And thus it is extraordinary that such a person should appear in that chivalric age as Joan of Arc, who rose from the humblest class, who could neither read nor write,—­a peasant girl without friends or influence, living among the Vosges mountains on the borders of Champagne and Lorraine.  She was born in 1412, in the little obscure village of Domremy on the Meuse, on land belonging to the French crown.  She lived in a fair and fertile valley on the line of the river, on the other side of which were the Burgundian territories.  The Lorraine of the Vosges was a mountainous district covered with forests, which served for royal hunting parties.  The village of Domremy itself was once a dependency of the abbey of St. Remy at Rheims.  This district had suffered cruelly from the wars between the Burgundians and the adherents of the Armagnacs, one of the great feudal families of France in the Middle Ages.

Joan, or Jeanne, was the third daughter of one of the peasant laborers of Domremy.  She was employed by her mother in spinning and sewing, while her sisters and brothers were set to watch cattle.  Her mother could teach her neither to read nor write, but early imbued her mind with the sense of duty.  Joan was naturally devout, and faultless in her morals; simple, natural, gentle, fond of attending the village church; devoting herself, when not wanted at home, to nursing the sick,—­the best girl in the village; strong, healthy, and beautiful; a spirit lowly but poetic, superstitious but humane, and fond of romantic adventures.  But her piety was one of her most marked peculiarities, and somehow or other she knew more than we can explain of Scripture heroes and heroines.

One of the legends of that age and place was that the marches of Lorraine were to give birth to a maid who was to save the realm,—­founded on an old prophecy of Merlin.  It seems that when only thirteen years old Joan saw visions, and heard celestial voices bidding her to be good and to trust in God; and as virginity was supposed to be a supernal virtue, she vowed to remain a virgin, but told no one of her vow or her visions.  She seems to have been a girl of extraordinary good sense, which was as marked as her religious enthusiasm.

The most remarkable thing about this young peasant girl is that she claimed to have had visions and heard voices which are difficult to be distinguished from supernatural,—­something like the daemon of Socrates.  She affirmed that Saint Michael the Archangel appeared to her in glory, also Saint Catherine and Saint Margaret, encouraging her in virtue, and indicating to her that a great mission was before her, that she was to deliver her king and country.  Such claims have not been treated with incredulity or contempt by French historians, especially Barante and Michelet, in view of the wonderful work she was instrumental in accomplishing.