8. Her father, somewhat wiser than his neighbors, said, “I tell thee, Joan, it is thy fancy. Thou hadst better have a kind husband to take care of thee, girl, and work to employ thy mind."

9. But Joan told him, in reply, that she had taken a vow never to have a husband, and that she must go as Heaven had directed her, to help the Dauphin.

10. It happened that, while Joan's disorder was at this point, a party of the Dauphin's enemies found their way into the village, and burned the chapel, and drove out the inhabitants. The cruelties she saw committed touched Joan's heart and made her worse.

11. She said that the voices and figures were now continually with her. They told her she was the girl who, according to an old prophecy, was to deliver France; that she must go and help the Dauphin, and must remain with him till he should be crowned at Rheims. They told her that she must travel a long way to a certain nobleman, who would bring her into the Dauphin's presence.

12. She set out to find this lord. As her father would not go with her, still saying, "Joan, it is thy fancy," she was accompanied by an uncle, a poor village wheelwright, who believed in the reality of her visions.

13. After traveling a great distance over a rough country full of enemies and robbers, they came to where the nobleman was. When he learned that a peasant girl wished to see him because she was commanded to help the Dauphin and save France he burst into a laugh, and bade the attendants send the girl away.

14. But he soon heard so much about her lingering in the town, and praying in the churches, and seeing visions, that he sent for ler and questioned her.

15. After the examination he thought it worth while to send her on to the Dauphin. So he bought her a horse and a sword, and gave her two squires to conduct her.

16. As the voices had told Joan that she was to wear a man's dress, she now put one on, and girded her sword to her side, and bound spurs to her heels. She then mounted her horse, and rode away with her squires, her uncle staring at her in wonder till she was out of sight.

17. When she arrived at the place in which the Dauphin was, she was, after some hesitation, admitted into his presence. She is said to have pointed him out immediately, though she had never seen him before, and he had chosen a dress to deceive her. The Dauphin also declared that she told him secrets known to himself only.

18. She said there was in a certain cathedral of Saint Catharine a very old sword, marked with crosses on the blade, and that Saint Catharine had ordered her to wear it. Nobody knew anything of

this old sword; but the cathedral being immediately examined, there, sure enough, the sword was found.

19. The Dauphin then required a number of grave priests and bishops to give him their opinion whether the girl derived her power from good spirits or from evil spirits. These decided that Joan of Arc was inspired from Heaven.

20. This circumstance put new heart into the soldiers of the Dauphin, while the English soldiers were dispirited, believing that Joan was a witch.

LESSON CCVIII.

BE-LEA GUER, to besiege.
BURN'ISH. to polish by rubbing.
CRU CI-FIX, a cross on which is fastened
a figure of the body of Christ.
FAG'OT, a bundle of sticks for fuel.
FRI AR, a monk, a member of a religious
order in the Catholic Church.
HER'E-SY, a denial of some of the es-
sential doctrines of Christianity.

RoU'EN (Roo'en), an ancient city of
France on the river Seine.

SCALE, to climb.

SEINE (Sane), a river of France. Paris
and Rouen are situated on this river.
The city of Havre is at its mouth.
SOR CE-RY, magic, witchcraft.
TRENCH, a deep ditch cut to interrupt
the approach of an enemy.

PRONUNCIATION. — Enʼglish 33, glitter-ing 3b, at-tack' 326, Mi'cha-el (three syllables), hundred 11, ev'er-y 3b, cap'ture 16 and 18, shriek ́ing 23.

JOAN OF ARC.

Part Second.

1. JOAN now took horse again, and rode on to Orleans. She was mounted on a white war-horse, and was clad with a suit of glittering armor, having in her belt the old sword from the cathedral newly burnished.

2. With a white flag carried before her, she appeared before Orleans, at the head of a great body of troops, who were escorting provisions of all kinds to the starving inhabitants of the beleaguered city.

3. When the people on the walls beheld her they cried out, "The Maid is come! The Maid of the Prophecy is come to deliver us!" 4. The sight of the Maid fighting at the head of her countrymen made the French so bold, and so much disheartened the English, that the French troops got into the town with provisions, and Orleans was saved.

5. Joan, henceforth called The Maid of Orleans, remained within the walls for a few days, and sent letters to the English commander, ordering him and his soldiers to depart according to the will of Heaven.

6. As the English general refused to go, she again mounted her

white war-horse, and ordered her white banner to advance. The besiegers held a bridge with some strong towers on it; and here the Maid of Orleans attacked them.

7. She planted a scaling-ladder with her own hands, and mounted a tower-wall. But she was struck in the neck by an English arrow, and fell into the trench. She was carried away, and the arrow was taken out.

8. During the operation she screamed with the pain as any other girl might have done; but presently she said the Voices were speaking to her and soothing her to rest. After a while she rose, and was again foremost in the fight.

