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Mark Twain's Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
Chapter 8
HUMAN NATURE is the same everywhere: it defies success, it has nothing
but scorn for defeat. The village considered that Joan had disgraced it
with her grotesque performance and its ridiculous failure; so all the
tongues were busy with the matter, and as bilious and bitter as they were
busy; insomuch that if the tongues had been teeth she would not have
survived her persecutions. Those persons who did not scold did what was
worse and harder to bear; for they ridiculed her, and mocked at her, and
ceased neither day nor night from their witticisms and jeerings and
laughter. Haumette and Little Mengette and I stood by her, but the storm
was too strong for her other friends, and they avoided her, being ashamed
to be seen with her because she was so unpopular, and because of the
sting of the taunts that assailed them on her account. She shed tears in
secret, but none in public. In public she carried herself with serenity,
and showed no distress, nor any resentment--conduct which should have
softened the feeling against her, but it did not. Her father was so
incensed that he could not talk in measured terms about her wild project
of going to the wars like a man. He had dreamed of her doing such a
thing, some time before, and now he remembered that dream with
apprehension and anger, and said that rather than see her unsex herself
and go away with the armies, he would require her brothers to drown her;
and that if they should refuse, he would do it with his own hands.
But none of these things shook her purpose in the least. Her parents kept
a strict watch upon her to keep her from leaving the village, but she
said her time was not yet; that when the time to go was come she should
know it, and then the keepers would watch in vain.
The summer wasted along; and when it was seen that her purpose continued
steadfast, the parents were glad of a chance which finally offered itself
for bringing her projects to an end through marriage. The Paladin had the
effrontery to pretend that she had engaged herself to him several years
before, and now he claimed a ratification of the engagement.
She said his statement was not true, and refused to marry him. She was
cited to appear before the ecclesiastical court at Toul to answer for her
perversity; when she declined to have counsel, and elected to conduct her
case herself, her parents and all her ill-wishers rejoiced, and looked
upon her as already defeated. And that was natural enough; for who would
expect that an ignorant peasant-girl of sixteen would be otherwise than
frightened and tongue-tied when standing for the first time in presence
of the practised doctors of the law, and surrounded by the cold
solemnities of a court? Yet all these people were mistaken. They flocked
to Toul to see and enjoy this fright and embarrassment and defeat, and
they had their trouble for their pains. She was modest, tranquil, and
quite at her ease. She called no witnesses, saying she would content
herself with examining the witnesses for the prosecution. When they had
testified, she rose and reviewed their testimony in a few words,
pronounced it vague, confused, and of no force, then she placed the
Paladin again on the stand and began to search him. His previous
testimony went rag by rag to ruin under her ingenious hands, until at
last he stood bare, so to speak, he that had come so richly clothed in
fraud and falsehood. His counsel began an argument, but the court
declined to hear it, and threw out the case, adding a few words of grave
compliment for Joan, and referring to her as "this marvelous child."
After this victory, with this high praise from so imposing a source
added, the fickle village turned again, and gave Joan countenance,
compliment, and peace. Her mother took her back to her heart, and even
her father relented and said he was proud of her. But the time hung heavy
on her hands, nevertheless, for the siege of Orleans was begun, the
clouds lowered darker and darker over France, and still her Voices said
wait, and gave her no direct commands. The winter set in, and wore
tediously along; but at last there was a change.
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