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Then Dunois address'd

Sir Robert, "fare thee well my friend and hoft! "It were ill done to linger here when Heaven "Has sent such strange assistance. Let what force "Lorraine may yield to Chinon follow us; "And with the tidings of this holy Maid, "Rais'd up by GoD, fill thou the country; soon "The country shall awake as from the sleep "Of death. Now Maid! depart we at thy will.”

"GOD's blessing go with thee !" exclaim'd old Claude, "Good Angels guard my girl!" and as he spake The tears stream'd fast adown his aged cheeks, "And if I do not live to see thee more,

"As sure I think I shall not, yet sometimes "Remember thine old Uncle. I have loved thee "Even from thy childhood JOAN! and I shall lose "The comfort of mine age in losing thee.

"But God be with thee Maid!"

He had heart

Warm as a child's affections, and he wept.

Nor was the Maid, altho' subdued of soul, Unmoved, but soon she calmed her, and bespake

The good old man. "Now go thee to thine home "And comfort thee mine Uncle, with the thought "Of what I am, for what high enterprize

"Chosen from among the people. Oh be sure "I shall remember thee, in whom I found

"A parent's love, when parents were unkind, "And when the ominous broodings of my soul "Were scoff'd and made a mock of by all else,

Those most mysterious feelings thou the while
"Still didst respect. Shall I forget these things?"
They pass'd without the gate, as thus she spake
Prepar'd for their departure. To her lips

She press'd his hand, and as she press'd, there fell
A tear; the old man felt it on his heart,

And dimly he beheld them on their steeds
Spring up and go their way.

So on they went,

And now along the mountain's winding path
Upward they journeyed slow, and now they paus'd
And gazed where o'er the plain the stately towers
Of Vaucouleur arose, in distance seen,

Dark and distinct; below the castled height,
Thro' fair and fertile pastures, the deep Meuse
Roll'd glittering on. Domremi's cottages
Gleam'd in the sun hard by, white cottages,
That in the evening travellers weary mind
Had waken'd thoughts of comfort and of home,
Till his heart ached for rest. But on one spot,
One little spot, the Virgin's eye was fix'd,
Her native Arc; embowered the hamlet lay
Upon the forest edge, whose ancient woods,
With all their infinite varieties,

Now form'd a mass of shade. The distant plain
Rose on the horizon rich with pleasant groves,
And vine-yards in the greenest hue of spring,
And streams now hidden on their devious way,
Now winding forth in light.

The Maiden gazed

Till all grew dim upon her dizzy eye,

"Oh what a blessed world were this !" she cried

"But that the great and honourable men

"Have seiz'd the earth, and of the heritage

"Which God, the Sire of all, to all had given, "Disherited their brethren! happy those

"Who in the after days shall live when Time "Has spoken, and the multitude of years

*

"Taught wisdom! sure and certain tho' that hope,

"Yet it is sad to gaze upon a scene

"So very good, and think that Want and Guilt "And Wretchedness are there! unhappy France! "Fiercer than evening wolves thy bitter foes

*But as for the mighty man he had the earth, and the honourable man dwelt in it.

Days should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.

Job.

"Rush o'er the land and desolate and ‡ kill; "Long has the widow's and the orphan's groan "Accused Heaven's justice ;-but the hour is come;

While the English and French contend for dominion, sovereignty and life itself, men's goods in France were violently taken by the license of war, churches spoiled, men every where murthered or wounded, others put to death or tortured, matrons ravished, maids forcibly drawn from out their parents arms to be deflowered; towns daily taken, daily spoyled, daily defaced, the riches of the inhabitants carried whether the Conquerors think good; houses and villages round about set on fire, no kind of cruelty is left unpractised upon the miserable French, omitting many hundred kind of other calamities which all at once oppressed them. Add hereunto that the commonwealth, being destitute of the help of laws (which for the most part are mute in times of war and mutiny) floateth up and down without any anchorage at right or justice. Neither was England herself void of these mischiefs, who every day heard the news of her valiant children's funerals, slain in perpetual skirmishes and bickerings, her general wealth continually ebbed and wained, so that the evils seemed almost equal, and the whole Western world echoed the groans and sighs of either nation's quarrels, being the common argument of speech and compassion through Christendom."

Speed, from Polydore Virgil.

And "the two nations were thus made miserable, because one individual aspired to the dominion of both!"

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