 Chapter 8 of the Mentor 2 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Deborah Barn, Cambridge, UK The Mentor 2 by Various Chapter 8, Holland, by Dwight L. Elmendorf Lecturer and Traveller, Department of Travel The History of Holland, 1 The history of Holland is a record of the unexpected. One might think that this flat country would have a story as monotonous as the land on which it is built, that it would be the last part of the world to be the centre of fierce battles and bloody wars. Yet there took place in this little country, formed principally of the mud deposited by three rivers, the Rhine, the Moes and the Schrelder, some of the most important deeds in the history of the world. The earliest inhabitants of this part of Europe are said to have been some of the Barbarians that accompanied the Symbry in the Teutons in their expedition against Italy. The Romans, however, held sway over this district until near the end of the 4th century when the Franks took possession and settled there. Later, the Holy Roman Emperor Charlemagne extended his supremacy over the whole of the Netherlands and under his successors a system of dividing the land among the vassal princes gradually developed. Thus the feudal system grew up. The situation of the country on the ocean and the mouths of the three great rivers invited the people to commerce. Then also, the big cities grew up and surrounded themselves with strong forts. In 1477, the Netherlands came into possession of the House of Habsburg by the marriage of Mary of Burgundy, the daughter of Charles the Bold, with Maximilian, afterward Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Their son, Philip the Handsome, was the father of Charles the Fifth who subsequently became King of Spain. Under his rule, the Netherlands enjoyed a golden era of prosperity but during the reign of his bigoted son, Philip II, there began that apparently hopeless struggle of the weak people of the North against the haughty Spaniards which lasted for eighty years and which ended in the establishment of the powerful Dutch Republic. The great founder of Dutch Liberty was William of Nassau the Silent. Today he is revered by the Dutch as a mighty hero and martyr. It was in 1579 that the Union of Utrecht laid the foundation on which the Republic of the United Netherlands was to be raised. By the peace of Westphalia in 1648 the independence of the United Provinces was recognised. The prosperity of Holland was great. Its navigators explored the most distant coasts in the world and its trading posts in East India yielded a rich harvest. It had commerce with all nations and at the same time its art reached its highest point of excellence. For many years the fortunes of the Netherlands varied from good to bad. In 1795 the French Republicans took possession of the country and founded the Batavian Republic. In 1806 Louis Bonaparte was created King of Holland by his brother Napoleon. Four years later Napoleon annexed Holland to France giving as the reason his belief that it was formed of the alluvial deposit of the French rivers. At last in November 1813 the French were expelled from Holland and in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna. The southern or Belgian province of the Netherlands was united with the northern into a single kingdom and the Prince of Orange was created King of the Netherlands under the title of William I. This union was severed by the Belgian Revolution of 1830. Ten years later William I abdicated in favour of his son William II who was in turn succeeded by William III. His daughter, Wilhelmina, is the present ruler of Holland. Her daughter, Princess Juliana, was born on April 30th, 1909. William the Silent II William the Silent is to Holland what George Washington is to the United States. As the principal opponent of Philip II of Spain he was the very incarnation of the national spirit in the greatest period of Dutch history. He dared to stand forth as the fearless leader of a persecuted people in opposition to the mightiest monarch then on earth. William, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau was surnamed the Silent not because he was gloomy but because he was able to hide his plans with wonderful discretion. He was born on April 16th, 1533. He was a great favourite of Charles V of Spain who appointed him when he was only 22 years old Governor of the provinces of Holland, Zeeland and Utrecht. When the Low Countries came into possession of the Duke of Alva, the Spanish Governor William set out on a short but useless campaign to liberate the southern provinces. Four years later he was invited by Holland and Zeeland to command their troops against the Spaniards. Shortly afterward he captured Middelburg and succeeded in raising the siege of Leiden. The Union of Utrecht, the famous defensive league of the North Netherlands was formed in 1579. Soon afterwards William was exiled by Philip II but the state's general defied his authority and in 1581 formally threw off their allegiance to the Spanish crown. However, so anxious was Philip to have William out of the way that he offered a reward of 25,000 crowns and a title of nobility to anyone who would assassinate him. Many were the cowardly attacks made against the brave Dutchman eight attempts being made before the one that finally succeeded. On July 10th, 1584, William, in company with his beautiful young wife was coming to dinner down the stairway of the Prinzenhof, his house in Delft. Suddenly from the corner of the corridor a man stepped forth holding a petition. The prince asked him to present it later when he was not busy. During the meal William was, as usual, very cheerful but his wife seemed to have a premonition of danger. She spoke to him several times of the strange man they had met in the hall remarking that she had never seen a more villainous face. This did not disturb William in the least and at the close of the meal he led the way back along the corridor. As he approached the staircase without a moment's warning the assassin sprang forth and shot him in the breast. The prince reeled backwards a few steps and fell into the arms of his wife. A few minutes later the founder of Dutch Liberty had passed into history. William the Silent was the foremost statesman of his time. He gave up great position, fast wealth and at last his life to rescue the Netherlands from the tyrannical power of Spain and he had the satisfaction of knowing before he died that the cause for which he had suffered so much would succeed. His murderer, Balthasar Gerard, was executed by having the flesh torn from his body with red hot pincers. 3. Amsterdam has often been called the Venice of the North. Between the two cities there is a resemblance but they also differ from each other essentially. Venice is golden while Amsterdam is grey. Venice inspires romantic memories and poetical associations. Amsterdam even with its many attractions is distinctly practical and commercial. Amsterdam is a seaport in the province of North Holland. It is one of the chief commercial cities in Europe and the largest city in the kingdom of Holland. It is one of the wealthiest cities in the world. Amsterdam stands on flat marshy ground into which piles 50 feet long are driven to form the foundations of brick houses which are usually six or seven stories high. The form of the city is a crescent and the arms of its canals project into the A. Amsterdam is really a city founded upon islands, 90 in all. It has miles of liquid streets which are spanned by 300 bridges. All through the city float heavy barges many of which are the homes of citizens. Among some classes of the Dutch it is customary when a young man has saved or borrowed enough money to buy a huge broad shoulder boat and install therein not only his entire family but also his poultry, hogs and even cows. From then on he is independent and master of his own floating house, stable, farm yard and express wagon. He transports loads of merchandise from town to town and is in a small way even a farmer. When he moors his boat to take his wares from house to house he uses a cart and to draw this cart he employs dogs. When the merchandise is sold the driver calmly seats himself in the cart and makes his patient animals pull him home. If he does not own a dog he merely puts the yoke upon the shoulders of his wife and she acts as a willing steed. The little houses in the vicinity of Amsterdam are thoroughly characteristic of Holland. They have sharply pointed roofs of pretty red tiles, neatly painted walls and blinds and a monstrous windmill on one side. Within they are scoured and polished so that they almost shine with cleanliness. Even among the wealthy citizens of Amsterdam there is not much display of luxury. The houses are quite plain but always brightly clean. To most people who are used to paved streets and plenty of dry land it would not be pleasant to dwell among the