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Show I Jeanne d' Arc, the 1 Maid of Orleans j london Spectator V Review of Her Latest Biography Her Piety and Patriotism Complete Rehabilitation ! Which Followed Her Death at the Stake. 1 ynw th.it the church is preparing the f j "0i "ps of her canonization, Jeanne I I d'Aiv is again challenging the interest I j uf th0 world. T. Douglas Murray has J jusi edited her life from original docu-i docu-i ,1!entF. Apropos of the new volume the I Und"n cpectator publishes the follow-! follow-! jRg interesting article: I the character and achievements of ! jnnne d'Arc, Maid of Orleans, have 1 ,,np j.uB-d beyond the range of con-I con-I trovcrv- Her simple courage and her filcndid faith, which so profoundly in- rut-need the fortunes of France, are I acct-ptt :-d by all with unquestioning ad-jriration. ad-jriration. The source and quality of ' l;er inspiration may still be matter for dWusi'n, but that is all. The world need6; no argument to convince it of ? Jeanne d'Arc s piety or patriotism. In- d -J though she suffered at the stake, ! in aTiird with the savage fanaticism 01' hw lime, she had not been dead much more than twenty years when, . under the auspices of Pope Calixtus, ; l . r trial was reconsidered and her con- I f donation was annulled. Evidence was j taken upon oath concerning her child-i child-i hood, her military exploits and her vio-s vio-s lnt death, and this evidence, trans- lated and edited by Mr. T. Douglas Murray, gives us so plainly unvar- nished'a picture of the past as history larely affords. Her Trial. I The trial of Jeanne d'Arc, which pre-i pre-i , CPs her rehabilitation, is further i s p oof. if further proof were needed, of I t lu r courage and address. A simple, un-f un-f t trained peasant girl, she faced her , judges without faltering or timidity. I Fhe replied to their questions with an i adroitness which might have baffled a : dter attorney, and not one of the I rlergy who sat upon the bench got the letter of her. Nor was this adroitness f the outcome of cunning or forethought. I It is clearly born of her absolute con- fidewe in herself" and her cause. She ,1 beaded her case without counsel and I with a dignity which no counsel could j have surpassed. Jean Beaupere, master i in theology, canon of Rouen, consid-j consid-j tred her very subtle, with" the subtlety of a woman, and truly she confuted the 1 subtest doctors without difficulty, j And when, after her relapse from re-I re-I carnation, she was led to the stake, i nothing- could have been better or I braver than her demeanor. The eye-i eye-i witnesses testify one and all to her submission and composure. One just I void of reproach she threw at the bish-l bish-l "P of Beauvais. "Bishop," she said, "I I die through you." Thereafter she asked I Brother Isambard de la Pierre "to go Into the church near and bring her the f cm??, to hold it upright on high before her eyes until the moment of death, so i that the cross on which God was hang-j hang-j ng mipht be in life continually before 1 . h"r eyes." This Brother Isambard did, .! End she died "saying such pitiful, de-5 de-5 vut and Catholic words that those j who naw her in great numbers wept, I find that tlio cardinal of England and J r.iany other English were forced to I veep flr.d fed compassion." I Hut it is the record of her life, not 1 fn r ird of her death, that, is most infesting to us. The depositions are i dry legal documents. They carry us back to Domremy and show us the t life of a fifteenth century village, j J'. n .Morel, a laborer, and her god-j god-j father draws us a picture of Janie ' f'l"vinK the plough and minding the I cattle in the fields. She was a good I Pit'l. w ho knew her belief and her I Hater and her Ave as well as any of j hT companions. Moreover, "she had luorest ways, as beseemed one whose i Parents were not rich." Before all j thine? ?he was religious, and if she I" h-ard thr mass bdl she would leave the folds and hie her back to the village d to the church, where she fc'-ani the mass. The same laborer j f;iv evid.-nco on the Fairies' Tree, a M" , r' "f superstition pretty enough to I (iU'il..; J "1 have hoard that the fairies came I ;''f' be.tr ago to dance," he says; I '"''lit sir, . the gospel of St. John has j '"-v. ,,,, l;nnr the tree they come . it" liioi-e. .t the present day, on the j 1 ;';'i...y t.,.n ,n -he Holy Church of i li'troit to the mass 'Laetare j ,-!i;l:-i:l- is sung, called with us 'the I !U!1'i;y ' .!. Wells.' the young maid- I '"s iel ; oaths of Domremy are ac- "' Co there, and also In the j j 'rz ;, i m mmer and on festival I '''' h-y dance there and have a, j '. - ir return they go dan- s 'i-.c i-.vA playing to the Well of the J i.ior. v. her they drink and amuse 5 s fitheririg flowers. Jeanne ! . ,r. M-,ii w'!