Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/381

 SAINT JOAN OF ARC

��CHAPTER I

THE evidence furnished at the Trials and Re habilitation sets forth Joan of Arc s strange and beautiful history in clear and minute detail. Among all the multitude of biographies that freight the shelves of the world s libraries, this is the only one whose validity is confirmed to us by oath. It gives us a vivid picture of a career and a personality of so extraordinary a character that we are helped to ac cept them as actualities by the very fact that both are beyond the inventive reach of fiction. The public part of the career occupied only a mere breath of time it covered but two years; but what a career it was ! The personality which made it pos-

NOTE. The Official Record of the Trials and Rehabilitation of Joan of Arc is the most remarkable history that exists in any lan guage; yet there are few people in the world who can say they have read it: in England and America it has hardly been heard of.

Three hundred years ago Shakespeare did not know the true story of Joan of Arc; in his day it was unknown even in France. For four hundred years it existed rather as a vaguely defined romance than as definite and authentic history. The true story remained buried until Quicherat dug it out and gave it to the world two generations ago, in lucid and understandable modern French. It is a deeply fascinating story. But only in the Official Trials and Rehabilita tion can it be found in its entirety. M. T.

�� �