To Joan of Arc this mission was of supremest importance. She lived in the path of war, and, like many a Belgian, a French, or a Polish girl of today, she had seen her village sacked, her family and her friends obliged to flee saving what they could. Domrémy lived in constant danger of the Burgundian allies of England and of all the pitiless riffraff war breeds. Joan was an ardent patriot and suffered with her country; she loved her king too, looking on him as sent of God. To rescue him was the noblest work which one could be given. After the first revolt she accepted the call without misgivings. It was not for her to question Voices sent by God.
The key to the career of Joan of Arc is this unfaltering confidence. She did things from the start utterly preposterous by human standards of conduct. What more unlikely of success than that the governor of a tormented district should turn over for the asking to a child of seventeen, of whom he had never heard, an escort to take her to the king of the land! yet the governor of Vaucouleurs (vo-koo-lurr) did this: not on the first or second asking, to be sure, but on the third, and Joan had never doubted that she would get her escort—"the Voices had told me it would be thus."
THE MAID AND THE KING
THE ROOM IN WHICH JOAN WAS BORN
She was born at Domrémy, France, on January 6, 1412
Her mind was so full of the command laid upon her that once accepted nothing could divert or frighten her. One might expect a girl of her origin to be awestruck at the thought of presenting herself before a court and a king; but not Joan. She passed unabashed through the throng that had gathered to witness her first meeting with Charles, and kneeling told him composedly, "Most noble Lord Dauphin, I am come, and am sent to you from God to give succor to the kingdom and to you."
She won Charles from the start, for he was much of a person in spite of his vacillating and his weakness, and he answered to the nobility of her call. She won the better part of his court, and as for the people they flocked to her. She was sent to be examined by experts in law and religion; for without assurance that her Voices were indeed from God Charles did not dare risk it. Joan might of course be what the English and the cynical of the court declared,—a witch and her Voices of the devil.
For six weeks the girl was questioned by the ablest lawyers and churchmen of the kingdom. A selected body of women gave her a physical examination. The end of it was complete justification: "It is found and hereby declared that Joan of Arc, called the Maid, is a Christian and a Catholic, and that there is nothing in her presence or her words contrary to the faith, and that the king may and ought to accept the succor she offers; for to repel it would be to offend the Holy Spirit, and render him unworthy of the aid of God."
THE GRAND HALL OF THE PALACE AT CHINON (Shee-nong)
Where Joan first met Charles VII.
From the painting by P. Carrier-Belleuse