Macon beacon. [volume] (Macon, Miss.) 1859-1995, 1870-09-10
#IsttIIauy,
JOAN OF ARC.

side Of 1t stood woman with the face
OfRn angel, and the temper of q tigress;
with.a wit as sharp as a dagger, and a
heart as hard as a stone. At the other
side stood a man, bold in the field, nm
scrupulous in counsel as in love, with
ambition which might have been wrap
ped in the purple, and vices which
might have wallOwed In the gutter.
No wonder the people Wavered in thuir
allegiance, when the best thug poor
mad Charles VI. could Dc with lis
crown was to play with it, and when
the reigns of government werc held by
Queen Isabella and her lover, the Ike
Of Burgundy. The foreign prince Who
was to turn this flood Of anarchy into a
tide Of victory for himself had not yet
come. Before the invader set his foot
on French soil, she was born who was
first to check his advance.
Joan of Arc was the daughter Of a
well-to-do peasant pair, ylo owned a
few sheep and goats, and perhaps Q
COW or two. She was born at Domre-
my, q village in Lorraine, She had
one sister and several brothers. BY the
time the child was three years old
Henry of England had sounded his tri
umphant clarions at Agincourt, and a
that blast re-echoed through the land
the hearts Of all true French men an(
women thrilled with the thirsty desir'
for vengeance. AS the little girl play
ed about, she must often have heard
her father and elder brothers curse tht
foe who laid waste the fair fields o
France. Sometimes there would come
to the cottage door q pale, limping man
with perhaps the remnants Of a brigh
scarf still hangingaround his shrunkel
body, or broken feather in his hat
He would beg a draught of milk-anC
it would be readily given to woundeC
soldier, crawling back to his native VII
lage. Then the child's eyes would FL
, with tears, as she paused in the mids
. of some merry game, to hear OF gar
dens as pretty as her own troddeI
down by the hoofs Of English war hor
ses, and little ones as young as hersel
+, driven from their homes by the lawles
+, stranger. These things must hav
mingled in the child's awakening min,
with eerie sanity legends and brigh
> fragments Of romance, which her mo
4! ther and the female neighbOrs told, a
they sat at their spinning-wheels. rs
pecially did they relate Wondrou
things about a certain large beech tire
near the village, where the fairies dane
ed, and where there was a fountain
the water of which was a sure cure tc
= every disease. The men may have il
terrupted the women by saying thf
this was no time for such idle fanciei
when war was every moment drawn
nearer their own hearths, But If the
did, the gOod danes only smiled, al
said they knew by an old prophec
that all this would not last long, for
maid from the Marches of their ow
Lorraine was to save France in he
hour of greatest need.
There were no village schools
those days. Joan never learned to reaa
or write. The utmost she was taugl
amounted to a few prayers and u
, Catechism, by her mother and the pa
8 ish priest; but she could learn to thiil
without the help Of any one, as 81
kept the sheep, or worked in the ga
den, or rested for a brief space in Il
shade at noon. And so did learn
/. think to some purpose. The happ
homes Of France were being made de
olate bv a rude foreign soldiery. I'll
Dauphin, the handsomest and sweele
Young prince in the world, was depri,
ed of hfs rightful inheritance, Sutel
, this could not 90 on. God and the h'
=" ly Saints would not let it be. SUI
we're her thoughts. Then she wou
ppeat, over and over again, to hers.
8? that prophency about maid fl IN u
Marches of Lorraine saving trsnc
Slowly the idea was shaped n II
, mind, making her heart at hrst thr'
with a fearful joy, for some time n
even whispered by her own lips Wnt
alone. What if one day | should
that maid? We fully believe that tn
old popular prophesy was the en-
primary cause Of all when Joan Vi ~ ~
did. So trud is the German proVel
that to foretell makes to happen.
, But Joan delighted to be active
body as we'll as in mind. She loved
IN. outstrip her companions in the rae
she loved to help her mother in nous
ne ne hold work; she loved to coax
w friendly farmer to lend her a nor
and springing on its back, withouI,
saddle. TO scamper away over the hel'
n.y. she loved to 90 into the wood, az
with n long stick for a lance, to TIT
me- the trees. Later, when we wonder
the immense fatigne which-otten
r'' most fasting-the girl went through,
lite must call to mind the physlcai !ituI !raihl
of her childhood. She was no little
'to DIV. who in the castle buttery had DC
inc cTammed by the servants with cal
and sweetmeets; she was no burghee
child. whose dainty feet were USED
IN no harder task than tripping to sh.oG
church. She was the daughter OF
IT'S neople, who, as she watched the she
r. Ind been bronzed by the sun Q
he drenched by the rain; whose MAJ
had been frayed in the washlng-tl
my who. when siclSly season among
my tlock had made the family purse II
, had often even known what nun nun
! was was Her naturally good constitut
= Ind thus been hardened, and she
lea, we'll prepared for a soldiers life:
DRY LOANS pretty face and bright enc
ex. wSvs made her great favorite amt
the neighbors, and no merry-m,lkA 4
lcn was wa complete without her. She he
E! and thought so much about the ,,,I san
% that thew were to her quite as real
ID, IN" beings as the men and won
"'' around @ her. Among them, two v Y
,re- asUecially dear to her; st. Cathar
,ro tbe sweet child-bride of the Lord,
I'm 81. Margaret, who, smiling neld @
M the cross to the monster. To these
| so rSs , always praying for France and
., ,'orsolf Mes and on these her vivid imal
alton was always dwelling.
irch Al length one day, when she
,rm o,,ont Thirteen, as she worked III
[ ~oTTen at noon, her brain being
ter Sonbt % somewhat heated by the sum
On SUS' uUr n seemed that st. Catharlne
no. g. e. Margaret appeared before her
,oor the midst Off brilliant light, anu
io"' Snr % II She would be good, and alW
rus live live a maid, she should one day uel
Ira france she fell on her knees