Joan of Arc
In Her Own Words
Compiled and Translated by
WILLARD TRASK
Afterword by
SIR EDWARD S. CREASY
BOOKS & Co.
A Turtle Point Imprint
NEW YORK
BOOKS & Co.
TURTLE POINT PRESS
New York
© I996
All rights reserved
Composition: Wilsted & Taylor Publishing Services
Library of Congress Number 95-080863
ISBN: 1-885983-08-5
Contents
Girlhood
Departure
Vaucouleurs
From Vaucouleurs to Chinon
Chinon, Poitiers, Tours, and Blois
Delivery of Orléans
Return to Court
The Loire Campaign
The March to Reims
Reims: The Coronation
From Reims to Paris
Attack on Paris
From Saint-Denis to Compiègne
Capture
Captivity
The Trial
The First Sentence
She Revokes Her Abjuration
Last Day
Notes on the Text
Acknowledgments
Afterword (1851) by Sir Edward S. Creasy
Girlhood
1412–1429
AMONG MY OWN PEOPLE, I was called Jehanette; since my coming into France, I am called Jehanne.
I was born in the village of Domremy. My father’s name is Jacques d’Arc, my mother’s Isabelle.
As long as I lived at home, I worked at common tasks about the house, going but seldom afield with our sheep and other cattle. I learned to sew and spin: I fear no woman in Rouen at sewing and spinning.
As to my schooling, I learned my faith, and was rightly and duly taught to do as a good child should.
From my mother I learned “Our Father,” “Hail Mary,” and “I believe.” And my teaching in my faith I had from her and from no one else.
Once a year I confessed my sins to out parish-priest, or, when he was unable, to another with his permission. And I received the sacrament of the Eucharist at Easter time.
Not far from Domremy there is a tree called the Ladies’ Tree, and others call it the Fairies’ Tree, and near it there is a fountain. And I have heard that those who are sick with fever drink at the fountain or fetch water from it, to be made well. Indeed, I have seen them do so, but I do not know whether it makes them well or not. I have heard, too, that the sick, when they can get up, go walking under the tree. It is a great tree, a beech, and from it our fair May-branches come; and it was in the lands of Monseigneur Pierre de Bourlemont. Sometimes I went walking there with the other girls, and I have made garlands under the tree for the statue of the Blessed Virgin of Domremy.
I have often heard it said by old people (they were not of my own elders) that the fairies met there. My godmother even told me that she had seen fairies there, but I do not know whether it was true or not. I never saw any fairies under the tree to my knowledge. I have seen girls hang wreaths on the branches; I have sometimes hung my own with the others, and sometimes we took them away with us and sometimes we left them behind.
I do not know whether, after I reached years of discretion, I ever danced at the foot of the tree; I may have danced there sometimes with the children; but I sang there more than I danced.
There is a wood in Domremy, called the Polled Wood; you can see it from my father’s door, it is not hall a league away. I never heard that the fairies met there. But when I was on my journey to my King, I was asked by some if there was not a wood in my country called the Polled Wood, for it had been prophesied that a maid would come from near that wood to do wonderful things. But I said I had no faith in that.
After I was grown and had reached years of discretion, though I did not commonly tend the cattle, I would sometimes help take them to pasture, or to a strong-hold called the Island when there was fear of soldiers.
Once, for fear of the Burgundians, I left home and went to the town of Neufchâteau in Lorraine, to the house of a woman named La Rousse, and stayed there about two weeks.
When I was thirteen, I had a voice from God to help me to govern myself. The first time, I was terrified. The voice came to me about noon. it was summer, and I was in my father’s garden. I had not fasted the day before. I heard the voice on my right hand, towards the church. There was a great light all about.
I vowed then to keep my virginity for as long as it should please God.
I saw it many times before I knew that it was Saint Michael. Afterwards he taught me and showed me such things that I knew that it was he.
He was not alone, but duly attended by heavenly angels. I saw them with the eyes of my body as well as I see you. And when they left me, I wept, and I wished that they might have taken me with them. And I kissed the ground where they had stood, to do them reverence. Above all, Saint Michael told me that I must be a good child, and that God would help me. He taught me to behave rightly and to go often to church. He said that I would have to go into France.
He told me that Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret would come to me, and that I must follow their counsel; that they were appointed to guide and counsel me in what I had to do, and that I must believe what they would tell me, for it was at our Lord’s command.
He told me the pitiful state of the Kingdom of France.
And he told me that I must go to succour the King of France.
Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret had rich crowns on their heads. They spoke well and fairly, and their voices are beautiful—sweet and soft.
The name by which they often named me was Jehanne the Maid, child of God.
They told me that my King would be restored to his Kingdom, despite his enemies. They promised to lead me to Paradise, for that was what I asked of them.
Twice and thrice a week the voice told me that I must depart and go into France.
And the voice said that I would raise the siege before Orléans. And it told me to go to Vaucouleurs, to Robert de Baudricourt, captain of the town, who would give me men to go with me.
And I answered the voice that I was a poor girl who knew nothing of riding and warfare.
Departure
February, 1429
FROM THE TIME that I knew I must go into France, I gave myself little to games and frolics—as little as I could.
I did not talk of my visions—not that my voices told me to hide them but I was afraid to let them be known, for dread of the Burgundians and that they would prevent me from starting on my journey. And, even more, I feared that my father would