26 



THE FEENCH BLOOD IN AMEEICA 



A Turning 

 Point for 

 France 

 1439 A. D, 



A Strange 

 Volunteer 



Visions and 

 Voices 



II 



Early in the fifteenth century clouds and darkness had 

 settled over France. A critical point had been reached 

 in the nation's life. War was in progress with England, 

 and the fortunes of France were low. English conquest 

 seemed certain. An incompetent king, Charles VII, 

 was disliked by the nobility and distrusted by the peo- 

 ple. Paris had fallen into the enemy's hands, and an 

 English army was besieging Orleans. It was "one of 

 the turning points in the history of nations." 



At this junction there came to the French commander 

 a volunteer, declaring that she had a commission from 

 God to restore to the king of France his kingdom. 

 Never in the records of history was there a more singular 

 volunteer or declaration. For this new ally, this "war- 

 rior" from Lorraine, intent on such mighty mission, was 

 a country girl, modest and retiring by nature, simple- 

 hearted and deeply religious, who had spun and knitted 

 with her mother at home, and helped her brothers tend 

 the peaceful herds among her native hills. Joan of Arc 

 was born in 1412 in the village of Domremy, in the 

 northeastern part of France, on the borders of Lorraine 

 and Champagne. From her early years she had displayed 

 an unusual Christian fervour, which led to her being re- 

 garded as peculiar, though she was most exemplary in 

 conduct, pure and artless. She began to hear voices, as 

 she called them, by the time she was thirteen. In the 

 quiet home life, out in the fields or at her weaving, she 

 experienced moments of religious exaltation. At such 

 times she saw visions and dreamed dreams, and heard the 

 solemn voices bidding her ' ' go forth to the help of the 

 King of France." She became so filled with the idea 

 that she was divinely called to deliver her country from 

 the English foe that she could not resist the impulse to 

 act. Simple girl that she was, in 1429, when she was but 

 seventeen, Joan was inspired with the belief that if she 

 could get command of the French army, God and sue- 



