The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-04-06
Selected Storp.
The Romance of History.


whose family had experienced the most
cient and wealthy ancestry, he was re-
duced to state of seridom. Jacques
(such was the shepherds namt), led
peaceful and useful life in his humble
sphere, and his small cottage in the vii
lage of Domremy was frightened by the
presence of a daughter who was dis
tinguished above her youthful COM
panions for the sweet simplicity of her
manners, her piety and her industry.
From her earliest years the little
Joan was singular child, taking no in
terest in the sports usual to childhood,
but prelerring to wander alone in the
solitary places around the village, gaz
ing at the wooded heights of the dis
tant Vosges Mountains, or musing on
the banks of the river as it hurried to
Its home in the North Sea. She liked
to travei Sc the dim aisles of the church,
and would sit for hours on the steps of
its entrance. The ceremonals and
mysteries of the religion of her coun-
try (Catholic) made strong impression
upon her imagination, and tinged her
character with an unusual seriousness.
Her mind was constantly engaged with
the miraculous deeds of saints and the
ministrations of angels.
Is it any wonder, then, that she
should imagine herself one of the elect,
far removed from all earthly influences
and capable of holding converse with
angels?
One evening, when she was about
thirteen years old, while standing in
her fathers garden, she saw the Arch
angel Michael attended by host of
lesser angels.
Fearlessly she conversed with him
for some time, when he and his attend
ants suddenly vanished. From this
time she frequently had these visions;
sometimes she thought she saw the
Archangel Gabriel, but oftener it was
St. Catherine or St. Margaret, the two
saints whose images she had been ac-
customed to see at church from her in
fancy. She came to believe that these
two holy women returned from the
spirit land to direct her actions. 1t is
very remarkable that, to the end of her
life, she believed all these visions to
have been real, and never varied in her
account of them.
While Joan was in her early teens
fair France was suffering the horrors
of civil war as well as foreign invasion.
Henry vi. of England claimed the
throne of France, and was supported
by the Burgundian faction who had
possession of Paris.
The rival faction, the Armagnacs,
favored a native king, in the person of
the dauphin, the eldest son of the late
king. The country was reduced to
ruinous state, and when Orleans was
besieged, the dauphin and his support
ers were at the lowest ebb of their for
tunes.
In the village of Domremy there was
strong and ardent party in favor of
the French faction. Party politics ran
high-nothing else was talked of. The
ferveLt nature of Joan caught the co.,
tagion, and she was heard to say, in re-
gard to the only Burgundian in the vii
lage, eff it pleases God, 1 would be
very glad to see his head cut off,"
Thus taking lively interest in the
fortunes of the dauphin, and firmly
persuaded that angels and saints were
in communication Nth her, it was not
long before she heard a voice urging
her to 60 to the lawful king and help
him, telling her that she alone was des-
tined to raise the siege of Orleans and
have the dauphin crowned.
Up to this time Joan had never
spoken of her visions to any one; but
the eyes of her loving parents often
rested anXiously upon her, and her I'M
social ways made them uneasy about
her. Her father thought that marriage
would be the best means to cure her
on1ifarv hah and -
young man in every way a suitable
partner for her, and desired that she
should take him as her husband. For
the first time in her life she disobeyed
her parents, by positively refusing the
marriage they had arranged for her.
In spite of all her strange ways, Joan
was very sweet and lovable; the young
man was anxious to marry her and per-
sisted in his courtship in spite of all
discouragement, until at last Joan was
so leased and tormented that, with the
consent of her parents, she left home
on visit to her uncle, who lived near
Vancouleurs.
Now she hes d d" the voice " 80 often
and was so impressed that she WIS
chosen by hea en- to rescue her beloved
France from foreign and domestic foes,
that she took her uncle into her conf
dence, and for the first time told her
visions. She added that the voice :"
had directed her to apply to the Lord
of Baudricourt, and he would give her
the means to go on Chinons, town on
the river Vienne in whose strong castle
the dauphin resided while the English
occupied Paris.
Her uncle listened to her tale with
amazement, and, having doubts of her
sanity, exerted himself to influence her
to return home. She urged the high
importance of her mission, and en-
treated him TO accompany her to the
lord of Baudricourt.
Her uncle most positively refused to
go with her, but so certain was she of
her high mission, that she dauntlt ssly
set out alone.
1t was a strange resolution A hum
bic peasant girl, raised in sequestered
valley, far from the busy, busting
world of cities and courts, ignorant of
the reuuirements of hich life and nm