The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1904-02-27

hold of loyal France, was besieged and
its fall was imminent. With its. fall
would come the undisputed sway of the
British.
Hopeless as seemed the lot of the
patient people who loved their native
rulers, however unworthy they were
of the affection of the populace, and
who hated the English, their deliver
ance was not far off. Joanetta dare
was tending her fathers sheep in the
forests OF the little village of DOM
remy. Around the freside of her
home she heard Of her country's woes
and OF the grinding expressions of the
foreign masters. She also heard Of
the prophecy Of the old enchanter,
Merlin, that the woes brought upon
France by the Vaccinations of cor
rupt woman should be removed
through the instrumentality of chaste
virgin. She had also heard that in
its local adaptation that legend also
predicted that the nations deliverer
should come from the very same for
est in which, she spent the long, quiet
days, with no companions but the
focks she attended How completely
the heartlcss Isabella had fulfilled the
first part Of the prophecy! And then
the thought came to her-was she not
the maid? Little by little this idea
absorbed her every thought, until in
her long meditations she imagined she
heard voices urging her to desert her
flock and rush to her country's saliva
ton. To her mother sanity woman,
at whose knee she learned her lessons
of homely piety, she first confided her,
faith that she was destined to deliver
France from her foreign foe. Ap-
pallcd by the idea the good woman
sought the advice of her husband.
This coldly practical man, not hard
hearted, perhaps, but certainly not
visionary, only replied that his daugh-
ter had better be good shepherdess
and leave intermeddling in the affairs
of state to older, wiser and much more
masculine heads. ~ y
Grieved by her parents displeasure,
she returned to her hocks, but still ,fhe
legend haunted her mind. still those
urgent voices in her ear! They would
not be silenced. She was nearing
womanlood now, her very being con-
sumcd by zeal for the cause for which
she felt herself destined She was
dutiiul dauglltcr--all historians agree
to tlat-but the impellng force of her
deep convictions would brook no
restraint. She appealed to the gov
crnor of the province.
This digritary listened to her with
impatiencc He knew OF the legend,
OF coarse. but he had no faith in it or
in what he deemed the vagary of a
dreamy girl He told her so, and, like
her father. bade her return to her
sheep. This she did, but she returned
again, each time more persistent in
her appeal. If only, she would insist,
he would send her to the dauphin she
could soon convince him. The sim
plicity OF her de1ncanor and her calm
assurance OF success when the ruin of
France seemed so certain made the
governor pause and reflect Her i'm
portunitics were becoming more and
more insistcnt. No encouragement or
rebuff repcllcd her, and at last he con-
scnted to send her to the prince. Deaf
to the entrcaties, blind to the open
grief of her parents, she set out in
February, 1920, for Chinon, where the
prince held the miserable pretense of
a court and frittered away his time in
idle pleasure.
Two knights accompanied the maid,
who, guided by the heavenly voices,
bore the perils and hardships OF the
journey without fatigue, for the Maid
of Orleans was not the frail, delicate
creature she has so often been pic
tured to be. Accustomed from infancy
to all the labor Of the peasants daily
life. she was not conventionally beau
tiful. In the little village she now left
behind many loved her for her good
J ness of heart and exfo1led her Ia \,