9. When the English, who had seen her fall and supposed her to be dead, saw her fighting again, they were troubled with the strangest fears. Some of them cried out that they beheld Saint Michael on a white horse-probably Joan herself—fighting for the French. The English lost the bridge, and the next day left the place. 10. The English retired to a town a few miles off. Here the Maid of Orleans besieged them, and took the general prisoner. the white banner scaled the wall she was struck on the head with a stone, and again tumbled down into a ditch. As she. lay there she cried, "On, on, my countrymen! Fear nothing; for the Lord hath delivered them into our hands!"

As

11. After this success several other places which had held out against the Dauphin were delivered up without a battle. She defeated the remainder of the English army, and set up her victorious white banner on a field where twelve hundred Englishmen lay dead.

12. She now urged the Dauphin to proceed to Rheims and be crowned. They set forth with ten thousand men, and at last arrived at Rheims. In a large assembly of people in the great cathedral the Dauphin was crowned Charles the Seventh.

13. There the Maid, who with her white banner stood beside the king in that hour of his triumph, kneeled down on the pavement at his feet, and said, with tears, that what she had been sent to do was done, and now she asked leave to return home.

14. But the king said, "No!" He ennobled her and her family, giving her the income of a count. Still many a time she prayed the king to let her go home. Once she even took off her bright armor and hung it up in a church, meaning never to wear it again; but the king won her back while she was of any use to him and so she went on to her doom.

15. The Voices had now become contradictory and confused, so that they said sometimes one thing, and sometimes another, the Maid losing credit every day. In a battle at Paris, being again struck down into the ditch, she was abandoned by the whole army, and crawled out as she could.

16. Joan accidentally broke the old sword, and some said her power was broken with it. Finally, at a certain siege, in which

She

she did valiant service, she was basely left alone in a retreat. faced about and fought to the last; but an archer pulled her off her horse.

17. Oh, the uproar that was made, and the thanksgivings that were sung, about the capture of this one poor country girl! She was bought by the king of England, and her own countrymen caused her to be prosecuted for sorcery and heresy.

18. She was examined, and cross-examined, and re-examined, and worried into saying any thing and every thing. Sixteen times she was brought out and shut up again, and worried, and entrapped, and argued with, till she was heart-sick of the dreary business.

19. On the last occasion of this kind, she was brought into a burial-place dismally decorated with a scaffold and a stake and fagots and an executioner, and a pulpit with a friar therein, having an awful sermon ready.

20. Even in this state of things the poor girl honored the mean king who had used her for his purposes and then basely abandoned her. Regardless of reproaches heaped upon herself, she spoke out courageously for him.

21. At last, she was sentenced to be burned to death. And in the market-place of Rouen, this shrieking girl, holding a crucifix in her hands, and calling on Christ in the midst of the fire and smoke, was burned to ashes. Her last audible word was the name of Jesus. Her ashes were thrown into the river Seine; but they will rise against her murderers on the last day.

CHARLES DICKENS

CLAM'OR, noise, uproar.
GLEE, joy, merriment.

LESSON CCX.

ICE BERG, (ice, and berg, a hill,) a hill, or mountain, of ice.

MOOR'LAND, a tract of low, watery ground.

SIGNAL, a sign that gives notice. When a ship is in distress guns are fired to give notice that help is needed. This is sometimes answered by another signal, if there are any in a condition to give assistance.

PRONUNCIATION.-Cheer'ful 22, chil'dren 11, fear'ful 22, shriek 23, des'o-late 2d.

THE VOICE OF THE WIND.

1. THROW more logs upon the fire!
We have need of a cheerful light,
And close round the hearth let us gather,
For the wind has risen to-night.
With the mournful sound of its wailing
It has checked the children's glee,
And it calls with a louder clamor
Than the clamor of the sea.

Hark to the voice of the wind!

2. Let us listen to what it is saying,
Let us hearken to where it has been;
For it tells, in its terrible crying,
Of the fearful sights it has seen.
It has been on the field of battle,
Where the dying and wounded lie!
And it brings the last groan they uttered,
And the ravenous vulture's cry.

Hark to the voice of the wind!

3. It has been on the desolate ocean,
When the lightning struck the mast;
It has heard the cry of the drowning,
Who sank as it hurried past.
The words of despair and anguish
That were heard by no living ear,
The gun that no signal answered-
It brings them all to us here.

Hark to the voice of the wind!

4. It has been where the icebergs were meeting,
And closing with fearful crash;

On the shore where no footsteps have wandered
It has heard the waters dash.

It has swept through the gloomy forest.
Where the sled was urged to its speed,
Where the howling wolves were rushing
On the track of the panting steed.

Hark to the voice of the wind!