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Plot Summary
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Plot Summary
Set during the final decades of the Hundred Years' War, the novel is narrated by Sieur Louis de Conte (Sieur being a French courtesy title), a fictional page and secretary to Joan of Arc, who writes his account in 1492 at the age of 82. Louis presents himself as Joan's companion from childhood through her military campaigns, capture, and execution.
Louis establishes the dire state of France. His Armagnac family, loyalists in the civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians (English allies), were massacred by raiders, leaving Louis an orphan raised in Domremy by the priest Père Guillaume Fronte. He grows up alongside Joan, born January 6, 1412, and their playmates, including Noël Rainguesson; Edmond Aubrey, nicknamed the Paladin; and two girls close to Joan, Haumette and Little Mengette.
Joan's character reveals itself early. She gives her supper to a starving stranger over her father's objections, arguing the man's stomach is innocent even if his head is guilty. When village children flee a madman wielding an axe, Joan alone confronts him and leads him back to his cage, earning nicknames: the Bashful, the Patriot, the Beautiful, the Brave. When the Treaty of Troyes disinherits the French Dauphin, the future Charles VII, in favor of an English successor, Joan's grief is silent but deep.
Around age fourteen Joan grows grave. She confides to Louis that since age thirteen the Archangel Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Marguerite have visited her, foretelling France's ruin and promising rescue. Louis witnesses a supernatural vision at the Fairy Tree, an ancient beech associated with local legends. Joan reveals she has been commanded to lead armies, drive out the English, and crown the Dauphin at Rheims, beginning by seeking an escort from Robert de Baudricourt, governor of Vaucouleurs.
Joan's first attempt fails; Baudricourt dismisses her as mad. Her father threatens to drown her rather than let her take up arms. In January 1429, at seventeen, Joan returns to Vaucouleurs, where she speaks publicly about her mission and wins the support of two knights, Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. After she correctly predicts a French defeat at the Battle of the Herrings, Baudricourt provides a mounted escort and a letter to the King.
The company makes a dangerous ten-night march through enemy territory to Chinon, where the King's chief minister, La Tremouille, and the Archbishop of Rheims block Joan's access. She insists on speaking to the Dauphin directly. At the royal audience the King places an impostor on the throne to test Joan; she ignores the decoy and identifies the real King. In private she reveals his secret prayer asking whether he is the legitimate heir and assures him he is. After three weeks of examination at Poitiers, churchmen declare her a good Catholic.
The King proclaims Joan General-in-Chief, with the Duke d'Alençon as her lieutenant. She gives the Paladin the coveted post of Standard-bearer and gathers a personal guard including a loyal fighter known as the Dwarf. At the camp in Blois she finds a riotous mob of disbanded raiders and within three days imposes discipline, even persuading La Hire, a notoriously profane commander, to pray.
Joan marches to Orleans, under English siege for seven months. Her generals secretly bring the army to the wrong side of the Loire, disobeying her orders. Joan furiously confronts Dunois, the Bastard of Orleans, and forces a reroute. Over four days she storms the English fortresses, rallying retreating soldiers. Wounded by a crossbow bolt, as she had prophesied, she returns to lead the final assault on the Tourelles. The siege is raised on May 8, 1429.
Joan launches the Loire Campaign, storming Jargeau, carrying the bridge at Meung, and forcing the surrender of Beaugency. At the Battle of Patay on June 18, her forces destroy the English army in open combat. By now Joan has privately prophesied she will die a cruel death within two years. She reconciles the Constable Richemont, France's chief military officer, with the King, an act Louis regards as one of Joan's greatest deeds, since only Richemont can secure her work after she is gone.
The march to Rheims proceeds triumphantly: Every English-held town surrenders without a fight. On July 17, 1429, Joan stands beside the King in the Cathedral of Rheims as he is crowned. Weeping, she begs leave to go home. Asked to name any reward, she requests only that Domremy's taxes be remitted forever.
Joan is not released. She demands an immediate march on Paris, denouncing the proposed truce with Burgundy as treachery. The King vacillates. Joan attacks Paris on September 8 and is wounded; the King forbids further assaults and disbands the army. Her Voices command her to remain at St. Denis, but the King, backed by La Tremouille, compels her departure. She hangs her white armor in the basilica and follows the court into months of captivity.
