“Indeed! And when will all this happen?”
“Next year he will be crowned, and after that will remain master of
France.”
There was a great and general burst of laughter, and when it had
subsided the governor said:
“Who has sent you with these extravagant messages?”
“My Lord.”
“What Lord?”
“The King of Heaven.”
Many murmured, “Ah, poor thing, poor thing!” and others, “Ah,
her mind is but a wreck!” The governor hailed Laxart, and said:
“Harkye!–take this mad child home and whip her soundly. That is
the best cure for her ailment.”
As Joan was moving away she turned and said, with simplicity:
“You refuse me the soldiers, I know not why, for it is my Lord that
has commanded you. Yes, it is He that has made the command;
therefore I must come again, and yet again; then I shall have the
men-at-arms.”
There was a great deal of wondering talk, after she was gone; and
the guards and servants passed the talk to the town, the town
passed it to the country; Domremy was already buzzing with it
when we got back.
Chapter 8 Why the Scorners Relented
HUMAN NATURE is the same everywhere: it defies success, it
has nothing but scorn for defeat. The village considered that Joan
had disgraced it with her grotesque performance and its ridiculous
failure; so all the tongues were busy with the matter, and as bilious
and bitter as they were busy; insomuch that if the tongues had been
teeth she would not have survived her persecutions. Those persons
who did not scold did what was worse and harder to bear; for they
ridiculed her, and mocked at her, and ceased neither day nor night
from their witticisms and jeerings and laughter. Haumette and
Little Mengette and I stood by her, but the storm was too strong for
her other friends, and they avoided her, being ashamed to be seen
with her because she was so unpopular, and because of the sting of
the taunts that assailed them on her account. She shed tears in
secret, but none in public. In public she carried herself with
serenity, and showed no distress, nor any resentment–conduct
which should have softened the feeling against her, but it did not.
Her father was so incensed that he could not talk in measured
terms about her wild project of going to the wars like a man. He
had dreamed of her doing such a thing, some time before, and now
he remembered that dream with apprehension and anger, and said
that rather than see her unsex herself and go away with the armies,
he would require her brothers to drown her; and that if they should
refuse, he would do it with his own hands.
But none of these things shook her purpose in the least. Her
parents kept a strict watch upon her to keep her from leaving the
village, but she said her time was not yet; that when the time to go
was come she should know it, and then the keepers would watch in
vain.
The summer wasted along; and when it was seen that her purpose
continued steadfast, the parents were glad of a chance which
finally offered itself for bringing her projects to an end through
marriage. The Paladin had the effrontery to pretend that she had
engaged herself to him several years before, and now he claimed a
ratification of the engagement.
She said his statement was not true, and refused to marry him. She
was cited to appear before the ecclesiastical court at Toul to
answer for her perversity; when she declined to have counsel, and
elected to conduct her case herself, her parents and all her
ill-wishers rejoiced, and looked upon her as already defeated. And
that was natural enough; for who would expect that an ignorant
peasant-girl of sixteen would be otherwise than frightened and
tongue-tied when standing for the first time in presence of the
practised doctors of the law, and surrounded by the cold
solemnities of a court? Yet all these people were mistaken. They
flocked to Toul to see and enjoy this fright and embarrassment and
defeat, and they had their trouble for their pains. She was modest,