Joan of Arc | Page 2

England. Indeed, up to Henry's death,
at the end of August 1422, events seemed to justify such hopes; but
after a score of years from Henry's death France had recovered almost
the whole of her lost territory.
There is nothing in history more strange and yet more true than the
story which has been told so often, but which never palls in its
interest--that life of the maiden through whose instrumentality France
regained her place among the nations. No poet's fancy has spun from
out his imagination a more glorious tale, or pictured in glowing words
an epic of heroic love and transcendent valour, to compete with the
actual reality of the career of this simple village maiden of old France:
she who, almost unassisted and alone, through her intense love of her
native land and deep pity for the woes of her people, was enabled,
when the day of action at length arrived, to triumph over unnumbered
obstacles, and, in spite of all opposition, ridicule, and contumely, to
fulfil her glorious mission.
Sainte-Beuve has written that, in his opinion, the way to honour the
history of Joan of Arc is to tell the truth about her as simply as possible.
This has been my object in the following pages.
On the border of Lorraine and Champagne, in the canton of the
Barrois--between the rivers Marne and Meuse--extended, at the time of
which we are writing, a vast forest, called the Der. By the side of a little
streamlet, which took its source from the river Meuse, and dividing it
east by west, stands the village of Domremy. The southern portion,
confined within its banks and watered by its stream, contained a little
fortalice, with a score of cottages grouped around. These were situated

in the county of Champagne, under the suzerainty of the Count de Bar.
The northern side of the village, containing the church, belonged to the
Manor of Vaucouleurs. In this part of the village, in a cottage built
between the church and the rivulet close by, Joan of Arc was born, on
or about the 6th of January, 1412. The house which now exists on the
site of her birthplace was built in 1481, but the little streamlet still takes
its course at its foot. Michelet, in his account of the heroine, says the
station in life of Joan's father was that of a labourer; later investigations
have proved that he was what we should call a small farmer. In the
course of the trial held for the rehabilitation of Joan of Arc's memory,
which yields valuable and authentic information relating to her family
as well as to her life and actions, it appears that the neighbours of the
heroine deposed that her parents were well-to-do agriculturists, holding
a small property besides this house at Domremy; they held about
twenty acres of land, twelve of which were arable, four meadow-land,
and four for fuel. Besides this they had some two to three hundred
francs kept safe in case of emergency, and the furniture goods and
chattels of their modest home. The money thus kept in case of sudden
trouble came in usefully when the family had to escape from the
English to Neufchâteau. All told, the fortune of the family of Joan
attained an annual income of about two hundred pounds of our money,
a not inconsiderable revenue at that time; and with it they were enabled
to raise a family in comfort, and to give alms and hospitality to the poor,
and wandering friars and other needy wayfarers, then so common in the
land.
Two documents lately discovered prove Joan's father to have held a
position of some importance at Domremy. In the one, dated 1423, he is
styled '_doyen_' (senior inhabitant) of the village, which gave him rank
next to the Mayor. In the other, four years later, he fills a post which
tallies with what is called in Scotland the Procurator-fiscal.
The name of the family was Arc, and much ink has been shed as to the
origin of that name. By some it is derived from the village of d'Arc, in
the Barrois, now in the department of the Haute Marne; and this
hypothesis is as good as any other.

Jacques d'Arc had taken to wife one Isabeau Romée, from the village of
Vouthon, near Domremy. Isabeau is said to have had some property in
her native village. The family of Jacques d'Arc and Isabella or Isabeau
consisted of five children: three sons, Jacquemin, Jean, and Pierre, and
two daughters, the elder Catherine, the younger Jeanne, or Jennette, as
she was generally called in her family, whose name was to go through
the ages as one of the most glorious in any land.
Well favoured by nature was the birthplace of Joan of Arc,