watery streets with their narrow sidewalks of Amsterdam. But to a Dutchman it is impossible to have too much water about his house. Even with a canal in front and another on each side he will add if possible an artificial pond in his small garden. Rotterdam 4 Rotterdam, the famous commercial centre of Holland lies 14 miles from the North Sea at the union of two rivers one of which is called the Rot and with the great dam erected on its banks gives the town its name. To a visitor the most notable feature of this great Dutch city is its multitude of bridges most of which are draw bridges continually rising and falling like parts of a huge machine. Rotterdam received its first municipal privileges in 1340 its modern prosperity dates from the separation of Belgium from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The largest sea-going ships can now be admitted to the keys of the town great cargoes of oil, grain, coffee, tobacco and coal pass through it and its cattle market is the most important in Holland. It is a remarkable fact that in Rotterdam almost every man one meets has either a cigar or a pipe in his mouth. The Dutch are great smokers it is said that the boatmen measure distances not by miles but by pipe-fulls. Many of the natives are believed to sleep at night with their pipes between their teeth so that they may have their morning smoke without any delay. The Hollanders call tobacco smoke their second breath and the cigar the sixth finger of their hands. In Rotterdam is situated the home of the greatest smoker that the world has ever known Meneaf and Glace. His average consumption was 150 grams of tobacco a day nevertheless he lived to be 98 years old. His directions as to how his funeral should be conducted are interesting. I wish that all my friends who are smokers shall be specially invited to my funeral. Each of them shall receive a package of tobacco and two pipes and they are requested to smoke uninterruptedly during the funeral ceremonies. My body shall be enclosed in a coffin lined with wood of my old cigar boxes. Beside me in the casket shall be laid my favourite meershawm a box of matches and a package of tobacco. When my body is lowered into the grave every person present is requested to pass by and cast upon it the ashes from his pipe. It is said that these requests were faithfully complied with. There is also a report that says that at his funeral the smoke was so dense that a horn had to be blown to enable the mourners to find the door. Rotterdam suffered from a great fire in 1563 and also underwent great loss during the struggle with the Spaniards who occupied the city in 1572. Since 1573 however its progress has been remarkable. Tulips and windmills 5 Spring is the best time to visit Harlem in Holland. The traveller to this city passes through wonderful fields covered with broad sheets of scarlet, white and yellow tulips. It is a sight never to be forgotten. But beautiful as the tulips are it is not for this that the Hollanders grow them in such quantities though grow the bulb not for the flour but for the onion as it is called. The cultivation of tulips is a great business in Holland but today only a small percentage of the population commercialized the flour compared to the number that cultivated it in the 17th century. The tulipomania of that time was really a form of gambling in which admiration of the flour and interest in its culture were secondary matters. In those days thousands of Florians were paid for a single bulb. Tulips grow wild along the northern shores of the Mediterranean and in Africa and the Far East. They were introduced into the low countries in the 16th century from Constantinople and the Levant. Owing to their great beauty the flowers became immediate favourites in European gardens. It was in 1637 that the extraordinary tulipomania first took possession of the Dutch. Not only were flower merchants seized with it but almost every citizen took up tulip growing. A single bulb called Semper Augustus was sold for 13,000 Florians and for another of the same variety was traded a new carriage, a pair of grey horses and 4,600 guilders. A prize of 100,000 Florians offered by the Horticultural Society at Harlem was won by the black tulip of Cornelius Funbioli. But when the government stepped in and enforced a law against gambling the price of tulips fell to nothing. The bubble burst and thousands of dealers were beggared in a single night. There is an old Dutch proverb which says God made the sea but we make the shore. For hundreds of years the Hollanders have proved this true by literally making the land upon which they live. They must continually fight against the encroachment of the sea and a big factor in the work of keeping the ocean out is done by great windmills which pump the water from the fields into the rivers and canals and thus drain the land. Everywhere in Holland windmills can be seen. Besides pumping and draining they also saw wood and grind corn. Although nowadays steam and gasoline engines can do most of the work formally performed by windmills they still form a picturesque part of the Dutch landscape. By draining whole marshes they have transformed this wasteland into beautiful green and fertile fields. In passing from the Hague to Harlem on the train one can see the largest of these polders as the drained marshes are called. Windmills were used as early as the 12th century. In all the older windmills a shaft called the Wind Shaft carried four to six arms or whips on which long narrow sails were spread. The tips of the sails made a circle of 60 to 80 feet in diameter. It is this type of windmill with its long arms waving above the landscape that is associated so closely with Holland. Art in Holland. Six. Many people consider Dutch art the most interesting in the world. The artists of Holland did not portray classic gods and prayer former donors. They were too practical a matter of fact for that. Their minds were serious and scenes of everyday life attracted them more than they did the artists of Italy or Spain. Portrait painting began very early among the Dutch. This was because the Dutch spirit was essentially commercial. The prosperous burgers like to have great artists paint them and they were usually willing to pay pretty well for the privilege. Also the nobility due to their love of splendor gave abundant employment to the artists. Some of the earlier Dutch artists who achieved fame are the brothers Van Aghe, Hugo van der Hoos, Rocher van der Vader and Quentin Masise. But greater than any of these is Frans Hals, who was born in 1580. He was a great portrait painter. His marvellous capacity for catching an impression on the incident brought him many patrons. He loved to paint people as they were and Jolly Topers and Rich Burgers were his favourite subjects. But great artists, though he was, he died almost in poverty. Rembrandt Harmansoin van Reijn, who was born in 1607, the son of a miller of laden, has been called the greatest painter of northern Europe. Today his pictures are beyond price. His influence on the Dutch artists that followed him was very great, but he died at the age of 62 alone and neglected. Paul Potter, called the Raphael of animal painters, was born in 1625 and died from overwork at the age of 29. It is said that he painted portraits of animals and tried to know the character of every beast that he drew. Jan Steen painted all sorts of subjects, chemists in their laboratories, card parties, marriage feasts, religious subjects, and especially children. Besides being a successful artist, he was a brewer at Delft. He failed in this business and opened a tavern, hence he has often been called the Jolly Landlord of Leiden. Peter de Hoogh was the most neglected of all Dutch painters. Yet in 1876 the Berlin Museum paid $26,000 for one of his paintings. He was born in Rotterdam about 1630 and became one of the most charming painters of homely subjects that Holland has produced. He died at Haarlem about 1681. Meindad Hobema was born in Amsterdam about 1638 and was buried there in a pauper's grave in 1709. Although today he is considered one of the great landscape painters of Holland, his work was not appreciated during his lifetime. Hobema liked to paint only landscapes. It is said that when it was necessary for him to get a figure in a picture, he had another artist do it. All these men were great artists of Holland and it is a peculiar thing that most of them lived in the 16th and 17th centuries. Since then Holland has done comparatively little in art. Holland has been described as a country of unpainted pictures. That is the artist's point of view, for his eye takes in the picturesque possibilities of the subject. To us it seems as if Holland is of all countries the one most often seen in pictures. While no doubt there are many untouched pictures in the miles of level Dutch landscape, art has surely shown a generous recognition