Nihil Obstat, Remigius Lafort, S.T.L. censor.

Archbishop of St. Paul

Whose voice and pen were early enlisted

In the case of Joan of Arc,

This little work

Is affectionately dedicated.

For the narrative of this story the writer had much from which to cull. The books written about Joan of Arc make a respectable library in themselves. Few lives of great persons are so well authenticated by sworn testimony still preserved intact, and easily available. We have every detail of her strange career on oath. The questions and answers of the Examinations, and of the public Trials, and the documents herein quoted, are taken from T. Douglass Murray's English translation of the original documents in the archives of Paris. The only originality claimed for this " Story " is its brevity and connectedness, necessarily it is not much more than an outline. We have tried to give it the proper religious and patriotic atmosphere, for Joan of Arc was a saint and a patriot of the purest type.

E. A. F.

Called by the Lord to defend her country, she answers her vocation for an undertaking which everybody and she herself deemed impossible; but what is impossible for men is always possible with the help of God. Let us not exaggerate, then, the difficulties of doing what faith commands us to do, what duty entails upon us, or the exercise of the fruitful apostolate of example, which the Lord expects from every one of us. Difficulties come from those who create and exaggerate them, from those who trust in themselves without the help of Heaven, from those who yield in cowardly fear to the sneers and derision of the world. Hence it is that in our day, more than ever before, the chief strength of the wicked lies in the cowardice and the weakness of the good, and all the force of the kingdom of Satan comes from the apathy of Christians.

CHAPTER PAGE

1. "I was thirteen when I heard a voice from God telling me to go and save France." 9
2. Joan starts on her mission-,"For this was I born-to drive the English out of France" 20
3. Her miraculous march to the King—He gives her command of the armies of France 35
4. She reorganizes the French army and warns the English to leave France 52
5. "Strike boldly I God will give the victory! On to Orleans! " 65
6. "The stroke of God "—Beginning of the end of the hundred years of English occupation. 83
7. The march to Reims—Joan and the King ride in triumph to the Coronation 98
8. "Now let me go back to my poor old mother who has need of me." The King detains Joan as head of his army 115
9. France is free—Joan a prisoner of the English King 188
10. The lamb in the midst of the wolves. The mock trial 151
11. "In spinning and sewing I do not fear any woman in Rouen." 164
12. "If I be not in the state of grace I pray God place me in it. 176
13. "I will tell willingly whatever I have permission from God to reveal." 190
14. She tells her English Judges they will lose France forever ... 203
15. "Let me be taken before the Pope and I will answer all I ought to answer" 215
16. "I would rather die than be in the hands of the English" 283
17. Joan keeps the King's secret—defends her male attire—and refuses to acknowledge the authority of her judges. 245
18. Joan is cheated into a show of recanting.... 261
19. The cruel death scene—The illegal trial ends in illegal execution 278
20. The official rehabilitation of Joan's character after her death 286
21. The Beatification of Joan of Arc by Pius X" - Joan of Arc shall be France's Saint." 306