First, in the trial[3] which resulted in her condemnation the historian has a mine of rich treasure. Her cross-examination cannot be too minutely studied. It is based on information, not preserved elsewhere, gathered from Domremy and the various parts of France through which she passed. It is hardly necessary to say that all the judges of 1431 sought to discover in Jeanne was idolatry, heresy5, sorcery and other crimes against the Church. Inclined as they were, however, to discern evil in every one of the acts and in each of the words of one whom they desired to ruin, so that they might dishonour6 her king, they examined all available information concerning her life. The high value to be set upon the Maid's replies is well known; they are heroically sincere, and for the most part perfectly7 lucid8. Nevertheless they must not all be interpreted literally9. Jeanne, who never regarded either the bishop10 or the promoter as her judge, was not so simple as to tell them the whole truth. It was very frank of her to warn them that they would not know all.[4] That her memory was curiously11 defective12 must also be admitted. I am aware that the clerk of the court was astonished that after a fortnight she should remember exactly the answers she had given in her cross-examination.[5] That may be possible, although she did not always say the same thing. It is none the less certain that after the lapse13 of a year she retained but an indistinct recollection of some of the important acts of her life. Finally, her constant hallucinations generally rendered her[Pg ix] incapable14 of distinguishing between the true and the false.
The record of the trial is followed by an examination of Jeanne's sayings in articulo mortis.[6] This examination is not signed by the clerks of the court. Hence from a legal point of view the record is out of order; nevertheless, regarded as a historical document, its authenticity15 cannot be doubted. In my opinion the actual occurrences cannot have widely differed from what is related in this unofficial report. It tells of Jeanne's second recantation, and of this recantation there can be no question, for Jeanne received the communion before her death. The veracity17 of this document was never assailed,[7] even by those who during the rehabilitation trial pointed18 out its irregularity.[8]
Secondly19, the chroniclers of the period, both French and Burgundian, were paid chroniclers, one of whom was attached to every great baron20. Tringant says that his master did not expend21 any money in order to obtain mention in the chronicles,[9] and that therefore he is omitted from them. The earliest chronicle in which the Maid occurs is that of Perceval de Cagny, who was in the service of the house of Alen?on and Duke John's master of the house.[10] It was drawn22 up in the year 1436, that is, only six years after Jeanne's death. But it was not[Pg x] written by him. According to his own confession23 he had "not half the sense, memory, or ability necessary for putting this, or even a matter of less than half its importance, down in writing."[11] This chronicle is the work of a painstaking24 clerk. One is not surprised to find a chronicler in the pay of the house of Alen?on representing the differences concerning the Maid, which arose between the Sire de la Trémouille and the Duke of Alen?on, in a light most unfavourable to the King. But from a scribe, supposed to be writing at the dictation of a retainer of Duke John, one would have expected a less inaccurate25 and a less vague account of the feats26 of arms accomplished27 by the Maid in company with him whom she called her fair duke. Although this chronicle was written at a time when no one dreamed that the sentence of 1431 would ever be revoked28, the Maid is regarded as employing supernatural means, and her acts are stripped of all verisimilitude by being recorded in the manner of a hagiography. Further, that portion of the chronicle attributed to Perceval de Cagny, which deals with the Maid, is brief, consisting of twenty-seven chapters of a few lines each. Quicherat is of opinion that it is the best chronicle of Jeanne d'Arc[12] existing, and the others may indeed be even more worthless.
Gilles le Bouvier,[13] king at arms of the province of Berry, who was forty-three in 1429, is somewhat more judicious29 than Perceval de Cagny; and, in spite of some confusion of dates, he is better in[Pg xi]formed of military proceedings30. But his story is of too summary a nature to tell us much.
Jean Chartier,[14] precentor of Saint-Denys, held the office of chronicler of France in 1449. Two hundred years later he would have been described as historiographer royal. His office may be divined from the manner in which he relates Jeanne's death. After having said that she had been long imprisoned31 by the order of John of Luxembourg, he adds: "The said Luxembourg sold her to the English, who took her to Rouen, where she was harshly treated; in so much that after long delay, they had her publicly burnt in that town of Rouen, without a trial, of their own tyrannical will, which was cruelly done, seeing the life and the rule she lived, for every week she confessed and received the body of Our Lord, as beseemeth a good catholic."[15] When Jean Chartier says that the English burned her without trial, he means apparently32 that the Bailie of Rouen did not pronounce sentence. Concerning the ecclesiastical trial and the two accusations34 of lapse and relapse he says not a word; and it is the English whom he accuses of having burnt a good Catholic without a trial. This example proves how seriously the condemnation of 1431 embarrassed the government of[Pg xii] King Charles. But what can be thought of a historian who suppresses Jeanne's trial because he finds it inconvenient35? Jean Chartier was extremely weak-minded and trivial; he seems to believe in the magic of Catherine's sword and in Jeanne's loss of power when she broke it;[16] he records the most puerile36 of fables37. Nevertheless it is interesting to note that the official chronicler of the Kings of France, writing about 1450, ascribes to the Maid an important share in the delivery of Orléans, in the conquest of fortresses39 on the Loire and in the victory of Patay, that he relates how the King formed the army at Gien "by the counsel of the said maid,"[17] and that he expressly states that Jeanne caused[18] the coronation and consecration40. Such was certainly the opinion which prevailed at the Court of Charles VII. All that we have to discover is whether that opinion was sincere and reasonable or whether the King of France may not have deemed it to his advantage to owe his kingdom to the Maid. She was held a heretic by the heads of the Church Universal, but in France her memory was honoured, rather, however, by the lower orders than by the princes of the blood and the leaders of the army. The services of the latter the King was not desirous to extol41 after the revolt of 1440. During this Praguerie,[19] the Duke of Bourbon, the Count of Vend42?me, the Duke of Alen?on, whom the Maid called her fair duke,[Pg xiii] and even the cautious Count Dunois had been seen joining hands with the plunderers and making war on the sovereign with an ardour they had never shown in fighting against the English.
"Le Journal du Siège"[20] was doubtless kept in 1428 and 1429; but the edition that has come down to us dates from 1467.[21] What relates to Jeanne before her coming to Orléans is interpolated; and the interpolator was so unskilful as to date Jeanne's arrival at Chinon in the month of February, while it took place on March 6, and to assign Thursday, March 10, as the date of the departure from Blois, which did not occur until the end of April. The diary from April 28 to May 7 is less inaccurate in its chronology, and the errors in dates which do occur may be attributed to the copyist. But the facts to which these dates are assigned, occasionally in disagreement with financial records and often tinged45 with the miraculous46, testify to an advanced stage of Jeanne's legend. For example, one cannot possibly attribute to a witness of the siege the error made by the scribe concerning the fall of the Bridge of Les Tourelles.[22] What is said on page 97 of P. Charpentier's and C. Cuissart's edition concerning the relations of the inhabitants and the men-at-arms seems out of place, and may very likely have been inserted there to efface47 the memory of the grave dissensions which had occurred during the last week. From the 8th of May the diary ceases to be a diary; it becomes a series of extracts borrowed from Chartier,[Pg xiv] from Berry, and from the rehabilitation trial. The episode of the big fat Englishman slain48 by Messire Jean de Montesclère at the Siege of Jargeau is obviously taken from the evidence of Jean d'Aulon in 1446; and even this plagiarism49 is inaccurate, since Jean d'Aulon expressly says he was slain at the Battle of Les Augustins.[23]
The chronicle entitled La Chronique de la Pucelle,[24] as if it were the chief chronicle of the heroine, is taken from a history entitled Geste des nobles Fran?ois, going back as far as Priam of Troy. But the extract was not made until the original had been changed and added to. This was done after 1467. Even if it were proved that La Chronique de la Pucelle is the work of Cousinot, shut up in Orléans during the siege, or even of two Cousinots, uncle and nephew according to some, father and son according to others, it would remain none the less true that this chronicle is largely copied from Jean Chartier, the Journal du Siège and the rehabilitation trial. Whoever the author may have been, this work reflects no great credit upon him: no very high praise can be given to a fabricator of tales, who, without appearing in the slightest degree aware of the fact, tells the same stories twice over, introducing each time different and contradictory50 circumstances. La Chronique de la Pucelle ends abruptly51 with the King's return to Berry after his defeat before Paris.
Le Mystère du siège[25] must be classed with the[Pg xv] chronicles. It is in fact a rhymed chronicle in dialogue, and it would be extremely interesting for its antiquity52 alone were it possible to do what some have attempted and to assign to it the date 1435. The editors, and following them several scholars, have believed it possible to identify this poem of 20,529 lines with a certain mistaire[26] played on the sixth anniversary of the delivery of the city. They have drawn their conclusions from the following circumstances: the Maréchal de Rais, who delighted to organise54 magnificent farces55 and mysteries, was in Duke Charles's city expending56 vast sums[27] there from September, 1434, till August, 1435; in 1439 the city purchased out of its municipal funds "a standard and a banner, which had belonged to Monseigneur de Reys and had been used by him to represent the manner of the storming of Les Tourelles and their capture from the English."[28] From such a statement it is impossible to prove that in 1435 or in 1439, on May 8, there was acted a play having the Siege for its subject and the Maid for its heroine. If, however, we take "the manner of the storming of Les Tourelles" to mean a mystery rather than a pageant57 or some other form of entertainment, and if we consider the certain mistaire of 1435 as indicating a representation of that siege which had been laid and raised by the English, we shall thus arrive at a mystery of the siege. But even then[Pg xvi] we must examine whether it be that mystery the text of which has come down to us.
Among the one hundred and forty speaking personages in this work is the Maréchal de Rais. Hence it has been concluded that the mystery was written and acted before the lawsuit58 ended by that sentence to which effect was given above the Nantes Bridge, on October 20, 1440. How, indeed, it has been asked, after so ignominious59 a death could the vampire60 of Machecoul have been represented to the people of Orléans as fighting for their deliverance? How could the Maid and Blue Beard be associated in a heroic action? It is hard to answer such a question, because we cannot possibly tell how much of that kind of thing could be tolerated by the barbarism of those rude old times. Perhaps our text itself, if properly examined, will be found to contain internal evidence as to whether it is of an earlier or later date than 1440.
The bastard61 of Orléans was created Count of Dunois on July 14, 1439.[29] The lines of the mystery, in which he is called by this title, cannot therefore be anterior62 to that date. They are numerous, and, by a singularity which has never been explained, are all in the first third of the book. When Dunois reappears later he is the Bastard again. From this fact the editors of 1862 concluded that five thousand lines were prefixed to the primitive63 text subsequently, although they in no way differ from the rest, either in language, style, or prosody64. But may the rest of the poem be assigned to 1435 or 1439?
That is not my opinion. In the lines 12093 and 12094 the Maid tells Talbot he will die by the hand of the King's men. This prophecy must have been[Pg xvii] made after the event: it is an obvious allusion65 to the noble captain's end, and these lines must have been written after 1453.
Six years after the siege no clerk of Orléans would have thought of travestying Jeanne as a lady of noble birth.
In line 10199 and the following of the "Mistère du Siège" the Maid replies to the first President of the Parlement of Poitiers when he questions her concerning her family:
"As for my father's mansion66, it is in the Bar country; and he is of gentle birth and rank right noble, a good Frenchman and a loyal."[30]
Before a clerk would write thus, Jeanne's family must have been long ennobled and the first generation must have died out, which happened in 1469; there must have come into existence that numerous family of the Du Lys, whose ridiculous pretensions67 had to be humoured. Not content with deriving68 their descent from their aunt, the Du Lys insisted on connecting the good peasant Jacquot d'Arc with the old nobility of Bar.
Notwithstanding that Jeanne's reference to "her father's mansion" conflicts with other scenes in the same mystery, this lengthy70 work would appear to be all of a piece.
It was apparently compiled during the reign44 of Louis XI, by a citizen of Orléans who was a fair master of his subject. It would be interesting to[Pg xviii] make a more detailed71 study of his authorities than has been done hitherto. This poet seems to have known a Journal du siège very different from the one we possess.
Was his mystery acted during the last thirty years of the century at the festival instituted to commemorate72 the taking of Les Tourelles? The subject, the style, and the spirit are all in harmony with such an occasion. But it is curious that a poem composed to celebrate the deliverance of Orléans on May 8 should assign that deliverance to May 9. And yet this is what the author of the mystery does when he puts the following lines into the mouth of the Maid:
"Remember how Orléans was delivered in the year one thousand four hundred and twenty-nine, and forget not also that of May it was the ninth day."[31]
Such are the chief chroniclers on the French side who have written of the Maid. Others who came later or who have only dealt with certain episodes in her life, need not be quoted here; their testimony73 will be best examined when we come to that of the facts in detail. Placing on one side any information to be obtained from La Chronique de l'établissement de la fête,[32] from La Relation[33] of the Clerk of La[Pg xix] Rochelle and other contemporary documents, we are now in a position to realise that if we depended on the French chroniclers for our knowledge of Jeanne d'Arc we should know just as much about her as we know of Sakya Muni.
We shall certainly not find her explained by the Burgundian chroniclers. They, however, furnish certain useful information. The earliest of these Burgundian chroniclers is a clerk of Picardy, the author of an anonymous74 chronicle, called La Chronique des Cordeliers,[34] because the only copy of it comes from a house of the Cordeliers at Paris. It is a history of the world from the creation to the year 1431. M. Pierre Champion[35] has proved that Monstrelet made use of it. This clerk of Picardy knew divers75 matters, and was acquainted with sundry76 state documents. But facts and dates he curiously confuses. His knowledge of the Maid's military career is derived77 from a French and a popular source. A certain credence78 has been attached to his story of the leap from Beaurevoir; but his account if accurate destroys the idea that Jeanne threw herself from the top of the keep in a fit of frenzy79 or despair.[36] And it does not agree with what Jeanne said herself.
Monstrelet,[37] "more drivelling at the mouth than[Pg xx] a mustard-pot,"[38] is a fountain of wisdom in comparison with Jean Chartier. When he makes use of La Chronique des Cordeliers he rearranges it and presents its facts in order. What he knew of Jeanne amounts to very little. He believed that she was an inn servant. He has but a word to say of her indecision at Montépilloy, but that word, to be found nowhere else, is extremely significant. He saw her in the camp at Compiègne; but unfortunately he either did not realise or did not wish to say what impression she made upon him.
