couleurs, and informed him of her divine mission. The governor, influenced either by superstition or policy, sent her immediately to Chinon, where the French king then resided. Being introduced to the king, she immediately offered, in the name of the great Creator of heaven and earth, to raise the siege of Orleans, and to reinstate him in his kingdom, by conducting him to Rheims, to be anointed and crowned.

4. The king and court, perceiving that she might be made an useful instrument in this crisis of difficulty and danger, resolved to adopt the illusion; and an excellent plan was contrived to give it weight in the minds of the people. An assembly of divines examined her mission, and pronounced it supernatural; a jury of matrons declared her an unspotted virgin; and every story that craft could invent, or ignorance believe, was used to attest the reality of her inspiration. It was every where published, that when first introduced to the king, whom she had never before seen, she instantly knew him, although purposely divested of every mark that might distinguish him from the rest of the assembly; and that she demanded, as the instrument of her future victories, a sword of a particular kind, which was kept in the church of St. Catharine de Fierbois, and which, though she had never seen it, she minutely described. It was universally asserted, and as universally believed, that heaven had déclared in favour of Charles, and laid bare its outstretched arm to take vengeance of his enemies.

5. The minds of men being thus prepared, the maid was mounted on horseback, arrayed in all the habiliments of war, and shown to the people, who received her with the loudest acclamations. The English at first affected to treat this farce with derision; but their imagination was secretly struck; and superstition, ingrafted on ignorance, is irresistible. Feeling their courage abated, they conceived themselves to be under the influence of divine vengeance; and a general consternation took place among those troops, which, before this event, were elated with victory, and fearless of danger. The maid, at the head of a convoy, arrayed

in martial habiliments, and displaying a consecrated standard, entered Orleans, and was received as a celestial deliverer. But the count de Dunois, who commanded in the place, sensible of the difficulty of carrying on this farce, as well as of its importance, and of the dangerous consequences of any event that might detect its fallacy, did not deviate from the regular rules of war, nor suffer his mode of operations to be directed by enthusiasm.

6. He represented to her, that when heaven favours a cause, the divine will requires that the best human means should be used, to correspond with celestial aid. Thus, while she seemed to conduct every thing, she acted under his direction; and, by his instruction, she defeated the English in several desperate sallies, drove them from their intrenchments, and compelled them to raise the siege. This event gave validity to her pretensions, and confirmed the general opinion of her divine mission. The French were more elated, and the English more dismayed.

7. The raising of the siege of Orleans was one part of her promise to Charles; the other, which was his coronation at Rheims, yet remained to be performed, and appeared a work of some difficulty. Rheims was in a distant part of the kingdom, and in the hands of a victorious enemy. The whole country through which it was necessary to pass, was occupied by the English, who filled all the fortified places with garrisons. It was, however, deemed expedient to maintain the belief of something supernatural in those events. Charles, therefore, resolved to avail himself of the consternation of the enemy, and to follow his prophetic conductress. He accordingly began his march towards Rheims, at the head of twelve thousand men. English troops were every where petrified with terror; every city and fortress surrendered without resistance. Rheims opened its gates, and he was anointed and crowned, A. D. 1430, amidst the loudest acclamations.

The

8. The maid of Orleans now declared that her mission was concluded; but by the persuasions of the king,

she consented to remain in his service. This determination, however, proved fatal to the heroine. Having imprudently thrown herself into Compeigne, then be sieged by the English, she was taken prisoner in making a sortie. Policy, superstition, and vengeance, concur red in procuring her destruction. The duke of Bedford was desirous of dispelling an illusion which converted the English into cowards, and the French into heroes. The measures which he took for that purpose have disgraced his name in the eyes of an enlightened posterity, but they were perfectly in unison with the superstitious spirit of that age. By his order, she was tried by an ecclesiastical court, on charges of impiety, heresy, and sorcery. Her ignorant or iniquitous judges found her guilty of all these crimes; and this enthusiastic, but admirable patriot and heroine, whose life and conduct had been irreproachable, was consigned to the flames.

