Jeanne D'Arc: Her Life And DeathOliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
History
Jeanne D'Arc: Her Life And Death
Oliphant, Mrs. (Margaret)
France -- History; Joan, of Arc, Saint, 1412-1431
She was fasting but had not
fasted the preceding day. The voice came from the right, towards the
church; and came rarely without a great light. This light came always
from the side whence the voice proceeded, and was a very bright
radiance. When she came into France she still continued to hear the same
voices.
She was then asked how she could see the light when it was at the side;
to which foolish question Jeanne gave no reply, but "turned to other
matters," saying voluntarily with a soft implied reproof of the noise
around her--that if she were in a wood, that is in a quiet place, she
could hear the voices coming towards her. She added (going on, one could
imagine, in a musing, forgetting the congregation of sinners about her)
that it seemed to her a noble voice, and that she believed it came from
God, and that when she had heard it three times she knew it was the
voice of an angel; the voice always came quite clearly to her, and she
understood it well.
She was then asked what it said to her concerning the salvation of her
soul.
She said that it taught her to rule her life well, to go often to
church: and told her that it was necessary that she, Jeanne, should
go to France. The said Jeanne added that she would not be questioned
further concerning the voice, or the manner in which it was made known
to her, but that two or three times in a week it had said to her that
she must go to France; but that her father knew nothing of this. The
voice said to her that she should go to France, until she could endure
it no longer; it said to her that she should raise the siege, which was
set against the city of Orleans. It said also that she must go to Robert
of Baudricourt, in the city of Vaucouleurs, who was captain of that
place, and that he would give her people to go with her; to which she
had answered that she was a poor girl who knew not how to ride, nor how
to conduct war. She then said that she went to her uncle and told him
that she wished to go with him for a little while to his house, and that
she lived there for eight days; she then told her uncle that she must go
to Vaucouleurs, and the said uncle took her there. Also she went on to
say that when she came to the said city of Vaucouleurs, she recognised
Robert of Baudricourt; though she had never seen him before she knew him
by the voice that said to her which was he. She then told this Robert
that it was necessary that she should go to France, but twice over he
refused and repulsed her; the third time, however, he received her, and
gave her certain men to go with her; the voice had told her that this
would be so.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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