The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1876-02-29 00:00:00

JOAN OF ARC.

M. Dupanloun, Bishop of Orleans, has proceeded to
Rome in order to indite • the t canonise Joan, or
Jeannette' d'Arc, who so nobly, in the middle of the 15ths
century, list the resistance of France to the English in-
vaders. One of the happiest chapters in Mr. tireen's new
"History of the English People" being devoted to a
description of this heroic girl, it will interest the reader.
who may not have ture“ to that work, to have some
extracts of the description placed before Ili111:
" Jeannette il'Arc was the child of a labourer of Wen-
retuy, a little village in the neighbourhood of Vsiticsinleurs,
on the borders of Lorraine and Champagne, in other
words of France and of the Empire. Just without the
little cottage where she Wall 'own beg in the great woods
of the Vosges, where the children of D intreinv drank in I
poetry Raul lesenst from fairy ring and haunted wells
hung their flower garlands on the sacred trees, and sang
songs to the "coal people' who might not drink of the
fountain twat'oe of their sins. Jeanne loved the forest;
Its birds and heists came lovingly to her at her childish
call. But at house men saw nothing in her but 'a good
girl. simple and ple isant in her ways.' spinning and
sewing by her mother's side while the other girls went to
the fiebls, tender to the poor awl sick. fond of church,
and listening to the chin..lt .-bell with a dreamy passim' of
I delight which never left tier."
I These are the words in which Mr. Green deseribes the
I childhood of this extrasintinary girl. Iler lii Inc impira
Sons ansl her introduction to the Court of the Dauphin
are given in the two following passages : -
As the outeasts and wounded passed by Isimrsony,
the young peasant girl gave them her lied ansl nursed
them in their siekness. Her whole nature I itself
up in sine aboorbing mission ; she 'had pity,' to isse the
phrase for ever on her his, ' on the fur realm of France.'
Am her passion grew, else recalled old prophecies that a
maid front the Lorraine border shoold WM the land : she
saw visions: St. Michael appeared to her in a Ilonsi of
blindita light, 01111 trade her go to the help of the King
and restore to him his realm. ' Messier.' answered the
girl, ' I am lest a poor maiden ; I know not how to rile to
the wars. or to lead menottotrins.' The archangel re.
turned to give her courage, and to tell her of ' the pity'
that there was in heaven for the fair realm of France."
" At the Court itself she f ionsi hesitation awl
The theologians proved froni their books that they ought
not to believe her. 'There is ~,,, re in Gosl's book than its
j yours,' .leanne answered simply. At last the Dauphin
receives! her in the midst of a throng of nobles and soldiers.
I • Gentle Daupliln,' Bald the girl. 'my name is Jeluut the
j Maid. The Heavenly King sends me to tell you that you
, shall be anointed and crowned in the town of Rheims, awl
you shill he lieutenant of the Heavenly King who is the
King of France."
I Her influence over the rough French soldiery is thus
, portrayed
•"The success, however, of the handful of English
Ibesiegers before Orleans depended wholly on the spell of
tearer which they bad east over France, ansl the appear-
ance of Jeanne at awe broke the spell. The girl was in her
eighteenth year. tall, finely formes', with all the vigour
and activity of her peasant rearing, alile to stay from dawn
to nightfall on horseback without meat or drink. As she
mounted her charger, clad in white armour from bead to
foot with the great white banner stadia' with fleurole•lys
waving over her head, she seemed 'a thing wholly divme,
whether to see or hear.' The ten thousand men-atanus
who followed her from Chinon, rough plunderers whose
only prover was that of IA Hire, • Sire Dieu, I pray you
to doter La Hire what La Hire would its. for you were ssiii
captain-at-arm' and he God, left off their oaths and foul
living at her word, and gathered round the altars on their
soars-h. Her shrewd peasant humour helped her to manage
the wild soldiery, and her follower, laughed over their '
camp fires at the old warrior who had listen .0 hioulest by
her prohibition of smiths that she suffered hint still to swear '
by his baton."
The next passage of interest is that what sies -ribes the
arraignment and execution of the Maid :--
" Throughout the long process which followed, every art
was employed to entangle her in her talk. Bat the simple
shrewdness of the peasant girl toile I the efforts of her
mutes. you believe,' they Tilted, 'that you are in
a state sir peace r If I ain not, she replied, '(lost will
put me in it. If I am, Gal will keep ill it.' Her
rapture. they argued. showed that s iisi has forsaken her.
'Since it has pleased God that I should be taken.' she
answered. meekly, ' it is for the heat." Will you mil
they demanded at last, 'to the Judgment of the t!hurch
Militant r ' I have come to the King of France,' Jeanne
replied, by commission from God and from the Church
Tnutnphant above;
_to that Church I submit. I bait far
rather die,' she ended, passionately, 'than renounce what
I have done by my Lord's command.' They deprived her
of mass. ' Our Lord can make me hear it without your
aid,' she said, weeping 'Do your voices,' asked the
judges, 'furbish you to submit to the Church and the
Pope!' • Ah, no ! Our Lord first sierra' Sick, and
deprived of all religious aid, it was no wonder that, as the
long trial dragged on and question followed question,
Jeanne's firmness wavered. On the charge of sorcery and
diabolical possession, she still appealed firuily to God. ' I
hold to my Judge,' she said, St 4 her earthly judges gave
sentence against her, 'to the King of Heaven and Earth.
God has always been my Lord in all that I have done. The
devil has never bad power over Inc.' It was softy with a
view to be delivered from the English prison and
transferred to the prisons of the Church that she consented
to • formal adjuration of heresy. She feared, in fact,
among the English soldiery those outrages to her honour,
to guard against which she had from the first assumsd the
dress of a susan, Its the eyes of the Church her dress was
a Mine, and she ahead ~,,, sl it; but is renewal insult
forced her ti resume the ono safeguard left her, and the
return to it war treated al a relapse iota heresy aim%
asinine.' her to death. A great pile was raised in the
marketplace of Rouen where her statue statists now.
Even the brutal soldiers who snatched the hated 'witch'
from the hands of the clergy and hurried her to her doom
were hushed Nish° reached the stake. One, indeed, passed
to her a rough cross he had male from a stick he held, and
she clasped it to her bosom. 'oh! Rouen, Rouen,' she was
heard to murmur, an her eyes rangal over the city frosts
the lofty scaffold, ' I have great fear lest you miter for iny
death. Yes !my voices were of God r she suddenly cried
as the last moment came,' 'they have never deceives' me r
Soon the tiames reached her, the girl's head sunk, on her
breast, there woo one cry of 'Jesus r We are lost,' an
English moldier muttered as the crowd broke up; 'we
have burned a Saint."