Wavrin du Forestel,[39] who edited additions to Froissart, Monstrelet, and Mathieu d'Escouchy, was at Patay; he never saw Jeanne there. He knows her only by hearsay80 and that but vaguely81. We do not therefore attach great importance to what he relates concerning Robert de Baudricourt, who, according to him, indoctrinated the Maid and taught her how to appear "inspired by Divine Providence82."[40] On the other hand, he gives valuable information concerning the war immediately after the deliverance of Orléans.
Le Fèvre de Saint-Rémy, Counsellor to the Duke of Burgundy and King-at-arms of the Golden Fleece,[41] was possibly at Compiègne when Jeanne was taken; and he speaks of her as a brave girl.
[Pg xxi]
Georges Chastellain copies Le Fèvre de Saint Remy.[42]
The author of Le Journal ascribed to un Bourgeois84 de Paris,[43] whom we identify as a Cabochien clerk, had only heard Jeanne spoken of by the doctors and masters of the University of Paris. Moreover he was very ill-informed, which is regrettable. For the man stands alone in his day for energy of feeling and language, for passion of wrath86 and of pity, and for intense sympathy with the people.
I must mention a document which is neither French nor Burgundian, but Italian. I refer to the Chronique d'Antonio Morosini, published and annotated87 with admirable erudition by M. Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis. This chronicle, or to be more precise, the letters it contains, are very valuable to the historian, but not on account of the veracity of the deeds here attributed to the Maid, which on the contrary are all imaginary and fabulous88. In the Chronique de Morosini,[44] every single fact concerning Jeanne is presented in a wrong character and in a false light. And yet Morosini's correspondents are men of business, thoughtful, subtle Venetians. These letters reveal how there were being circulated throughout Christendom a whole multitude of fictitious89 stories, imitated some from the Romances of Chivalry90, others from the Golden Legend, con[Pg xxii]cerning that Demoiselle as she is called, at once famous and unknown.
Another document, the diary of a German merchant, one Eberhard de Windecke,[45] a conscientious91 and clever edition of which has also been published by M. Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis, presents the same phenomenon. Nothing here related of the Maid is even probable. As soon as she appears a whole cycle of popular stories grow up round her name. Eberhard obviously delights to relate them. Thus we learn from these good foreign merchants that at no period of her existence was Jeanne known otherwise than by fables, and that if she moved multitudes it was by the spreading abroad of countless92 legends which sprang up wherever she passed and made way before her. And indeed, there is much food for thought in that dazzling obscurity, which from the very first enwrapped the Maid, in those radiant clouds of myth, which, while concealing94 her, rendered her all the more imposing95.
Thirdly, with its memoranda96, its consultations97, and its one hundred and forty depositions99, furnished by one hundred and twenty-three deponents, the rehabilitation trial forms a very valuable collection of documents.[46] M. Lanéry d'Arc has done well to publish in their entirety the memoranda of the doctors as well as the treatise100 of the Archbishop of Embrun, the propositions of Master Heinrich von Gorcum and the Sibylla Francica.[47] From the trial[Pg xxiii] of 1431 we learn what theologians on the English side thought of the Maid. But were it not for the consultations of Théodore de Leliis and of Paul Pontanus and the opinions included in the later trial we should not know how she was regarded by the doctors of Italy and France. It is important to ascertain101 what were the views held by the whole Church concerning a damsel condemned102 during her lifetime, when the English were in power, and rehabilitated103 after her death when the French were victorious104.
Doubtless many matters were elucidated105 by the one hundred and twenty-three witnesses heard at Domremy, at Vaucouleurs, at Toul, at Orléans, at Paris, at Rouen, at Lyon, witnesses drawn from all ranks of life—churchmen, princes, captains, burghers, peasants, artisans. But we are bound to admit that they come far short of satisfying our curiosity, and for several reasons. First, because they replied to a list of questions drawn up with the object of establishing a certain number of facts within the scope of ecclesiastical jurisdiction106. The Holy Inquisitor who conducted the trial was curious, but his curiosity was not ours. This is the first reason for the insufficiency of the evidence from our point of view.[48]
But there are other reasons. Most of the witnesses appear excessively simple and lacking in discernment. In so large a number of men of all ages and of all ranks it is sad to find how few were equipped with lucid and judicial107 minds. It would seem as if the human intellect of those days was enwrapped in twilight108 and incapable of seeing anything distinctly. Thought as well as speech was curiously puerile. Only a slight acquaintance with this dark age is[Pg xxiv] enough to make one feel as if among children. Want and ignorance and wars interminable had impoverished109 the mind of man and starved his moral nature. The scanty111, slashed112, ridiculous garments of the nobles and the wealthy betray an absurd poverty of taste and weakness of intellect.[49] One of the most striking characteristics of these small minds is their triviality; they are incapable of attention; they retain nothing. No one who reads the writings of the period can fail to be struck by this almost universal weakness.
By no means all the evidence given in these one hundred and forty depositions can be treated seriously. The daughter of Jacques Boucher, steward113 to the Duke of Orléans, depones in the following terms: "At night I slept alone with Jeanne. Neither in her words or her acts did I ever observe anything wrong. She was perfectly simple, humble114, and chaste83."[50]
This young lady was nine years old when she perceived with a discernment somewhat precocious115 that her sleeping companion was simple, humble, and chaste.
That is unimportant. But to show how one may sometimes be deceived by the witnesses whom one would expect to be the most reliable, I will quote Brother Pasquerel.[51] Brother Pasquerel is Jeanne's chaplain. He may be expected to speak as one who has seen and as one who knows. Brother Pasquerel places the examination at Poitiers before the audience[Pg xxv] granted by the King to the Maid in the chateau116 of Chinon.[52]
Forgetting that the whole relieving army had been in Orléans since May 4, he supposes that, on the evening of Friday the 6th, it was still expected.[53] From such blunders we may judge of the muddled117 condition of this poor priest's brain. His most serious shortcoming, however, is the invention of miracles. He tries to make out that when the convoy118 of victuals119 reached Orléans, there occurred, by the Maid's special intervention120, and in order to carry the barges121 up the river, a sudden flood of the Loire which no one but himself saw.[54]
The evidence of Dunois[55] is also somewhat deceptive122. We know that Dunois was one of the most intelligent and prudent123 men of his day, and that he was considered a good speaker. In the defence of Orléans and in the coronation campaign he had displayed considerable ability. Either his evidence must have seriously suffered at the hands of the translator and the scribes, or he must have caused it to be given by his chaplain. He speaks of the "great number of the enemy" in terms more appropriate to a canon of a cathedral or a woollen draper than to a captain entrusted124 with the defence of a city and expected to know the actual force of[Pg xxvi] the besiegers. All his evidence dealing125 with the transport of victuals on April 28 is well-nigh unintelligible126. And Dunois is unable to state that Troyes was the first stage in the army's march from Gien.[56] Relating a conversation he held with the Maid after the coronation, he makes her speak as if her brothers were awaiting her at Domremy, whereas they were with her in France.[57] Curiously blundering, he attempts to prove that Jeanne had visions by relating a story much more calculated to give the impression that the young peasant girl was an apt feigner and that at the request of the nobles she reproduced one of her ecstasies128, like the Esther of the lamented129 Doctor Luys.[58]
In that portion of this work which deals with the rehabilitation trial I have given my opinion of the evidence of the clerks of the court, of the usher130 Massieu, of the Brothers Isambard de la Pierre and Martin Ladvenu.[59] All these burners of witches and avengers of God worked as heartily131 at Jeanne's rehabilitation as they had at her condemnation.
In many cases and often on events of importance, the evidence of witnesses is in direct conflict with the truth. A woollen draper of Orléans, one Jean Luillier, comes before the commissioners132 and as bold as brass133 maintains that the garrison134 could not hold out against so great a besieging135 force.[60] Now this statement is proved to be false by the most authentic16 documents, which show that the English round Orléans were very weak and that their resources were greatly reduced.[61]
[Pg xxvii]
When the evidence given at the second trial has obviously been dressed up to suit the occasion, or even when it is absolutely contrary to the truth, we must blame not only those who gave it, but those who received it. In its elicitation136 the latter were too artful. This evidence has about as much value as the evidence in a trial by the Inquisition. In certain matters it may represent the ideas of the judges as much as those of the witnesses.
What the judges in this instance were most desirous to establish was that Jeanne had not understood when she was spoken to of the Church and the Pope, that she had refused to obey the Church Militant137 because she believed the Church Militant to be Messire Cauchon and his assessors. In short, it was necessary to represent her as almost an imbecile. In ecclesiastical procedure this expedient138 was frequently adopted. And there was yet another reason, a very strong one, for passing her off as an innocent, a damsel devoid139 of intelligence. This second trial, like the first, had been instituted with a political motive140; its object was to make known that Jeanne had come to the aid of the King of France not by devilish incitement141, but by celestial142 inspiration. Consequently in order that divine wisdom might be made manifest in her she must be shown to have had no wisdom of her own. On this string the examiners were constantly harping143. On every occasion they drew from the witnesses the statement that she was simple, very simple. Una simplex bergereta,[62] says one. Erat multum simplex et ignorans,[63] says another.
But since, despite her ignorance, this innocent damsel had been sent of God to deliver or to capture[Pg xxviii] towns and to lead men at arms, there must needs be innate144 in her a knowledge of the art of war, and in battle she must needs manifest the strength and the counsel she had received from above. Wherefore it was necessary to obtain evidence to establish that she was more skilled in warfare145 than any man.
Damoiselle Marguerite la Touroulde makes this affirmation.[64] The Duke of Alen?on declares that the Maid was apt alike at wielding146 the lance, ranging an army, ordering a battle, preparing artillery147, and that old captains marvelled148 at her skill in placing cannon150.[65] The Duke quite understands that all these gifts were miraculous and that to God alone was the glory. For if the merit of the victories had been Jeanne's he would not have said so much about them.
And if God had chosen the Maid to perform so great a task, it must have been because in her he beheld151 the virtue152 which he preferred above all others in his virgins153. Henceforth it sufficed not for her to have been chaste; her chastity must become miraculous, her chastity and her moderation in eating and drinking must be exalted155 into sanctity. Wherefore the witnesses are never tired of stating: Erat casta, erat castissima. Ille loquens non credit aliquam mulierem plus esse castam quam ista Puella erat. Erat sobria in potu et cibo. Erat sobria in cibo et potu.[66]
[Pg xxix]
The heavenly source of such purity must needs have been made manifest by Jeanne's possessing singular immunities156. And on this point there is a mass of evidence. Rough men at arms, Jean de Novelompont, Bertrand de Poulengy, Jean d'Aulon; great nobles, the Count of Dunois and the Duke of Alen?on, come forward and affirm on oath that in them Jeanne never provoked any carnal desires. Such a circumstance fills these old captains with astonishment157; they boast of their past vigour158 and wonder that for once their youthful ardour should have been damped by a maid. It seems to them most unnatural159 and humanly impossible. Their description of the effect Jeanne produced upon them recalls Saint Martha's binding160 of the Tarascon beast. Dunois in his evidence is very much occupied with miracles. He points to this one as, to human reason, the most incomprehensible of all. If he neither desired nor solicited161 this damsel, of this unique fact he can find but one explanation, it is that Jeanne was holy, res divina. When Jean de Novelompont and Bertrand de Poulengy describe their sudden continence, they employ identical forms of speech, affected162 and involved. And then there comes a king's equerry, Gobert Thibaut, who declares that in the army there was much talk of this divine grace, vouchsafed163 to the Armagnacs[67] and denied to English and Burgundians, at least, so the behaviour of a certain knight164 of Picardy, and of one Jeannotin, a tailor of Rouen, would lead us to believe.[68]
Such evidence obviously answers to the ideas of the judges, and turns, so to speak, on theological rather than on natural facts.[Pg xxx]
In inquisitorial inquiries165 there abound166 such depositions as those of Jean de Novelompont and of Bertrand de Poulengy, containing passages drawn up in identical terms. But I must admit that in the rehabilitation trial they are rare, partly because the witnesses were heard at long intervals167 of time and in different countries, and partly because in the Maid's case no elaborate proceedings were necessary owing to her adversaries168 not being represented.
It is to be regretted that all the evidence given at this trial, with the exception of that of Jean d'Aulon, should have been translated into Latin. This process has obscured fine shades of thought and deprived the evidence of its original flavour.
Sometimes the clerk contents himself with saying that the depositions of a witness were like those of his predecessor169. Thus on the raising of the siege of Orléans all the burgesses depone like the woollen draper, who himself was not thoroughly170 conversant171 with the circumstances in which his town had been delivered. Thus the Sire de Gaucourt, after a brief declaration, gives the same evidence as Dunois, although the Count had related matters so strikingly individual that it seems strange they should have been common to two witnesses.[69]
Certain evidence would appear to have been cut short. Brother Pasquerel's abruptly comes to an end at Paris. This circumstance, if we did not possess his signature at the conclusion of the Latin letter to the Hussites, would lead us to believe that the good Brother left the Maid immediately after the attack on La Porte Saint-Honoré. It surely cannot have chanced that in so long a series of questions and answers not one word was said of the departure from[Pg xxxi] Sully or of the campaign which began at Lagny and ended at Compiègne.[70]
We conclude, therefore, that in the study of this voluminous evidence we must exercise great judgment172 and that we must not expect it to enlighten us on all the circumstances of Jeanne's life.
Fourthly. On certain points of the Maid's history the only exact information is to be obtained from account-books, letters, deeds, and other authentic documents of the period. The records published by Siméon Luce and the lease of the Chateau de l'?le inform us of the circumstances among which Jeanne grew up.[71] Neither the two trials nor the chronicles had revealed the terrible conditions prevailing173 in the village of Domremy from 1412 to 1425.
The fortress38 accounts kept at Orléans[72] and the documents of the English administration[73] enable us[Pg xxxii] to estimate approximately the respective forces of defenders174 and besiegers of the city. On this point also they enable us to correct the statements of chroniclers and witnesses in the rehabilitation trial.
From the letters in the archives at Reims, copied by Rogier in the seventeenth century, we learn how Troyes, Chalons, and Reims surrendered to the King. From these letters also we see how very far from accurate is Jean Chartier's account of the capitulation of the city and how insufficient175, especially considering the character of the witness, is the evidence of Dunois on this subject.[74]
Four or five records throw a faint light here and there on the obscurity which shrouds176 the unfortunate campaign on the Aisne and the Oise.
