Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/385

 SAINT JOAN OF ARC

tier mother an^ the friends of her childhood; for she had no pleasure in the cruelties of war, and the sight of blood and suffering wrung her heart. Sometimes in battle she did not draw her sword, lest in the splendid madness of the onset she might forget her self and take an enemy s life with it. In the Rouen Trials, one of her quaintest speeches coming from the gentle and girlish source it did was her naive remark^ that she had &quot;never killed any one.&quot; Her prayer for leave to go back to the rest and peace of her village home was not granted.

Then she wanted to march at once upon Paris, take it, and drive the English out of France. She was hampered in all the ways that treachery and the King s vacillation could devise, but she forced her way to Paris at last, and fell badly wounded in a successful assault upon one of the gates. Of course her men lost heart at once she was the only heart they had. They fell back. She begged to be al lowed to remain at the front, saying victory was sure. &quot;I will take Paris now or die!&quot; she said. But she was removed from the field by force; the King ordered a retreat, and actually disbanded his army. In accordance with a beautiful old military custom Joan devoted her silver armor and hung it up in the Cathedral of St. Denis. Its great days were over.

Then, by command, she followed the King and his frivolous court and endured a gilded captivity for a time, as well as her free spirit could; and whenever inaction became unbearable she gathered some men together and rode away and assaulted a stronghold and captured it.

�� �