On May 24, 1430, at Compiègne, Joan leads a sortie against Burgundian forces. When her troops panic, the city gates are shut against her. The Dwarf and the Paladin are killed defending her. Joan is pulled from her horse and captured.
Neither the King nor France offers ransom. Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, buys Joan from the Duke of Burgundy on behalf of the English. She is taken to Rouen and chained in an iron cage. Louis and Noël reach Rouen in disguise; Louis becomes clerk to the trial's chief recorder, Manchon.
The trial begins February 21, 1431, before more than 50 ecclesiastics. Joan faces the court alone and parries every trap over weeks of interrogation. Asked whether she is in a state of Grace, a question designed to condemn her either way, she answers: "If I be not in a state of Grace, I pray God place me in it; if I be in it, I pray God keep me so." She appeals to the Pope, which would have voided Cauchon's jurisdiction, but Cauchon diverts the proceedings.
On May 24, exhausted and ill, Joan is brought before a prepared stake. Pressured by priests and the sight of fire, she murmurs submission. A short paper is read to her, but a longer document is substituted, and her hand is guided to sign a full confession. Guards then steal her female clothing while she sleeps, leaving only male attire. When she puts it on, Cauchon declares her relapsed, and 42 judges condemn her. Joan sends Louis a final message: She has seen the Vision of the Tree, a death-omen from Domremy tradition, for the last time, and no rescue will come.
On May 30, 1431, Joan learns she will die by fire. She cries out briefly, then grows calm. She receives the Eucharist while multitudes kneel outside. In the Old Market square, chained to the stake, she prays for the King, forgives all, and clutches a cross fashioned from a broken stick by an English soldier. The fire is lit. Her voice rises in prayer from the flames until it falls silent.
In the years that follow, Louis and Noël fight under Richemont until France is free. Twenty-four years after Joan's death, a Process of Rehabilitation initiated by the King examines witnesses across France. Joan's verdict is annulled and her character declared spotless. Louis, the last survivor of those who fought at her side, closes by naming her the Genius of Patriotism, the most noble life born into the world.
Louis establishes the dire state of France. His Armagnac family, loyalists in the civil war between Armagnacs and Burgundians (English allies), were massacred by raiders, leaving Louis an orphan raised in Domremy by the priest Père Guillaume Fronte. He grows up alongside Joan, born January 6, 1412, and their playmates, including Noël Rainguesson; Edmond Aubrey, nicknamed the Paladin; and two girls close to Joan, Haumette and Little Mengette.
Joan's character reveals itself early. She gives her supper to a starving stranger over her father's objections, arguing the man's stomach is innocent even if his head is guilty. When village children flee a madman wielding an axe, Joan alone confronts him and leads him back to his cage, earning nicknames: the Bashful, the Patriot, the Beautiful, the Brave. When the Treaty of Troyes disinherits the French Dauphin, the future Charles VII, in favor of an English successor, Joan's grief is silent but deep.
Around age fourteen Joan grows grave. She confides to Louis that since age thirteen the Archangel Michael, St. Catherine, and St. Marguerite have visited her, foretelling France's ruin and promising rescue. Louis witnesses a supernatural vision at the Fairy Tree, an ancient beech associated with local legends. Joan reveals she has been commanded to lead armies, drive out the English, and crown the Dauphin at Rheims, beginning by seeking an escort from Robert de Baudricourt, governor of Vaucouleurs.
Joan's first attempt fails; Baudricourt dismisses her as mad. Her father threatens to drown her rather than let her take up arms. In January 1429, at seventeen, Joan returns to Vaucouleurs, where she speaks publicly about her mission and wins the support of two knights, Jean de Metz and Bertrand de Poulengy. After she correctly predicts a French defeat at the Battle of the Herrings, Baudricourt provides a mounted escort and a letter to the King.
The company makes a dangerous ten-night march through enemy territory to Chinon, where the King's chief minister, La Tremouille, and the Archbishop of Rheims block Joan's access. She insists on speaking to the Dauphin directly. At the royal audience the King places an impostor on the throne to test Joan; she ignores the decoy and identifies the real King. In private she reveals his secret prayer asking whether he is the legitimate heir and assures him he is. After three weeks of examination at Poitiers, churchmen declare her a good Catholic.
