Joan of Arc | Page 3

with its
woods of chestnut and of oak, then in their primeval abundance. The
vine of Greux, which was famous all over the country-side as far back
as the fourteenth century, grew on the southern slopes of the hills about
Joan's birthplace. Beneath these vineyards the fields were thickly
clothed with rye and oats, and the meadow-lands washed by the waters
of the Meuse were fragrant with hay that had no rival in the country. It
was in these rich fields that, after the hay-making was over, the
peasants let out their cattle to graze, the number of each man's kine
corresponding with the number of fields which he owned and which he
had reaped.
The little maid sometimes helped her father's labourers, and the idea
has become general that Joan of Arc was a shepherdess; in reality, it
was only an occasional occupation, and probably undertaken by Joan
out of mere good-nature, seeing that her parents were well-to-do people.
All that we gather of Joan's early years proves her nature to have been a
compound of love and goodness. Every trait recorded of the little
maid's life at home which has come down to us reveals a mixture of
amiability, unselfishness, and charity. From her earliest years she loved
to help the weak and poor: she was known, when there was no room for
the weary wayfarer to pass the night in her parents' house, to give up
her bed to them, and to sleep on the floor, by the hearth.
She loved her mother tenderly, and in her trial she bore witness before
men to the good influence that she had derived from that parent.
Isabeau d'Arc appears to have been a devout woman, and to have
brought up her children to love work and religion. Joan loved to sit by
her mother's side for the hour together, spinning, and doubtless

listening to the stories of wars with the hereditary enemy. When she
could be of use, Joan was ever ready to lend a hand to help her father or
brothers in the rougher labours of coach-house, stable, or farmyard, to
keep watch over the flocks as they browsed by the river-side along the
meadow-lands.
Joan had not the defect of so many excellent but tedious women, who
love talk for the mere sake of talking: she seems to have been reserved;
but, as she proved later on, she was never at a loss for a word in season,
and with a few words could speak volumes. From her childhood she
showed an intense and ever-increasing devotion to things holy; her
delight in prayer became almost a passion. She never wearied of
visiting the churches in and about her native village, and she passed
many an hour in a kind of rapt trance before the crucifixes and saintly
images in these churches. Every morning saw her at her accustomed
place at the early celebration of her Lord's Sacrifice; and if in the
afternoon the evening bells sounded across the fields, she would kneel
devoutly, and commune in her heart with her divine Master and adored
saints. She loved above all things these evening bells, and, when it
seemed to her the ringer grew negligent, would bribe him with some
little gift--the worked wool from one of her sheep or some other
trifle--to remind him in the future to be more instant in his office. That
this little trait in Joan is true, we have the testimony of the bell-ringer
himself to attest.
This devotion to her religious duties had not the effect of making Joan
less of a companion to her fellow-villagers. She could not have been so
much beloved by them as she was had she held herself aloof from them:
on the contrary, Joan enjoyed to play with the lads and village lasses;
and we hear of her swiftness of foot in the race, of her gracefulness in
the village dance, either by the stream or around an old oak-tree in the
forest, which was said to be the favourite haunt of the fairies.
Often in the midst of these sports Joan would break away from her
companions, and enter some church or chapel, where she placed
garlands of flowers around statues of her beloved saints.
Thus passed away the early years of the maiden's gentle life, among her

native fields, with nothing especially to distinguish her from her
companions beyond her goodness and piety. A great change, however,
was near at hand. The first of those mysterious and supernatural events
which played so all-important a part in the life of our heroine occurred
in the summer of 1425, when Joan was in her thirteenth year. In her
trial at Rouen, on being asked by her judges what was the first
manifestation of these visions, she answered that