9. The revolution produced by the maid of Orleans is perhaps the most singular that has occurred in any age or country, and her character and pretensions have been a subject of dispute among historians and divines. While the French writers affirmed that she was commissioned of God, and the English considered her as an agent of the devil, national prejudice, united with superstition, directed their opinion. An accuratę knowledge of the human mind, and of political history, will solve the problem, without having recourse to any thing of a miraculous nature. Some have supposed that the whole affair originated in the court, and that Joan d' Arc was from the very first instructed in the part that she was to act. Pope Pius II. seems to have inclined to this opinion.

10. But from her examination before the judges, in which she declares that she had frequently heard voices, and been favoured with visits by St. Catharine and St. Margaret, it appears that she was a deranged visionary, that the whole affair had originated from her own disordered imagination, and that the king and court considered her as an instrument that might be of use, and could be of no prejudice, in their situation, which

already appeared desperate, availed themselves of the illusion, and seconded it by imposture. On these principles, this extraordinary affair, the discussion of which has employed so many pens, is easily explained; and sound reason, untinctured with superstition, will readily conclude, that the celebrated maid of Orleans was neither saint nor sorceror, but a visionary enthusiast. The whole transaction was nothing more than a seasonable and successful concurrence of enthusiasm in the maid, of political craft in the court, and of superstitious credulity in the people, all which are far from being miraculous circumstances.

11. After the execution of the unfortunate maid, the illusion vanished; but, as if heaven had resolved to mark with disapprobation this act of inhuman barbarity, the affairs of the English grew every day more unsuccessful. The duke of Burgundy deserted their interests; the duke of Bedford soon after died; and the French were every where victorious. Paris surrendered to their arms on Low Sunday, 1436, after having been fourteen years in the possession of the English. Normandy and Guienne, with Bordeaux, its capital, were conquered, and the English forever expelled from France, with the single exception of Calais; which they still retained, as a solitary monument of their former greatness on the continent.

QUESTIONS.

1. Who were competitors for the crown of France on the death of Charles VI?-2. What city seemed to present the most formidable obstacle to the final success of Henry VI?-3. What singular character came to the aid of Charles VII. when Orleans was besieged?-4. What had been her situation, as to rank and employment?-5. What promise did she make to the French king? 6. Were her services accepted?-7. What was thought of the maid of Orleans by the French?-8. What was thought of her by the English?-9. What method did the count de Dunois take with her?-10. Did she accomplish her promise to the king?-11. What induced her to remain in the king's service, after finishing her mission, as she termed it?-12. What was the consequence of her continuing in it?-13. Of what crimes was she accused by the English?-14. What was done with

her?-15. What opinion did pópe Pius and some others entertain concerning her?-16. On what principle can the whole of this extraordinary affair be accounted for?-17. When did Paris surrender to the French arms?-18. How long was it in the hands of the English.

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA.

1. It has been believed by many, that America was not unknown to the ancients; and from certain passages in the works of some of the writers of antiquity, as well as coincidences in the languages and customs of some nations of the old and new continent, plausible reasons have been advanced in favour of the theory. Whatever knowledge, however, the inhabitants of Europe possessed of America, no traces of it existed at the period of the revival of letters; it was generally supposed that the Canaries, or Fortunate Islands, formed the western boundary of their world. For the correction of this error, and the discovery of a new continent, mankind are indebted to the genius and enterprise of Christopher Colon, a native of Genoa, better known to us by the name of Christopher Columbus. From a long and close application to the study of geography, this great man had obtained a knowledge of the true figure ́of the earth, far beyond what was common to the age in which he lived. Another continent, he conceived, necessarily existed, to complete the balance of the terraqueous globe; but he erroneously conceived it to be connected with that of India. This error arose from the con struction of the maps of that period, which represented the oriental countries of Asia as stretching vastly further to the east, than actual observation has proved them to extend.

2. Having fully satisfied himself with the theoretical truth of his system, his adventurous spirit made him eager to verify it by experiment. For this purpose he applied to the senate of Genoa, developing his views, and representing the advantages which would accrue to the republic from the possession of a new route to