Curiosities of Christian History Prior to the ReformationPaterson, James
History
Curiosities of Christian History Prior to the Reformation
Paterson, James
Church history -- Middle Ages, 600-1500; Church history -- Miscellanea; Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600
for she was sure he would help her to go to the Dauphin and assist to
recover France for the French. She did get an audience, and told the
captain she came from the Lord, who would be sure to help the Dauphin. On
asking her who was her Lord, she said He was the King of Heaven, at which
the captain set her down at once for a little madcap who should be sent
home and well whipped. But the little persistent cow-girl, still further
excited by news of the wars, told the captain that she was determined to
go and raise the siege of Orleans, and that if she had a hundred fathers
and mothers, and if she were the King's daughter, she must and would go in
spite of them all. At last the captain, puzzled and at his wits' end,
wrote about the little crazy girl and her visions to the Duke of Lorraine,
who was so impressed that he sent for her, and then everybody began to
talk of her wild schemes and enterprise as the wonder of the times.
JOAN OF ARC GOES TO INTERVIEW THE KING.
When Joan of Arc, aged nineteen, got the length of being sent for by the
Duke of Lorraine, John of Metz, the knight, was assigned to escort her,
and he asked if she meant to go in her little red petticoat. "No," said
she, "I should like to be in man's clothes." When this was known, the
people round about subscribed to get her a military costume, and she was
supplied with a horse, a coat of mail, a lance, a sword, a messenger, and
a train; and she took farewell of her rustic friends and got their
blessing. In the journey of eleven days her spirit never flagged, and she
only wished she could hear Mass daily which she contrived once or twice
to do. Everybody treated with respect the inspired cow-girl, and her
constant appeals to Heaven and to the commission which she said she bore
direct from the God of Battles. She was rather tall, well shaped, dark,
with a look of composed assurance which staggered even the old veterans of
the war. Once on her journey a band of roughs had prepared to waylay and
rob her; but on a sight of her they were struck motionless and quailed.
When she arrived near to headquarters, the King's council debated whether
the King ought to receive her; and as he was then at his wits' end, and
had spent all the money in the treasury, it was decided that he might. The
high steward conducted her forward; it was candlelight: warriors and
knights, richly dressed, stood in rows looking on; and yet it was noticed
that she by instinct fixed on the King among the crowd of grandees, and
the young shepherdess at once made her bends and courtesies, as if she had
been bred in courts. She at once took high ground, and said, "Good
Dauphin, my name is Joan, the maid. The King of Heaven sends me to assure
you that you shall be anointed and crowned in the city of Rheims, and
shall be lieutenant of the King of Heaven, who is King of France. It is
God's will that these English foes shall be driven out of our country."
The King was astounded, and the chroniclers say he received her message
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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