of Holland's attractive scenery and has celebrated its picturesqueness to all the rest of the world. Holland is a country of dikes and level meadowlands of windmills and canals. From the point of view of an aeronaut, the Dutch cities look like a map of Mars. This is especially true of Amsterdam, which viewed from above appears to be a network of canals. These canals are an attractive feature of the cities. In some cases the whole street is canal, in other cases the street is both wet and dry, a canal flanked by a street. Imagine a country in some spots lower than the sea, maintaining its existence only by constant vigilance and industry, fighting for its very life through the changing seasons against the one great enemy, water. The dunes or sandhills which line the coast serve as a barrier against the sea. These are reinforced by coarse grass which holds the sand together. In some places the dikes are made of earth, sand and clay, held together by willows which are carefully planted so as to form a binder. In other places dikes are built of stone. The dikes are the fortifications against the inroads of the ocean and also the floods in the rivers that flow through Holland to the sea. When there are heavy rains in Germany, the Rhine brings down a great additional volume of water which has to be checked by the dikes and led away by the canals. Holland's fight against water has been a warfare of varying fortunes. At times in the past dikes have been broken, great tracts of land have been inundated and thousands of people drowned. The Dutch are a careful plodding and industrious people and they have profited by experience. As a result, they are now not only holding their water enemy in check, but they have actually advanced upon the sea and have taken from it sufficient territory to add materially to their cultivated lands. But the contest with the rivers in the sea has to be constant. A special body of engineers is appointed to look after the work and the Dutch government spends annually several million dollars to keep the dikes in order and hold the ground. Water is confined in canals and in large basins and the ever-faithful windmill, when not otherwise engaged, is employed to pump the water from the lowlands. Dikes and Windmills The dikes and windmills are the two great factors of physical and commercial life in Holland. The dikes safeguard the land, the windmill fans the currents of trade. Whether corn is to be ground, timber, sword, tobacco cut, paper manufactured or water pumped, the long arms of the mill perform a willing and efficient service while the wind blows. The importance of the dike is reflected in the names of many Dutch towns. The word dem or dike is to be found almost everywhere. Amsterdam is the dike of the river Amstel, Rotterdam the dike of the river Rot, Zandam the dike of the river Zaan and so on. The thought of protecting dike was generally in mind when a town was founded. The windmill is not only an untiring servant of industry, but is a sign of Dutch prosperity as well. You may hear it said of a hollander, he is worth ten millions. You are quite as likely to hear it said, he is worth ten windmills. It required dogged determination and persevering energy to make the history of Holland. The Dutch people successfully resisted Spanish domination at a time when Spain was a supreme world power, and then they built up a government of their own in a country where they had to fight for the very existence of the land. In government administration, in thrift and commercial enterprise, in exploration and colonisation, in literature and in arts, Holland has proved herself to be a wonderful little country. She has had much to say in the Congress of Nations. One of her chief cities, The Hague is identified in everyone's mind with one of the most important world movements of modern times, the International Peace Conference. The population of Holland does not exceed six million, and there are only four towns having a population exceeding a hundred thousand. Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht. Amsterdam. This most interesting city is situated where the river Amstel enters the Zoderzee. Just where the city lies, there is an arm of the sea which goes by the odd name of A. Amsterdam is the chief commercial city of Holland, though in some branches of business, Rotterdam disputes its supremacy. The city is of odd semicircular shape and is intersected by canals which run in curves like the rows of seats in an amphitheatre. Each of these semicircular canals marks the line of the city walls and moat at different times. Other canals cross these in such a manner as to cut the city up into a number of islands. The old part of the city lies in the very centre, enclosed by the inner semicircular canal. At one end of this canal is the Weepers Tower, which takes its name from the fact that it stands at the head of what was the old harbour and was the scene therefore in ancient times of many sad leave takings. There, wives and sweethearts said goodbye to the men who went down to the sea in ships. Amsterdam is supposed to have originated in about 1204 when he's breathed the second Lord of Amstel built a castle there. It came to be really important about the end of the 16th century when the wars with Spain had ruined Antwerp and many merchants, manufacturers and artists left there and settled in Amsterdam. The population of the city today is close to 600,000 and it is one of the busiest markets in Europe doing a large business in imports especially in the products of the Dutch colonies. The city moreover is very beautiful. The main canals are lined with avenues of elms and they offer a picturesque appearance and a pleasant shade. The streets are full of life and their interest is enhanced by the varied activities of those who walk and ride on the paved roads and others who ply oddly constructed boats through the waterways. A city built on piles. The costumes, while not so picturesque as those to be found in the country districts are interesting to the traveller from other lands. The houses are built on piles driven into the soft soil a fact that the witty older rasmus of Rotterdam turned to jest by saying that he knew a city whose inhabitants dwelt in the tops of trees like rooks. There are so many things in Amsterdam of historic literary and art interest that no one can expect to do the city and do it thoroughly in the brief time usually allotted by the ordinary tourist. For the student of art there is enough to fill a month's time. The home city of Rembrandt naturally holds the interest of an artist and the Rijksmuseum contains a wonderful collection of Dutch art and historic relics. Rijksmuseum This museum is an impressive stone and brick building constructed in 1877 to 1885 and filling nearly three acres of ground. It holds a place among the greatest museums of the world and in its devotion to its own particular subject Dutch art and history it is unique. It is not the lover of art alone who will find the place fascinating. The historian will be held by the military naval and colonial collection. The antiquarian will linger over the old works in gold and silver the models of ships of different periods antique books and furniture textiles and stained glass while the artist will regard the picture galleries as a treasure house. For the artist if interested in the Dutch masters of art the museum is the one particular place in Europe. There about him he will find some of the most celebrated works of Rembrandt Frans Hals Paul Potter Jan Steen Hobema and other Dutch painters. The picturesque old buildings of Amsterdam especially those in the inner city will delight the visitor. Many of these have great historic interest notable among them Admiral de Rotter's House bearing his portrait in relief on its front and a little beyond that the old Montalban's Tower. The Royal Palace is a solid building which was begun in 1648 just after the peace of Westphalia and was finished in the course of seven years at a cost of eight million florins three million two hundred and sixteen thousand dollars. It is not a beautiful building but in its structure and its inner equipments it is interesting as showing the character of Dutch life and government. You bring from a visit to the Palace an impression of the solidity, power and the enduring virtues that are the ancestral inheritance of the Hollander. No visit to Amsterdam is complete without a sight of the zoological garden which is one of the best in Europe and a trip out to the unique little island of Marken. There in that odd spot you will find all the picturesqueness of Holland in solid deposit. Gaelic coloured costumes are everywhere houses are queer in structure and in furnishing and manners and habits of life are peculiar and interesting. But let the visitor be cautious in Marken it has of recent years come to be a show place stocked with all sorts of