Joan of Arc

Clemens, who as a rule censored Mark's manuscript, tooth-combed it, as he called it, cutting out such gems as the affairs of the cat who had a family in every port.

Mark told me that when he got through with Joan of Arc, he would tackle this here Elizabeth proposition, a person full of placid egotism and obsessed with self-importance, he called her.

"If I do Elizabeth half as well as I intend to do Joan and did the Prince and Pauper, I will have three serious books to my credit, and after that I will be damned, thrice damned," Elizabeth would have said, "if I allow anybody to take me for a mere fun-maker." He gave me some more instructions, talking at random mostly, and paid me in advance for the work I was to do.

Twenty-four hours later, I landed at Victoria Station, London, for having business in Antwerp, I had traveled via Holland.

Section 56 of Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field by H. W. Fisher.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

Kings in Their Birthday Suits Two things Mark Twain was especially concerned about, the success of his Joan of Arc, which he considered his best work, and the possibility of getting King Leopold hanged.

Leopold and the Tsar were his special bête noire.

The editor, of course, was Mrs. Clemens, who as a rule censored Mark's manuscript, tooth-combed it, as he called it, cutting out such gems as the affairs of the cat who had a family in every port.

Mark told me that when he got through with Joan of Arc, he would tackle this here Elizabeth proposition, a person full of placid egotism and obsessed with self-importance, he called her.

"If I do Elizabeth half as well as I intend to do Joan and did The Prince and Pauper, I will have three serious books to my credit, and after that I will be damned, thrice damned, Elizabeth would have said, if I allow anybody to take me for a mere fun-maker." He gave me some more instructions, talking at random mostly, and paid me in advance for the work I was to do.

Twenty-four hours later I landed at Victoria Station, London, for having business in Antwerp I had travelled via Holland.

Kings in their birthday suits.

Two things Mark Twain was especially concerned about.

The success of his Joan of Arc, which he considered his best work, and the possibility of getting King Leopold hanged.

Leopold and the Tsar were his special bete noire.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

Chapter two, The Problem of Jeanne d'Arc.

In 1410-12, France was in the most dreadful condition that has ever affected any nation.

For nearly 80 years, England had been at her throat in a quarrel which to our minds simply exemplifies the difference between law and justice.

Anatole France has pricked the bubble of the chroniclers and of the journal of the Siege of Orleans.

But there is so much of pathological interest to be found in the reports of the trials that I need no excuse for a brief study of them in that respect.

The record of the life of Jeanne d'Arc is all too short, and the main facts are not in dispute.

It is the interpretation of these facts that is in dispute.

Her hair was long, and it appears that she used to wear it long and flowing in the house.

It was not so very long since Joan of Arc had been burnt largely because she went about without a wimple, and Mistress Anne's conduct with regard to her hair was probably worse in those days than for a girl to be seen smoking cigarettes when driving a motor car today.

At any rate, she acquired demerit by it, and everybody was on the lookout for more serious false steps.

The truth seems to be, so far as one can ascertain truth from reports which, even if unprejudiced, came from people who knew nothing about a woman's art, that she was a bold and ambitious girl who laid herself out to capture Henry and succeeded.

These things were put to the account of her light and frivolous nature, and have probably weighed heavily with posterity in attempting to judge her case.

But it is clear that they were merely manifestations of hysteria.

Joan of Arc, whose character was probably the direct antithesis of Anne Boleyn's, laughed when she heard the news of her reprieve.

Some people think she laughed ironically, as though a very simple peasant girl could be ironical if she tried.

Yes, Phil was really smitten with Jenny.

