The Executioner's Knife; Or, Joan of ArcSue, Eugène
General
The Executioner's Knife; Or, Joan of Arc
Sue, Eugène
Biographical fiction; Christian fiction; Christian women saints -- Fiction; Joan, of Arc, Saint, 1412-1431 -- Fiction
On the 12th of June, 1429, Joan took the fortified town of Meung; on the
17th of the same month she captured Jargeau, and the next day Beaugency.
In all these assaults the Maid displayed the same bravery, the same
military genius that distinguished her at the siege of Orleans. At the
capture of Jargeau she came near being killed. This second series of
triumphs was crowned by the battle of Patay, where all the English
forces were assembled under the command of Warwick and their most
illustrious captains, most of whom were taken prisoner. At this bloody
and hotly contested battle Joan showed herself the peer of the most
famous captains by the boldness of her manoeuvres, the quickness of her
eye, the use that she put the artillery to, by the enthusiasm that she
knew how to fire her soldiers with, and by her imperturbable good
nature. Just before the battle she said to the Duke of Alençon with a
cheerfulness and terseness worthy of the best passages of antiquity:
"Gallant sir, are your spurs good?"
"What?" asked the Duke in surprise. "Spurs? To flee?"
"No, sir--to pursue!" was the answer.[102]
Indeed, after their defeat, the enemy was pursued at the point of the
lance for over three leagues. But these victories were won by the
warrior maid not over the English merely, they were won also over the
ill will of most of the French captains, whose envy of her increased in
the same measure as her triumph. Accordingly she no longer doubted their
secret animosity, and a vague presentiment told her she would be
eventually betrayed by them to the enemy. The foreboding did not affect
her conduct. Long before had she made a sacrifice of her life.
Considering that these last triumphs must have finally put an end to
Charles's hesitancy, Joan returned to him, and said:
"Sire, Meung, Beaugency, Jargeau have all been carried by assault, is
that enough? The English have been defeated in pitched battle at Patay,
is that enough? Talbot, Warwick, Suffolk, are either captured or forced
to flee, is that enough? Would you still hesitate to follow me to Rheims
and be consecrated King by the command of God?"
The royal coward did not now hesitate, he declined point blank. The
English had been driven out of Touraine, but still they held the
provinces that had to be crossed in order to reach Rheims.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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