Page:Great Men and Famous Women Volume 5.djvu/191

JOAN OF ARC 119 would remove all impost from the village of Domremy, in place of bestowing a title upon her family as he offered to do. For three hundred years her request was obeyed. From this time to the tragic end, the story of Joan's life is a hard one to relate. Although we are nearing the fifth centennial of her birth, the recital of her sufferings and death must still wring tears from every heart which is not made of stone. The feeling of jealousy which great success, of even the most worthy and noble souls, arouses in meaner natures, had already sprung up against Joan. This feeling increased as the days passed by and she added more and more to her glory by the conquest of Laon, Soissons, Compiegne, and Beau- vais, Paris was next besieged, and here Joan was seriously wounded, an event which depressed the king and the army. Her wound disabled her from action, and she was left lying on the field until evening, neglected, and seemingly forgotten. Already conscious of the growing sentiment of jealousy among her officers, this final proof of their indifference to her fate must have been more painful to her pure and lofty mind than the physi- cal agony she was enduring. But even lying there, wounded, she cheered on the men as they passed her in the combat, and revived their failing courage. She was enabled to resume action the next day ; her plans were all perfected, and judging from her past triumphs we can but suppose victory would have attended her, had not that most remarkable mandate arrived from the king, commanding the French army to retreat to Saint-Denis. To the undying shame of his memory be it said that Charles VII. entered into a plot, with jealous enemies of Joan, to force failure upon her. The people and the soldiers had grown to believe her infallible ; the king and his favorites determined that she should be proven fallible. They deemed the country suffi- ciently safe, the army sufficiently strong, to enable them to go on now and claim victories of their own, without having their divine deliverer share the glory. Next to the crime of Isabel, who sold her son and her country to the enemy this base act of Charles VII. stands unparalleled in infamy. So discouraged and heart-broken was Joan over the conduct of the king, although she did not under- stand the deep-laid plot against her, that she resolved to abandon the life of a soldier and enter the church of Saint-Denis. She hung up her armor and her sword, but when the king heard of this he sent for her to return to the army. He was not yet sure of himself, and he wanted her where he could call upon het if need be. Joan returned with reluctance; "her Voices" counselled her to keep to her resolution ; but she was so accustomed to obey the king, that for the first time she allowed an earthly voice to overrule the counsels of her heavenly guides. And from this hour her star set ; from this hour her path led into darkness. Soon after her return to the army she broke the magic sword with which she had achieved so many conquests ; the Voices, too, were silent, and all this troubled her. The king kept her away from all active warfare, and she grew restive and impatient with her life of inaction. The army, which under her influence had been reformed of half its vices, now separated from her by the king's orders and fell