The registers of the chapter of Rouen, the wills of canons and sundry other documents, discovered by M. Robillard de Beaurepaire in the archives of Seine-Inférieure, serve to correct certain errors in the two trials.[75]
How many other detached papers, all valuable to the historian, might I not enumerate177! Surely this is another reason for mistrusting records false or falsified, as, for example, the patent of nobility of Guy de Cailly.[76]
Rapid as this examination of authorities has been, I think nothing essential has been omitted. To[Pg xxxiii] sum up, even in her lifetime the Maid was scarce known save by fables. Her oldest chroniclers were devoid of any critical sense, for the early legends concerning her they relate as facts.
The Rouen trial, certain accounts, a few letters, sundry deeds, public and private, are the most trustworthy documents. The rehabilitation trial is also useful to the historian, provided always that we remember how and why that trial was conducted.
By means of such records we may attain179 to a pretty accurate knowledge of Jeanne d'Arc's life and character.
The salient fact which results from a study of all these authorities is that she was a saint. She was a saint with all the attributes of fifteenth-century sanctity. She had visions, and these visions were neither feigned180 nor counterfeited181. She really believed that she heard the voices which spoke85 to her and came from no human lips. These voices generally addressed her clearly and in words she could understand. She heard them best in the woods and when the bells were ringing. She saw forms, she said, like myriads182 of tiny shapes, like sparks on a dazzling background. There is no doubt she had visions of another nature, since she tells us how she beheld Saint Michael in the guise183 of a prud'homme, that is as a good knight, and Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, wearing crowns. She saw them saluting184 her; she kissed their feet and inhaled185 their sweet perfume.
What does this mean if not that she was subject to hallucinations of hearing, sight, touch, and smell? But the most strongly affected of her senses was her hearing. She says that her voices appear to her; she sometimes calls them her council. She hears[Pg xxxiv] them very plainly unless there is a noise around her. Generally she obeys them; but sometimes she resists. We may doubt whether her visions were really so distinct as she makes out. Because she either could not, or would not, she never gave her judges at Rouen any very clear or precise description of them. The angel she described most in detail was the one which brought the crown, and which she afterwards confessed to have seen only in imagination.
At what age did she become subject to these trances? We cannot say exactly. But it was probably towards the end of her childhood, notwithstanding that according to Jean d'Aulon, childhood was a state out of which she never completely developed.[77]
Although it is always hazardous186 to found a medical diagnosis187 on documents purely188 historical, several men of science have attempted to define the pathological conditions which rendered the young girl subject to false perceptions of sight and hearing.[78] Owing to the rapid strides made by psychiatry189 during recent years, I have consulted an eminent190 man of science, who is thoroughly conversant with the present stage attained191 by this branch of pathology, to which he has himself rendered important service. I asked Doctor Georges Dumas, Professor at the Sorbonne, whether sufficient material exists for science to make a retrospective diagnosis of Jeanne's case. He replied to my inquiry192 in a letter which appears as the first Appendix to this work.[79]
[Pg xxxv]
With such a subject I am not qualified193 to deal. But it does lie within my province to make an observation concerning the hallucinations of Jeanne d'Arc, which has been suggested to me by a study of the documents. This observation is of infinite significance. I shall be careful to restrict it to the limits prescribed by the object and the nature of this work.
Those visionaries, who believe they are entrusted with a divine mission, are distinguished194 by certain characteristics from other inspired persons. When mystics of this class are studied and compared with one another, resemblances are found to exist which may extend to very slight details: certain of their words and acts are identical. Indeed as we come to recognise how vigorous is the determinism controlling the actions of these visionaries, we are astonished to find the human machine, when impelled195 by the same mysterious agent, performing its functions with inevitable196 uniformity. To this group of the religious Jeanne belongs. In this connection it is interesting to compare her with Saint Catherine of Sienna,[80] Saint Colette of Corbie,[81] Yves Nicolazic, the peasant of Kernanna,[82] Suzette Labrousse, the inspired woman of the Revolution Church,[83] and[Pg xxxvi] with many other seers and seeresses of this order, who all bear a family likeness197 to one another.
Three visionaries especially are closely related to Jeanne. The earliest in date is a vavasour of Champagne198, who had a mission to speak to King John; of this holy man I have written sufficiently199 in the present work. The second is a farrier of Salon200, who had a mission to speak to Louis XIV; the third, a peasant of Gallardon, named Martin, who had a mission to speak to Louis XVIII. Articles on the farrier and the farmer, who both saw apparitions201 and showed signs to their respective kings, will be found in the appendices at the end of this work.[84] In spite of difference in sex, the points of similarity between Jeanne d'Arc and these three men are very close and very significant; they are inherent in the very nature of Jeanne and her fellow visionaries; and the variations, which at a first glance might seem to separate widely the latter from Jeanne, are ?sthetic, social, historical, and consequently external and contingent202. Between them and her there are of course striking contrasts in appearance and in fortune. They were entirely203 wanting in that charm which she never failed to exercise; and it is a fact that while they failed miserably204 she grew in strength and flowered in legend. But it is the duty of the scientific mind to recognise common characteristics, proving identity of origin alike in the noblest individual and in the most wretched abortion205 of the same species.
The free-thinkers of our day, imbued206 as they are,[Pg xxxvii] for the most part, with transcendentalism, refuse to recognise in Jeanne not merely that automatism which determines the acts of such a seeress, not only the influence of constant hallucination, but even the suggestions of the religious spirit. What she achieved through saintliness and devoutness208, they make her out to have accomplished by intelligent enthusiasm. Such a disposition209 is manifest in the excellent and erudite Quicherat, who all unconsciously introduces into the piety210 of the Maid a great deal of eclectic philosophy. This point was not without its drawbacks. It led free-thinking historians to a ridiculous exaggeration of Jeanne's intellectual faculties211, to the absurdity212 of attributing military talent to her and to the substitution of a kind of polytechnic213 phenomenon for the fifteenth century's artless marvel149. The Catholic historians of the present day when they make a saint of the Maid are much nearer to nature and to truth. Unfortunately the Church's idea of saintliness has grown insipid214 since the Council of Trent, and orthodox historians are disinclined to study the variations of the Catholic Church down the ages. In their hands therefore she becomes sanctimonious215 and bigoted216. So much so that in a search for the most curiously travestied of all the Jeannes d'Arc we should have been driven to choose between their miraculous protectress of Christian217 France, the patroness of officers, the inimitable model of the pupils of Saint-Cyr, and the romantic Druidess, the inspired woman-soldier of the national guard, the patriot218 gunneress of the Republicans, had there not arisen a Jesuit Father to create an ultramontane Jeanne d'Arc.[85]
[Pg xxxviii]
On the subject of Jeanne's sincerity219 I have raised no doubts. It is impossible to suspect her of lying; she firmly believed that she received her mission from her voices. But whether she were not unconsciously directed is more difficult to ascertain. What we know of her before her arrival at Chinon comes to very little. One is inclined to believe that she had been subject to certain influences; it is so with all visionaries: some unseen director leads them. Thus it must have been with Jeanne. At Vaucouleurs she was heard to say that the Dauphin held the kingdom in fief (en commende).[86] Such a term she had not learnt from the folk of her village. She uttered a prophecy which she had not invented and which had obviously been fabricated for her.
She must have associated with priests who were faithful to the cause of the Dauphin Charles, and who desired above all things the end of the war. Abbeys were being burned, churches pillaged220, divine[Pg xxxix] service discontinued.[87] Those pious222 persons who sighed for peace, now that they saw the Treaty of Troyes failing to establish it, looked for the realisation of their hopes to the expulsion of the English. And the wonderful, the unique point about this young peasant girl—a point suggesting the ecclesiastic33 and the monk—is not that she felt herself called to ride forth154 and fight, but that in "her great pity" she announced the approaching end of the war, by the victory and coronation of the King, at a time when the nobles of the two countries, and the men-at-arms of the two parties, neither expected nor desired the war ever to come to an end.
The mission, with which she believed the angel had entrusted her and to which she consecrated223 her life, was doubtless extraordinary, marvellous; and yet it was not unprecedented224: it was no more than saints, both men and women, had already endeavoured to accomplish in human affairs. Jeanne d'Arc arose in the decline of the great Catholic age, when sainthood, usually accompanied by all manner of oddities, manias225, and illusions, still wielded226 sovereign power over the minds of men. And of what miracles was she not capable when acting227 according to the impulses of her own heart, and the grace of her own mind? From the thirteenth to the fifteenth centuries God's servants perform wondrous228 works. Saint Dominic, possessed229 by holy wrath, exterminates230 heresy with fire and sword; Saint Francis of Assisi for the nonce founds poverty as an institution of society; Saint Antony of Padua defends merchants and artisans against the avarice231 and cruelty of nobles and bishops232; Saint Catherine brings the Pope back[Pg xl] to Rome. Was it impossible, therefore, for a saintly damsel, with God's aid, to re-establish within the hapless realm of France that royal power instituted by our Lord Himself and to bring to his coronation a new Joash snatched from death for the salvation233 of the holy people?
Thus did pious French folk, in the year 1428, regard the mission of the Maid. She represented herself as a devout207 damsel inspired by God. There was nothing incredible in that. When she announced that she had received revelations touching234 the war from my Lord Saint Michael, she inspired the men-at-arms of the Armagnac party and the burghers of the city of Orléans with a confidence as great as could have been communicated to the troops, marching along the Loire in the winter of 1871, by a republican engineer who had invented a smokeless powder or an improved form of cannon. What was expected from science in 1871 was expected from religion in 1428, so that the Bastard of Orléans would as naturally employ Jeanne as Gambetta would resort to the technical knowledge of M. de Freycinet.
What has not been sufficiently remarked upon is that the French party made a very adroit235 use of her. The clerks at Poitiers, while inquiring at great length into her religion and her morals, brought her into evidence. These Poitiers clerks were no monks236 ignorant of the world; they constituted the Parliament of the lawful237 King; they were the banished238 members of the University, men deeply involved in political affairs, compromised by revolutions, despoiled239 and ruined, and very impatient to regain240 possession of their property. They were directed by the cleverest man in the King's Coun[Pg xli]cil, the Duke Archbishop of Reims, the Chancellor241 of the kingdom. By the ceremoniousness and the deliberation of their inquiries, they drew upon Jeanne the curiosity, the interest, and the hopes of minds lost in amazement242.[88]
The defences of the city of Orléans consisted in its walls, its trenches243, its cannon, its men-at-arms, and its money. The English had failed both to surround it and to take it by assault. Convoys244 and companies passed between their bastions. Jeanne was introduced into the town with a strong relieving army. She brought flocks of oxen, sheep, and pigs. The townsfolk believed her to be an angel of the Lord. Meanwhile the men and the money of the besiegers were waxing scant110. They had lost all their horses. Far from being in a position to attempt a new attack, they were not likely to be able to hold out long in their bastions. At the end of April there were four thousand English before Orléans and perhaps less, for, as it was said, soldiers were deserting every day; and companies of these deserters went plundering245 through the villages. At the same time the city was defended by six thousand men-at-arms and archers246, and by more than three thousand men of the town bands. At Saint Loup, there were fifteen hundred French against four hundred English; at Les Tourelles, there were five thousand French against four or five hundred English. By their retreat from Orléans the Godons abandoned to their fate the small garrisons247 of Jargeau, Meung, and Beau[Pg xlii]gency.[89] The Battle of Patay gives us some idea of the condition of the English army. It was no battle but a massacre248, and one which Jeanne only reached in time to mourn over the cruelty of the conquerors249. And yet the King, in his letters to his good towns, attributed to her a share in the victory. Evidently the Royal Council made a point of glorifying250 its Holy Maid.
But at heart what did they really think, those who employed her, those Regnaults de Chartres, those Roberts le Ma?on, those Gérards Machet? They were certainly in no position to discuss the origin of the illusions which enveloped251 her. And, albeit252 there were atheists even among churchmen, to the majority there would be nothing to cause astonishment in the appearance of Saint Michael, the Archangel. In those days nothing appeared more natural than a miracle. But a miracle vanishes when closely observed. And they had the damsel before their very eyes. They perceived that good and saintly as she was, she wielded no supernatural power.
While the men-at-arms and all the common folk welcomed her as the maid of God and an angel sent from heaven for the salvation of the realm, these good lords thought only of profiting from the sentiments of confidence which she inspired and in which they had little share. Finding her as ignorant as possible, and doubtless deeming her less intelligent than she really was, they intended to do as they liked with her. They must soon have discovered that it was not always easy. She was a saint, saints are intractable. What were the true relations between[Pg xliii] the Royal Council and the Maid? We do not know; and it is a mystery which will never be solved. The judges at Rouen thought they knew that she received letters from Saint Michael.[90] It is possible that her simplicity253 was sometimes taken advantage of. We have reason for believing that the march to Reims was not suggested to her in France; but there is no doubt that the Chancellor of the kingdom, Messire Regnault de Chartres, Archbishop of Reims, eagerly desired his restoration to the see of the Blessed Saint Remi and the enjoyment254 of his benefices.
The coronation campaign was really nothing but a series of negotiations255, backed by an army. Its object was to show the good towns a king saintly and pacific. Had there been any idea of fighting, the campaign would have been directed against Paris or against Normandy.
At the inquiry of 1456, five or six witnesses, captains, magistrates256, ecclesiastics257, and an honest widow, gave evidence that Jeanne was well versed258 in the art of war. They agreed in saying that she rode a horse and wielded a lance better than any one. A master of requests stated that she amazed the army by the length of time she could remain in the saddle. Such qualities we are not entitled to deny her, neither can we dispute the diligence and the ardour which Dunois praised in her, on the occasion of a demonstration259 by night before Troyes.[91] As to the opinion that this damsel was clever in arraying and leading an army and especially skilled in the management of artillery, that is more difficult to credit and would require to be vouched260 for by some one more trustworthy than the poor Duke of Alen?on, who was never considered a very rational person.[92] What we[Pg xliv] have said about the rehabilitation trial sufficiently explains this curious glorification261 of the Maid. It was understood that Jeanne's military inspiration came from God. Henceforth there was no danger of its being too much admired and it came to be praised somewhat at random262.
