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(Excerpt)
THE MORN was fair | |
| When Rheims re-echoed to the busy hum | |
| Of multitudes, for high solemnity | |
| Assembled. To the holy fabric moves | |
| The long procession, through the streets bestrewn | 5 |
| With flowers and laurel boughs. The courtier throng | |
| Were there, and they in Orleans, who endured | |
| The siege right bravely; Gaucour, and La Hire, | |
| The gallant Xaintrailles, Boussac, and Chabannes, | |
| Alenson, and the bravest of the brave, | 10 |
| The Bastard Orleans, now in hope elate, | |
| Soon to release from hard captivity | |
| His dear-beloved brother; gallant men, | |
| And worthy of eternal memory, | |
| For they, in the most perilous times of France, | 15 |
| Despaired not of their country. By the king | |
| The delegated Damsel passed along, | |
| Clad in her battered arms. She bore on high | |
| Her hallowed banner to the sacred pile, | |
| And fixed it on the altar, whilst her hand | 20 |
| Poured on the monarch’s head the mystic oil, | |
| Wafted of yore by milk-white dove from heaven | |
| (So legends say) to Clovis when he stood | |
| At Rheims for baptism; dubious since that day, | |
| When Tolbiac plain reeked with his warrior’s blood, | 25 |
| And fierce upon their flight the Almanni prest, | |
| And reared the shout of triumph; in that hour | |
| Clovis invoked aloud the Christian God | |
| And conquered: waked to wonder thus, the chief | |
| Became love’s convert, and Clotilda led | 30 |
Her husband to the font.
The missioned Maid | |
| Then placed on Charles’s brow the crown of France, | |
| And back retiring, gazed upon the king | |
| One moment, quickly scanning all the past, | |
| Till in a tumult of wild wonderment | 35 |
| She wept aloud. The assembled multitude | |
| In awful stillness witnessed: then at once, | |
| As with a tempest-rushing noise of winds, | |
| Lifted their mingled clamors. Now the Maid | |
| Stood as prepared to speak, and waved her hand, | 40 |
And instant silence followed.
“King of France!” | |
| She cried, “at Chinon, when my gifted eye | |
| Knew thee disguised, what inwardly the spirit | |
| Prompted, I promised, with the sword of God, | |
| To drive from Orleans far the English wolves, | 45 |
| And crown thee in the rescued walls of Rheims. | |
| All is accomplished. I have here this day | |
| Fulfilled my mission, and anointed thee | |
| King over this great nation.” | |
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