And now, the admired of the most famous general of horse- defies the world to become an acknowledged royal mistress and her sprig of royalty the black sheep of a crowned family by no means lily-white at that she reminds me of old field marshal prince de ligne making love to a very young girl and succeeding or nearly succeeding before he had time to reflect a million cried the field marshal if i was a lieutenant now end of phil sheridan's friend section nine of abroad with mark twain and eugene field by h w fisher this librivox recording is in the public domain elizabeth was a he said mark mark my word elizabeth was a he said clemens when i was starting for london the end of june eighteen ninety four leaving the clemenses at the normandy paris and when you have a little time in england i wish you would look up all that pesky question for me not in westminster abbey i cried in alarm now don't you try to be gay said mark it's bad enough if i got that reputation when i want to be taken seriously i know they haven't got through ascertaining for the teenth time whether charles the first really lost his head when his overbearing noodle dropped into the basket on the scaffold opposite the horse guards you showed me the spot yourself i don't want any ghoulish work done just go to the british museum and every other library and nose up everything appertaining to queen elizabeth's manly character you get the authorities for a consideration of course and i'll do the rest then you go down surrey way and find a place or castle or summer house called overcourt or something that's where elizabeth lived in her teens and metamorphosed into a boy but the editor will never allow you to write on such a subject better let me do it not on your life said mark it's my discovery and i'm paying you for the work you do just as the new york world and the sun do when you come down to hard tacks you will find that there are no questionable proceedings whatever just an exchange of babies as in the old time operas troubadour and the rest the editor will have no kick coming the editor of course was mrs clemens who as a rule censored mark's manuscript tooth combed it as he called it cutting out such gems as the affairs of the cat who had a family in every port mark told me that when he got through with joan of arc he would tackle this here elizabeth proposition a person full of placid egotism and obsessed with self-importance he called her if i do elizabeth half as well as i intend to do joan and did the prince and pauper i will have three serious books to my credit and after that i will be damned thrice damned elizabeth would have said if i allow anybody to take me for a mere fun-maker he gave me some more instructions talking at random mostly and paid me in advance for the work i was to do twenty-four hours later i landed at victoria station london for having business in antwerp i had traveled via holland a foreign correspondent that was my trade then is shifted merrily from one place to another so it happened that i went back to france after a fortnight in england or even sooner the clemenses were packing and i had mark all to myself for an hour or so what made you first doubt the virgin queen's sex i asked never mind her gorgeous swearing maybe what did you find out in surrey i duly reported that i had gone to overcourt with a friend had explored the queen elizabeth's chambers the woods and countryside and had interviewed a lot of old and some young gossips with this result elizabeth i was told came to overcourt when a child of four or five as a young person supposed to be elizabeth that is the daughter of anne boleyn and henry the eighth left there some ten years later when the princess was seven or eight king henry who was attending parliament had promised to come and see his little girl two weeks hence overcourt is within easy riding distance of london but even as they were preparing to give hal ought to be hell interpolated mark a rousing reception to feed the brood in particular elizabeth was suddenly attacked by malignant fever and died there was only one in the know her grace's governess i gave her name to mark but have quite forgotten it I remember, though, that she remained in the royal service for some forty years afterwards.

In fact, that she and Elizabeth never separated while both lived.

I can imagine how that poor woman felt, commented Mark.

Section 56 of Abroad with Mark Twain and Eugene Field by H. W. Fisher.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.

Kings in Their Birthday Suits Two things Mark Twain was especially concerned about, the success of his Joan of Arc, which he considered his best work, and the possibility of getting King Leopold hanged.

Leopold and the Tsar were his special bête noire.

What's so special about the place?

So take, for instance, the Joan of Arc Chapel in Milwaukee.

Okay.

No, Joan of

Arc.

Okay.

Joan of Arc.

I wasn't expecting that.

This LibriVox recording is in the public domain, read by Pamela Nagami.

Chapter seven, part two, The Siege of Orléans, Joan of Arc.

By the ability and vigor of the Duke of Bedford's administration, the English not only succeeded in maintaining their conquests for several years, but even gained ground upon their enemies.

For a time, they made themselves undisputed masters of nearly the whole territory north of the Loire, and in the summer of 1428, it was determined to make one great effort to drive the forces of Charles south of that river.

In the month of February 1429, about the very time that Sir John Fastolf disconcerted the attempt of the French to surprise his convoy of herrings, a young woman in a remote province of France presented herself before the commanding officer of the district, declaring that she had a divine commission to succor Orléans and to conduct King Charles to Reims to be crowned after the manner of his ancestors.

The name of this enthusiast was Jeanne d'Arc, or as some French antiquaries prefer to write it, d'Arc.

But for ages the French themselves have spelt it with an apostrophe, and in English we have been accustomed to call her Joan of Arc.

She was a native of the village of Domrémy on the Meuse in the Duchy of Bar on the borders of Lorraine.

And man himself is a small blue smudge, no larger than a foresight, crawling and creeping, or watching and running, among all these terrific symbols.

TRAGEDY OF REAMS there is no hieroglyphic for reams no blunting of the mind at the abominations committed on the cathedral there the thing peers upwards maimed and blinded from out of the utter wreckage of the archbishop's palace on the one side and dust-heaps of crumbled houses on the other they shelled they still shell it with high explosives and with incendiary shells so that the statues and the stonework in places are burned the colour of raw flesh gargoyles are smashed statues crockets and spires tumbled walls split and torn windows thrust out and tracery obliterated wherever one looks at the tortured pile there is mutilation and defilement and yet it had never more of a soul than it has to-day inside cover yourselves gentlemen said the sacristan this place is no longer consecrated Everything is swept clear or burnt out from end to end, except two candlesticks in front of the niche where Joan of Arc's image used to stand.

There is a French flag there now, and the last time I saw Ream's Cathedral was in a spring twilight, when the great west window glowed, and the only lights within were those of candles which some penitent English had lit in Joan's honour on those same candlesticks.

The high altar was covered with floor carpets.