Saint Joan

epub:type="z3998:persona">Robert Well!! He sits, deflated. Poulengey Gravely. Sit down, Joan. Joan Checked a little, and looking to Robert. May I? Robert Do what you are told. Joan curtsies and sits down on the stool between them. Robert outfaces his perplexity with his most peremptory air. Robert What is your name? Joan Chattily. They always call me Jenny in Lorraine. Here in France I am Joan. The soldiers call me The Maid. Robert What is your surname? Joan Surname? What is that? My father sometimes calls himself d’Arc; but I know nothing about it. You met my father. He⁠— Robert Yes, yes; I remember. You come from Domrémy in Lorraine, I think. Joan Yes; but what does it matter? we all speak French. Robert Don’t ask questions: answer them. How old are you? Joan Seventeen: so they tell me. It might be nineteen. I don’t remember. Robert What did you mean when you said that St. Catherine and St. Margaret talked to you every day? Joan They do. Robert What are they like? Joan Suddenly obstinate. I will tell you nothing about that: they have not given me leave. Robert But you actually see them; and they talk to you just as I am talking to you? Joan No: it is quite different. I cannot tell you: you must not talk to me about my voices. Robert How do you mean? voices? Joan I hear voices telling me what to do. They come from God. Robert They come from your imagination. Joan Of course. That is how the messages of God come to us. Poulengey Checkmate. Robert No fear! To Joan. So God says you are to raise the siege of Orleans? Joan And to crown the Dauphin in Rheims Cathedral. Robert Gasping. Crown the D⁠—! Gosh! Joan And to make the English leave France. Robert Sarcastic. Anything else? Joan Charming. Not just at present, thank you, squire. Robert I suppose you think raising a siege is as easy as chasing a cow out of a meadow. You think soldiering is anybody’s job? Joan I do not think it can be very difficult if God is on your side, and you are willing to put your life in His hand. But many soldiers are very simple. Robert Grimly. Simple! Did you ever see English soldiers fighting? Joan They are only men. God made them just like us; but He gave them their own country and their own language; and it is not His will that they should come into our country and try to speak our language. Robert Who has been putting such nonsense into your head? Don’t you know that soldiers are subject to their feudal lord, and that it is nothing to them or to you whether he is the duke of Burgundy or the king of England or the king of France? What has their language to do with it? Joan I do not understand that a bit. We are all subject to the King of Heaven; and He gave us our countries and our languages, and meant us to keep them. If it were not so it would be murder to kill an Englishman in battle; and you, squire, would be in great danger of hell fire. You must not think about your duty to your feudal lord, but about your duty to God. Poulengey It’s no use, Robert: she can choke you like that every time. Robert Can she, by Saint Dennis! We shall see. To Joan. We are not talking about God: we are talking about practical affairs. I ask you again, girl, have you ever seen English soldiers fighting? Have you ever seen them plundering, burning, turning the countryside into a desert? Have you heard no tales of their Black Prince who was blacker than the devil himself, or of the English king’s father? Joan You must not be afraid, Robert⁠— Robert Damn you, I am not afraid. And who gave you leave to call me Robert? Joan You were called so in church in the name of our Lord. All the other names are your father’s or your brother’s or anybody’s. Robert Tcha! Joan Listen to me, squire. At Domrémy we had to fly to the next village to escape from the English soldiers. Three of them were left behind, wounded. I came to know these three poor goddams quite well. They had not half my strength. Robert Do you know why they are called goddams? Joan No. Everyone calls them goddams. Robert It is because they are always calling on their God to condemn their souls to perdition. That is what goddam means in their language. How do you like it? Joan God will be merciful to them; and they will act like His good children when they go back to the country He made for them, and made them for. I have heard the tales of the Black Prince. The moment he touched the soil of our country the devil entered into him and made him a black fiend. But at home, in the place made for him by God, he was good. It is always so. If I went into England against the will of God to conquer England, and tried to live there and speak its language, the devil would enter into me; and when I was old I should shudder to remember the wickedness I did. Robert Perhaps. But the more devil you were the better you might fight. That is why the goddams will take Orleans. And you cannot stop them, nor ten thousand like you. Joan One thousand like me can stop them. Ten like me can stop them with God on our side. She rises impetuously, and goes at him, unable to sit quiet any longer. You do not understand, squire. Our soldiers are always beaten because they are fighting only to save their skins; and the shortest way to save your skin is to run away. Our knights are thinking only of the money they will make in ransoms: it is not kill or be killed with them, but pay or be paid. But I will teach them all to fight that the will of