-t there, like all the other I 5!;,'s " 'j"se limes, and did as they I '"it I never heard her, say that s n" v..-i!t, there alone, either to the I tree or to the well which is nearer to the village than the tree or that she went for any other purpose than to walk about and play with her companions." com-panions." So all the witnesses agree in asserting assert-ing the piety and industry of Jeanne the Maid. One of her godmothers describes de-scribes her as fond of work and often at the spinning wheel: the cure of a neighboring parish says that sh? often confessed her sins, and one laborer confessed con-fessed that she would often retire alone "to talk with God." To another she said one day: "Gossip, if you were not a Burgundian, I would tell you something;" some-thing;" and afterwards when she met the same man at Chalons she owned that she feared "nothing but treason." The unanimity of these simple folk-is remarkable, and truly Jeanne d'Arc differed from the most of prophets in this, that she was not without honor in her own country and among her own people. Then Jean de Novelemport, knight, called Jean de Metz, relates how he met the Maid at Vaucouleurs, gave her thei garb and equipment of one of his men and conducted her to Chinon, where she might present herself to the king's court and council. Both he and his companions had faith in her and in her mission, and not one of them ever thought to molest her or to show her the smallest incivility. This, perhaps, was her most wonderful quality; .until she appeared before the court which condemned her she was able to inspire all men with confidence. That a village maid, without any help that she did not procure herself, should not only make her way to the presence of her sovereign, but should persuade that sovereign to accept her counsel, is a marvel indeed. Little less marvelous was her influence with the army. It vexed her to hear blasphemies, and out of respect to her the soldiers put a re-j re-j straint upon their tongues. "No one in the - army dared swear or blaspheme before her," says Louis de Contes. her page, "for fear of being reprimanded." It is this page who gives the best account ac-count of the maid and her prowess, and adds many of the small touches which give life to a portrait. She was of -the most sober habits, he says. "Many times I saw her eat nothing during a whole day but a morsel of bread. When she was in her lodging she ate only twice a day." Moreover, brave as she was and eager to attack her enemies, she was always humane and quick to express compassion for a fallen foe. "Seeing a Frenchman," so De Contes tells the tale, "who was charged with the convey of certain English prisoners, strike one of them on the head in such a manner that he was left for dead on the ground, she got down from her horse, had him confessed, con-fessed, supporting his head herself and comforting him to the best of her power." pow-er." But on one point she was obdurate: obdu-rate: she would permit no woman other oth-er than herself and her companions to be with the army. Once near Chateau-Thierry Chateau-Thierry she observed the mistress of one of her followers riding on horseback. horse-back. Instantly she rode at her threatening threat-ening her with her sword, not striking her, but admonishing her in all gentleness gentle-ness to leave the army if she would not be punished. Similar In substance is the evidence of Dunois, the bastard of Orleans, who declares his belief that she vas sent by God and that her conduct con-duct was rather divine than human. As to her soldier-like ability he had never a doubt, and when she came to Orleans he greeted her with the simple phrase: "I am very glad of your com ing." He, too, adds the astonisning testimony that she sometimes spoke in jest of the affairs of war, nd "to encourage en-courage the soldiers foretold events which were not realized." But when she spoke seriously she declared that she was sent to do no more than raise the seige of Orleans and to see the king crowned at Bheims. Such are some of the testimonies in favor of Jeanne d'Arc culled from Mr. Douglas Murray's interesting book. Truly the Maid of Orleans, rarely honored hon-ored in her brief lite, was yet more rarely honored after her death. Her rehabilitation, possibly unique in history, his-tory, was complete and ungrudging. "We say, pronounce, decree and de-elare de-elare thus runs the document, "the said processes and sentences full of cozenage, iniquity, inconsequences and manifest errors, in fact as well as in Vaw; we say that they have been, are and shall be as well as the aforesaid abjuration, their execution and all that followed null, non-exis-nt without value or effect." Jeanne d'Arc died at the stake, but her memory received such amends as only a repentant world 1 can make. |