Castles -- France; Touraine (France) -- Description and travel
The whole wonderful story is written upon these windows so plainly that
any child may read it. We have been thinking of Christine and Lisa, and
wishing that they were here to read it with us. They will learn of Joan
of Arc in their histories, but it will never be so real to them as it is
here where her great work was done, and where she is so honored. Some
day we promise ourselves the pleasure of bringing the children here and
going with them through all the Joan of Arc country. M. La Tour, who has
made the journey, says that, as the Joan of Arc cult is increasing all
the time, every spot associated with her is marked and everything most
carefully preserved.
"Most interesting of all," he says, "is the little church where Jeanne
worshipped. Although badly restored by Louis XVIII, the nave remains
intact, and the pavement is just as it was when the bare feet of Jeanne
trod its stones, in ecstatic humility, during the long trance of
devotion when she felt that supernatural beings were about her and
unmistakable voices were bidding her to do what maid had never dreamed
of doing before. In a little chapel, beside the main edifice, is the
stone fount where the infant Jeanne was baptized. Fastened to the wall
there hangs a remnant of the iron balustrade, that Jeanne's hands must
have rested on during the hours that she passed in rhapsody, seeing what
never was seen on land or sea. A few steps from the church stands the
cot where the maid was born, almost as humbly as the Christ Child.
Entering through the small doorway, you see the room in which Jeanne
first opened her eyes to the light. On one side stands the 'dresser,' or
wardrobe, built half way into the wall, where the housewife stored the
family belongings. Beside this is the iron arm which held the lamp, used
during midnight watches. Beyond this general room is the alcove that
served Jeanne as a sleeping-room. In this narrow chamber, more like a
cell than a sleeping-room, Jeanne heard 'voices,' and dreamed her
dreams."
M. La Tour's description is so interesting that we all long to follow in
his footsteps and in those of the Maid, from the clump of oak trees--of
which one still stands--and the "Fountain of the Voices" to the ruins of
the Chateau of Vaucouleurs, where the chivalrous Robert de Baudricourt,
impressed by the girl's serene confidence, gave her a letter for the
King, who was at Chinon, as we know.
[Illustration: HOTEL CABU HOUSE OF JOAN OF ARC
ORLEANS]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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