625 With mingled dust and blood, and broken arms, Feel their own strength; against the English troops They rise, they conquer, and to their liege lord 635 Present the city keys. The morn was fair When Rheims re-echoed to the busy hum Of multitudes, for high solemnity Assembled. To the holy fabric moves 639 The long procession, through the streets bestrewn And worthy of eternal memory, 645 For they, in the most perilous times of France, 650 Despair'd not of their country. By the king 655 At Rheims for baptism; dubious since that day, When Tolbiac plain reek'd with his warrior's blood, And fierce upon their flight the Almanni prest, 661 And rear'd the shout of triumph; in that hour Clovis invoked aloud the Christian God And conquer'd: waked to wonder thus, the chief Became love's convert, and Clotilda led Her husband to the font. The mission'd Maid 665 Then placed on Charles's brow the crown of France, 670 She wept aloud. The assembled multitude King of France!" She cried, "At Chinon, when my gifted eye Knew thee disguised, what inwardly the spirit Prompted, I promised, with the sword of God, To drive from Orleans far the English wolves, 680 And crown thee in the rescued walls of Rheims. Of Whom thou holdest thine authority Will take account; from Him all power derives. 685 690 695 Thou may'st create. I do beseech thee, King!" 701 By Whom appointed! If thou dost oppress Thy people, if to aggrandize thyself Thou tear'st them from their homes, and sendest them To slaughter, prodigal of misery; 706 If when the widow and the orphan groan In want and wretchedness, thou turnest thee To hear the music of the flatterer's tongue; If when thou hear'st of thousands who have fallen. Thou say'st, I am a King! and fit it is 711 That these should perish for me;'.. if thy realm Should, through the counsels of thy government, 715 Iniquity prevail; if Avarice grind The poor; if discipline be utterly Relax'd, Vice charter'd, Wickedness let loose; 720 Yet at the Judgement-day, from those to whom But guarded then by loyalty and love, 725 729 True hearts, Good Angels, and All-seeing Heaven." Thus spake the Maid of Orleans, solemnly Accomplishing her marvellous mission here. "Lewes duke of Orleance murthered in Paris, by Jhon duke of Burgoyne, was owner of the castle of Concy, on the frontiers of Fraunce toward Arthoys, whereof he made constable the lord of Cauny, a man not so wise as his wife was faire, and yet she was not so faire, but she was as well beloved of the duke of Orleance, as of her husband. Betwene the duke and her husband (I cannot tell who was father), she conceived a child, and brought furthe a prety boye called Jhon, whiche child beying of the age of one yere, the duke deceased, and not long after the mother and the lord of Cawny ended their lives. The next of kynne to the lord Cawny chalenged the inheritaunce, which was worth foure thousande crounes a yere, alledgyng that the boye was a bastard: and the kynred of the mother's side, for to save her honesty, it plainly denied. In conclusion, this matter was in contencion before the presidentes of the parliament of Paris, and there hang in controversie till the child came to the age of eight years old. At whiche tyme it was demanded of hym openly whose sonne he was; his frendes of his mother's side advertised hym to require a day, to be advised of so great an answer, whiche.he asked, and to hym it was granted. In the mean season, his said frendes persuaded him to claime his inheritance as sonne to the lorde of Cawny, whiche was an honorable livyng, and an auncient patrimony, affirming that if he said contrary, he not only slaundered his mother, shamed hymself, and stained his bloud, but also should have no livyng, nor any thing to take to. |