The Portland daily press., 1890-03-08

The Maid of Orleans: And the Great War
Of the English in France. By w. II. Daven-
port Adams. With illustrations. (Phila-
delphia: j. B. Lippincott Coz The career
OF Jeanne D'Arc is to be accounted for by
the belief in the supernatural which was
prevalent in the Middle Ages. The Maid of
Orleans supposed herself, and was supposed
by others, to be gifted with this miraculous
power. "a child of twelve years DID," says
Michelet in his Historic de la Renaissance.
"a mere girl. confounding the voice of her
heart with the voice of Heaven, conceived
the idea-strange. absurd, improbable, if you
will-of accomplishing what men had been
unable to achieve, and saving her coun-
try. Without aid from priest or
kir, she walked all this time alone with God
In the solitude Of her grand design. She
waited until she had gained her eighteenth
year. and then. Interchangeable, she executed
1t In the face of every opposition. She tray
ersed France, all devastated and a desert.
by roads infested with brigands; she i'm
posed her will on the court of Charles VII,
she Hung herself into the war, and in camps
which she had never before seen as in the
rough OF the battle nothing astonished her
she plunged intrepidly into the press OF
swords: wounded always, discouraged new
or, she rallied the veteran, and spellbound
anyone who fought by her side, so that none
burst any longer be afraid of aught. All
was saved! The poor maiden, of flesh so
pure and holy, Of frame SO delicate and
tender, had blunted the iron, broken, the
hostile sword, covered with her bosom the
bosom Of France"
And now behold her reward
Abandoned by her king and the people she
mad saved, she returned by pathway Of
cruel tres into the bosom of God. She es-
tablished at the stake the authority of the
inner voice. the right of conscience"
This is in few words the history of
Jeanne D'Arc, but Mr.. Adams's volume con.
tains, as well, an account of the great war o.
the English in France in which the Maid of
Orleans was enlisted. At this time Renry
vi. had been proclaimed King of France.
and the Duke of Bedford was Regent
France was distracted by civil dissensions;
on the one side Queen Isabella, the Duke of
Burgundy and England; on the other the
dauphin, Charles. who was supported by the
orleans party. The most of France was
reduced to the dominion of England, till at
length Bourge and the territory that be.
ionged to 1t were nearly all that was left to
the oauphin. Salisbury had been besieging
orleans and Its fall would have ruined the
cause Oh Charles. AT this crisis came the
peasant girl OF Domremy with her "yoices
anu visions" and no other earthly passion in
ner heart but devotion to her country. Sew
eral times wounded, but resolute chiva,rors
pious and brave, she at last, with her troons
defeated the enemy In battle near Patav
and Charles entered Rheims in triumph,
At his coronation Jeanne stood at his side.
She took part in REFRESHING the assault on
Paris. and in the siege of Compiegne was
taken prisoner by the Burgundians. En-
deavOring to escape from pris IN she fell into
the hands of the English, and, condemned as
hereto and sorceress, was sentenced to be
burnt at the stake. Her last ords to her
attendant we're: 'Maitre, par la grace de
Dieu, je serai ce soir en- PARADISE
Later Pope Calixtus Ill. committed her
case to court consisting of the Archbishop
OF Rheims and Bishops Paris and Con-
stance, who declared that the II Articles
alleged against her were false, and that she
was entirely innocent.
MI Adams has done his work strongly
ana WELL and the result is an extremely in
@fesung and valuable book. One error
m'cneiet makes, and Mr. Adams quotes.
when he says that Jeanne D'Arc was .tempt-
ca py Jesuits"-as her trial occurred in
1851 ana there were no Jesuits until IKEA
when the society was founao, ''
titus Loyola.