l, but brightly solemn!--Woman's cheek
And brow were there, in deep devotion meek,
Yet glorified with inspiration's trace
On its pure paleness; while, enthroned above,
The pictured Virgin, with her smile of love,
Seem'd bending o'er her votaress.--That slight form!
Was that the leader through the battle storm?
Had the soft light in that adoring eye
Guided the warrior where the swords flash'd high?

'Twas so, even so!--and thou, the shepherd's child
Joanne, the lowly dreamer of the wild!
Never before, and never since that hour,
Hath woman, mantled with victorious power,
Stood forth as thou beside the shrine didst stand,
Holy amidst the knighthood of the land;
And beautiful with joy and with renown
Lift thy white banner o'er the olden crown,
Ransom'd for France by thee!

MRS. HEMANS.

One Female and Thirty Male Figures.

This historical tableau contains thirty-one figures. A less number
will make a picture; but to give proper effect to the scene, there
should be thirty-one. Joan of Arc, the heroine of this piece, at the
age of nineteen was a simple and uneducated shepherdess, and by her
enthusiastic courage and patriotism was the immediate cause of that
sudden revolution in the affairs of France which terminated in the
establishment of Charles VII. on the throne of his ancestors, and the
final expulsion of the English from that kingdom. The town of Orleans
was the only place in France which remained in the possession of the
dauphin at the time when this heroine made her appearance, and that
was closely besieged by the English, while Charles had not the
smallest hope of being able to procure an army to raise the siege.
Benevolent in her disposition, gentle and inoffensive in her manners,
and above all, dutiful to her parents, Joan had, from her earliest
infancy, been ardently attached to her country. Her piety, her
enthusiasm being thus united in her young and romantic mind with an
all-absorbing feeling of patriotism, she was led to believe herself
the humble instrument, in the hands of Heaven, by whom the interest
and glory of France were to be redeemed. Under this impression, the
maiden left her native village, and appeared before Charles dressed as
a warrior, and informed him that she had two things to accomplish on
the part of the King of heaven; first, to cause the siege of Orleans
to be raised; and secondly, to cond