After all the Duke of Alen?on was quite moderate when he represented her as a distinguished artillery-woman. As early as 1429, a humanist on the side of Charles VII asserted in Ciceronian language that in military glory she equalled and surpassed Hector, Alexander, Hannibal and C?sar: "Non Hectore reminiscat et gaudeat Troja, exultet Gr?cia Alexandro, Annibale Africa, Italia C?sare et Romanis ducibus omnibus glorietur, Gallia etsi ex pristinis multos habeat, hac tamen una Puella contenta, audebit se gloriari et laude bellica caeteris nationibus se comparare, verum quoque, si expediet, se anteponere."[93]
For ever praying and for ever wrapped in ecstasy263, Jeanne never observed the enemy; she did not know the roads; she paid no heed264 to the number of troops engaged; she did not take into account either the height of walls or the breadth of trenches. Even to-day officers are to be heard discussing the Maid's military tactics.[94] Those tactics were simple; they consisted in preventing men from blaspheming against God and consorting265 with light women. She believed that for their sins they would be destroyed,[Pg xlv] but that if they fought in a state of grace they would win the victory. Therein lay all her military science, save that she never feared danger.[95] She displayed a courage which was at once proud and gentle; she was more valiant266, more constant, more noble than the men and in that worthy178 to lead them. And is it not admirable and rare to find such heroism267 united to such innocence268?
Certain of the leaders indeed, and notably269 the princes of the blood royal, knew no more than she. The art of war in those days resolved itself into the art of riding. Any idea of marching along converging270 lines, of concentrated movements, of a campaign methodically planned, of a prolonged effort with a view to some great result was unknown. Military tactics were nothing more than a collection of peasants' stratagems271 and a few rules of chivalry. The freebooters, captains, and soldiers of fortune were all acquainted with the tricks of the trade, but they recognised neither friend nor foe272; and their one desire was pillage221. The nobles affected great concern for honour and praise; in reality they thought of nothing but gain. Alain Chartier said of them: "They cry 'to arms,' but they fight for money."[96]
Seeing that war was to last as long as life, it was waged with deliberation. Men-at-arms, horse-soldiers and foot, archers, cross-bowmen, Armagnacs as well as English and Burgundians, fought with no great ardour. Of course they were brave: but they were cautious too and were not ashamed to confess it. Jean Chartier, precentor of Saint-Denys, chronicler of the Kings of France, relating how on a day[Pg xlvi] the French met the English near Lagny, adds: "And there the battle was hard and fierce, for the French were barely more than the English."[97] These simple folk, seeing that one man is as good as another, admitted the risk of fighting one to one. Their minds had not fed on Plutarch as had those of the Revolution and the Empire. And for their encouragement they had neither the carmagnoles of Barrère, nor the songs of Marie-Joseph Chénier, nor the bulletins of la grande armée. Why did these captains, these men-at-arms go and fight in one place rather than in another seems to be a natural question.... Because they wanted goods.
This perpetual warfare was not sanguinary. During what was described as Jeanne d'Arc's mission, that is from Orléans to Compiègne, the French lost barely a few hundred men. The English suffered much more heavily, because they were the fugitives273, and in a rout274 it was the custom for the conquerors to kill all those who were not worth holding to ransom275. But battles were rare, and so consequently were defeats, and the number of the combatants was small. There were but a handful of English in France. And they may be said to have fought only for plunder43. Those who suffered from the war were those who did not fight, burghers, priests, and peasants. The peasants endured terrible hardships, and it is quite conceivable that a peasant girl should have displayed a firmness in war, a persistence276 and an ardour unknown throughout the whole of chivalry.
It was not Jeanne who drove the English from France. If she contributed to the deliverance of Orléans, she retarded277 the ultimate salvation of France by causing the opportunity of conquering[Pg xlvii] Normandy to be lost through the coronation campaign. The misfortunes of the English after 1428 are easily explained. While in peaceful Guyenne they engaged in agriculture, in commerce, in navigation, and set the finances in good order, the country which they had rendered prosperous was strongly attached to them. On the banks of the Seine and the Loire it was very different; there they had never taken root; in numbers they were always too few, and they had never obtained any hold on the country. Shut up in fortresses and chateaux, they did not cultivate the country enough to conquer it, for one must work on the land if one would take possession of it. They left it waste and abandoned it to the soldiers of fortune by whom it was ravaged279 and exhausted280. Their garrisons, absurdly small, were prisoners in the country they had conquered. The English had long teeth, but a pike cannot swallow an ox. That they were too few and that France was too big had been plainly seen after Crécy and after Poitiers. Then, after Verneuil, during the troubled reign of a child, weakened by civil discord281, lacking men and money, and bound to keep in subjection the countries of Wales, Ireland, and Scotland, were they likely to succeed better? In 1428, they were but a handful in France, and to maintain themselves there they depended on the help of the Duke of Burgundy, who henceforth deserted282 them and wished them every possible harm.
They lacked means alike for the capture of new provinces and the pacification283 of those they had already conquered. The very character of the sovereignty their princes claimed, the nature of the rights they asserted, which were founded on institutions common to the two countries, rendered the[Pg xlviii] organisation284 of their conquest difficult without the consent and even, one may say, without the loyal concurrence285 and friendship of the conquered. The Treaty of Troyes did not subject France to England, it united one country to the other. Such a union occasioned much anxiety in London. The Commons did not conceal93 their fear that Old England might become a mere2 isolated287 province of the new kingdom.[98] France for her part did not concur286 in the union. It was too late. During all the time that they had been making war on these Coués[99] they had grown to hate them. And possibly there already existed an English character and a French character which were irreconcilable288. Even in Paris, where the Armagnacs were as much feared as the Saracens, the Godons[100] met with very unwilling289 support. What surprises us is not that the English should have been driven from France, but that it should have happened so slowly. Does this amount to saying that the young saint had no part whatever in the work of deliverance? By no means. Hers was the nobler, the better part; the part of sacrifice; she set the example of the highest courage and displayed heroism in a form unexpected and charming. The King's cause, which was indeed the national cause, she served in two ways: by giving confidence to the men-at-arms of her party, who believed her to be a bringer of good fortune, and by striking fear into the English, who imagined her to be the devil.
[Pg xlix]
Our best historians cannot forgive the ministers and captains of 1428 for not having blindly obeyed the Maid. But that was not at all the advice given at the time by the Archbishop of Embrun to King Charles; he, on the contrary, recommended him not to abandon the means inspired by human reason.[101]
It has frequently been repeated that the lords and captains were jealous of her, especially old Gaucourt.[102] But such a statement shows an absolute ignorance of human nature. They were envious290 one of another; this and no other sentiment was the jealousy291 that made them tolerate the Maid's assuming the title of commander in war.[103]
Those secret intrigues292 on the part of the King and his captains, who are said to have plotted together the destruction of the saint, I admit having found it impossible to discover. To certain historians they appear very obvious: for my part, do what I may, I cannot discern them. The Chamberlain, the Sire de la Trémouille, had no pretensions to nobility of character; and the Chancellor Regnault de Chartres was hard-hearted, but what strikes me is that the Sire de la Trémouille refused to give up this valuable damsel to the Duke of Alen?on when he asked for her, and that the Chancellor retained her in order to make use of her.[104] I am not of the opinion that Jeanne was a prisoner at Sully. I be[Pg l]lieve that when she went to join the Chancellor, who employed her until her capture by the Burgundians, she quitted the castle in estate, with trumpeters, and banners flying. After the girl saint he employed a boy saint, a shepherd who had stigmata; which proves that he did not regret having made use of a devout person to fight against the King's enemies and to recover his own archbishopric.
The excellent Quicherat and the magnanimous Henri Martin are very hard on the Government of 1428. According to them it was a treacherous293 Government. Yet the only reproach they bring against Charles VII and his councillors is that they did not understand the Maid as they themselves understood her. But such an understanding has required the lapse of four hundred years. To arrive at the illuminated294 ideas of a Quicherat and a Henri Martin concerning Jeanne d'Arc, three centuries of absolute monarchy295, the Reformation, the Revolution, the wars of the Republic and of the Empire, and the sentimental296 Neo-Catholicism of '48, have all been necessary. Through all these brilliant prisms, through all these succeeding lights do romantic historians and broad-minded paleographers view the figure of Jeanne d'Arc; and we ask too much from the poor Dauphin Charles, from La Trémouille, from Regnault de Chartres, from the Lord of Trèves, from old Gaucourt, when we require them to have seen Jeanne as centuries have made and moulded her.[105]
This, however, remains297: after having made so much use of her, the Royal Council did nothing to save her.[Pg li]
Must the disgrace of such neglect fall upon the whole Council and upon the Council alone? Who ought really to have interfered298? And how? What ought King Charles to have done? Should he have offered to ransom the Maid? She would not have been surrendered to him at any price. As for capturing her by force, that is a mere child's dream. Had they entered Rouen, the French would not have found her there; Warwick would always have had time to put her in a place of safety, or to drown her in the river. Neither money nor arms would have availed to recapture her.
But this was no reason for standing69 with folded arms. Influence could have been brought to bear on those who were conducting the trial. Doubtless they were all on the side of the Godons; that old Cabochien of a Pierre Cauchon was very much committed to them; he detested299 the French; the clerks, who owed allegiance to Henry VI, were naturally inclined to please the Great Council of England which disposed of patronage300; the doctors and masters of the University of France greatly hated and feared the Armagnacs. And yet the judges of the trial were not all infamous301 prevaricators; the chapter of Rouen lacked neither courage nor independence.[106] Among those members of the University who were so bitter against Jeanne, there were men highly esteemed302 for doctrine303 and character. They for the most part believed this trial to be a purely religious one. By dint304 of seeking for witches, they had come to find them everywhere. These females, as they called them, they were sending to the stake every[Pg lii] day, and receiving nothing but thanks for it. They believed as firmly as Jeanne in the possibility of the apparitions which she said had been vouchsafed to her, only they were persuaded either that she lied or that she saw devils. The Bishop, the Vice-Inquisitor and the assessors, to the number of forty and upwards305, were unanimous in declaring her heretical and devilish. There were doubtless many who imagined that by passing sentence against her they were maintaining Catholic orthodoxy and unity278 of obedience306 against the abettors of schism307 and heresy; they wished to judge wisely. And even the boldest and the most unscrupulous, the Bishop and the Promoter, would not have dared too openly to infringe308 the rules of ecclesiastical justice in order to please the English. They were priests, and they preserved priestly pride and respect for formality. Here was their weak point; in this respect for formality they might have been struck. Had the other side instituted vigorous legal proceedings, theirs might possibly have been thwarted309, arrested, and the fatal sentence prevented. If the metropolitan310 of the Bishop of Beauvais, the Archbishop of Reims, had intervened in the trial, if he had suspended his suffragan for abuse of authority, or some other reason, Pierre Cauchon would have been greatly embarrassed; if, as he decided311 to do later, King Charles VII had brought about the intervention of the mother and brothers of the Maid; if Jacques d'Arc and la Romée had protested in due form against an action so manifestly one-sided; if the register of Poitiers[107] had been[Pg liii] sent for inclusion among the documents of the trial; if the high prelates subject to King Charles VII had asked for a safe conduct in order to come and give evidence in Jeanne's favour at Rouen; finally, if the King, his Council, and the whole Church of France had demanded an appeal to the Pope, as they were legally entitled to do, then the trial might have had a different issue.
But they were afraid of the University of Paris. They feared lest Jeanne might be after all what so many learned doctors maintained her to be, a heretic, a miscreant312 seduced313 by the prince of darkness. Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, and it is difficult to distinguish the true prophets from the false. The hapless Maid was deserted by the very clergy314 whose croziers had so recently been carried before her; of all the Poitiers masters not one was found to testify in the chateau of Rouen to that innocence which they had officially recognised eighteen months before.
It would be very interesting to trace the reputation of the Maid down the ages. But to do so would require a whole book. I shall merely indicate the most striking revolutions of public opinion concerning her. The humanists of the Renaissance315 display no great interest in her: she was too Gothic for them. The Reformers, for whom she was tainted316 with idolatry, could not tolerate her picture.[108] It seems strange to us to-day, but it is none the less certain, and in conformity317 with all we know of French feeling for royalty318, that whilst the monarchy endured it was the memory of Charles VII that kept alive the memory of Jeanne d'Arc and saved her[Pg liv] from oblivion.[109] Respect due to the Prince generally hindered his faithful subjects from too closely inquiring into the legends of Jeanne as well as into those of the Holy Ampulla, the cures for King's evil, the oriflamme and all other popular traditions relating to the antiquity and celebrity319 of the royal throne of France. In 1609, when in a college of Paris, the Maid was the subject of sundry literary themes in which she was unfavourably treated,[110] a certain lawyer, Jean Hordal, who boasted that he came of the same race as the heroine, complained of these academic disputes as being derogatory to royal majesty—"I am greatly astonished," he said, "that ... public declamations against the honour of France, of King Charles VII and his Council,[111] should be suffered in France." Had Jeanne not been so closely associated with royalty, her memory would have been very much neglected by the wits of the seventeenth century. In the minds of scholars, Catholics and Protestants alike, who considered the life of St. Margaret as mere superstition320,[112] her[Pg lv] apparitions did her harm. In those days even the Sorbonagres themselves were expurgating the martyrology and the legends of saints. One of them, Edmond Richer, like Jeanne a native of Champagne, the censor321 of the university in 1600, and a zealous323 Gallican, wrote an apology for the Maid who had defended the Crown of Charles VII.[113] with her sword. Albeit a firm upholder of the liberties of the French Church, Edmond Richer was a good Catholic. He was pious and of sound doctrine; he firmly believed in angels, but he did not believe either in Saint Catherine or Saint Margaret, and their appearing to the Maid greatly embarrassed him. He solved the difficulty by supposing that the angels had represented themselves to the Maid as the two saints, whom in her ignorance she devoutly325 worshipped. The hypothesis seemed to him satisfactory, "all the more so," he said, "because the Spirit of God, which governs the Church, accommodates himself to our infirmity." Thirty or forty years later, another doctor of the Sorbonne, Jean de Launoy, who was always ferreting after saints, completed the discrediting326 of Saint Catherine's legend.[114] The voices of Domremy were falling into disrepute.
