The young girl's heart already yearned over the woes of her distressed country, but now it swelled almost to bursting as she heard the recital from angelic lips. The "great pity that there was for France" communicated itself to her, and she felt it in every chord of her sensitive nature. The great angel concluded abruptly: "Daughter of God, it is thou who must go to the help of the King of France, and it is thou who wilt give him back his kingdom." But at this Jeanne sprang to her feet, astounded. "I, Messire? I?" "Even thou, Jeanne. It is thou who must fare forth into France to do this. Hast thou not heard that France ruined by a woman shall by a virgin be restored? Thou art the Maid." But terrified and weeping the girl fell prostrate before him. "Not I, Messire. Oh, not I. It cannot be." "Thou art the Maid," was all he said. With this Jeanne found herself alone. CHAPTER IX THE CHARGE IS ACCEPTED "_I, too, could be content to dwell in peace, Resting my head upon the lap of love, But that my country calls._" SOUTHEY. "_Joan of Arc_," _Book I._ "Thou art the Maid." Over and over the young girl repeated the words in a maze of incredulity and wonder. That she, Jeanne D'Arc, should be chosen for such a divine commission was unbelievable. She was poor, without learning, a peasant girl who had no powerful friends to take her to the Court, and ignorant of all that pertained to war. Her judgment and common sense told her that such a thing could not be. True, the ancient prophecy of Merlin, the Magician, said that a maiden from the Bois Chesnu in the March of Lorraine should save France. True also was the fact that from her infancy she had played in that ancient wood; could even then behold its great extent from her father's door. Yet, despite these actualities, it could not be that she was the delegated Maid. So, while the archangel came again and again urging the high mission with insistency the girl protested shrinkingly. Time after time he said: "Daughter of God, thou shalt lead the Dauphin to Reims, that he may there receive worthily his anointing." Again and again Jeanne replied with tears: "I am but a poor girl, Messire. I am too young to leave my father and my mother. I can not ride a horse, or couch a lance. How then could I lead men-at-arms?" "Thou shalt be instructed in all that thou hast to do," she was told. As time passed, unconsciously Jeanne became filled with two great principles which grew with her growth until they were interwoven with every fibre of her being: the love of God, and the desire to do some great thing for the benefit of her country. Her heart ached with the longing. So it came about that the burden of France lay heavy upon her. She could think of nothing but its distress. She became distrait and troubled.