The Fearless Maid of France
Joan of Arc was a peasant girl from eastern France, a well-built, strong country girl of about seventeen, who was called Jenny in Lorraine and ‘the Maid’ by the soldiers. She was extremely confident: she walked into Captain Robert’s presence and simply told him to give her a horse, armour and soldiers, and even planned the cost and the escort herself. She was courageous; the captain’s glare could not frighten her, and his servants said she did not seem afraid of anything. Her optimism came from her deep faith in God – she believed that nothing is difficult if God is on your side. She was determined and would not take no for an answer; though Robert had refused to see her, she managed to meet him and finally won his consent. Above all, she was a true patriot who wanted to teach French soldiers to fight for France rather than for their own skins, and who dreamt of a France without a single English soldier. Her words put fire into others like Poulengey. She was simple, kind to the poor and inspiring – truly, as Poulengey said, “a bit of a miracle”.