Dutch articles of no special value most of which are manufactured solely to catch the fancy of the unwary tourist. Harralen On returning from Marken the traveller will find it worth his while to run west to the quaint old town of Harralen. This is the city of the governor of the province of North Holland and is one of the cleanest and neatest towns in the Netherlands. Its population is something over seventy thousand and it has the appearance of prosperity and welfare. During the Middle Ages Harlan was the resident of the Counts of Holland and was the scene of several important military engagements between the Dutch and the Spaniards. It is famous for its horticulture and furnishes bulbs to every country in Europe and North America. Along about the middle of spring a wonderful sight may be seen in the land surrounding Harlan. Whole fields of hyacinths, crocuses anemones, tulips, lilies, etc. offer a brilliant variety of colour and fill the air with delicious perfume. It is a feast for the senses indeed. Rotterdam Situated about thirty miles south of Amsterdam and Harralen is Rotterdam the second largest town in the Netherlands which has a population of about three hundred and seventy thousand. To some it is known chiefly as the home of the illustrious Erasmus who was born there in 1465. In the great marketplace of Rotterdam there stands a fine bronze statue of Erasmus. To merchants Rotterdam is known as one of the busiest import cities on the continent. As in its import trade it is exceeded only by Hamburg and Antwerp while its cattle market is the most important in Holland. There is much life in Rotterdam and plenty of entertainment to enliven the visitor who goes there for other purposes than those of trade. Boymans Museum contains a most valuable collection of Dutch art and the church's parks and public ways are attractive and interesting. Down at the large docks you will find busy scenes at the Wilhelmina Kader especially where the great passenger steamers lie. You will meet that name Kader wherever you go in the towns of Holland. It means key and the different thoroughfares distinguished by the name are either keys or else have been keys in times past and in the course of the city's growth have become streets with waterways in them. You will be impressed with the vast multitude of bridges in Rotterdam. I do not know that they actually exceed in number the bridges of Amsterdam but they appear to for many can be seen from almost every point of view. The service of the canal to Holland is manifold and this is chewing winter as well as in summer. Over the frozen surface of the canal children skate to school women skate to their shopping and those who have time for recreation skim the icy surfaces from town to town in skating trips. The Hague There are many towns in Holland to invite the traveller and most of them will delight him as well. This is especially true of Utrecht, Dordrecht and Delft. The last famous the world over for its pottery. It is well however we're making a visit to Holland to save the Hague until the last. The Hague is the political capital of Holland and in some ways the most beautiful and interesting of all Dutch cities. It is a most cosmopolitan town and its population includes many distinguished people. Among the cities of Holland the Hague leads in culture and refinement as Amsterdam and Rotterdam do in commerce. It is moreover the most attractive city in neatness and in cleanliness. It is claimed that the Hague can not be excelled by any city in the world. You are willing to believe that when you are there. The House in the Wood The full Dutch name of this city of royalty is Eschraverager which means the Count's enclosure. The name was given to it originally when it was a richly wooded plane and a hunting resort of the Counts of Holland. It is now the residence of the Queen of Holland and the seat of government where most of the important national transactions of the last 300 years have taken place. There is no great amount of business at the Hague. It is a place of important political affairs and the social life and enjoyment. The life there is distinguished for its gaiety and the society for its distinction. Great interest naturally centres in the House in the Wood and most picturesque chateau erected in 1645 for Princess Amalia, consort of Prince Frederick Henry, son of Henry the Silent. This is the favourite home of royalty. The most interesting apartment in the palace is the Orange Room which was prepared by the princess as a memorial to her husband and has been the scene of many important diplomatic and social events. The first international peace conference at which 26 powers were represented met in this room in the summer of 1899. The House in the Wood is beautifully furnished and decorated and, more than the usual royal residence, it realises the meaning of the word home. Attractions of the Hague The population of the Hague is more than 240,000 and it has, besides the House in the Wood, a number of notable features. There is the celebrated picture gallery called the Maurits House, the Municipal Museum, which next to the Rijks is the finest in Holland, the Messdach Museum which contains, among other art treasures, a fine collection of pictures by the Barbizon painters and the Steengracht Gallery which is rich in modern French and Dutch paintings. The quaint Old Hall of the Knights will attract attention for its historic interest and so will the beautiful and imposing National Monument which was set up in 1869 to commemorate the restoration of Dutch independence and to honour Prince William Frederick of Orange. All together the Hague is a delight to the traveller. Thackeray exclaimed over it, the brightest little brick city with the pleasantest park to ride in, the neatest comfortable people walking about, the canals not unsweet and busy and picturesque with life. Scheveninger It might be Brighton or Margate and except for the swarm of hooded beach chairs it might be Coney Island, this popular seaside resort of Holland. Most of the features familiar to those who frequent the sea coast resorts of other lands are to be found at Scheveninger. There is the wide gradually shelving beach ceaselessly washed by the rolling surf crowded with people of all ages and stations bobbing in the water, frolicking on the beach, also daily seated in the shaded chairs. Back on the beach runs the long line of hotels and cottages that we find at all great ocean resorts. The pleasure of playing on the seashore is much the same wherever humanity is found and no matter what the locality may be the pleasure in all places finds pretty much the same forms of expression. Scheveninger began its life as a fishing village a way back in 1400. It is situated about three miles from the Hague and has been abathing resorts since 1815 growing in popularity and population until now the annual number of visitors is about 40,000 chiefly Dutch and German but including also many Britons and Americans. The season runs from the 1st of June to the end of September and just as in the case of other summer resorts its activities are at their height about the 1st of August. Aside from its many attractions as a summer resort Scheveninger has some historic interest. It was from there that Charles II set sail when he returned to England to assume the crown at the time of the restoration. This was in 1660. 13 years later that sturdy naval hero Admiral de Rota engaged in a sea battle off Scheveninger and there defeated the combined forces of France and England. Dutch Country Life and People For those who would know Holland and the people no trip would be complete that merely included a few of the prominent cities. Take your pack if you care for tramping or engage a car if you prefer to ride. You will find the roads good then go through the country and meet the people in their simplest condition. The Dutch farmer has not changed in several hundred years. He is a thrifty contented individual and his life will interest you. You will find the country families hospitable and you will learn much from them that the city hollanders have not told you. As you go through the farm districts you will be impressed with the varied colour and the picturesque qualities of everything. And though you may not be an artist you must in the course of a sojourn in Holland feel the stir of art consciousness. Aptly indeed has Holland been called a land of untouched pictures. End of Chapter 8 Recording by Deborah Baum, Cambridge Chapter 9 of the Mentor 2 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Kate Follis The Mentor 2 by Various Chapter 9 Joan of Arc by Ida M. Tarbell Serial number 98 The Mentor Joan of Arc by Ida M. Tarbell Author and Editor Department of Biography Volume 3 Number 22 The Maid of Orleans What is to be thought of her? What is to be thought of the poor shepherd girl from the hills and forests of Lorraine? That, like the