Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, vol 1 by Mark Twain (life books to read TXT) š
- Author: Mark Twain
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āOh, dear, it is all a mistake, it will never come true. I forgot that foolish business at Toul. I have kept out of her sight as much as I could, all these weeks, hoping she would forget that and forgive itābut I know she never will. She canāt, of course. And, after all, I wasnāt to blame. I did say she promised to marry me, but they put me up to it and persuaded me. I swear they did!ā The vast creature was almost crying. Then he pulled himself together and said, remorsefully, āIt was the only lie Iāve ever told, andāā
He was drowned out with a chorus of groans and outraged exclamations; and before he could begin again, one of DāAulonās liveried servants appeared and said we were required at headquarters. We rose, and Noļæ½l said:
āThereāwhat did I tell you? I have a presentimentāthe spirit of prophecy is upon me. She is going to appoint him, and we are to go there and do him homage. Come along!ā
But the Paladin was afraid to go, so we left him.
When we presently stood in the presence, in front of a crowd of glittering officers of the army, Joan greeted us with a winning smile, and said she appointed all of us to places in her household, for she wanted her old friends by her. It was a beautiful surprise to have ourselves honored like this when she could have had people of birth and consequence instead, but we couldnāt find our tongues to say so, she was become so great and so high above us now. One at a time we stepped forward and each received his warrant from the hand of our chief, DāAulon. All of us had honorable places; the two knights stood highest; then Joanās two brothers; I was first page and secretary, a young gentleman named Raimond was second page; Noļæ½l was her messenger; she had two heralds, and also a chaplain and almoner, whose name was Jean Pasquerel. She had previously appointed a maļæ½tre dāhļæ½tel and a number of domestics. Now she looked around and said:
āBut where is the Paladin?ā
The Sieur Bertrand said:
āHe thought he was not sent for, your Excellency.ā
āNow that is not well. Let him be called.ā
The Paladin entered humbly enough. He ventured no farther than just within the door. He stopped there, looking embarrassed and afraid. Then Joan spoke pleasantly, and said:
āI watched you on the road. You began badly, but improved. Of old you were a fantastic talker, but there is a man in you, and I will bring it out.ā It was fine to see the Paladinās face light up when she said that. āWill you follow where I lead?ā
āInto the fire!ā he said; and I said to myself, āBy the ring of that, I think she has turned this braggart into a hero. It is another of her miracles, I make no doubt of it.ā
āI believe you,ā said Joan. āHereātake my banner. You will ride with me in every field, and when France is saved, you will give it me back.ā
He took the banner, which is now the most precious of the memorials that remain of Joan of Arc, and his voice was unsteady with emotion when he said:
āIf I ever disgrace this trust, my comrades here will know how to do a friendās office upon my body, and this charge I lay upon them, as knowing they will not fail me.ā
Chapter 11 The War March Is Begun
NO L and I went back togetherāsilent at first, and impressed.
Finally Noļæ½l came up out of his thinkings and said:
āThe first shall be last and the last firstāthereās authority for this surprise. But at the same time wasnāt it a lofty hoist for our big bull!ā
āIt truly was; I am not over being stunned yet. It was the greatest place in her gift.ā
āYes, it was. There are many generals, and she can create more; but there is only one Standard-Bearer.ā
āTrue. It is the most conspicuous place in the army, after her own.ā
āAnd the most coveted and honorable. Sons of two dukes tried to get it, as we know. And of all people in the world, this majestic windmill carries it off. Well, isnāt it a gigantic promotion, when you come to look at it!ā
āThereās no doubt about it. Itās a kind of copy of Joanās own in miniature.ā
āI donāt know how to account for itādo you?ā
āYesāwithout any trouble at allāthat is, I think I do.ā
Noļæ½l was surprised at that, and glanced up quickly, as if to see if I was in earnest. He said:
āI thought you couldnāt be in earnest, but I see you are. If you can make me understand this puzzle, do it. Tell me what the explanation is.ā
āI believe I can. You have noticed that our chief knight says a good many wise things and has a thoughtful head on his shoulders. One day, riding along, we were talking about Joanās great talents, and he said, āBut, greatest of all her gifts, she has the seeing eye.ā I said, like an unthinking fool, āThe seeing eye?āI shouldnāt count on that for muchāI suppose we all have it.ā āNo,ā he said; āvery few have it.