, though the ally of the
English, was yet one of their native princes. The regent Bedford refused
these terms, and the speedy submission of the city to the English seemed
inevitable. The dauphin Charles, who was now at Chinon with his remnant
of a court, despaired of continuing any longer the struggle for his
crown, and was only prevented from abandoning the country by the more
masculine spirits of his mistress and his Queen. Yet neither they nor
the boldest of Charles' captains could have shown him where to find
resources for prolonging war; and least of all could any human skill
have predicted the quarter whence rescue was to come to Orleans and to
France.

In the village of Domremy, on the borders of Lorraine, there was a poor
peasant of the name of Jacques d'Arc, respected in his station of life,
and who had reared a family in virtuous habits and in the practice of
the strictest devotion. His eldest daughter was named by her parents
Jeannette, but she was called Jeanne by the French, which was Latinized
into Johanna, and Anglicized into Joan.

At the time when Jeanne first attracted attention, she was about
eighteen years of age. She was naturally of a susceptible disposition,
which diligent attention to the legends of saints and tales of fairies,
aided by the dreamy loneliness of her life while tending her father's
flocks, had made peculiarly prone to enthusiastic fervor. At the same
time, she was eminent for piety and purity of soul, and for her
compassionate gentleness to the sick and the distressed.

The district where she dwelt had escaped comparatively free from the
ravages of war, but the approach of roving bands of Burgundian or
English troops frequently spread terror through Domremy. Once the
village had been plundered by some of these marauders, and Jeanne and
her family had been driven from their home, and forced to seek refuge
for a time at Neufchateau. The peasantry in Domremy were principally
attached to the house of Orleans and the Dauphin, and all the miseries
which France endured were there imputed to the Burgundian faction and
their allies, the English, who were seeking to enslave unhappy France.

Thus, from infancy to girlhood, Jeanne had heard continually of the woes
of the war, and had herself witnessed some of the wretchedness that it
caused. A feeling of intense patriotism grew in her with her growth. The
deliverance of France from the English was the subject of her reveries
by day and her