Hebrew shepherd boy from the hills and forests of Judea rose suddenly out of the quiet, out of the safety, out of the religious inspiration rooted in deep pastoral solitudes to a station in the van of armies and to the more perilous station at the right hand of kings. The boy rose to a splendour and a noonday prosperity both personal and public that ran through the records of his people and became a byword amongst his posterity for a thousand years until the scepter was departing from Judea. The poor forsaken girl on the contrary drank not herself from that cup of rest which she had secured for France. Pure, innocent, noble-hearted girl this was amongst the strongest pledges for thy truth that never once didst thou revel in the vision of coronets and honour from man. To suffer and to do that was thy portion in this life that was thy destiny and not for a moment was it hidden from thyself. Great was the throne of France even in those days and great was he that sat upon it but well Joanna knew that not the throne nor he that sat upon it was for her but on the contrary that she was for them not she by them but they by her should rise from the dust. Gorgeous were the lilies of France and for centuries had the privilege to spread their beauty over land and sea. But well Joanna knew early at Dom Rémy she had read that bitter truth that the lilies of France would decorate no garland for her. Flower nor bud bell nor blossom would ever bloom for her. The Youth of the Maid Joan of Arc whose name more properly was Jean Tendoc and who is now known in France as Jean Doc was one of the most wonderful women that ever lived. It is hard to believe some of the strange things that happened to her before she was twenty years old. She was born at Dom Rémy over in the eastern part of France on January 6th, 1412. She was the daughter of a peasant and never learned to read or write yet later in her life learned men could not puzzle her by questions. She was so sympathetic that she would stop to comfort her wounded enemies on the battlefield yet she was so brave that even when severely wounded she continued to lead her soldiers. Before hearing the story of Joan of Arc it is interesting to know something of what was happening in France at the time she lived. For a long time the English king had been trying to make himself also the ruler of France. The ruler at that time was named Charles but he had never been crowned king as the coronation should have taken place at the cathedral at Reims but as Reims was in the power of the English Charles could not go there to be crowned. The French themselves were divided into two parts. Some of them sided with Charles but more took the part of England. These latter people lived in Burgundy so at the time that Joan of Arc was born France was in a most unhappy state. The girl sometimes guarded her father's flocks and she was always glad to assist in the household work. She was noted for her physical strength and for this reason and for her unselfish kindness she was a favourite in her village. She was of an extremely religious temperament and the church services made her very happy. When Joan was about 13 years old her voices came to her for the first time. She told of this great event later in her life. When I was about 13 years old there came to me a voice from God teaching me how I was to behave and what I was to do and the first time that voice came I was afraid. I was standing about the middle of the day in summer in my father's garden. The voice came from the right hand from where the church stands and when it came I usually saw a great light on the side from which it spoke. The voice told me to be a good girl and go to church and go to save France. I said I was only a poor girl who could not ride or lead the soldiers in the wars. Joan also said that she saw figures of angels and she enjoyed talking to them and listening to their counsel. However no one else ever saw the angels or heard the voices. About this time Henry V of England died and his son became heir to the throne but the war against France was still being carried on. Just then the English were besieging the town of Orleans. This was in the fall of 1428. It seemed as though the city would be captured and the last stronghold of Charles would be lost to him. There were about 4,000 English besieging the city and they planned to starve Orleans into surrender. It was then that the voices advised Joan to save France. The maid obeys the voices. Joan lived far away from Orleans but her voices kept saying to her that she must go and drive away the English from that town. She did not want to do this as she preferred to live quietly in her native village but the voices were urgent and so at last Joan went to a nearby town, Valcoleuse, and asked the commander there to lend her an escort so that she might go to King Charles of France at Chignon. This commander whose name was Robert de Baudricourt laughed at her but when Joan told him of a great disaster that had happened to the French army near Orleans at the time that it happened whereas he did not hear of it until some time later he was convinced of her miraculous power and sent her to Charles. This was on February 23rd, 1429 after riding for several days the maid and her band reached Chignon. Then there was more delay but at last she was allowed to have an audience with the king. To test her power Charles stood among a crowd of courtiers clothed very simply but without hesitation Joan knelt before him and said fair sir, you are the Dauphin to whom I am come. Charles pointed to another and said that is the king no fair sir said Joan it is to you that I am sent. This assured the king but to convince him further of her power she told him of his own private secret. This was that he prayed every night to know whether or not he was the rightful king of France. As Charles had not told this secret to a living soul he was amazed. He was also encouraged when the girl told him he was the rightful king. Then Joan was examined by the wise men of the court and finally everyone agreed that she was advised by supernatural powers. An army was then collected with which she was to march to the relief of Orleans. White armour was made for her and a sacred banner presented to her. Her sword was dug from the ground behind the altar of Saint Catherine in a little town called Fierbois. She had prophesied that this sword would be found there. Then the maid led the French to Orleans. The relief of Orleans Joan entered Orleans at nightfall. The people were all glad to see her and lighted her way with torches. They tried to kiss her hands. In her white armour she was an inspiration to the French. Joan wanted to sally out from Orleans immediately and attack the English but the commander of the French forces did not think it wise to do so. Shortly afterward however, Joan had her way. The French planned an attack on the strongest of the English forts besieging Orleans. This was placed at the end of the bridge over the River Loire. It was a dangerous thing to do as the fort was very strong but Joan herself led the soldiers against its walls. The English were brave and repulsed the attack throughout the day. At about one o'clock in the afternoon Joan was wounded by an arrow. She had prophesied this some time before. The wound was not serious however and she went back into the battle. At eight o'clock, Dunois, the commander of the French wanted to withdraw saying that they could not capture the fort that day but Joan would not give up. She went away for a while and prayed. When she returned she seized her standard and led the soldiers up to the walls of the fort. The French, inspired by her bravery, followed climbing the walls and killing or capturing all the English in the fort. This defeat discouraged the English and they withdrew from Orleans on May 8th, 1429. In four days, Joan had accomplished more than the French had been able to do in seven long months. Joan next planned to take Charles to Reims and have him crowned with the holy oil but most of the country was held by the English so Joan determined to capture the cities and thereby make it safe for the king to go to Reims. She first captured Jargo, then Moon and after that Bojancy. Shortly after this the English army was near a little town called Pathet. The French were pursuing them so the main part of the English army was placed at the end of a long lane between two thick hedges. Then they hid their archers behind these hedges. They planned to trap the French in this long lane and shoot them down. The French would have gone right into this trap if a stag had not been roused by them and run up the lane into the English lines. The English archers could not resist a chance like this. They shot at the stag. This revealed their ambush to the French and saved Joan's army from defeat. The English were beaten and the maid won a great victory. The coronation of