ā Then he explained, and made his meaning clear. He said the common eye sees only the outside of things, and judges by that, but the seeing eye pierces through and reads the heart and the soul, finding there capacities which the outside didnāt indicate or promise, and which the other kind of eye couldnāt detect. He said the mightiest military genius must fail and come to nothing if it have not the seeing eyeāthat is to say, if it cannot read men and select its subordinates with an infallible judgment. It sees as by intuition that this man is good for strategy, that one for dash and daredevil assault, the other for patient bulldog persistence, and it appoints each to his right place and wins, while the commander without the seeing eye would give to each the otherās place and lose. He was right about Joan, and I saw it. When she was a child and the tramp came one night, her father and all of us took him for a rascal, but she saw the honest man through the rags. When I dined with the governor of Vaucouleurs so long ago, I saw nothing in our two knights, though I sat with them and talked with them two hours; Joan was there five minutes, and neither spoke with them nor heard them speak, yet she marked them for men of worth and fidelity, and they have confirmed her judgment. Whom has she sent for to take charge of this thundering rabble of new recruits at Blois, made up of old disbanded Armagnac raiders, unspeakable hellions, every one? Why, she has sent for Satan himselfāthat is to say, La Hireāthat military hurricane, that godless swashbuckler, that lurid conflagration of blasphemy, that Vesuvius of profanity, forever in eruption. Does he know how to deal with that mob of roaring devils? Better than any man that lives; for he is the head devil of this world his own self, he is the match of the whole of them combined, and probably the father of most of them. She places him in temporary command until she can get to Blois herselfāand then! Why, then she will certainly take them in hand personally, or I donāt know her as well as I ought to, after all these years of intimacy. That will be a sight to seeāthat fair spirit in her white armor, delivering her will to that muck-heap, that rag-pile, that abandoned refuse of perdition.ā
āLa Hire!ā cried Noļæ½l, āour hero of all these yearsāI do want to see that man!ā
āI too. His name stirs me just as it did when I was a little boy.ā
āI want to hear him swear.ā
āOf course, I would rather hear him swear than another man pray. He is the frankest man there is, and the naļæ½vest. Once when he was rebuked for pillaging on his raids, he said it was nothing. Said he, āIf God the Father were a soldier, He would rob.ā I judge he is the right man to take temporary charge there at Blois. Joan has cast the seeing eye upon him, you see.ā
āWhich brings us back to where we started. I have an honest affection for the Paladin, and not merely because he is a good fellow, but because he is my childāI made him what he is, the windiest blusterer and most catholic liar in the kingdom. Iām glad of his luck, but I hadnāt the seeing eye. I shouldnāt have chosen him for the most dangerous post in the army. I should have placed him in the rear to kill the wounded and violate the dead.ā
āWell, we shall see. Joan probably knows what is in him better than we do. And Iāll give you another idea. When a person in Joan of Arcās position tells a man he is brave, he believes it; and believing it is enough; in fact, to believe yourself brave is to be brave; it is the one only essential thing.ā
āNow youāve hit it!ā cried Noļæ½l. āSheās got the creating mouth as well as the seeing eye! Ah, yes, that is the thing. France was cowed and a coward; Joan of Arc has spoken, and France is marching, with her head up!ā
I was summoned now to write a letter from Joanās dictation. During the next day and night our several uniforms were made by the tailors, and our new armor provided. We were beautiful to look upon now, whether clothed for peace or war. Clothed for peace, in costly stuffs and rich colors, the Paladin was a tower dyed with the glories of the sunset; plumed and sashed and iron-clad for war, he was a still statelier thing to look at.
Orders had been issued for the march toward Blois. It was a clear, sharp, beautiful morning. As our showy great company trotted out in column, riding two and two, Joan and the Duke of Alenļæ½on in the lead, DāAulon and the big standard-bearer next, and so on, we made a handsome spectacle, as you may well imagine; and as we plowed through the cheering crowds, with Joan bowing her plumed head to left and right and the sun glinting from her silver mail, the spectators realized that the curtain was rolling up before their eyes upon the first act of a prodigious drama, and their rising hopes were expressed in an enthusiasm that increased with each moment, until at last one seemed to even physically feel the concussion of the huzzas as well as hear them. Far down the street we heard the softened strains of wind-blown music, and saw a cloud of lancers moving, the sun glowing with a subdued light upon the massed armor, but striking bright upon the soaring lance-headsāa vaguely luminous nebula, so to speak, with a constellation twinkling above itāand that was our guard of honor. It joined us, the procession was complete, the first war-march of Joan of Arc was begun, the curtain was up.
Chapter 12 Joan Puts Heart in Her Army
WE WERE at Blois three days. Oh, that camp, it is one of the treasures of my memory! Order? There was no more order among those brigands than there is among the wolves and the hyenas. They went roaring and drinking about, whooping, shouting, swearing, and entertaining themselves with all manner of rude and riotous horse-play; and the place
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