JOAN OF ARC

BY

Lord Ronald Gower, F.S.A.

A TRUSTEE OF THE NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

WITH TEN ILLUSTRATIONS

SEVEN ETCHINGS AND THREE PHOTO-ETCHINGS

LONDON
JOHN C. NIMMO
14 KING WILLIAM STREET, STRAND
MDCCCXCIII

Dedication.

My mother had what the French call a culte for the heroine whose life I have attempted to write in the following pages.

It was but natural that one who loved and admired all that is good and beautiful and high-minded should have a strong feeling of admiration for the memory of Joan of Arc. On the pedestal of the bronze statue, which my mother placed in her house at Cliveden, are inscribed those words which sum up the life and career of the Maid of Orleans:—

Thinking that could my mother have read the following pages she would have approved the feeling which prompted me to write them, I inscribe this little book to her beloved memory.

R.G.

Arcachon,

November 29.

Preface.

The authors whose works I have chiefly used in writing this Life of Joan of Arc, are—first, Quicherat, who was the first to publish at length the Minutes of the two trials concerning the Maid—that of her trial at Rouen in 1430, and of her rehabilitation in 1456, and who unearthed so many chronicles relating to her times; secondly, Wallon, whose Life of Joan of Arc is of all the fullest and most reliable; thirdly, Fabre, who has within the last few years published several most important books respecting the life and death of Joan. Fabre was the first to make a translation in full of the two trials which Quicherat had first published in the original Latin text.

Thinking references at the foot of the page a nuisance to the reader, these have been avoided.

The subjects for the etched illustrations in this volume have been kindly supplied by my friend, Mr. Lee Latrobe Bateman, during a journey we made together to places connected with the story of the heroine.

R.G.

London, January, 1893.

Contents.

List of Illustrations

(SEVEN ETCHINGS, THREE PHOTO-ETCHINGS).