122: "Modern times present but two fine subjects for an epic
poem, the Crusades and the Discovery of the New World" (ed. 1802,
Paris, vol. ii, p. 7).]

But in the year XI the First Consul, who had just concluded the
Concordat and was meditating the restoration of all the pageantry of
the coronation, reinstituted the festival of the Maid with its incense
and its crosses. Glorified of old in Charles VII's letters to his good
towns, Jeanne was now exalted in _Le Moniteur_ by Bonaparte.[123]

[Footnote 123: "The illustrious Jeanne d'Arc has proved that there is
no miracle which the French genius is incapable of working when
national independence is at stake" (_Moniteur_ of 10 Pluviose, year
XI, January 30, 1803). For the approval of the First Consul: facsimile
in A. Sarrazin, _Jeanne d'Arc et la Normandie_, p. 600. [Original
taken from the Reiset collection.]]

Only by constant transformation do the figures of poetry and history
live in the minds of nations. Humanity cannot be interested in a
personage of old time unless it clothe it in its own sentiments and in
its own passions. After having been associated with the monarchy of
divine right, the memory of Jeanne d'Arc came to be connected with
the national unity which that monarchy had rendered possible; in
Imperial and Republican France she became the symbol of _la patrie_.
Certainly the daughter of Isabelle Romee had no more idea of _la
patrie_ as it is conceived to-day than she had of the idea of landed
property which lies at its base. She never imagined anything like what
we call the nation. That is something quite modern; but she did
conceive of the heritage of kings and of the domain of the House of
France. And it was there, in that domain and in that heritage, that
the French gathered together before forming themselves into _la
patrie_.

Under influences which it is impossible for us exactly to discover,
the idea came to her of re-establishing the Dauphin in his
inheritance; and this idea appeared to her so grand and so beautiful
that in the fulness of her very ingenuous pride, she believed it to
have been suggested to her by angels and saints from Paradise. For
this idea she gave her life. That is why she has survived the cause
for which she suffered. The very highest enterprises perish in their
defeat and even more surely in their victory. The devotion, which
inspired them, remains as an immortal example. And if the illusion,
under which her senses laboured,