12
JOAN OF ARC.
For the poor villagers remembering all
Their grandsires told of war, fled wing'd with fear
To Harfleur's shelter; thither me, yet young,
(For scarce four summers o'er my head had beam'd
Their radiance) bore my sire; the well barr'd gate,125
The massy wall, the turrets guarded strength,
Too fondly wish'd, too fondly deem'd secure.
"Firm on the battlements the natives stand,[1]
Heedless of Death that rode the iron storm.
Fire-brands and darts and stones and javelins130
(Vainly destructive) thinn'd the hostile host.
The intrepid foe rush onward.
"Fourteen years
Young as I was, have not effaced the scene
From bleeding memory. The widow's cry
"The
- ↑ Line 128—Harfleur was taken in 1415. The Maid of Orleans first appeared in 1429. This agrees with the account of her age given by Holinshed, who calls her a yong wench of an eighteene yeeres old," of favour was she counted likesome, of person stronglie made and manlie, of courage great hardie, and stout withall; an understander of counsels though she were not at them, greet semblance of chastitie both of bodie and behaviour, the name of Jesus in hir mouth about all hir businesses, humble, obedient, and fasting diverse daies in the weeke.Holinshed, 600.
