ter the publication of this book, there has been, and can be, no doubt
about the perfect goodness of Joan of Arc. The English long believed
silly stories against her, as a bad woman, stories which were not even
mentioned by her judges. The very French, at different times, have
mocked at her memory, in ignorance and disbelief. They said she was a
tool of politicians, who, on the other hand, never wanted her, or that
she was crazy. Men mixed up with her glorious history the adventures of
the false Maid, who pretended to be Joan come again, and people doubted
as to whether she really died at Rouen. In modern times, some wiseacres
have called the strongest and healthiest of women 'hysterical,' which is
their way of accounting for her Voices. But now, thanks mainly to
Monsieur Quicherat, and other learned Frenchmen, the world, if it
chooses, may know Joan as she was; the stainless Maid, the bravest,
gentlest, kindest, and wisest woman who ever lived. Her country people,
in her lifetime, called her 'the greatest of Saints, after the Blessed
Virgin,' and, at least, she is the greatest concerning whose deeds and
noble sufferings history preserves a record. And her Voices we leave to
Him who alone knows all truth.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] This unnamed monk of Dunfermline describes Joan as 'a maid worthy to
be remembered, who caused the recovery of the kingdom of France from the
hands of the tyrant Henry, King of England. This maid I saw and knew,
and was with her in her conquests and sieges, ever present with her in
her life and at her end.' The monk proposed to write Joan's history;
unhappily his manuscript ends in the middle of a sentence. The French
historians, as was natural, say next to nothing of their Scottish
allies. See Quicherat, _Proces_, v. 339; and _The Book of Pluscarden_,
edited by Mr. Felix Skene.

[2] M. Quicherat thinks that this is a mere fairy tale, but the author
has sometimes seen wild birds (a lark, kingfisher, robin, and finch)
come to men, who certainly had none of the charm of Joan of Arc. A
thoughtful child, sitting alone, and very still, might find birds alight
on her in a friendly way, as has happened to the author. If she fed
them, so much the better.

[3] See M. Simeon Luce, _Jeanne d'Arc in Domremy_.

[4] Here we follow Father Ayroles's correction of Quicherat's reading of
the manuscripts.

[5] The Voice and vision of St. Michael alarmed her at first. In 1425
the French had defeated the English by