Take Chapelain, for example, whose poem was first published in 1656. Chapelain is unconsciously burlesque327; he is a Scarron without knowing it. It[Pg lvi] is none the less interesting to learn from him that he merely treated his subject as an occasion for glorifying the Bastard of Orléans. He expressly says in his preface: "I did not so much regard her (the Maid) as the chief character of the poem, who, strictly328 speaking, is the Comte de Dunois." Chapelain was in the pay of the Duc de Longueville, a descendant of Dunois.[115] It is of Dunois that he sings; "the illustrious shepherdess" contributes the marvellous element to his poem, and, according to the good man's own expression, furnishes les machines nécessaires for an epic330. Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret are too commonplace to be included among ces machines. Chapelain tells us that he took particular care so to arrange his poem that "everything which happens in it by divine favour might be believed to have taken place through human agency carried to the highest degree to which nature is capable of ascending331." Herein we discern the dawn of the modern spirit.
Bossuet also is careful not to mention Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret. The four or five quarto pages which he devotes to Jeanne d'Arc in his "Abrégé de l'Histoire de France pour l'instruction du Dauphin"[116] are very interesting, not for his statement of facts, which is confused and inexact,[117] but for the care the author takes to represent the miraculous deeds attributed to Jeanne in an inciden[Pg lvii]tal and dubious332 manner. In Bossuet's opinion, as in Gerson's, these things are matters of edification, not of faith. Writing for the instruction of a prince, Bossuet was bound to abridge333; but his abridgment334 goes too far when, representing Jeanne's condemnation to be the work of the Bishop of Beauvais, he omits to say that the Bishop of Beauvais pronounced this sentence with the unanimous concurrence of the University of Paris, and in conjunction with the Vice-Inquisitor.[118]
The eighteenth-century philosophers did not descend329 on France like a cloud of locusts335; they were the result of two centuries of the critical spirit. If the story of Jeanne d'Arc contained too much monkish336 superstition for their taste, it was because they had learned their ecclesiastical history from the Baillets and the Tillemonts, who were pious indeed, but very critical of legends. Voltaire, writing of Jeanne, jeered337 at the rascally338 monks and their[Pg lviii] dupes. But if we quote the lines of La Pucelle, why not also the article[119] in the Dictionnaire Philosophique, which contains three pages of profounder truth and nobler thought than certain voluminous modern works in which Voltaire is insulted in clerical jargon339?
It was precisely340 at the end of the eighteenth century that Jeanne began to be better known and more justly appreciated, first through a little book, which the Abbé Lenglet du Fresnoy derived almost wholly from the unpublished history of old Richer,[120] then by l'Averdy's erudite researches into the two trials.[121]
Nevertheless humanism, and after humanism the Reformation, and after the Reformation Cartesianism, and after Cartesianism experimental philosophy had banished the old credulity from thoughtful minds. When the Revolution came, the bloom had already long faded from the flower of Gothic legend.[Pg lix] It seemed as if the glory of Jeanne d'Arc, so intimately related to the traditions of the royal house of France, could not survive the monarchy, and as if the tempest which scattered341 the royal ashes of Saint Denys and the treasure of Reims, would also bear away the frail342 relics343 and the venerated344 images of the saint of the Valois. The new régime did indeed refuse to honour a memory so inseparable from royalty and from religion. The festival of Jeanne d'Arc at Orléans, shorn of ecclesiastical pomp in 1791, was discontinued in 1793. Later the Maid's history appeared somewhat too Gothic even to the emigrés; Chateaubriand did not dare to introduce her into his "Génie du Christianisme."[122]
But in the year XI the First Consul98, who had just concluded the Concordat345 and was meditating346 the restoration of all the pageantry of the coronation, reinstituted the festival of the Maid with its incense347 and its crosses. Glorified348 of old in Charles VII's letters to his good towns, Jeanne was now exalted in Le Moniteur by Bonaparte.[123]
Only by constant transformation349 do the figures of poetry and history live in the minds of nations. Humanity cannot be interested in a personage of old time unless it clothe it in its own sentiments and in its own passions. After having been associated with the monarchy of divine right, the memory of[Pg lx] Jeanne d'Arc came to be connected with the national unity which that monarchy had rendered possible; in Imperial and Republican France she became the symbol of la patrie. Certainly the daughter of Isabelle Romée had no more idea of la patrie as it is conceived to-day than she had of the idea of landed property which lies at its base. She never imagined anything like what we call the nation. That is something quite modern; but she did conceive of the heritage of kings and of the domain350 of the House of France. And it was there, in that domain and in that heritage, that the French gathered together before forming themselves into la patrie.
Under influences which it is impossible for us exactly to discover, the idea came to her of re-establishing the Dauphin in his inheritance; and this idea appeared to her so grand and so beautiful that in the fulness of her very ingenuous351 pride, she believed it to have been suggested to her by angels and saints from Paradise. For this idea she gave her life. That is why she has survived the cause for which she suffered. The very highest enterprises perish in their defeat and even more surely in their victory. The devotion, which inspired them, remains as an immortal352 example. And if the illusion, under which her senses laboured, helped her to this act of self-consecration, was not that illusion the unconscious outcome of her own heart? Her foolishness was wiser than wisdom, for it was that foolishness of martyrdom, without which men have never yet founded anything great or useful. Cities, empires, republics rest on sacrifice. It is not without reason therefore, not without justice that, transformed by enthusiastic imagination, she became the symbol of la patrie in arms.[Pg lxi]
In 1817, Le Brun de Charmettes,[124] a royalist jealous of imperial glory, wrote the first patriotic353 history of Jeanne d'Arc. The history is an able work. It has been followed by many others, conceived in the same spirit, composed on the same plan, written in the same style. From 1841 to 1849, Jules Quicherat, by his publication of the two trials and the evidence, worthily354 opened an incomparable period of research and discovery. At the same time, Michelet in the fifth volume of his "Histoire de France," wrote pages of high colour and rapid movement, which will doubtless remain the highest expression of the romantic art as applied355 to the Maid.[125]
But of all the histories written between 1817 and 1870, or at least of all those with which I have made acquaintance, for I have not attempted to read them all, the most discerning in my opinion is the fourth book of Vallet de Viriville's "Histoire de Charles VII" in which his chief preoccupation is to place the Maid in that group of visionaries to which she really belongs.[126]
Wallon's book has been widely circulated if not widely read. A monotonous356, conscientious work moderately enthusiastic, it owes its success to its unimpeachable357 exactitude.[127] If there must be an orthodox Jeanne d'Arc to suit fashionable persons, then for such a purpose, M. Marius Sepet's representation of the Maid would be equally exact and more graceful358.[128]
[Pg lxii]
After the war of 1871, the twofold influence of the patriotic spirit, exalted by defeat, and the revival359 of Catholicism among the middle class gave a new impetus360 to admiration361 of the Maid. Arts and letters completed the transfiguration of Jeanne.
Catholics, like the learned Canon Dunand,[129] vie in zeal322 and enthusiasm with free-thinking idealists like M. Joseph Fabre.[130] By reproducing the two trials in a very artistic362 manner, in modern French and in a direct form of speech, M. Fabre has popularised the most ancient and the most touching impression of the Maid.[131]
From this period date almost innumerable works of erudition, among which must be noted363 those of Siméon Luce, which henceforth no one who would treat of Jeanne's early years can afford to neglect.[132]
We are equally indebted to M. Germain Lefèvre-Pontalis for his fine editions and his discerning studies so eruditely graceful and exact.
Throughout this period of romantic and Neo-Catholic enthusiasm the arts of painting and sculpture produced numerous representations of Jeanne, which had hitherto been very rare. Now everywhere were to be found Jeanne in armour364 and on horseback, Jeanne in prayer, Jeanne in captivity365, Jeanne suffering martyrdom. Of all these images expressing in different manners and with varying merit the taste and the sentiment of the period, one[Pg lxiii] work only appears great and true, and of striking beauty: Rude's Jeanne d'Arc beholding366 a vision.[133]
The word patrie did not exist in the days of the Maid. People spoke of the kingdom of France.[134] No one, not even jurists, knew exactly what were its limits, which were constantly changing. The diversity of laws and customs was infinite, and quarrels between nobles were constantly arising. Nevertheless, men felt in their hearts that they loved their native land and hated the foreigner. If the Hundred Years' War did not create the sentiment of nationality in France, it fostered it. In his "Quadrilogue Invectif" Alain Chartier represents France, indicated by her robe sumptuously368 adorned369 with the emblems371 of the nobility, of the clergy and of the tiers état, but lamentably372 soiled and torn, adjuring373 the three orders not to permit her to perish. "After the bond of the Catholic faith," she says to them, "Nature has called you before all things to unite for the salvation of your native land, and for the defence of that lordship under which God has caused you to be born and to live."[135] And these are not the mere maxims374 of a humourist versed in the virtues375 of antiquity. On the hearts of humble Frenchmen it was laid to serve the country of their birth. "Must the King be driven from his kingdom, and must we become English?" cried a man-at-arms of Lorraine in 1428.[136] The subjects of the Lilies, as well as those of the Leopard376, felt it incumbent377 upon[Pg lxiv] them to be loyal to their liege lord. But if any change for the worse occurred in the lordships to which they belonged, they were quite ready to make the best of it, because a lordship must increase or decrease, according to power and fortune, according to the good right or the good pleasure of the holder324; it may be dismembered by marriages, or gifts, or inheritance, or alienated378 by various contracts. On the occasion of the Treaty of Bretigny, which seriously narrowed the dominions379 of King John, the folk of Paris strewed380 the streets with grass and flowers as a sign of rejoicing.[137] As a matter of fact, nobles changed their allegiance as often as it was necessary. Juvénal des Ursins relates in his Journal[138] how at the time of the English conquest of Normandy, a young widow was known to quit her domain with her three children in order to escape doing homage381 to the King from beyond the seas. But how many Norman nobles were like her in refusing to swear fealty382 to the former enemies of the kingdom? The example of fidelity383 to the king was not always set by those of his own family. The Duke of Bourbon, in the name of all the princes of the blood royal, prisoners with him in the hands of the English, proposed to Henry V that they should go and negotiate in France for the cession384 of Harfleur, promising385 that if the Royal Council met them with refusal they would acknowledge Henry V to be King of France.[139]
Every one thought first of himself. Whoever possessed land owed himself to his land; his neighbour was his enemy. The burgher thought only of[Pg lxv] his town. The peasant changed his master without knowing it. The three orders were not yet united closely enough to form, in the modern sense of the word, a state.
Little by little the royal power united the French. This union became stronger in proportion as royalty grew more powerful. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, that desire to think and act in common, which creates great nations, became very strong among us—at least in those families which furnished officers to the Crown—and it even spread among the lower orders of society. Rabelais introduces Fran?ois Villon and the King of England into a tale so inflamed386 with military bravado387 that it might have been told over the camp fire in an almost identical manner by one of Napoleon's grenadiers.[140] In his preface to the poem we have just quoted, Chapelain writes of the occasions when "la patrie who is our common mother, has need of all her children." Already the old poet expresses himself like the author of the Marseillaise.[141]
It cannot be denied that the feeling for la patrie did exist under the old régime. The impulse imparted to this sentiment by the Revolution was none the less immense. It added to it the idea of national unity and national territorial388 integrity. It extended to all the right of property hitherto reserved to a small number, and thus, so to speak, divided la patrie among the citizens. While rendering389 the peasant capable of possessing, the new régime imposed upon him the obligations of defending his actual or potential possessions. Recourse to arms is a necessity alike for whomsoever acquires or wishes[Pg lxvi] to acquire territory. Hardly had the Frenchman come to enjoy the rights of a man and of a citizen, hardly had he entered into possession or thought he might enter into possession of a home and lands of his own, when the armies of the Coalition390 arrived "to drive him back to ancient slavery." Then the patriot became a soldier. Twenty-three years of warfare, with the inevitable alternations of victories and defeats, built up our fathers in their love of la patrie and their hatred391 of the foreigner.
Since then, as the result of industrial progress, there have arisen in one country and another, rivalries392 which are every day growing more bitter. The present methods of production by multiplying antagonism393 among nations, have given rise to imperialism394, to colonial expansion and to armed peace.
But how many contrary forces are at work in this formidable creation of a new order of things! In all countries the great development of trade and manufactures has given birth to a new class. This class, possessing nothing, having no hope of ever possessing anything, enjoying none of the good things of life, not even the light of day, does not share the fear which haunted the peasant and burgher of the Revolution, of being despoiled by an enemy coming from abroad; the members of this new class, having no wealth to defend, regard foreign nations with neither terror nor hatred. At the same time over all the markets of the world there have arisen financial powers, which, although they often affect respect for old traditions, are by their very functions essentially395 destructive of the national and patriotic spirit. The universal capitalist system has created in France, as everywhere else, the internationalism of the workers and the cosmopolitanism396 of the financiers.[Pg lxvii]
To-day, just as two thousand years ago, in order to discern the future, we must regard not the enterprises of the great but the confused movements of the working classes. The nations will not indefinitely endure this armed peace which weighs so heavily upon them. Every day we behold367 the organising of an universal community of workers.
I believe in the future union of nations, and I long for it with that ardent397 charity for the human race, which, formed in the Latin conscience in the days of Epictetus and Seneca, and through so many centuries extinguished by European barbarism, has been revived in the noblest breasts of modern times. And in vain will it be argued against me that these are the mere dream-illusions of desire: it is desire that creates life and the future is careful to realise the dreams of philosophers. Nevertheless, that we to-day are assured of a peace that nothing will disturb, none but a madman would maintain. On the contrary, the terrible industrial and commercial rivalries growing up around us indicate future conflicts, and there is nothing to assure us that France will not one day find herself involved in a great European or world conflagration398. Her obligation to provide for her defence increases not a little those difficulties which arise from a social order profoundly agitated399 by competition in production and antagonism between classes.
An absolute empire obtains its defenders by inspiring fear; democracy only by bestowing400 benefits. Fear or interest lies at the root of all devotion. If the French proletariat is to defend the Republic heroically in the hour of peril401, then it must either be happy or have the hope of becoming so. And what use is it to deceive ourselves? The lot of the[Pg lxviii] workman to-day is no better in France than in Germany, and not so good as in England or America.
