This ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.
This particular ebook is based on a transcription produced for Project Gutenberg and on digital scans available at the Internet Archive.
The writing and artwork within are believed to be in the U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks releases this ebook edition under the terms in the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. For full license information, see the Uncopyright at the end of this ebook.
Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces ebook editions of public domain literature using modern typography, technology, and editorial standards, and distributes them free of cost. You can download this and other ebooks carefully produced for true book lovers at standardebooks.org.
Consider this unique and imposing distinction. Since the writing of human history began, Joan of Arc is the only person, of either sex, who has ever held supreme command of the military forces of a nation at the age of seventeen.
Louis Kossuth
Authorities examined in verification of the truthfulness of this narrative:
J. E. J. Quicherat, Condamnation et Réhabilitation de Jeanne d’Arc.
J. Fabre, Procès de Condamnation de Jeanne d’Arc.
H. A. Wallon, Jeanne d’Arc.
M. Sepet, Jeanne d’Arc.
J. Michelet, Jeanne d’Arc.
Berriat de Saint-Prix, La Famille de Jeanne d’Arc.
La Comtesse A. de Chabannes, La Vierge Lorraine.
Monseigneur Ricard, Jeanne d’Arc la Vénérable.
Lord Ronald Gower, F.S.A., Joan of Arc.
John O’Hagan, Joan of Arc.
Janet Tuckey, Joan of Arc the Maid.
Translator’s Preface
To arrive at a just estimate of a renowned man’s character one must judge it by the standards of his time, not ours. Judged by the standards of one century, the noblest characters of an earlier one lose much of their luster; judged by the standards of today, there is probably no illustrious man of four or five centuries ago whose character could meet the test at all points. But the character of Joan of Arc is unique. It can be measured by the standards of all times without misgiving or apprehension as to the result. Judged by any of them, it is still flawless, it is still ideally perfect; it still occupies the loftiest place possible to human attainment, a loftier one than has been reached by any other mere mortal.
When we reflect that her century was the brutalest,