The King proclaims Joan General-in-Chief, with the Duke d'Alençon as her lieutenant. She gives the Paladin the coveted post of Standard-bearer and gathers a personal guard including a loyal fighter known as the Dwarf. At the camp in Blois she finds a riotous mob of disbanded raiders and within three days imposes discipline, even persuading La Hire, a notoriously profane commander, to pray.
Joan marches to Orleans, under English siege for seven months. Her generals secretly bring the army to the wrong side of the Loire, disobeying her orders. Joan furiously confronts Dunois, the Bastard of Orleans, and forces a reroute. Over four days she storms the English fortresses, rallying retreating soldiers. Wounded by a crossbow bolt, as she had prophesied, she returns to lead the final assault on the Tourelles. The siege is raised on May 8, 1429.
Joan launches the Loire Campaign, storming Jargeau, carrying the bridge at Meung, and forcing the surrender of Beaugency. At the Battle of Patay on June 18, her forces destroy the English army in open combat. By now Joan has privately prophesied she will die a cruel death within two years. She reconciles the Constable Richemont, France's chief military officer, with the King, an act Louis regards as one of Joan's greatest deeds, since only Richemont can secure her work after she is gone.
The march to Rheims proceeds triumphantly: Every English-held town surrenders without a fight. On July 17, 1429, Joan stands beside the King in the Cathedral of Rheims as he is crowned. Weeping, she begs leave to go home. Asked to name any reward, she requests only that Domremy's taxes be remitted forever.
Joan is not released. She demands an immediate march on Paris, denouncing the proposed truce with Burgundy as treachery. The King vacillates. Joan attacks Paris on September 8 and is wounded; the King forbids further assaults and disbands the army. Her Voices command her to remain at St. Denis, but the King, backed by La Tremouille, compels her departure. She hangs her white armor in the basilica and follows the court into months of captivity.
On May 24, 1430, at Compiègne, Joan leads a sortie against Burgundian forces. When her troops panic, the city gates are shut against her. The Dwarf and the Paladin are killed defending her. Joan is pulled from her horse and captured.
Neither the King nor France offers ransom. Pierre Cauchon, Bishop of Beauvais, buys Joan from the Duke of Burgundy on behalf of the English. She is taken to Rouen and chained in an iron cage. Louis and Noël reach Rouen in disguise; Louis becomes clerk to the trial's chief recorder, Manchon.
The trial begins February 21, 1431, before more than 50 ecclesiastics. Joan faces the court alone and parries every trap over weeks of interrogation. Asked whether she is in a state of Grace, a question designed to condemn her either way, she answers: "If I be not in a state of Grace, I pray God place me in it; if I be in it, I pray God keep me so." She appeals to the Pope, which would have voided Cauchon's jurisdiction, but Cauchon diverts the proceedings.
On May 24, exhausted and ill, Joan is brought before a prepared stake. Pressured by priests and the sight of fire, she murmurs submission. A short paper is read to her, but a longer document is substituted, and her hand is guided to sign a full confession. Guards then steal her female clothing while she sleeps, leaving only male attire. When she puts it on, Cauchon declares her relapsed, and 42 judges condemn her. Joan sends Louis a final message: She has seen the Vision of the Tree, a death-omen from Domremy tradition, for the last time, and no rescue will come.
On May 30, 1431, Joan learns she will die by fire. She cries out briefly, then grows calm. She receives the Eucharist while multitudes kneel outside. In the Old Market square, chained to the stake, she prays for the King, forgives all, and clutches a cross fashioned from a broken stick by an English soldier. The fire is lit. Her voice rises in prayer from the flames until it falls silent.
In the years that follow, Louis and Noël fight under Richemont until France is free. Twenty-four years after Joan's death, a Process of Rehabilitation initiated by the King examines witnesses across France. Joan's verdict is annulled and her character declared spotless. Louis, the last survivor of those who fought at her side, closes by naming her the Genius of Patriotism, the most noble life born into the world.
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