On these important subjects I have not been able to forbear expressing the truth as it appears to me; there is a great satisfaction in saying what one believes useful and just.
It now only remains for me to submit to my readers a few reflections on the difficult art of writing history, and to explain certain peculiarities402 of form and language which will be found in this work.
To enter into the spirit of a period that has passed away, to make oneself the contemporary of men of former days, deliberate study and loving care are necessary. The difficulty lies not so much in what one must know as in what one must not know. If we would really live in the fifteenth century, how many things we must forget: knowledge, methods, all those acquisitions which make moderns of us. We must forget that the earth is round, and that the stars are suns, and not lamps suspended from a crystal vault403; we must forget the cosmogony of Laplace, and believe in the science of Saint Thomas, of Dante, and of those cosmographers of the Middle Age who teach the Creation in seven days and the foundation of kingdoms by the sons of Priam, after the destruction of Great Troy. Such and such a historian or paleographer is powerless to make us understand the contemporaries of the Maid. It is not knowledge he lacks, but ignorance—ignorance of modern warfare, of modern politics, of modern religion.
But when we have forgotten, as far as possible, all that has happened since the youth of Charles VII,[Pg lxix] in order to think like a clerk in exile at Poitiers, or a burgher at Orléans serving on the ramparts of his city, we must recover all our intellectual resources in order to embrace the entirety of events, and discover that sequence between cause and effect which escape the clerk or the burgher. "I have contracted my horizon," says the Chatterton of Alfred de Vigny, when he explains how he is conscious of nothing that has happened since the days of the old Saxons. But Chatterton wrote poems, pseudo chronicles, and not history. The historian must alternately contract his horizon and widen it. If he undertake to tell an old story, he must needs successively—or sometimes at one and the same moment—assume the credulity of the folk he restores to life, and the discernment of the most accomplished critic. By a strange process, he must divide his personality. He must be at once the ancient man and the modern man; he must live on two different planes, like that curious character in a story by Mr. H.G. Wells, who lives and moves in a little English town, and all the time sees herself at the bottom of the ocean.
I have carefully visited cities and countries in which the events I propose to relate took place. I have seen the valley of the Meuse amidst the flowers and perfumes of spring, and I have seen it again beneath a mass of mist and cloud. I have travelled along the smiling banks of the Loire, so full of renown404; through La Beauce, with its vast horizons bordered with snow-topped mountains; through l'?le-de-France, where the sky is serene405; through La Champagne, with its stony406 hills covered with those low vines which, trampled407 upon by the coronation army, bloomed again into leaves and fruit, says the legend, and by St. Martin's Day yielded a late but[Pg lxx] rich vintage.[142] I have lingered in barren Picardy, along the Bay of the Somme so sad and bare beneath the flight of its birds of passage. I have wandered through the fat meadows of Normandy to Rouen with its steeples and towers, its ancient charnel houses, its damp streets, its last remaining timbered houses with high gables. I have imagined these rivers, these lands, these chateaux and these towns as they were five hundred years ago.
I have accustomed my gaze to the forms assumed by the beings and the objects of those days. I have examined all that remains of stone, of iron, or of wood worked by the hands of those old artisans, who were freer and consequently more ingenious than ours, and whose handicraft reveals a desire to animate408 and adorn370 everything. To the best of my ability I have studied figures carved and painted, not exactly in France—for there, in those days of misery409 and death, art was little practised—but in Flanders, in Burgundy, in Provence, where the workmanship is often in a style at once affected and naif, and frequently beautiful. As I gazed at the old miniatures, they seemed to live before me, and I saw the nobles in the absurd magnificence of their étoffes à tripes,[143] the dames410 and the damoiselles somewhat devilish with their horned caps and their pointed shoes; clerks seated at the desk, men-at-arms riding their chargers and merchants their mules411, husbandmen performing from April till March all the tasks of the rural calendar; peasant women, whose broad coifs are still worn by nuns412. I drew near to these folk, who were our fellows, and who yet differed[Pg lxxi] from us by a thousand shades of sentiment and of thought; I lived their lives; I read their hearts.
It is hardly necessary to say that there exists no authentic representation of Jeanne. In the art of the fifteenth century all that relates to her amounts to very little: hardly anything remains—a small piece of bestion tapestry413, a slight pen-and-ink figure on a register, a few illuminations in manuscripts of the reigns414 of Charles VII, Louis XI, and Charles VIII, that is all. I have found it necessary to contribute to this very meagre iconography of Jeanne d'Arc, not because I had anything to add to it, but in order to expunge415 the contributions of the forgers of that period. In Appendix IV, at the end of this work, will be found the short article in which I point out the forgeries416 which, for the most part, are already old, but had not been previously417 denounced. I have limited my researches to the fifteenth century, leaving to others the task of studying those pictures of the Renaissance in which the Maid appears decked out in the German fashion, with the plumed418 hat and slashed doubtlet of a Saxon ritter or a Swiss mercenary.[144] I cannot say who served as a prototype for these portraits, but they closely resemble the woman accompanying the mercenaries in La Danse des morts, which Nicholas Manuel painted at Berne, on the wall of the Dominican Monastery419, between 1515 and 1521.[145] In le Grand[Pg lxxii] Siècle Jeanne d'Arc becomes Clorinda, Minerva, Bellona in ballet costume.[146]
To my mind a continuous story is more likely than any controversy420 or discussion to make my subject live, and bring home its verities421 to my readers. It is true that the documents relating to the Maid do not lend themselves very easily to this kind of treatment. As I have just shown, they may nearly all be regarded as doubtful from several points of view, and objections to them arise at every moment. Nevertheless, I think that by making a cautious and judicious use of these documents one may obtain material sufficient for a truthful422 history of considerable extent. Besides, I have always indicated the sources of my facts, so that every one may judge for himself of the trustworthiness of my authorities.
In the course of my story I have related many incidents which, without having a direct relation to Jeanne, reveal the spirit, the morals, and the beliefs of her time. These incidents are usually of a religious order. They must necessarily be so, for Jeanne's story—and I cannot repeat it too often—is the story of a saint, just like that of Colette of Corbie, or of Catherine of Sienna.
I have yielded frequently, perhaps too frequently, to the desire to make the reader live among the men and things of the fifteenth century. And in order not to distract him suddenly from them, I have avoided suggesting any comparison with other periods, although many such occurred to me.
My history is founded on the form and substance of ancient documents; but I have hardly ever introduced into it literal quotations423; I believe that[Pg lxxiii] unless it possesses a certain unity of language a book is unreadable, and I want to be read.
It is neither affectation of style nor artistic taste that has led me to adhere as far as possible to the tone of the period and to prefer archaic424 forms of language whenever I thought they would be intelligible127, it is because ideas are changed when words are changed and because one cannot substitute modern for ancient expressions without altering sentiments and characters.
I have endeavoured to make my style simple and familiar. History is too often written in a high-flown manner that renders it wearisome and false. Why should we imagine historical facts to be out of the ordinary run of things and on a scale different from every-day humanity?
The writer of a history such as this is terribly tempted53 to throw himself into the battle. There is hardly a modern account of these old contests, in which the author, be he ecclesiastic or professor, does not with pen behind ear, rush into the mêlée by the side of the Maid. Even at the risk of missing the revelation of some of the beauties of her nature, I deem it better to keep one's own personality out of the action.
I have written this history with a zeal ardent and tranquil425; I have sought truth strenuously426, I have met her fearlessly. Even when she assumed an unexpected aspect, I have not turned from her. I shall be reproached for audacity427, until I am reproached for timidity.
I have pleasure in expressing my gratitude428 to my illustrious confrères, MM. Paul Meyer and Ernest Lavisse, who have given me valuable advice. I owe much to M. Petit Dutaillis for certain kindly429 observations which I have taken into consideration.[Pg lxxiv] I am also greatly indebted to M. Henri Jadart, Secretary of the Reims Academy; M. E. Langlois, Professor at the Faculté des Lettres of Lille; M. Camille Bloch, some time archivist of Loiret, M. No?l Charavay, autographic expert, and M. Raoul Bonnet430.
M. Pierre Champion, who albeit still young is already known as the author of valuable historical works, has placed the result of his researches at my disposal with a disinterestedness431 I shall never be able adequately to acknowledge. He has also carefully read the whole of my work. M. Jean Brousson has given me the advantage of his perspicacity432 which far surpasses what one is entitled to expect from one's secretary.
In the century which I have endeavoured to represent in this work, there was a fiend, by name Titivillus. Every evening this fiend put into a sack all the letters omitted or altered by the copyists during the day. He carried them to hell, in order that, when Saint Michael weighed the souls of these negligent433 scribes, the share of each one might be put in the scale of his iniquities434. Should he have survived the invention of printing, surely this most properly meticulous435 fiend must to-day be assuming the heavy task of collecting the misprints scattered throughout the books which aspire436 to exactitude; it would be very foolish of him to trouble about others. As occasion requires he will place those misprints to the account of reader or author. I am infinitely437 indebted to my publishers and friends MM. Calmann, Lévy and to their excellent collaborators for the care and experience they have employed in lightening the burden, which Titivillus will place on my back on the Day of Judgment.
Paris, February, 1908.
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1 expounded | |
论述,详细讲解( expound的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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2 mere | |
adj.纯粹的;仅仅,只不过 | |
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3 condemnation | |
n.谴责; 定罪 | |
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4 rehabilitation | |
n.康复,悔过自新,修复,复兴,复职,复位 | |
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5 heresy | |
n.异端邪说;异教 | |
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6 dishonour | |
n./vt.拒付(支票、汇票、票据等);vt.凌辱,使丢脸;n.不名誉,耻辱,不光彩 | |
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7 perfectly | |
adv.完美地,无可非议地,彻底地 | |
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8 lucid | |
adj.明白易懂的,清晰的,头脑清楚的 | |
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9 literally | |
adv.照字面意义,逐字地;确实 | |
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10 bishop | |
n.主教,(国际象棋)象 | |
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11 curiously | |
adv.有求知欲地;好问地;奇特地 | |
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12 defective | |
adj.有毛病的,有问题的,有瑕疵的 | |
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13 lapse | |
n.过失,流逝,失效,抛弃信仰,间隔;vi.堕落,停止,失效,流逝;vt.使失效 | |
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adj.无能力的,不能做某事的 | |
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15 authenticity | |
n.真实性 | |
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16 authentic | |
a.真的,真正的;可靠的,可信的,有根据的 | |
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17 veracity | |
n.诚实 | |
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18 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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19 secondly | |
adv.第二,其次 | |
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20 baron | |
n.男爵;(商业界等)巨头,大王 | |
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21 expend | |
vt.花费,消费,消耗 | |
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22 drawn | |
v.拖,拉,拔出;adj.憔悴的,紧张的 | |
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23 confession | |
n.自白,供认,承认 | |
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24 painstaking | |
adj.苦干的;艰苦的,费力的,刻苦的 | |
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25 inaccurate | |
adj.错误的,不正确的,不准确的 | |
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26 feats | |
功绩,伟业,技艺( feat的名词复数 ) | |
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27 accomplished | |
adj.有才艺的;有造诣的;达到了的 | |
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28 revoked | |
adj.[法]取消的v.撤销,取消,废除( revoke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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29 judicious | |
adj.明智的,明断的,能作出明智决定的 | |
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30 proceedings | |
n.进程,过程,议程;诉讼(程序);公报 | |
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31 imprisoned | |
下狱,监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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32 apparently | |
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎 | |
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33 ecclesiastic | |
n.教士,基督教会;adj.神职者的,牧师的,教会的 | |
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34 accusations | |
n.指责( accusation的名词复数 );指控;控告;(被告发、控告的)罪名 | |
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35 inconvenient | |
adj.不方便的,令人感到麻烦的 | |
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36 puerile | |
adj.幼稚的,儿童的 | |
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37 fables | |
n.寓言( fable的名词复数 );神话,传说 | |
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38 fortress | |
n.堡垒,防御工事 | |
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39 fortresses | |
堡垒,要塞( fortress的名词复数 ) | |
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40 consecration | |
n.供献,奉献,献祭仪式 | |
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41 extol | |
v.赞美,颂扬 | |
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42 vend | |
v.公开表明观点,出售,贩卖 | |
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43 plunder | |
vt.劫掠财物,掠夺;n.劫掠物,赃物;劫掠 | |
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44 reign | |
n.统治时期,统治,支配,盛行;v.占优势 | |
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45 tinged | |
v.(使)发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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46 miraculous | |
adj.像奇迹一样的,不可思议的 | |
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47 efface | |
v.擦掉,抹去 | |
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48 slain | |
杀死,宰杀,杀戮( slay的过去分词 ); (slay的过去分词) | |
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49 plagiarism | |
n.剽窃,抄袭 | |
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50 contradictory | |
adj.反驳的,反对的,抗辩的;n.正反对,矛盾对立 | |
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51 abruptly | |
adv.突然地,出其不意地 | |
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52 antiquity | |
n.古老;高龄;古物,古迹 | |
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53 tempted | |
v.怂恿(某人)干不正当的事;冒…的险(tempt的过去分词) | |
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54 organise | |
vt.组织,安排,筹办 | |
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55 farces | |
n.笑剧( farce的名词复数 );闹剧;笑剧剧目;作假的可笑场面 | |
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56 expending | |
v.花费( expend的现在分词 );使用(钱等)做某事;用光;耗尽 | |
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57 pageant | |
n.壮观的游行;露天历史剧 | |
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58 lawsuit | |
n.诉讼,控诉 | |
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59 ignominious | |
adj.可鄙的,不光彩的,耻辱的 | |
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60 vampire | |
n.吸血鬼 | |
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61 bastard | |
n.坏蛋,混蛋;私生子 | |
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62 anterior | |
adj.较早的;在前的 | |
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63 primitive | |
adj.原始的;简单的;n.原(始)人,原始事物 | |
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64 prosody | |
n.诗体论,作诗法 | |
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65 allusion | |
n.暗示,间接提示 | |
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66 mansion | |
n.大厦,大楼;宅第 | |
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67 pretensions | |
自称( pretension的名词复数 ); 自命不凡; 要求; 权力 | |
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68 deriving | |
v.得到( derive的现在分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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69 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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70 lengthy | |
adj.漫长的,冗长的 | |
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71 detailed | |
