1. In the first half of the fifteenth century the condition of France seemed almost hopeless. The English king, Henry V., had won the great victory of Agincourt in 1415. This victory led to a series of campaigns which brought all the northern part of France completely into his power. His sudden death in 1422 prevented the complete subjugation of the remaining part of the country. The successor of Henry V.-Henry VI.-was but an infant, and for a time the course of French conquest was delayed by English factions. The south of France remained loyal to their rightful king, Charles VII., who, as he had not yet been crowned, was known by the title of Dauphin. 2. In 1428 the Duke of Bedford, brother of Henry V. and Regent of France, determined to cross the Loire, which divided the dominions of the Dauphin from those which acknowledged the English supremacy. As a preparatory step the important city of Orleans was besieged. The Dauphin had done but little to assist the besieged town. Despair seemed to have unnerved both the sovereign and the people. The besieging force was really very small, but such was the terror inspired by the English name that, during a six months' siege, not a single sally was attempted from the town, and famine had at last compelled the besieged and panic-stricken inhabitants to make offers of surrender 3. At this eventful crisis the tide of fortune was changed by the appearance of a young peasant girl at the court of the Dauphin in the Castle of Chinon, south of the Loire. This girl's name was Joan of Arc. 4. She was the daughter of a labourer of Domremy, a small village near Vaucouleurs, in the N.E. of France, and was now in her eighteenth year. She was a simple, country girl, fond of the forest near her father's cottage, tender to the sick and poor, and an ardent lover of the services of her village church. But her quiet home-life was broken by the sounds and sights of war. One absorbing passion filled her soul. She had pity, as she was always repeating, on the fair realm of France. In her simple, childlike faith she believed she saw visions, and heard divine voices, bidding her rise and save her downtrodden country. She wept, but she felt sure that her mission was clear. Her father was angry at the idea. The priest of Vaucouleurs, to whom she confided her story of visions and sounds, refused to help her. "I had far rather rest and spin by my mother's side," she said, "for this is no work of my choosing, but I must go and do it, for my Lord wills it." 5. At last all obstacles were overcome. The Dauphin received her at Chinon amid a throng of nobles and soldiers. She assured the Dauphin that he should be crowned at Rheims, where the French Kings were usually crowned, but which at that time was in the hands of the English. Her first care was to relieve the besieged city of Orleans. Full of the strength and vigour of her peasant training, accustomed to fatigue and hardships, clad in white armour, with a large white banner in her hand, she placed herself at the head of ten thousand men-at-arms, and led them to the famine-stricken city. 6. The besiegers were overawed at her presence. Her enthusiasm, her proud confidence in her country's future, her simple faith, spread among her countrymen; the hesitating generals were aroused by the example of her enthusiasm to attack the small handful of besiegers, and in a very short time Orleans was saved. The Maid of Orleans, as Joan of Arc has ever since been called, was wounded, but not seriously. 7. She was resolved to fulfil the task which she devoutly believed was assigned to her by Heaven. While the English remained panic-stricken round Paris, she brought the Dauphin to Rheims, where he was crowned King of France, while the Maid stood by his side. Joan now believed her mission was at an end, and begged to be permitted to return to her cottage home at Domremy to keep her flocks and herds as before, and do all things as she was wont to do. But the king would not hear of this. She was at last taken captive and given up to the Duke of Bedford, and after a year's cruel imprisonment was burnt to death at Rouen in 1431, to the lasting disgrace of all concerned. 8. But the cause of England was utterly lost. Gradually all her conquests in France were torn from her, and nothing remained of all the victories of Edward III. or of Henry V. but the town of Calais. Not only were all these temporary conquests lost, but the great southern province which had belonged to England ever since the marriage of Henry II. to Eleanor of Aquitaine, was recovered, and France became a greater and more powerful kingdom than she had ever been before. Calais remained in the hands of the English until 1558, when it was taken by the Duke of Guise. campaigns, the times during which an army keeps the field every year during war. subjugation, conquest by force. factions, party quarrels. Dauphin, a title given to the eldest son of the French king. regent, one who governs the kingdom during the minority of the king. supremacy, highest authority. absorbing, engaging wholly or engrossing. obstacles, hindrances. Rheims, 82 miles E.N. E. from Paris. overawed, restrained by fear. Describe the condition of France in the fifteenth century. Who was the Duke of Bedford? What city did he besiege, and for how long? Who was Joan of Arc? Relate her interview with the Dauphin. Describe her relief of Orleans. What request did she make of the king after he was crowned? When Joan of Arc was taken prisoner how was she treated? When and where did she die? JOAN OF ARC'S ADDRESS. TRANSLATED FROM SCHILLER'S "JUNGFRAU VON ORLEANS BY 1. Farewell, ye mountains, ye beloved glades, Who sang'st responsive to my simple strain, 2. Ye scenes where all my tranquil joys I knew, 3. For who in glory did on Horeb's height And sent him forth, his champion in the fight, |