Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, vol 1 by Mark Twain (life books to read TXT) đ
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- Author: Mark Twain
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âThere, that is the way with him, you see; he never can discuss a theme temperately, but always flies off the handle and becomes disagreeable. And you notice his defect of memory. He remembers getting off his horse, but forgets all the rest, even the tree. But that is natural; he would remember getting off the horse because he was so used to doing it. He always did it when there was an alarm and the clash of arms at the front.â
âWhy did he choose that time for it?â asked Jean.
âI donât know. To tighten up his girth, he thinks, to climb a tree, I think; I saw him climb nine trees in a single night.â
âYou saw nothing of the kind! A person that can lie like that deserves no oneâs respect. I ask you all to answer me. Do you believe what this reptile has said?â
All seemed embarrassed, and only Pierre replied. He said, hesitatingly:
âIâwell, I hardly know what to say. It is a delicate situation. It seems offensive to me to refuse to believe a person when he makes so direct a statement, and yet I am obliged to say, rude as it may appear, that I am not able to believe the whole of itâno, I am not able to believe that you climbed nine trees.â
âThere!â cried the Paladin; ânow what do you think of yoiurself, Noïżœl Rainguesson? How many do you believe I climbed, Pierre?â
âOnly eight.â
The laughter that followed inflamed the Paladinâs anger to white heat, and he said:
âI bide my timeâI bide my time. I will reckon with you all, I promise you that!â
âDonât get him started,â Noïżœl pleaded; âhe is a perfect lion when he gets started. I saw enough to teach me that, after the third skirmish. After it was over I saw him come out of the bushes and attack a dead man single-handed.â
âIt is another lie; and I give you fair warning that you are going too far. You will see me attack a live one if you are not careful.â
âMeaning me, of course. This wounds me more than any number of injurious and unkind speeches could do. In gratitude to oneâs benefactorââ
âBenefactor? What do I owe you, I should like to know?â
âYou owe me your life. I stood between the trees and the foe, and kept hundreds and thousands of the enemy at bay when they were thirsting for your blood. And I did not do it to display my daring. I did it because I loved you and could not live without you.â
âThereâyou have said enough! I will not stay here to listen to these infamies. I can endure your lies, but not your love. Keep that corruption for somebody with a stronger stomach than mine. And I want to say this, before I go. That you peopleâs small performances might appear the better and win you the more glory, I hid my own deeds through all the march. I went always to the front, where the fighting was thickest, to be remote from you in order that you might not see and be discouraged by the things I did to the enemy. It was my purpose to keep this a secret in my own breast, but you force me to reveal it. If you ask for my witnesses, yonder they lie, on the road we have come. I found that road mud, I paved it with corpses. I found that country sterile, I fertilized it with blood. Time and again I was urged to go to the rear because the command could not proceed on account of my dead. And yet you, you miscreant, accuse me of climbing trees! Pah!â
And he strode out, with a lofty air, for the recital of his imaginary deeds had already set him up again and made him feel good.
Next day we mounted and faced toward Chinon. Orleans was at our back now, and close by, lying in the strangling grip of the English; soon, please God, we would face about and go to their relief. From Gien the news had spread to Orleans that the peasant Maid of Vaucouleurs was on her way, divinely commissioned to raise the siege. The news made a great excitement and raised a great hopeâthe first breath of hope those poor souls had breathed in five months. They sent commissioners at once to the King to beg him to consider this matter, and not throw this help lightly away. These commissioners were already at Chinon by this time.
When we were half-way to Chinon we happened upon yet one more squad of enemies. They burst suddenly out of the woods, and in considerable force, too; but we were not the apprentices we were ten or twelve days before; no, we were seasoned to this kind of adventure now; our hearts did not jump into our throats and our weapons tremble in our hands. We had learned to be always in battle array, always alert, and always ready to deal with any emergency that might turn up. We were no more dismayed by the sight of those people than our commander was. Before they could form, Joan had delivered the order, âForward!â and we were down upon them with a rush. They stood no chance; they turned tail and scattered, we plowing through them as if they had been men of straw. That was our last ambuscade, and it was probably laid for us by that treacherous rascal, the Kingâs own minister and favorite, De la Tremouille.
We housed ourselves in an inn, and soon the town came flocking to get a glimpse of the Maid.