Charles VII. After Joan of Arc had beaten the English at Pathet she wanted to carry out her plan to have Charles VII crowned King of France in the Cathedral at Reims. But Charles was badly advised. His councillors were lazy and cowardly and they told him that it was unsafe for him to attempt to go to Reims. But at last he decided to march there with his army and on July 16th, 1429 he entered the city. The next day Charles was crowned King of France while Joan stood beside him holding her sacred banner. When the coronation was over Joan knelt at the King's feet and said Gentle King, now is the will of God fulfilled. Charles wished to reward her and asked what she wanted. She said that her only wish was that Dom Raimi, her native village, should ever after be free from taxes. Her wish was granted. The next plan of the maid was to capture Paris from the English but she received no assistance from the King and his followers. He did not want to make war for he hoped to gain the friendship of the Duke of Burgundy. Finally, however, Charles was persuaded to go to a little town called Song-Denis, which is near Paris, but he was not much help. Joan led her soldiers against a gate in Paris called the Porte Saint-Honoré. One of the men who fought the battle tells of it in this manner. The fight was long and fierce and it was wonderful to hear the noise of guns and cauldrons from the walls and to see the arrows fly like clouds. Few of those who went down into the dry ditch with the maid were hurt though many others were wounded with arrows and stone cannonballs but by God's grace and the maid's favour there were none but could return without help. We fought from noon till darkness began. After the sunset the maid was wounded in the thigh by a bolt from a crossbow but she only shouted louder, come on and the place was ours. But when it was dark and all were weary men came from the King and brought her up out of the ditch against her will. The next day when Joan and her followers were riding to attack Paris King Charles sent messengers forbidding them to do it. So they gave up their plans for the day planning to seize the city the following day but the King kept putting off the attack until finally Joan gave up in despair and her troops were disbanded. Later Joan went to Normandy but in December returned to the court of Charles where on the 29th her family were ennobled with the surname of Doulis. She did not care for honours however but concentrated all her energies on driving the English from her native country. In March 1430 she went away from the court to assist in the defense of Compiègne against the Duke of Burgundy who was attacking the city. The Capture of the Maid Joan had often prophesied that her mission would last but a year and this year was now fast drawing to a close. Her voices also spoke to her about this time saying that she would be taken prisoner soon. They would never tell her when. Joan prayed that she might die before she was captured for the English had often threatened that they would burn her as a witch if they caught her. She fought on bravely however and did not allow her fear to overcome her courage. When the Duke of Burgundy began to besiege Compiègne Joan before dawn on May 23rd 1430 stolen to the city with two or three hundred men the people were overjoyed to see her. That evening she led her little force out of Compiègne in a sortie against the besiegers. She charged the Burgundians at Marnier which is near Compiègne and drove them twice back to another village called Cléroix but her enemies were there reinforced and finally drove her back. Again she rallied her men and charged them but there were very few of her followers with her this time and she was surrounded and captured. She would not yield at first hoping to be killed but the Burgundians did not wish this as she was more valuable to them alive than dead. They hoped to get a great ransom for her. It might be imagined that the King and the people of France would have been glad to pay any sum for the safe return of the maid who had so greatly helped their native land but Charles was indolent and his advisors who did not like Joan counseled him not to ransom her. Therefore he never made an effort to save her nor did he show any interest in her fate. Jean de Luxembourg was Joan's captor and he sold her to the English. She knew what her fate would be in their hands and one day when she was taking the air on the flat roof of the great tower of Beaurevoir where she was imprisoned she leaped hoping to kill herself. Strangely she was not hurt not a bone in her body was broken but after the fall she found that she could not move a limb. It was destined that she should not escape. She was recaptured and turned over to the English who put her into a new prison. The trial and death of the maid the English turned Joan of Arc over to the Inquisition on January 3rd, 1431. The Inquisition was a court which tried people for religious offenses against the church. They put her into a cage in the castle of Rouen. Chains were placed on her legs and five rough soldiers kept watch in the room day and night. Her captors wished to prove her a witch to take away the sting of having been defeated by a girl. The principal enemy of Joan was Pierre Colchon the Bishop of Beauvais who hoped to be made Archbishop of Rouen by the English. Her examination by the court of the Inquisition began on January 9th. For three months these wise men examined the maid every day. She had no advocate and was forced to defend herself but she showed that she was far wiser than her learned judges. She would never answer questions about her saints and voices except when the voices gave her permission to do so. In particular, the judges wished to know the secret of the king which secret they knew Joan possessed but in spite of the king's neglect of the maid she would never betray him. Finally they told her they would torture her. They took her to the torture chamber and asked her if she would tell them then but Joan said torture me if you please tear my body to pieces whatever I say in my pains will not be true and as soon as I am released I will deny that it was true. Now go on. They did not torture her but continued to harass her with questions. They said she should not wear a man's dress as she did. She answered that when among many in war it was better and more proper. Once during the trial she seemed to hear her voices and stopped speaking suddenly. Then after listening a moment she said before seven years are passed the English will lose a greater stake than they have lost at Orleans. They will lose everything in France. This prophecy came true as we know. At last on May 24th, 1431 her judges took Joan to the graveyard of the Church of Euan at Rouen. There was a stake in faggots already for the burning and they said that she would be burned to death and thus she signed a paper saying that she would wear woman's dress and would submit to the judges. She said that she would be willing to do this if she would receive pardon. But as Joan could not read the judges substituted another paper for her to make her marcon. On this paper was a statement that her saints were evil spirits and that she had done all sorts of wrong things. She was still a prisoner of the English and they kept her in prison. Her jailers by trickery induced her to put on her man's dress once more. When she had done this she was judged to have relapsed. This was the greatest crime and she was sentenced to death. On May 30th, 1431 she was burned to death in the marketplace of Rouen. Eight hundred soldiers surrounded the stake for fear that someone might attempt to save her. Only one kind priest who pitied her brought across and held it before her eyes while she was burning. In 1436 a woman appeared who said she was Joan of Arc escaped from the flames. Many people believed her but afterward she confessed to being an imposter. On July 7th, 1456 the Pope revoked the sentence passed on the maid. In February 1903 a formal proposal was entered for her canonization and on December 13th, 1908 she was made a saint. Aside from the story of the Christ there is none in history which offers so complete a picture of the heights and depths of human character as that of Joan of Arc. So perfect is its symbolism that one coming for the first time to the records of the world might well believe it was the invention of some consummate master of the intricacies of human nature intent on showing to men the extremes of evil and of good of which they are capable. The doorway to the house full of subtleties and mysteries as the story is there is none in history more perfectly documented. We have not merely the proofs of what the holy maid claimed to be and what she did but the details of her childhood the inmost experiences of her spiritual and physical life and these events and experiences stand on the evidences of not one but of many of