Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1867-09-27

a.. F :
We have been interested in reading
biography Of Joan Of Arc, the maid of
Orleans, translated from the French. and
published by Adams & Company of Bos-
ton. Il is exceedingly Freachy in style,
and was evidently written by most en-
thusia tic admirer of this wonderful mai
den. She seems" says her biographer,
ITO have beensa being by herself--a wo-
man IN all gentleness, tender yearnings,
and fortitude sublime; man in intellect
heroic daring, and Hottest aspiration; a
warrior attaining the highest military
honoss, and wearing them with the utmost
humility. She towers above all others in
The greatness of her achievements, the
rounded completeness of her character,
and in her superhuman sway alike over
the mightiest and the meanest in the
realm. To enshrine her amonc
the most sublime and touching characters
Of history, we need neither superstition
nor imagination. Her oppressed country
breathed in the pure soul of this maid its
passion for liberty. All pertaining to her
life seems miracle; yet the miracle is
neither in her visions, her standard nor
hersswor6--it is herself She is the chaste
image Of her country, endeared by beauty,
saved by the sword, and consecrated
through martyrdom"
HER CHILDHOOD.
In childhood she seems to have been of
sweet and impressible disposition. Her
heart was such one as to be readily
touched by the sufferings of her country,
while her religious and superstitious nature
and education easily led her TO the belief
that she heard voices from heaven calling
herr to be its saviour.
- No girl of her age and condition.
said one of her companions Intercepted
concerning her childhood, was more loved
in the house of her parents. How many
times have been to her home! Joan was
a sweet and simple girl; she loved to at
tend church and to 60 on holy pilgrimages
she busted herself about the house ike
other girls; she went often 10 confession
she blushed when she was laughed at
about her piety, and her going too often
to pray in the sanctuary. She loved to
take care of the sick children in the sur
rounding cottages. A poor laborer told
her judges that he rememl cred her watch
ing him when he was child. !.
!" While her beauty delighted every eye,
the thoughtfulness of her countenance, the
solicitude and silence of her life, aston
ished her parents and her brothers. Moth
ing of languor of ripening womanhood
betrayed her sex; while she possessed all
its delicacy and attractions. Neither ma
fure nor the passion Of love asserted itself
inh her. Her soul, dwelling apart, seemed
rather TO mediate than feel: yet pitiful
and tender, with pity embracing some
thing grander and more distant than her
own horizon, She prayed without ceas-
ing. said little, and Stunned company of
1.hsF osssa -ase- ANhca sewing, she gener-
ally retired'to little enclosure under the
hedge behind the house, whence she could
see only the sky, the tower of the church,
and the distant mountains. There she
seemed to hear within herself those voices
which external noises might have silenced.
HER SUPERSTITION.
~ She was but eight years old when al
ready these signs of inspiration were man
ifest in her. She seemed like the ancient
siplys, marked from infancy with the fatal
seal Of sadness, Of beauty and of isolation
among the daughters Of men. She loved
everything that suffered--the birds and
the animals, which she regarded as en-
dowed with affections like ourselves, but
ungifted with words TO express them. They.
seemed TO her like beings condemned by
God to live with man in kind of purga-
tory, having perfected in them only the
power to suffer and love. Size was attac-
ted and srell-b bound by all that was sub
lime and sznelancholy in nature. She
eleligieed in the chime Of the church-bells;
and,to induce the ringer to psolong The An
gelus, she gaze him sksAsr Of WOODEN yarn
10 contribute to the antumn-gaihering for
the poor
On her trial, she confessed that, from
the age Of thirteen, she had h ard voices
and seensceles ial lights in her mothers
garden near the.ehurch.; that these voices
had always given her wise counsel that
they had commanded her to go to Orleans,
and raise the seige that she bad resisted !;
but that after long struggle, she had
yielded, and persuaded her uncle to take
her to Vaneouleurs, where she had an in
terview with the Eord Of Baudricouri,
who, on her departure for Chinon, had said
IN her 90 and NAV he will of God ba