still gazing weighing calculating and said again not yet s hard driven battle corps raged on like an toward the waiting advance guard suddenly these conceived the idea that it was flying in panic before and so in that instant it broke and away in a mad panic itself with and cursing after it now was the golden time drove her spurs home and waved the advance with her sword follow me she cried and bent her head to her horse s neck and sped away like the wind we swept down into the confusion of that fl and for three long hours we cut and and at last the sang halt the battle of was won of arc dismounted and stood that field lost in thought presently she said the praise is to god he has smitten with a heavy hand this day after a little she lifted her face and looking afar off said with the manner of one who is thinking aloud in a thousand years � sl thousand years � the english power in france will not rise up from this blow she stood again a time thinking then she turned toward her and there was a glory in her face and a noble light in her eye and she said ii � mark twain i i oh friends friends do you know � do you comprehend france is on the way to be f and had never been but for of arc said la hire passing before her and bowing low the others following and doing likewise he muttering as he went i will say it though i be damned for it then after of our victorious army swung by wildly cheering and they shouted live forever maid of forever while smiling stood at the salute with her sword this was not the last time i saw the maid of on the red field of toward the end of the day i came n her where the dead and lay stretched all about in heaps and our men had wounded an english prisoner who was too poor to pay a and from a distance she had seen that cruel thing done and had galloped to the place and sent for a priest and now she was holding the head of her dying enemy in her lap and him to his death with comforting soft words just as his sister might have done and the womanly tears running down her face all the time lord of arc p says discovered this story in the of of arc s page louis de who was probably an eye witness of the scene this is true it was a part of the testimony of the author of these personal recollections of of arc given by him in the proceedings of � chapter had said true france was on the way to be free the war called the hundred years war was very sick to day sick on its english side � for the very first time since its birth ninety one years gone by shall we judge battles by the numbers killed and the ruin wrought or shall we not rather judge them by the results which flowed from then i any one will say that a battle is only truly great or small according to its results yes any one will grant that for it is the truth judged by results s place is with the few great and imposing battles that have been fought since the of the world first resorted to arms for the settlement of their quarrels so judged it is even possible that has no peer among that few just mentioned but stands alone as the of historic for when it began france lay gasping out the remnant of an exhausted life her case wholly hopeless in the view of all political when it ended three hours later she was and nothing requisite but time and ordinary nursing to bring her back to perfect health the physician of them all could see this and there was none to deny it mark twain many death sick nations have reached through a series of battles a procession of battles a weary tale of wasting stretching over years but only one has reached it in a single day and by a single battle that nation is france and that battle remember it and be proud of it for you are french and it is the fact in the long annals of your country there it stands with its head in the clouds and when you grow up you will go on pilgrimage to the field of and stand uncovered in the presence of � what a monument with its head in the clouds yes for all nations in all times have built monuments on their battle fields to keep green the memory of the deed that was wrought there and of the name of him who wrought it and will neglect and of arc not for long and will she build a to their rank as compared with the world s other fields and heroes perhaps � if there be room for it imder the arch of the sky but let us look back a little and consider certain strange and impressive facts the years war began in it raged on and on year after year and year after year and at last england stretched france prone with that fearful blow at cr but she rose and struggled on year after year and at last again she went down another blow � she gathered her crippled strength once more and the war raged on and on and still on year after year after children were bom grew up married died � the recollections of of arc war raged on their children in turn grew up married died � the war raged on their children growing saw struck down again this time imder the incredible disaster of � 