Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 1.djvu/596

582 when little more than twenty years of age. Numbers of her companions, of all ranks, were living when her history was written, who all united in testimony to the purity of her life and the wonder of her deeds. Her ashes were scattered on the Seine; but twenty-five years later, the infamous judgment which had been passed upon her was reversed by the Archbishop of Rheims and the Bishop of Paris. Montaigne saw the house where she was born in 1580, the whole of its front emblazoned with paintings of her history. After the Revolution it was converted into a stable. The infamy of her death rests with imperishable blackness upon all parties who permitted or perpetrated it—French, English, and Burgundians. The very historians who deny her mission are so impressed by her greatness, that they declare that antiquity would have erected altars and statues to her.

Burning of Joan of Arc

To the English the death of Joan of Arc brought no remission of the Divine fiat gone out against thorn. Their fortunes continued to decline, their friends to fall away. The great work which at that period was required in France, and which the mission of Joan was no doubt intended to effect, was to renew the spirit of the nation; to break the crushing spell of inferiority to the enemy, which acted like a nightmare on the people; and, above all, to inspire a respect for purity of morals and probity of principle. The condition of society for the last century had been corrupt and demoralised beyond example. The beautiful example of the steadfast faith and moral purity, the undaunted courage and prompt action of this extraordinary young woman, was a great lesson to the nation of what it needed, and what it might attain. The moral tuition was the most difficult, but the revelation made by her bravery was not lost. The French saw that the English were vulnerable; that, however wise and able was the regent, he had not the authority, even if he had the genius, of the late king. At home were the im-