JOAN of ARC. THE NINTH BOOK. * Far thro' the shadowy sky the ascending flames Stream'd their fierce torrents, by the gales of night The invaders saw, and clamoured for retreat, * Lesdictes bastiles et fortresses furent prestement arses et demolies jusques en terre, affin que nulles gens de guerre de quelconque pays quilz soient ne si peussent plus loger. Monstrellet. II. f. 43. The Maid went forth to conquer. Not a sound Moved on the air but filled them with vague dread Of unseen dangers; if the blast arose Sudden, thro' every fibre a deep fear Crept shivering, and to their expecting minds Silence + itself was dreadful. One there was t Who, learning wisdom in the hour of ill, Exclaimed, "I marvel not that the Most High "Hath hid his face from England! wherefore thus Quitting the comforts of domestic life, "Swarm we to desolate this goodly land, Making the drenched earth rank with human blood, "Scatter pollution on the winds of Heaven? "Oh! that the sepulchre had closed its jaws Un cry, que le besoin ou la peur fait jetter, Et les airs agités les peuvent agiter. Une haleine, un souspir et mesme le silence Aux chefs, comme aux soldats, font perdre l'assurance. Chapelain. L. ix. "On that foul + Priest, that bad blood-guilty man, "Who, trembling for the Churches ill-got wealth, "Bade Henry look on France, ere he had drawn "The desolating sword, and sent him forth "To slaughter! Sure he spake the will of God, "That holy * Hermit, who in his career + The Parliament, when Henry V. demanded supply, entreated him to seize all the ecclesiastical revenues, and convert them to the use of the crown. The Clergy were alarmed, and Chichely, Archbishop of Canterbury, endeavoured to divert the blow, by giving occupation to the King, and by persuading him to undertake a war against France. Hume. While Henry V. lay at the siege of Dreux, an honest Hermit unknown to him, came and told him the great evils he brought upon Christendom by his unjust ambition, who usurped the kingdom of France, against all manner of right, and contrary to the will of God; wherefore in his holy name he threatened him with a severe and sudden punishment, if he desisted not from his enterprize. Henry took this exhortation either as an idle whimsey, or a suggestion of the Dauphin's, and was but the more confirmed in his design. But the blow soon followed the threatening; for within some few months after, he was smitten in the fundament with a strange and incurable disease. Mezeray. "Of conquest met the King, and bade him cease "The work of death, before the wrath divine "Fell heavy on his head; and soon it fell "And sunk him to the grave; and soon that wrath "On us, alike in sin, alike shall fall, "For thousands and ten thousands, by the sword "Cut off, and sent before the Eternal Judge, "With all their unrepented crimes upon them, " Cry out for vengeance! for the widow's groan, "Tho' here she groan unpitied or unheard, "Is heard in Heaven against us! o'er this land "For hills of human slain, unsepulchred, "Steam pestilence, and cloud the blessed sun! "The wrath of God is on us-God has call'd "This Virgin forth, and gone before her path"Our brethren, vainly valiant, fall beneath them, Clogging with gore their weapons, or in the flood "Whelm'd like the Egyptian tyrant's impious host, Το Mangled and swoln, their blackened carcasses Toss on the tossing billows! We remain, |