CHAPTER IX
The Charge is Accepted
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“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: