PLACE DE LA PUCELLE, ROUEN.

THE SQUARE IN WHICH THE MAID, JOAN OF ARC, WAS BURNT, WITH
THE FOUNTAIN RAISED TO HER MEMORY.

before me; but I afterwards placed in it a representation of the ancient fountain, copied from a print, thinking that a view of that would be more acceptable than the modern statue. You may see it on the opposite page.

Having made a beginning, I slacked not in my diligence, and, as I went on my way, sketch-book and note-book were my constant companions; and as I scribbled away, sometimes in the midst of a wood, on the bank of a brawling stream, at others in a little road-side auberge, in the noisy crowded café, or in the solitude of my own silent room, the only tranquil part of a large bustling hotel, I often looked up from my work, forgetting I was writing instead of talking, and listened to catch a question or exclamation in the voices of those who were far away. Then consoling myself with the reflection that soon I might not listen in vain

for the tones I loved so much, I went on cheerfully.-Now I present my work to you, trusting that the fruits of my travel will prove neither useless nor disagreeable.

THE STORY OF JOAN OF ARC.

17

CHAPTER II.

SIR PETER DE CRAON ATTEMPTS TO MURDER THE CONSTABLE CLISSON.-KING CHARLES IS SEIZED WITH MADNESS.

To tell my tale aright, it will be necessary to go back as far as the year 1392, thirty-seven years before my heroine, the ill-fated Maid of Orleans, entered upon her noble task. King Charles the Sixth of France was then in the twelfth year of his reign, and the twenty-fifth of his age; and his kingdom was, for those troublesome times, in a prosperous condition. The English, although they still retained possession of Calais, Bayonne, and Bordeaux, and from time to time made expeditions into other parts of France, were too much taken up with disturbances at home to make regular war or attempt further conquest, and from