW THE PRIESTS BETRAYED THE MAID

CHAPTER XVIII. THE END OF THE MAID

CHAPTER XIX. THE SECOND TRIAL OF THE MAID

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WHEN Joan was about thirteen a very wonderful thing happened to her. One day she and the other girls and boys were running a race for a crown of flowers. Joan was easily the winner, and as she was running, a child who was looking on cried, "Joan. I see you flying along without touching the ground." After the race Joan had a curious feeling as if she did not know where she was and then heard a young man's voice near her bidding her go home, for her mother needed her. She did not know who spoke; she thought it might be her brother, or one of her neighbours, so she ran home. She found that her mother had not sent for her, and she was going back to her friends, when a bright light like a shining cloud appeared to her, and a Voice told her to go and save France from the English. Till that hour she had been sorry for the sorrows in France, but as she was only a little girl, she had never thought that she could lead an army against the English.

This is the first account that people heard of the coming of the mysterious Voices to Jeanne: it was written down about four years after the Voices first came, and six weeks after Jean's first great defeat of the English (in May 1429). Two years later, after Joan was a prisoner of the English, the French priests and lawyers who took the English side asked her thousands of questions about everything that she had done in her life, and the answers were written down in a hook, word for word. They asked her about these wonderful Voices. There were things that she refused to tell these priests and lawyers, but she did say this: —

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In fact, the English had been beating the French just because they believed they could beat them, and thought that one Englishman was as good as three Frenchmen at least. This was nonsense but, under Henry V., at Agincourt, a few English had beaten a great French army, because the French fought foolishly, trying to gallop to the charge over wet, heavy ploughed land, while the English arches shot them down in hundreds. But the French, you will see had learned the English way of fighting on foot, and could have held their own, if they had not lost confidence.

Instead of waiting hidden under cover till the English passed, by, and then rushing among them unexpectedly, Stewart of Damley cried, "Charge!" and rode, with his lance in rest at the English front. The Scots were always in too great a hurry to fight. The English saw them, coming, arranged the heavy waggons in a square, and went inside the square, so that the Scots could not get at them. Safe behind their carts, the English archers shot down the Scots, who thought bows and arrows rather mean weapons, and wanted to cut down their enemies with the sword. But they could not reach the English; they fell in piles of slain men round the square, and Clermont, the French general who was to have joined them, would not fight, and took away his army. So very many brave Scots were killed, with Stewart of Darnley at their head, and the rest retreated sadly to Orleans, where they heard the English hurrahing in their camp.

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