The Portland daily press., 1873-01-17
ronu Of Arc.

Anna Dickenson's lecture in the Army and
Navy course last evening was prose epic In
two hours of magnificent, almost ford rhoto-
ric she gave the marvellous story of the inspired
peasant girl, who is the foremost of her sex in
| all recorded history; whose life is an example
to the world of the immense capabilities of
womanhood. In words sometimes of lofty
| and impassioned eloquence sometimes quaint,
| simple and touching as an old-time ballad,
| sometimes of singing scorn, she painted, as no
other voice and brain in America can paint, the
| time in which the Maid of Orleans lived, the
work she wrought, the life she lead, the death
| she died. She told her audience how a young
| girl became heir to the French throne. How
| the door was thus left open to manly usurpa-
ton. How, through 100 years of continuous
battle, through the reign of five French and
five English kings, through varying success,
but always success to the English, and
through varying defeat, but always defeat
to the French, the war Of succession ragged in
France. How the English triumphed How
the French army, dspirited by years of defeat,
broke into bands of marauders. How cities
were desolated and how villages ceased from
the face of the land. How noble and servile
suffered alike. How at last, of her many fort
resses, only the ancient city Of Orleans
manned to France. How in the blackness of
this darkness light shone forth, and voice
rang out over the afflicted land, saying, Il am
come from the Lord to save You and your peo-
ple.''
1t was the voice of the Maid of Orleans, pro-
CLAIMING her mission Then the orator told of
the birth of the peasant girl, Joan of Are in
the wear 1411, in a little village swept by war in
the heart of France. In strains BETTING an
idyl of the hearth, she told of the early life Of
the young girl, of her pureness, of her devotion,
of her benevolence, Of her dreams and her Wis
ions, of her prayers at the shrnes of the saints
She told how stories of the war and the contest
for national life came to tine little village She
told how the divine passion of patriot
ism famed up in the girls heart. How she
brooded over the purpose to save France until
the thought possessed her entirely. How she
knew her hour had come. How, opposed by
father and mother and repulsed by soldier and
priest, she started ON her mission, and how, over
painless fields and bridgeless streams she went
to her King. Then, in words of fire, the speaker
described that wonderful seige of Orleans. She
told how, behind the woman's form and face
was seen the august soul that was to save
France She pictured the weeks fighting I'M
der the walls, the distrust of the officers, the
enthusiasm Of the soldery, the calm faith, the
angelic purity, the god-like heroism of Joan.
She told of the last great day before Orleans,
when the English power was broken and the
beleagured city delivered. The maid had foun d
her day, she had reached her summit.
Tt,n,. hof<
cd, the coronation and the amounting with the |
sacred Gil The sublime self-abnegaton of La |
Pucelle, her longing for home, her desire to re- I
turn to her family and focks, were depicted |
with a tender and womanly touch. Her re- |
quest was refused, so still she marched and she |
fought in every desperate charge, in every for |
lorn hope The lecture now became darker and !
more Sombre at every word, as heavy with its |
weight of sadness it and the life of Jeanne D. Arc
drew to close. The closing battle with the |
Burgundians was pictured the animosity of |
the city commandant, the surprise and the re-
treat, the draw-bridge swung in mid-air the |
capture of the maid. The English who couldn't
capture her were not ashamed to buy her. The
imprisonment rendered well-nigh intolerable
by the bitter hate of her alien jailors made glo-
of all martyrs, followed. 1t could not be paint
ed, the orator said, if she dipped her brush in
the blackness of darkness on the one hand, and
in the splendor of Gods sunlight on the other.
Then came the closing scenes, the trial and the
stake and the patient agony only surpassed by
that on the cross.
The immense audience was the stillest that
ever listened to speaker in Portland. They !
listened spell-bound to the woman upon whose
queenly shoulders the Demosthenie mantle has
fallen. To use trite expression, one might |
have heard pin drop.
In justice to Miss Dickinson it should be |
said that she has lost the notes of her adver-
tised lecture, and so was compelled to substi-
tute an old one. Her loss was Portlands gain,
for she delivered the finest lecture that has
been heard in Portland this winter.