Joan of Arc

by Mark Twain

For Twain the one person documented in the record of history whose actions were genuinely free, innocent, and devoid of selfishness was Joan of Arc.

Joan is the ideal toward which mankind strives.

And for all reward, the French King, whom she had crowned, stood supine and indifferent, while French priests took the noble child, the most innocent, the most lovely, the most adorable the ages have produced, and burned her alive at the stake.

“Fair Sir God, I pray you to do by La Hire as he would do by you if you were La Hire and he were God.”1

the army would do like the French armies of these many years past—drop their weapons and

run when they saw an English face.