ept
as a means of diverting public attention from the fact that he inherited
from his father but an indifferent title even to the throne of England.
And though success attended his efforts beyond all expectation, he most
wilfully endangered the safety not only of himself, but of his gallant
army, when he determined to march with reduced forces through the
enemy's country from Harfleur to Calais. It was a rashness nothing less
than culpable, but in his own interests rashness was good policy.
Unless he could succeed in desperate enterprises against tremendous
odds and so make himself a military hero and a favorite of the
multitude, his throne was insecure. He succeeded; but it was only by
staking everything upon the venture--his own safety and that of his
army, which, if the French had exercised but a little more discretion,
would inevitably have been cut to pieces or made prisoners to a man.

JEANNE D'ARC'S VICTORY AT ORLEANS

A.D. 1429

Sir Edward Shepherd Creasy

In the Hundred Years' War between England and France, a
critical period was reached when Henry V, in 1415, won the
battle of Agincourt, and five years later, by the treaty of
Troyes, secured the succession to the French throne on the
death of Charles VI. Both monarchs dying in 1422, Charles
VII was proclaimed King of France, and Henry's son--Henry
VI--succeeded to his father's throne.

France now realized that her condition was wellnigh
hopeless, for the greater part of her territory was in the
hands of her enemies. When the English began the siege of
Orleans the extinction of French independence seemed to be
inevitable. The chivalry of France had been wasted in
terrible wars, and the spirits of her soldiers were daunted
by repeated disaster. The English king had been proclaimed
in Paris, and the "native prince was a dissolute trifler,
stained with the assassination of the most powerful noble of
the land."[77] Anarchy and brigandage everywhere prevailed,
and the condition of the peasantry was too wretched to be
described.

"Such," says Lamartine, "was the state of the nation when
Providence showed it a savior in a child." This child was
Jeanne d'Arc, called _La Pucelle_ ("the Maid"--more fully,
"the Maid of Orleans"), whose character and services to her
country made her, perhaps, the most illustrious heroine of
history. She was born at Domremy, in the northeast part of
France, January 6, 14