those who were with her from her birth on January 6th, 1412 in the little village of Dom Rémy some 125 miles southeast of Paris to the day 19 years later when before the eyes of a great multitude of the people of Rouen she was burned at the stake. She suffered her fate because a body of eminent lawyers and divines had found that she was as their restrained and Christian language has it a liar an inventor of revelations and apparitions a deceiver pernicious presumptuous light of faith rash superstitious a soothsayer a blasphemer against God and his saints a contemner of God even in his sacraments a pervericator of divine law and of sacred doctrines and ecclesiastical sanction seditious cruel apostate schismatic having committed a thousand errors against religion and by all these tokens rashly guilty towards God and Holy Church the voices the girl against whom these vindictive and hysterical charges were made was of peasant origin not yet 20 years of age and knew not A from B she had come to her cruel end because from the time she was 13 she had heard voices the voices of saints which she never had doubted had come from God and had never failed to obey though the orders they gave her were so extraordinary that they had at the beginning filled her with terror she had wept and pled her youth her ignorance her unfitness for the mission on which they would send her it was an amazing mission nothing less than to save France from the clutches of England her instructions were detailed she was to go to the governor of a nearby town and ask for an escort to conduct her to Charles the 7th who called himself king of France though he had never been crowned she was to go to Charles and announce herself as sent by God to raise the siege of Orleans and to conduct him to Reims where he was to be crowned the English in the end were to be driven from all France the voices assured her to Joan of Arc this mission was of supremist importance she lived in the path of war and like many a Belgian, a French or a Polish girl of today she had seen her village sacked her family and her friends obliged to flee saving what they could Dom Raimi lived in constant danger of the Burgundian allies of England and of all the pitiless riffraff war breeds Joan was an ardent patriot and suffered with her country she loved her king too looking on him as sent of God to rescue him was the noblest work which one could be given after the first revolt she accepted the call without misgivings it was not for her to question voices sent by God the key to the career of Joan of Arc is this unfaltering confidence she did things from the start utterly preposterous by human standards of conduct what more unlikely of success than that the governor of a tormented district should turn over for the asking to a child of 17 of whom he had never heard and escort to take her to the king of the land yet the governor of Eau Collure did this not on the first or second asking to be sure but on the third and Joan had never doubted that she would get her escort the voices had told me it would be thus the maid and the king her mind was so full of the command laid upon her that once accepted nothing could divert or frighten her one might expect a girl of her origin to be awestruck at the thought of presenting herself before a court and a king but not Joan she passed unabashed through the throng that had gathered to witness her first meeting with Charles and kneeling told him composedly most noble Lord Dauphine I am come and am sent to you from God to give sucker to the kingdom and to you she won Charles from the start for he was much of a person in spite of his vacillating and his weakness and he answered to the nobility of her call she won the better part of his court and as for the people they flocked to her she was sent to be examined by experts in law and religion for without assurance that her voices were indeed from God Charles did not dare risk it Joan might of course be what the English and the cynical of the court clared a witch and her voices of the devil for six weeks the girl was questioned by the ablest lawyers and churchmen of the kingdom a selected body of women gave her a physical examination the end of it was complete justification it is found and hereby declared that Joan of Arc called the maid is a Christian and a Catholic and that there is nothing in her presence or her words contrary to the faith and that the king may and ought to accept the sucker she offers for to be pellet would be to offend the holy spirit and render him unworthy of the aid of God before this ratification all opposition to Joan fell she was proclaimed by the king as one sent by God to a system she was given armor a guard soldiers and under her orders a theatrical campaign was conducted Orleans fell before her though it was so invested that Charles had ceased to hope for its recovery the winning of Orleans converted some who had doubted her in spite of learned jurists and theologians it was with them as with Doulan her steward it was not possible for so young a maid to do such things without the will and guidance of our Lord those who because of personal ambition did not believe in her those who hated her purity and the habits of restraint and temperance she imposed on the army those who called her which still did not dare oppose her openly she might be from God and whether she was or not she was in the saddle adored of the people supported by the king a terror to the English coronation of Charles the 7th the complete ascendancy Joan of Arc had won in France in two months from the time of her first interview with the king lasted from the fall of Orleans to the coronation of Charles at Reims on July 17th 1429 the March which proceeded the crowning was most of it through land which the English held there were sieges and battles dangers and escapes it was managed by the maid with a calm authority and unwavering reliance on her voices which lifted her even in the minds of her most cynical associates quite out of the ranks of human leaders she was a greater general than them all she foresaw all she never feared nor hesitated and she a girl of 17 she must be of God and when finally the impossible had been accomplished and in spite of English Burgundians and the plotters Charles was crowned there were few of the French who even secretly denied her claim how could they when all she foretold promptly came true it was by the success or failure of their prophesying that men of those days judged largely whether one came from God or not it was because she told the governor of Valkylaure of a distant battle on the day it occurred and days before the news could reach him that he finally yielded to her demands for an escort it was because she selected the king from a throng in which he mingled and told him that which no one but he knew that he accepted her she had said that she would be wounded at Orléans and she was she had warned a wicked fellow that he would be dead shortly and he was who could deny the holy origin of such a maid certainly not the average man or woman of the 15th century certainly not the loyal and devout French she suckered as for the English who fled before her they acknowledged her powers but they declared them to be of the devil as was natural since they were the sufferers the character of Joan but outside of her divine guidance and her unquestionable military and political genius Joan of Arc had human qualities calculated to make even the roughest of men love and respect her peasant though she was she was beautiful to see this fresh untouched young girl with the flame of inspiration in her eye and the authority of the divine in her bearing clad in her pure white armor and mounted on a war horse as spirited as the best of them must have been a sight to stir the heart her sympathy for the afflicted poor of the country was as genuine as her devotion to the king they knew it and no little of her power came from their perception there was no shadow of self-seeking in her she never asked honor or wealth or pleasure there were clever and designing ones who sought to trap her with such bubbles a well-known and usually quite successful method of sidetracking troublesome people with ideas of their own but Joan was quite outside of all worldliness it looked small and thin to one who consorted with saints and followed the orders of the most high what she took of the gifts showered upon her she gave to the poor when at the coronation the king told her to ask what she would she asked that Dom Rémy be freed forever from taxes she was devout no Catholic in France was more faithful to the church no one partook of its holy mysteries with more humility or with more worship in his heart but good and devout and charitable as she was she was no colorless person there are numerous delightful human outbreaks recorded in the documents of her life she wept like an ordinary girl when she received