Any icrt TO MOTHERS !—Are you broken in your rest by
a sick child suffering with the pain of cuttilut teeth to
• once to a chemist and get a bottle of MRS. WINSLOW'S
SOOTHING SYRUP. It will relieve the poor sufferer
immediately. It is perfectly harmless and pleweint to
taste, it prmluces natural, quiet Sleep, by relieving the
chill from pain, and the little cherub wakes "as bright as
a button." It soothes the child, it softens the gums,
allays all pain, I.:heves wind, regulates the bowels, and is
the best known remedy for dysentery and lliarrlves,
whether arising from teething or other causes. him '
Winslow's Soothing Syrup is sold by Medicine dealers '
everywhere at In lid per bottle.—Manufactured in New
York, and at Uzi Oxfonl-streek London.
TIIROAT Arzu-rioxi AND MOutsgsg...s. All suffering
from irritation of the throat and lioar.eness will be
agreeably surprised at the almost immediate relict afforded
by the use of " Browns Bronchial Troche. " These
famous "lozenges " are now sold hy 111.14 retilleetabli
chemists in this country at Is lid per box. People
troubled with a " hacking rough," a per
roll," or
bronchial affections, cannot try them too soon, its similar
troubles, if allowed to progress, result in serious Pultioma7
and Asthmatic affections. See that the words " Brown s
Bronchial Troches" are on the I:over:1111mA Stamparmind
each box.—Manufactured by JOHN BROWN •ND SONS.
BaGOILIJUiLed State %Dot, 493, Oxfordstreet, Loudon.
VALUABLE DISCOVERY FOR THE HAIL-If your hair
is turning grey or white, or falling off, use " The
Mexican Hair Itenewer," for it will positively restore ia
ever ease Grey sr While hair to its orginal colour_,
w thout leaving the disagreealde smell of t Idt " I teatorera."
It makes the noir charmingly beautiful, as well u
promoting the growth of the hair on ball siv!ta, where
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" Magic tx HAIR RENEWER." pnmpe.l by Henry C.
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and Pmfuniers everywhere at :is. (1.1, per bottle.

FLOM LIN E FOR THE TEETH AND BREATII. —A few
drops of the liquid " Floriline" sprinkled on a wet tooth-
brush produces a pleasant lather, which thoroughly
cleanses the teeth from all porosities or impurities, har&ns
the cline, prevents tartar, stops decay, gives to the teeth
• pect..tar pearly-whitentsks, and a delightful frmrance to
the briaith. It removes all unpleasuut Won'. arising (ruin
decayed teeth or tobacco smoke. 'The Fragrant ifloriline,"
being composed in part of Honey and sweet herbs is deli-
cious to the taste, and the greatest toilet discovery of the
age. Price Pa ad, of all Chmuiste and perfumers. Prepared
Ur Henry C. aUJAJP, 493 Oxford-street, London.