adj.详细的,详尽的,极注意细节的,完全的 | |
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72 commemorate | |
vt.纪念,庆祝 | |
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73 testimony | |
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
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74 anonymous | |
adj.无名的;匿名的;无特色的 | |
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75 divers | |
adj.不同的;种种的 | |
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76 sundry | |
adj.各式各样的,种种的 | |
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77 derived | |
vi.起源;由来;衍生;导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 );(从…中)得到获得;源于;(从…中)提取 | |
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78 credence | |
n.信用,祭器台,供桌,凭证 | |
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79 frenzy | |
n.疯狂,狂热,极度的激动 | |
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80 hearsay | |
n.谣传,风闻 | |
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81 vaguely | |
adv.含糊地,暖昧地 | |
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82 providence | |
n.深谋远虑,天道,天意;远见;节约;上帝 | |
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83 chaste | |
adj.贞洁的;有道德的;善良的;简朴的 | |
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84 bourgeois | |
adj./n.追求物质享受的(人);中产阶级分子 | |
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85 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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86 wrath | |
n.愤怒,愤慨,暴怒 | |
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87 annotated | |
v.注解,注释( annotate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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88 fabulous | |
adj.极好的;极为巨大的;寓言中的,传说中的 | |
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89 fictitious | |
adj.虚构的,假设的;空头的 | |
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90 chivalry | |
n.骑士气概,侠义;(男人)对女人彬彬有礼,献殷勤 | |
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91 conscientious | |
adj.审慎正直的,认真的,本着良心的 | |
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92 countless | |
adj.无数的,多得不计其数的 | |
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93 conceal | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,隐蔽 | |
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94 concealing | |
v.隐藏,隐瞒,遮住( conceal的现在分词 ) | |
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95 imposing | |
adj.使人难忘的,壮丽的,堂皇的,雄伟的 | |
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96 memoranda | |
n. 备忘录, 便条 名词memorandum的复数形式 | |
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97 consultations | |
n.磋商(会议)( consultation的名词复数 );商讨会;协商会;查找 | |
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98 consul | |
n.领事;执政官 | |
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99 depositions | |
沉积(物)( deposition的名词复数 ); (在法庭上的)宣誓作证; 处置; 罢免 | |
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100 treatise | |
n.专著;(专题)论文 | |
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101 ascertain | |
vt.发现,确定,查明,弄清 | |
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102 condemned | |
adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词 | |
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103 rehabilitated | |
改造(罪犯等)( rehabilitate的过去式和过去分词 ); 使恢复正常生活; 使恢复原状; 修复 | |
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104 victorious | |
adj.胜利的,得胜的 | |
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105 elucidated | |
v.阐明,解释( elucidate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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106 jurisdiction | |
n.司法权,审判权,管辖权,控制权 | |
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107 judicial | |
adj.司法的,法庭的,审判的,明断的,公正的 | |
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108 twilight | |
n.暮光,黄昏;暮年,晚期,衰落时期 | |
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109 impoverished | |
adj.穷困的,无力的,用尽了的v.使(某人)贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 );使(某物)贫瘠或恶化 | |
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110 scant | |
adj.不充分的,不足的;v.减缩,限制,忽略 | |
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111 scanty | |
adj.缺乏的,仅有的,节省的,狭小的,不够的 | |
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112 slashed | |
v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 );鞭打;割破;削减 | |
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113 steward | |
n.乘务员,服务员;看管人;膳食管理员 | |
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114 humble | |
adj.谦卑的,恭顺的;地位低下的;v.降低,贬低 | |
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115 precocious | |
adj.早熟的;较早显出的 | |
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116 chateau | |
n.城堡,别墅 | |
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117 muddled | |
adj.混乱的;糊涂的;头脑昏昏然的v.弄乱,弄糟( muddle的过去式);使糊涂;对付,混日子 | |
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118 convoy | |
vt.护送,护卫,护航;n.护送;护送队 | |
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119 victuals | |
n.食物;食品 | |
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120 intervention | |
n.介入,干涉,干预 | |
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121 barges | |
驳船( barge的名词复数 ) | |
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122 deceptive | |
adj.骗人的,造成假象的,靠不住的 | |
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123 prudent | |
adj.谨慎的,有远见的,精打细算的 | |
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124 entrusted | |
v.委托,托付( entrust的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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125 dealing | |
n.经商方法,待人态度 | |
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126 unintelligible | |
adj.无法了解的,难解的,莫明其妙的 | |
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127 intelligible | |
adj.可理解的,明白易懂的,清楚的 | |
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128 ecstasies | |
狂喜( ecstasy的名词复数 ); 出神; 入迷; 迷幻药 | |
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129 lamented | |
adj.被哀悼的,令人遗憾的v.(为…)哀悼,痛哭,悲伤( lament的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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130 usher | |
n.带位员,招待员;vt.引导,护送;vi.做招待,担任引座员 | |
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131 heartily | |
adv.衷心地,诚恳地,十分,很 | |
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132 commissioners | |
n.专员( commissioner的名词复数 );长官;委员;政府部门的长官 | |
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133 brass | |
n.黄铜;黄铜器,铜管乐器 | |
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134 garrison | |
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
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135 besieging | |
包围,围困,围攻( besiege的现在分词 ) | |
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136 elicitation | |
引出; 诱出; 抽出; 启发 | |
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137 militant | |
adj.激进的,好斗的;n.激进分子,斗士 | |
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138 expedient | |
adj.有用的,有利的;n.紧急的办法,权宜之计 | |
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139 devoid | |
adj.全无的,缺乏的 | |
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140 motive | |
n.动机,目的;adv.发动的,运动的 | |
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141 incitement | |
激励; 刺激; 煽动; 激励物 | |
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142 celestial | |
adj.天体的;天上的 | |
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143 harping | |
n.反复述说 | |
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144 innate | |
adj.天生的,固有的,天赋的 | |
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145 warfare | |
n.战争(状态);斗争;冲突 | |
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146 wielding | |
手持着使用(武器、工具等)( wield的现在分词 ); 具有; 运用(权力); 施加(影响) | |
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147 artillery | |
n.(军)火炮,大炮;炮兵(部队) | |
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148 marvelled | |
v.惊奇,对…感到惊奇( marvel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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149 marvel | |
vi.(at)惊叹vt.感到惊异;n.令人惊异的事 | |
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150 cannon | |
n.大炮,火炮;飞机上的机关炮 | |
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151 beheld | |
v.看,注视( behold的过去式和过去分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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152 virtue | |
n.德行,美德;贞操;优点;功效,效力 | |
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153 virgins | |
处女,童男( virgin的名词复数 ); 童贞玛利亚(耶稣之母) | |
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154 forth | |
adv.向前;向外,往外 | |
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155 exalted | |
adj.(地位等)高的,崇高的;尊贵的,高尚的 | |
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156 immunities | |
免除,豁免( immunity的名词复数 ); 免疫力 | |
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157 astonishment | |
n.惊奇,惊异 | |
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158 vigour | |
(=vigor)n.智力,体力,精力 | |
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159 unnatural | |
adj.不自然的;反常的 | |
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160 binding | |
有约束力的,有效的,应遵守的 | |
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161 solicited | |
v.恳求( solicit的过去式和过去分词 );(指娼妇)拉客;索求;征求 | |
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162 affected | |
adj.不自然的,假装的 | |
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163 vouchsafed | |
v.给予,赐予( vouchsafe的过去式和过去分词 );允诺 | |
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164 knight | |
n.骑士,武士;爵士 | |
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165 inquiries | |
n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 );疑问;探究;打听 | |
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166 abound | |
vi.大量存在;(in,with)充满,富于 | |
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167 intervals | |
n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 );间隔时间;[数学]区间;(戏剧、电影或音乐会的)幕间休息 | |
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168 adversaries | |
n.对手,敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
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169 predecessor | |
n.前辈,前任 | |
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170 thoroughly | |
adv.完全地,彻底地,十足地 | |
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171 conversant | |
adj.亲近的,有交情的,熟悉的 | |
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172 judgment | |
n.审判;判断力,识别力,看法,意见 | |
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173 prevailing | |
adj.盛行的;占优势的;主要的 | |
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174 defenders | |
n.防御者( defender的名词复数 );守卫者;保护者;辩护者 | |
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175 insufficient | |
adj.(for,of)不足的,不够的 | |
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176 shrouds | |
n.裹尸布( shroud的名词复数 );寿衣;遮蔽物;覆盖物v.隐瞒( shroud的第三人称单数 );保密 | |
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177 enumerate | |
v.列举,计算,枚举,数 | |
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178 worthy | |
adj.(of)值得的,配得上的;有价值的 | |
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179 attain | |
vt.达到,获得,完成 | |
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180 feigned | |
a.假装的,不真诚的 | |
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181 counterfeited | |
v.仿制,造假( counterfeit的过去分词 ) | |
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182 myriads | |
n.无数,极大数量( myriad的名词复数 ) | |
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183 guise | |
n.外表,伪装的姿态 | |
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184 saluting | |
v.欢迎,致敬( salute的现在分词 );赞扬,赞颂 | |
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185 inhaled | |
v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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186 hazardous | |
adj.(有)危险的,冒险的;碰运气的 | |
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187 diagnosis | |
n.诊断,诊断结果,调查分析,判断 | |
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188 purely | |
adv.纯粹地,完全地 | |
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189 psychiatry | |
n.精神病学,精神病疗法 | |
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190 eminent | |
adj.显赫的,杰出的,有名的,优良的 | |
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191 attained | |
(通常经过努力)实现( attain的过去式和过去分词 ); 达到; 获得; 达到(某年龄、水平、状况) | |
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192 inquiry | |
n.打听,询问,调查,查问 | |
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193 qualified | |
adj.合格的,有资格的,胜任的,有限制的 | |
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194 distinguished | |
adj.卓越的,杰出的,著名的 | |
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195 impelled | |
v.推动、推进或敦促某人做某事( impel的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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196 inevitable | |
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的 | |
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197 likeness | |
n.相像,相似(之处) | |
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198 champagne | |
n.香槟酒;微黄色 | |
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199 sufficiently | |
adv.足够地,充分地 | |
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200 salon | |
n.[法]沙龙;客厅;营业性的高级服务室 | |
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201 apparitions | |
n.特异景象( apparition的名词复数 );幽灵;鬼;(特异景象等的)出现 | |
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202 contingent | |
adj.视条件而定的;n.一组,代表团,分遣队 | |
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203 entirely | |
ad.全部地,完整地;完全地,彻底地 | |
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204 miserably | |
adv.痛苦地;悲惨地;糟糕地;极度地 | |
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205 abortion | |
n.流产,堕胎 | |
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206 imbued | |
v.使(某人/某事)充满或激起(感情等)( imbue的过去式和过去分词 );使充满;灌输;激发(强烈感情或品质等) | |
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207 devout | |
adj.虔诚的,虔敬的,衷心的 (n.devoutness) | |
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208 devoutness | |
朝拜 | |
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209 disposition | |
n.性情,性格;意向,倾向;排列,部署 | |
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210 piety | |
n.虔诚,虔敬 | |
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211 faculties | |
n.能力( faculty的名词复数 );全体教职员;技巧;院 | |
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212 absurdity | |
n.荒谬,愚蠢;谬论 | |
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213 polytechnic | |
adj.各种工艺的,综合技术的;n.工艺(专科)学校;理工(专科)学校 | |
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214 insipid | |
adj.无味的,枯燥乏味的,单调的 | |
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215 sanctimonious | |
adj.假装神圣的,假装虔诚的,假装诚实的 | |
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216 bigoted | |
adj.固执己见的,心胸狭窄的 | |
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217 Christian | |
adj.基督教徒的;n.基督教徒 | |
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218 patriot | |
n.爱国者,爱国主义者 | |
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219 sincerity | |
n.真诚,诚意;真实 | |
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220 pillaged | |
v.抢劫,掠夺( pillage的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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221 pillage | |
v.抢劫;掠夺;n.抢劫,掠夺;掠夺物 | |
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222 pious | |
adj.虔诚的;道貌岸然的 | |
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223 consecrated | |
adj.神圣的,被视为神圣的v.把…奉为神圣,给…祝圣( consecrate的过去式和过去分词 );奉献 | |
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224 unprecedented | |
adj.无前例的,新奇的 | |
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225 manias | |
n.(mania的复数形式) | |
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226 wielded | |
手持着使用(武器、工具等)( wield的过去式和过去分词 ); 具有; 运用(权力); 施加(影响) | |
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227 acting | |
n.演戏,行为,假装;adj.代理的,临时的,演出用的 | |
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228 wondrous | |
adj.令人惊奇的,奇妙的;adv.惊人地;异乎寻常地;令人惊叹地 | |
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229 possessed | |
adj.疯狂的;拥有的,占有的 | |
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230 exterminates | |
n.消灭,根绝( exterminate的名词复数 )v.消灭,根绝( exterminate的第三人称单数 ) | |
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231 avarice | |
n.贪婪;贪心 | |
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232 bishops | |
(基督教某些教派管辖大教区的)主教( bishop的名词复数 ); (国际象棋的)象 | |
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233 salvation | |
n.(尤指基督)救世,超度,拯救,解困 | |
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234 touching | |
adj.动人的,使人感伤的 | |
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235 adroit | |
adj.熟练的,灵巧的 | |
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236 monks | |
n.修道士,僧侣( monk的名词复数 ) | |
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237 lawful | |
adj.法律许可的,守法的,合法的 | |
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238 banished | |
v.放逐,驱逐( banish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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239 despoiled | |
v.掠夺,抢劫( despoil的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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240 regain | |
vt.重新获得,收复,恢复 | |
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241 chancellor | |
n.(英)大臣;法官;(德、奥)总理;大学校长 | |
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242 amazement | |
n.惊奇,惊讶 | |
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243 trenches | |
深沟,地沟( trench的名词复数 ); 战壕 | |
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244 convoys | |
n.(有护航的)船队( convoy的名词复数 );车队;护航(队);护送队 | |
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245 plundering | |
掠夺,抢劫( plunder的现在分词 ) | |
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246 archers | |
n.弓箭手,射箭运动员( archer的名词复数 ) | |
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247 garrisons | |
守备部队,卫戍部队( garrison的名词复数 ) | |
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248 massacre | |
n.残杀,大屠杀;v.残杀,集体屠杀 | |
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249 conquerors | |
征服者,占领者( conqueror的名词复数 ) | |
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250 glorifying | |
赞美( glorify的现在分词 ); 颂扬; 美化; 使光荣 | |