Ah, the tedious King and his tedious people! Our two good knights came presently, their patience well wearied, and reported. They and we reverently stoodâas becomes persons who are in the presence of kings and the superiors of kingsâuntil Joan, troubled by this mark of homage and respect, and not content with it nor yet used to it, although we had not permitted ourselves to do otherwise since the day she prophesied that wretched traitorâs death and he was straightway drowned, thus confirming many previous signs that she was indeed an ambassador commissioned of God, commanded us to sit; then the Sieur de Metz said to Joan:
âThe King has got the letter, but they will not let us have speech with him.â
âWho is it that forbids?â
âNone forbids, but there be three or four that are nearest his personâschemers and traitors every oneâthat put obstructions in the way, and seek all ways, by lies and pretexts, to make delay. Chiefest of these are Georges de la Tremouille and that plotting fox, the Archbishop of Rheims. While they keep the King idle and in bondage to his sports and follies, they are great and their importance grows; whereas if ever he assert himself and rise and strike for crown and country like a man, their reign is done. So they but thrive, they care not if the crown go to destruction and the King with it.â
âYou have spoken with others besides these?â
âNot of the Court, noâthe Court are the meek slaves of those reptiles, and watch their mouths and their actions, acting as they act, thinking as they think, saying as they say; wherefore they are cold to us, and turn aside and go another way when we appear. But we have spoken with the commissioners from Orleans. They said with heat: âIt is a marvel that any man in such desperate case as is the King can moon around in this torpid way, and see his all go to ruin without lifting a finger to stay the disaster. What a most strange spectacle it is! Here he is, shut up in this wee corner of the realm like a rat in a trap; his royal shelter this huge gloomy tomb of a castle, with wormy rags for upholstery and crippled furniture for use, a very house of desolation; in his treasure forty francs, and not a farthing more, God be witness! no army, nor any shadow of one; and by contrast with his hungry poverty you behold this crownless pauper and his shoals of fools and favorites tricked out in the gaudiest silks and velvets you shall find in any Court in Christendom. And look you, he knows that when our city fallsâas fall it surely will except succor come swiftlyâFrance falls; he knows that when that day comes he will be an outlaw and a fugitive, and that behind him the English flag will float unchallenged over every acre of his great heritage; he knows these things, he knows that our faithful city is fighting all solitary and alone against disease, starvation, and the sword to stay this awful calamity, yet he will not strike one blow to save her, he will not hear our prayers, he will not even look upon our faces.â That is what the commissioners said, and they are in despair.â
Joan said, gently:
âIt is pity, but they must not despair. The Dauphin will hear them presently. Tell them so.â
She almost always called the King the Dauphin. To her mind he was not King yet, not being crowned.
âWe will tell them so, and it will content them, for they believe you come from God. The Archbishop and his confederate have for backer that veteran soldier Raoul de Gaucourt, Grand Master of the Palace, a worthy man, but simply a soldier, with no head for any greater matter. He cannot make out to see how a country-girl, ignorant of war, can take a sword in her small hand and win victories where the trained generals of France have looked for defeats only, for fifty yearsâand always found them. And so he lifts his frosty mustache and scoffs.â
âWhen God fights it is but small matter whether the hand that bears His sword is big or little. He will perceive this in time. Is there none in that Castle of Chinon who favors us?â
âYes, the Kingâs motherin-law, Yolande, Queen of Sicily, who is wise and good. She spoke with the Sieur Bertrand.â
âShe favors us, and she hates those others, the Kingâs beguilers,â said Bertrand. âShe was full of interest, and asked a thousand questions, all of which I answered according to my ability. Then she sat thinking over these replies until I thought she was lost in a dream and would wake no more. But it was not so. At last she said, slowly, and as if she were talking to herself: âA child of seventeenâa girlâcountry-bredâuntaughtâignorant of war, the use of arms, and the conduct of battlesâmodest, gentle, shrinkingâyet throws away her shepherdâs crook and clothes herself in steel, and fights her way through a hundred and fifty leagues of fear, and comesâshe to whom a king must be a dread and awful presenceâand will stand up before such an one and say, Be not afraid, God has sent me to save you! Ah, whence could come a courage and conviction so sublime as this but from very God Himself!â She was silent again awhile, thinking and making up her mind; then she said, âAnd whether she comes of God or no, there is that in her heart that raises her above menâ1high above all men that breathe in France to-dayâfor in her is that mysterious something that puts heart into soldiers, and turns mobs of cowards into armies of fighters that forget what fear is when they are in that presenceâfighters who go into battle with joy in
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