at
any King could add, though he gave his all. She shall have her way. Now,
therefore, it is decreed that from this day forth Domremy, natal village
of Joan of Arc, Deliverer of France, called the Maid of Orleans, is
freed from all taxation forever." Whereat the silver horns blew a
jubilant blast.

There, you see, she had had a vision of this very scene the time she was
in a trance in the pastures of Domremy and we asked her to name to boon
she would demand of the King if he should ever chance to tell her she
might claim one. But whether she had the vision or not, this act showed
that after all the dizzy grandeurs that had come upon her, she was still
the same simple, unselfish creature that she was that day.

Yes, Charles VII. remitted those taxes "forever." Often the gratitude of
kings and nations fades and their promises are forgotten or deliberately
violated; but you, who are children of France, should remember with
pride that France has kept this one faithfully. Sixty-three years have
gone by since that day. The taxes of the region wherein Domremy lies
have been collected sixty-three times since then, and all the villages
of that region have paid except that one--Domremy. The tax-gatherer
never visits Domremy. Domremy has long ago forgotten what that dread
sorrow-sowing apparition is like. Sixty-three tax-books have been filed
meantime, and they lie yonder with the other public records, and any
may see them that desire it. At the top of every page in the sixty-three
books stands the name of a village, and below that name its weary burden
of taxation is figured out and displayed; in the case of all save one.
It is true, just as I tell you. In each of the sixty-three books there
is a page headed "Domremi," but under that name not a figure appears.
Where the figures should be, there are three words written; and the same
words have been written every year for all these years; yes, it is a
blank page, with always those grateful words lettered across the face of
it--a touching memorial. Thus:

__________________________________ | | | DOMREMI | | | |

RIEN--LA PUCELLE | |__________________________________|

"NOTHING--THE MAID OF ORLEANS."

How brief it is; yet how much it says! It is the nation speaking. You
have the spectacle of that unsentimental thing, a Government, making
reverence to that name and saying to its agent, "Uncover, and pass on;
it is France that commands." Yes, the promise has been kept; it will be