Year: 1870

side of 1t stood q woman WI the facl
of an angel, and the temperof a tigress
with a wit as sharp as a dagger, and ;


heart as hard as a stone At the othe


side stood a man, bold in the field, un


scrupulOus in counsel as in love, will


ambition which might have been wrap


ped in the purple, and vices Whicl


might have wallOwed in the gutter


No wonder the people wavered in thei


allegiance, when the best thing poo


mad Charles VI. could do with hi


crown was to play with it, and WheI


the reigns of government were held by


Queen Isabella and her lover, the Dukr


of Burgundy. The foreign prince wht


was to turn this flood of anarchy into


tide of victory for himself had not We


come. Before the invader set his foo


on French soil, she was born who wa


first to check his advance.


Joan of Arc was the daughter Of /


well-tO-dO peasant pair, WHO owned {


few sheep and goats, and perhaps {


COW or two. She was born at DOmre


my, a village in Lorraine. She haC


one sister and several brothers. BY the


time the child was three years old


Henry of England had sounded his tri.


umphant clarions at AgincOurt, and as
that blast re-echOed through the land


the hearts of all true French men and
i UGSlIe


for vengeance. AS the little girl play


ed about, she must often have heard
her father and elder brothers curse the
! foe who laid waste the fair fields OF
| France. Sometimes there would come
to the cottage door pale, limping man,
with perhaps the remnants of bright
scarf still hanging around his shrunken


body, or a broken feather in his hat.
He would beg draught of milk-and
it would be readily given to a wounded
soldier, crawling back to his native viii
Iage. Then the child's eyes would fill
| with tears, as she paused in the midst
of some merry game, to hear of gar
dens as pretty as her own trOdden
down by the hOOfs of English war hor-
ses, and little ones as young IS herself
! driven from their homes by the laWless
| stranger. These things must have
mingled in the child's awakening mind
with eerie sanity legends and bright
! fragments of romance, which her mo-
! ther and the female neighbOrs told, as
| they sat at their spinning-wheels. Es-
| pecially did Aey relate WondrOus
things about certain large beech tree
near the village, where the fairies dane
| ed, and where there was a fountain,
/ the water of which was a sure cure for
every disease. The men may have in
| terrupted the women by saying that
| this was no time for such idle fancies,
when war was every moment drawing
nearer their own hearths. But if they
did, the good DANES only smiled, and
said they knew by an old prophecy
that all this would not last dong, for a
maid from the Marches of their own
Lorraine was to save France in her
hour of greatest need.


There were no village schools in
those days. Joan never learned to read
or write. The utmost she was taught
amounted to few prayers and the
Catechism, by her mother and the par
ish priest; but she could learn to think
without the help Of any one, as she
kept the sheep, or worked in the gar
den, or rested for a brief space in the
shade at noon. And so did learn to
think to some purpose. The happy
homes of France were being made des-
olate by rude foreign soldieTy. The
Dauphin, the handsomest and sweetest
young prince in the world, was depriv


ed of his rightful inheritance. Surely
this could not go on. God and the no
ly Saints would not let it be. Such
were her thoughts. Then she would
repeat, over and over again, to herself
that prOphency about maid from tine
Marches of Lorraine saving France.
Slowly the idea was shaped in her
mind, making her heart at first thrOb
with a fearful joy, for some time not
even whispered by her own lips when
alone. What if one day should be
that maid? We fully believe that that
old popular prOphesy was the chief
primary cause of all which Joan of Arc
did. So true is the German proverb,
that to fOretell makes to happen.


But Joan delighted to be active in
body as well as in mind. She loved to
Outstrip her companions in the race;
she loved to help her mother in house
hold work; she loved to coax
friendly farmer to lend her a horse,
and springing on its back, without a
saddle, to Scamper away over the fields;
she loved to go into the wood, and,
with long stick for a lance, to tilt at
the trees. Later, when we wonder at
the immense fatigne which-Often al
most fasting-the girl went through, we
must call to mind the physical training
of her childhood. She was no little la
dy, who in the castle buttery had been
crammed by the servants with cakes
and sWeetmeets; she was no burgher's
child, whose dainty feet were used to
no harder task than tripping to shop OF
church. She was the daughter of the
people, who, as she watched the sheep,
had been bronZed by the sun and
drenched by the rain; whose hands
had been frayed in tie Washing-tub;
who, when a sickly season among the
flock had made the family purse low,
had often even known what hunger
was. Her naturally good constitution
had thus been hardened, and she was
we'll prepared for soldiers life.


Joan's pretty face and bright cherry
ways made her a great favOrite among
1na oh a L N
was complete without her. She heard
and thought so much about the Saints,
that they were to her quite as real liV-
ing beings as the men and women
around her. Among them, two were
especially dear to her; st. Catharine,
the sweet ehild-bride of the Lord, and
st. Margaret, who, smiling, held up
the cross to the monster. To these she
was always praying for France and for
herself, and on these her vivid imagin-
alton was always dwelling.


At length one day, when she was
about thirteen, as she worked in the
garden at noon, her brain being no
doubt somewhat heated by the summer
sun, it seemed that st. Catharine and
st. Margaret appeared before her, in
the midst of a brilliant light, and told
her if she would be good, and always
live q maid, she should one day deliver
France. She fell on her knees and
made a VOW of virginity. We have
used the words ait seemed to her." but
with Joan it was not ''it seemed tome" !"
/ but simply, " L saw and [ heard. y
/ From that day to the end of her life
/ these beautiful hallUcinatiOns constant
/ ly haunted her, and were fully believed
/ by her to be realities. At intervals,
either in the busy hours of day or the
silent watches of the night, her heav-
! enly friends would smile upon her from
/ their dazzling cloud. At intervals