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251 enveloped | |
v.包围,笼罩,包住( envelop的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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252 albeit | |
conj.即使;纵使;虽然 | |
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253 simplicity | |
n.简单,简易;朴素;直率,单纯 | |
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254 enjoyment | |
n.乐趣;享有;享用 | |
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255 negotiations | |
协商( negotiation的名词复数 ); 谈判; 完成(难事); 通过 | |
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256 magistrates | |
地方法官,治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
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257 ecclesiastics | |
n.神职者,教会,牧师( ecclesiastic的名词复数 ) | |
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258 versed | |
adj. 精通,熟练 | |
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259 demonstration | |
n.表明,示范,论证,示威 | |
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260 vouched | |
v.保证( vouch的过去式和过去分词 );担保;确定;确定地说 | |
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261 glorification | |
n.赞颂 | |
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262 random | |
adj.随机的;任意的;n.偶然的(或随便的)行动 | |
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263 ecstasy | |
n.狂喜,心醉神怡,入迷 | |
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264 heed | |
v.注意,留意;n.注意,留心 | |
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265 consorting | |
v.结伴( consort的现在分词 );交往;相称;调和 | |
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266 valiant | |
adj.勇敢的,英勇的;n.勇士,勇敢的人 | |
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267 heroism | |
n.大无畏精神,英勇 | |
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268 innocence | |
n.无罪;天真;无害 | |
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269 notably | |
adv.值得注意地,显著地,尤其地,特别地 | |
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270 converging | |
adj.收敛[缩]的,会聚的,趋同的v.(线条、运动的物体等)会于一点( converge的现在分词 );(趋于)相似或相同;人或车辆汇集;聚集 | |
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271 stratagems | |
n.诡计,计谋( stratagem的名词复数 );花招 | |
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272 foe | |
n.敌人,仇敌 | |
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273 fugitives | |
n.亡命者,逃命者( fugitive的名词复数 ) | |
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274 rout | |
n.溃退,溃败;v.击溃,打垮 | |
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275 ransom | |
n.赎金,赎身;v.赎回,解救 | |
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276 persistence | |
n.坚持,持续,存留 | |
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277 retarded | |
a.智力迟钝的,智力发育迟缓的 | |
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278 unity | |
n.团结,联合,统一;和睦,协调 | |
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279 ravaged | |
毁坏( ravage的过去式和过去分词 ); 蹂躏; 劫掠; 抢劫 | |
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280 exhausted | |
adj.极其疲惫的,精疲力尽的 | |
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281 discord | |
n.不和,意见不合,争论,(音乐)不和谐 | |
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282 deserted | |
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的 | |
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283 pacification | |
n. 讲和,绥靖,平定 | |
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284 organisation | |
n.组织,安排,团体,有机休 | |
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285 concurrence | |
n.同意;并发 | |
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286 concur | |
v.同意,意见一致,互助,同时发生 | |
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287 isolated | |
adj.与世隔绝的 | |
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288 irreconcilable | |
adj.(指人)难和解的,势不两立的 | |
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289 unwilling | |
adj.不情愿的 | |
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290 envious | |
adj.嫉妒的,羡慕的 | |
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291 jealousy | |
n.妒忌,嫉妒,猜忌 | |
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292 intrigues | |
n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 );神秘气氛;引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 );激起…的好奇心 | |
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293 treacherous | |
adj.不可靠的,有暗藏的危险的;adj.背叛的,背信弃义的 | |
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294 illuminated | |
adj.被照明的;受启迪的 | |
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295 monarchy | |
n.君主,最高统治者;君主政体,君主国 | |
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296 sentimental | |
adj.多愁善感的,感伤的 | |
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297 remains | |
n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹 | |
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298 interfered | |
v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 );调停;妨碍;干涉 | |
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299 detested | |
v.憎恶,嫌恶,痛恨( detest的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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300 patronage | |
n.赞助,支援,援助;光顾,捧场 | |
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301 infamous | |
adj.声名狼藉的,臭名昭著的,邪恶的 | |
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302 esteemed | |
adj.受人尊敬的v.尊敬( esteem的过去式和过去分词 );敬重;认为;以为 | |
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303 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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304 dint | |
n.由于,靠;凹坑 | |
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305 upwards | |
adv.向上,在更高处...以上 | |
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306 obedience | |
n.服从,顺从 | |
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307 schism | |
n.分派,派系,分裂 | |
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308 infringe | |
v.违反,触犯,侵害 | |
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309 thwarted | |
阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 ); 使受挫折; 挫败; 横过 | |
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310 metropolitan | |
adj.大城市的,大都会的 | |
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311 decided | |
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的 | |
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312 miscreant | |
n.恶棍 | |
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313 seduced | |
诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 ); 勾引; 诱使堕落; 使入迷 | |
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314 clergy | |
n.[总称]牧师,神职人员 | |
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315 renaissance | |
n.复活,复兴,文艺复兴 | |
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316 tainted | |
adj.腐坏的;污染的;沾污的;感染的v.使变质( taint的过去式和过去分词 );使污染;败坏;被污染,腐坏,败坏 | |
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317 conformity | |
n.一致,遵从,顺从 | |
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318 royalty | |
n.皇家,皇族 | |
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319 celebrity | |
n.名人,名流;著名,名声,名望 | |
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320 superstition | |
n.迷信,迷信行为 | |
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321 censor | |
n./vt.审查,审查员;删改 | |
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322 zeal | |
n.热心,热情,热忱 | |
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323 zealous | |
adj.狂热的,热心的 | |
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324 holder | |
n.持有者,占有者;(台,架等)支持物 | |
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325 devoutly | |
adv.虔诚地,虔敬地,衷心地 | |
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326 discrediting | |
使不相信( discredit的现在分词 ); 使怀疑; 败坏…的名声; 拒绝相信 | |
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327 burlesque | |
v.嘲弄,戏仿;n.嘲弄,取笑,滑稽模仿 | |
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328 strictly | |
adv.严厉地,严格地;严密地 | |
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329 descend | |
vt./vi.传下来,下来,下降 | |
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330 epic | |
n.史诗,叙事诗;adj.史诗般的,壮丽的 | |
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331 ascending | |
adj.上升的,向上的 | |
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332 dubious | |
adj.怀疑的,无把握的;有问题的,靠不住的 | |
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333 abridge | |
v.删减,删节,节略,缩短 | |
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334 abridgment | |
n.删节,节本 | |
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335 locusts | |
n.蝗虫( locust的名词复数 );贪吃的人;破坏者;槐树 | |
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336 monkish | |
adj.僧侣的,修道士的,禁欲的 | |
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337 jeered | |
v.嘲笑( jeer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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338 rascally | |
adj. 无赖的,恶棍的 adv. 无赖地,卑鄙地 | |
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339 jargon | |
n.术语,行话 | |
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340 precisely | |
adv.恰好,正好,精确地,细致地 | |
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341 scattered | |
adj.分散的,稀疏的;散步的;疏疏落落的 | |
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342 frail | |
adj.身体虚弱的;易损坏的 | |
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343 relics | |
[pl.]n.遗物,遗迹,遗产;遗体,尸骸 | |
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344 venerated | |
敬重(某人或某事物),崇敬( venerate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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345 concordat | |
n.协定;宗派间的协约 | |
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346 meditating | |
a.沉思的,冥想的 | |
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347 incense | |
v.激怒;n.香,焚香时的烟,香气 | |
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348 glorified | |
美其名的,变荣耀的 | |
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349 transformation | |
n.变化;改造;转变 | |
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350 domain | |
n.(活动等)领域,范围;领地,势力范围 | |
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351 ingenuous | |
adj.纯朴的,单纯的;天真的;坦率的 | |
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352 immortal | |
adj.不朽的;永生的,不死的;神的 | |
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353 patriotic | |
adj.爱国的,有爱国心的 | |
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354 worthily | |
重要地,可敬地,正当地 | |
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355 applied | |
adj.应用的;v.应用,适用 | |
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356 monotonous | |
adj.单调的,一成不变的,使人厌倦的 | |
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357 unimpeachable | |
adj.无可指责的;adv.无可怀疑地 | |
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358 graceful | |
adj.优美的,优雅的;得体的 | |
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359 revival | |
n.复兴,复苏,(精力、活力等的)重振 | |
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360 impetus | |
n.推动,促进,刺激;推动力 | |
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361 admiration | |
n.钦佩,赞美,羡慕 | |
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362 artistic | |
adj.艺术(家)的,美术(家)的;善于艺术创作的 | |
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363 noted | |
adj.著名的,知名的 | |
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364 armour | |
(=armor)n.盔甲;装甲部队 | |
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365 captivity | |
n.囚禁;被俘;束缚 | |
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366 beholding | |
v.看,注视( behold的现在分词 );瞧;看呀;(叙述中用于引出某人意外的出现)哎哟 | |
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367 behold | |
v.看,注视,看到 | |
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368 sumptuously | |
奢侈地,豪华地 | |
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369 adorned | |
[计]被修饰的 | |
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370 adorn | |
vt.使美化,装饰 | |
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371 emblems | |
n.象征,标记( emblem的名词复数 ) | |
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372 lamentably | |
adv.哀伤地,拙劣地 | |
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373 adjuring | |
v.(以起誓或诅咒等形式)命令要求( adjure的现在分词 );祈求;恳求 | |
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374 maxims | |
n.格言,座右铭( maxim的名词复数 ) | |
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375 virtues | |
美德( virtue的名词复数 ); 德行; 优点; 长处 | |
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376 leopard | |
n.豹 | |
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377 incumbent | |
adj.成为责任的,有义务的;现任的,在职的 | |
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378 alienated | |
adj.感到孤独的,不合群的v.使疏远( alienate的过去式和过去分词 );使不友好;转让;让渡(财产等) | |
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379 dominions | |
统治权( dominion的名词复数 ); 领土; 疆土; 版图 | |
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380 strewed | |
v.撒在…上( strew的过去式和过去分词 );散落于;点缀;撒满 | |
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381 homage | |
n.尊敬,敬意,崇敬 | |
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382 fealty | |
n.忠贞,忠节 | |
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383 fidelity | |
n.忠诚,忠实;精确 | |
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384 cession | |
n.割让,转让 | |
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385 promising | |
adj.有希望的,有前途的 | |
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386 inflamed | |
adj.发炎的,红肿的v.(使)变红,发怒,过热( inflame的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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387 bravado | |
n.虚张声势,故作勇敢,逞能 | |
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388 territorial | |
adj.领土的,领地的 | |
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389 rendering | |
n.表现,描写 | |
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390 coalition | |
n.结合体,同盟,结合,联合 | |
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391 hatred | |
n.憎恶,憎恨,仇恨 | |
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392 rivalries | |
n.敌对,竞争,对抗( rivalry的名词复数 ) | |
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393 antagonism | |
n.对抗,敌对,对立 | |
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394 imperialism | |
n.帝国主义,帝国主义政策 | |
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395 essentially | |
adv.本质上,实质上,基本上 | |
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396 cosmopolitanism | |
n. 世界性,世界主义 | |
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397 ardent | |
adj.热情的,热烈的,强烈的,烈性的 | |
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398 conflagration | |
n.建筑物或森林大火 | |
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399 agitated | |
adj.被鼓动的,不安的 | |
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400 bestowing | |
砖窑中砖堆上层已烧透的砖 | |
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401 peril | |
n.(严重的)危险;危险的事物 | |
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402 peculiarities | |
n. 特质, 特性, 怪癖, 古怪 | |
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403 vault | |
n.拱形圆顶,地窖,地下室 | |
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404 renown | |
n.声誉,名望 | |
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405 serene | |
adj. 安详的,宁静的,平静的 | |
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406 stony | |
adj.石头的,多石头的,冷酷的,无情的 | |
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407 trampled | |
踩( trample的过去式和过去分词 ); 践踏; 无视; 侵犯 | |
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408 animate | |
v.赋于生命,鼓励;adj.有生命的,有生气的 | |
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409 misery | |
n.痛苦,苦恼,苦难;悲惨的境遇,贫苦 | |
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410 dames | |
n.(在英国)夫人(一种封号),夫人(爵士妻子的称号)( dame的名词复数 );女人 | |
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411 mules | |
骡( mule的名词复数 ); 拖鞋; 顽固的人; 越境运毒者 | |
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412 nuns | |
n.(通常指基督教的)修女, (佛教的)尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
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413 tapestry | |
n.挂毯,丰富多采的画面 | |
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414 reigns | |
n.君主的统治( reign的名词复数 );君主统治时期;任期;当政期 | |
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415 expunge | |
v.除去,删掉 | |
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416 forgeries | |
伪造( forgery的名词复数 ); 伪造的文件、签名等 | |
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417 previously | |
adv.以前,先前(地) | |
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418 plumed | |
饰有羽毛的 | |
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419 monastery | |
n.修道院,僧院,寺院 | |
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420 controversy | |
n.争论,辩论,争吵 | |
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421 verities | |
n.真实( verity的名词复数 );事实;真理;真实的陈述 | |
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422 truthful | |
adj.真实的,说实话的,诚实的 | |
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423 quotations | |
n.引用( quotation的名词复数 );[商业]行情(报告);(货物或股票的)市价;时价 | |
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424 archaic | |
adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的,已不通用的 | |
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425 tranquil | |
adj. 安静的, 宁静的, 稳定的, 不变的 | |
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426 strenuously | |
adv.奋发地,费力地 | |
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427 audacity | |
n.大胆,卤莽,无礼 | |
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428 gratitude | |
adj.感激,感谢 | |
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429 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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430 bonnet | |
n.无边女帽;童帽 | |
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431 disinterestedness | |
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432 perspicacity | |
n. 敏锐, 聪明, 洞察力 | |
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433 negligent | |
adj.疏忽的;玩忽的;粗心大意的 | |
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434 iniquities | |
n.邪恶( iniquity的名词复数 );极不公正 | |
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435 meticulous | |
adj.极其仔细的,一丝不苟的 | |
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436 aspire | |
vi.(to,after)渴望,追求,有志于 | |
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437 infinitely | |
adv.无限地,无穷地 | |
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