her first wound she flew often into a passion when her commands had been disobeyed she was particularly hard on the wanton women who followed the camp often herself chasing them off once she broke a sword over the head of one and again killed one by the blow she gave she guarded her own divine prerogative with quite human jealousy as there were many women prophesying in those days a company of them were enlisted to help the king after Joan's first success Joan never liked them folly and futility was her characterization of the work of the most prominent of these women Catherine de la Rochelle send her home to her husband and children was her order a common enough point of view of the maid who has made a career for herself and sees a married woman seeking to do the same however in Catherine's case Joan suspected fraud and there seems to have been reason the end of her mission and capture with the crowning of the king at Reims Joan seemed to feel that her mission was at an end she was homesick when she saw her father and those who had come from Dom Reimi to witness her miraculous elevation she prayed Charles to release her to send her back to her spinning and her flocks, her mother and her friends but she was too precious at the moment the king and his councillors would have more of her aid but they wanted it without admitting her to their councils and without heeding the order she gave as coming from her voices she was severe and outspoken about this treatment truces have been made she wrote once to the people of Reims that are not pleasing to me and I know not whether I shall keep them but if I keep them it will be solely to maintain the king's honour after Reims there followed campaigns in which she had little or no support treaties of which she did not approve intrigues which though she frequently divined and frustrated them slowly produced their effect on king and people she failed in September to take Paris though she had been as confident that it would fall as that Orleans would she scandalized at the church by attacking it on the anniversary of the birth of the Virgin Mary she was sorely wounded too in this attack and had to be carried from the field it hurt her prestige in the winter following the failure to take Paris Joan wrought many marvels in the war country in which the king had retreated the greatest was that among doubters and flatterers and in spite of intrigue and discouragement she kept her purpose clear her confidence unshaken she was still Joan the maid sent by God to drive the English from all France but she was no longer a maid with full power over the king she stood it until spring then the certainty that there was danger of losing all champagne led her to set out with a band of perhaps a hundred horse and still fewer archers her objective Compiègne which the Duke of Burgundy was threatening it was the thirteenth of May when she reached Compiègne the aid she rendered seemed futile enough at this distance the truth was Joan had no knowledge of the situation and could have no plans for relief she was not admitted into the councils of those who defended the town for her attack on Orleans and her march on Reims she had had the knowledge which during three years of devout belief in her mission she had collected unconsciously no doubt but at Compiègne she had nothing but her voices she had almost full command from Orleans to Reims now she was little more in the minds of the commanding officers than a painted saint of bejeweled reliquary to be used on their salleys and in their attacks the result was her capture it came in a moment when she was crying go forward they are ours though as a matter of fact all of the French but her and her little guard had fled if in the few months Joan of Arc held sway over the minds of the French king and his people she showed as none outside of the Christ have ever shown the divinity in man and its power to elevate human nature surely that which followed is as perfect an illustration of the devil tree in the human heart and what it can do to corrupt and harden men never were human minds so put to it to prove a saintly thing evil all the learning that was in the University of Paris all the authority there was in the church and state in the part of the world where Joan was finally taken for trial was summoned to find out not the truth they had no interest in the truth but plausible reasons for declaring her a heretic the orders from the English government were that she should not be allowed to die saved by what they called the hand of justice that is she must be proved to be of the devil this was the business of the church trial and torture and death at this noble work there now was set a band of some sixty of the most learned and distinguished scholars judges and ministers in the land there was an occasional one for whom the work was too abominable one such declared boldly that to force this simple girl to reply without guidance to such great doctors to so many masters was mocking justice they mean to catch her was his verdict I will stay no longer I cannot witness it and indeed they did mean to catch her but what a chase she gave them I doubt if there is such a test of wit and courage and faith in all the history of disputation at every point they taxed their devilish ingenuity to put her at a disadvantage they drained her physical strength by abominable prison conditions Joan had been a captive for seven months when she was finally taken to ruin to trial in the dungeon tower room given her it is said she was at first chained in an iron cage in which it was impossible to stand erect certain it is that shackles were always on her feet a chain round her waist by which she was padlocked to a beam five English guards slept in her room jeering at and insulting her it was in this room they came to her with promises bribes flatteries and threats it was from here that she went in chains in February 1431 for six public examinations by the sixty or more doctors and lawyers these open meetings proved too damaging to her judges she was too truthful to unafraid too confident in God and her voices the subtlety of some of her answers confused and shamed the most relentless of her examiners they had that overpowering quality which the direct unadulterated truth gives what chance in the long run has a university dialectician before the truth they took her to close chambers and hardly did better they went to her when she was ill and likely to die but they could not touch this clean white thing it slipped through their fingers like a ray of light and on what unimportant matters they badgered her her dress for one the trial seems at points to have been hung on the crime of her wearing man's apparel dress is but a little thing less than nothing she told them they threatened her finally with torture if she did not reply to question she said her voices had forbidden her to answer in the very torture chamber with the horrid irons before her eyes she cried verily if you were to tear my limbs asunder and drive my soul out of my body not else would I tell you and if I did say anything unto you I would always maintain afterward that you dragged it from me by force for months this unbelievable torment went on until finally lost in the maze they had prepared for her worn by confinement and incessant mental and physical strain she broke under the threat of burning a child's horror of a fate she had persuaded herself God would not permit her voices had deceived her she signed the deed of abjuration they had prepared for her only to find it did not mean what she thought back in her prison her courage and her confidence reasserted themselves and she recanted all that I said I uttered through fear of fire and I recanted nothing that was not contrary to the truth I had leave her do my penance once and for all to it by dying then endure further anguish in prison whatsoever abjuration I have been forced to make I never did anything against God in religion I did not understand what was in the deed of abjuration wherefore I did not mean to abjure anything unless it were our Lord's will it was this that caught her such as the dexterity of the human intellect bent on proving that which is good to be evil Joan had been pronounced a heretic she had confessed to being one so they declared now she recanted the holy church could have nothing to do with some monstrous creature at last the learned doctors had unimpeachable authority for turning her over to the English who now had the undeniable right of burning her alive they lost no time it was on a Tuesday May 29 that she was declared a relapsed heretic it was on the morning of the following day that she died by fire a rough wooden cross fashioned at her request by a pitying English soldier was on her breast the words Jesus Jesus on her lips on her head was a great fools cap on which was written heretic relapse apostate idolatry end of chapter nine