Evening star., 1923-09-30
10000 Americans and Britons Visit
Joan Of Arc House in Single Season
Fyancean ENGLAND

piece with a gorget. the edges giIded
and lined throughout with crimson
satin"
1t is not certain, however, that she ?
ever wore this particular armor.
When she went to the dauphin at
Chlnon castle she was a slip of a
girl, under nineteen years of age.
Even if she could have borne a suit
of plate armor with it's articulated
arm, thigh and leg plates, It would
nave taken year to prepare one for
her. Yet she was at Chinon only be-
tween March s and April 20. 1t is
probable that to protect her trunk
from arrows they gave her certain
major pieces belonging to some
young prince. The 100 Iivres-tour-
nois paid to a master armorer by
the captain of Chinon castle would
nave sufiiced only to pay for their
hasty adjustment to her figure.
At the siege Of Jargeau she GER
'alniy wore an iron headpece. 4
stone bullet broke against il. But
she was wounded in the thigh before
Paris, so she could not have worn
leg pieces on that occasion. That the
Engllsh archer who took her prison
er at Compiegne pulled her from her
horse "by her long habit" proves
nothing. AS a leader, she would have
worn over her armor on horseback.
such a flowing tunic Of distinctive
colors.
In any case, the suit OF plate
which she deposited at st. Denis
an entire white harness that / won
before Paris'-belonged originally to
an English nobIeman. For 200 years
II was kept in the Bastille. being
possibly the harness of the Amboise
catalog. 1T still exists, and figures
today in the Paris Museum of ArtiI
Iery, under the number "Gf. 17S.' The
catalog of King Louis Philippe called
1t The Armor Of the Maid" although
single glance is enough to show
lhat 1t was never made for a lady.
= x x
\ TODREN tourists, on the sno,
4'I come to know with great ac-
curacy the extraordinary military ex
piott Of this inspired girI-who ac
complished what experienced captains
deemed impossible.
The English were attacking or-
leans on three sides. had already
taken the important outer xorlss and
considered themselves ready to finish
the JOB and enter into possession of
the rich city.
starting from Chinon on April 90.
Joan had organized, ostensibIy. a vic
tual train for the relief of Orleans
her troops, preceded by a group of
clergy with banners. singing hymns.
On the evening of April 2S it entered
orleans unmolested. by way of the
unbesieged' Burgundy gate. amid the
oVations of the inhabitants. At once
she was taken to this house of
jacques Boucher.
Only then began the fghting-bv
sallies from the inside Until that
moment the English had been the
besiegers. Now in the bastions they
had captured they became the be-
sieged. One by one. the bastions
were taken by Joan's troops. Only
the Tourelies fort held out To a
war council. held in the second story
front of the present-day milliner's.
Joan arrived late from church-in
time to contradict the great captains
advice and the war councils decision.
I'VE attack from the other side OF
the river" she said, and no captain
dreamed of answering the wonderful
young girl when she was in their
presence, face to face.
So they crossed by a bridge of
boats, attacked, fought all day, lost
zoe men, and returned by the hurn-
ing bridge on which Joan had first
summoned the English to surrender.
From this point her return to the TIE
Deum in the basilica and the tri-
umphal procession which gathered to
escort her "home" to where the mil
liner sells hats today is known and
followed by every tourist.
Every English tourist. / should say.
feels absolutely called upon to tell
some French person-whom or where
or under what circumstances it mat
ters little-how sincerely he or she
regrets that, later on, at Rheims, they
burned the maid alive.
1t is queer thing.
Amid all present ill-feelings over
reparations, this old incident of the
invading English seems to bring
French and English closer together
than all remembrance of their four
years fighting, side by side. against
the Germanic invader.