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Volume 3 (1858-1859) (592 pages)
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Page: of 592
TWO FAMOUS WOMEN. 545
TWO FAMOUS WOMEN;
CLEOPATRA OF EGYPT AND JOAN OF ARC,
BY MRS, M. HOSMER,
Far away in that dim and pleasant region, into which we can journey any
twilight, when our hearts are still, and
we can hear the tapping of Memory at its
door,—Memory, that patient guide, that
waits ever to lead us through the past,—
there live always two famous women,
famous both in their beauty and in their
power, and in their glory, being lifted up
above and beyond the people of their
day ; and in the manner of their death,
they having thereby paid the inevitable
debt incurred by all of womankind, who
drink the “charmed cup of Fame,”’ and
died by violence.
From that sombre wood amid whose
boskage their shadowy forms gleamed in
the dream of Fair Women, let them arise
and stand before us. The Queen of
Egypt and the Maid of Orleans. The one,
in allthe gorgeous magnificence of the
East, the dark splendor of her beauty
dazzling and delighting ; the other, calm
and severe in face and outline, an armed
figure, firm and defiant ; a woman’s face,
gentle and fair, wrapt in heavenly visions,
and dreams of more than mortal import.
Egypt saw troublous days in Cleopatra’s childhood. It was an envied possession, on which the Roman conqueror
cast a longing eye. Ptolemy Auletes was
to be its last regal sovereign, and a foreboding shadow, the coming dissolution of
a great power, hung like the sword of
Damocles above his trembling throne.
There had been exile and bloodshed;
Berenice had worn her father’s crown,
and yielded up her life in payment for
the borrowed bauble. There had been
schism and treason among the people,
groaning and complaints beneath an unwelcome yoke, and rebellion under a
forced submission. The times weredreary
and changeful; the Egyptians trusted
neither the Romans nor their king.
Auletes, they knew, had bought with gold
the friendship of Caesar and Pompey,
and they neither feared or respected the
purchased power. In these days the
king died, and Cleopatra was fatherless,
and joint ruler of Egypt.
Joan of Domremi, was a little dreamer;
a child who listened breathlessly to catch
her mother’s chanted legends of olden
time, as she plied her busy distaff. One who
neither joined in the dancing or singing
of the villagers, but watched the mists
that rose from the fairies’ fountain, or
lay dreaming at the base of the image of
Our Lady of Domremi, in the hillside
chapel.
A timid, shrinking girl, she was, and
yet a bold, fearless, and undismayed enthusiast; such an one as might, in the
days of a nation’s peace and prosperity,
have lived a quiet, unmarked life, full of
earnest piety, and deep devotions, but in
the hours of darkness and trouble, arose
like Jael of old, to deliver her people.
France, like Egypt, fourteen centuries
before, lay in abeyance. Besieged by
English forces, divided within by contending interests, and but poorly defended
by native valor. Its trembling monarch
yet uncrowned, grasped a sceptre, half
wrenched from his hand by the English,
king. In the heart of his dominions he
sought refuge, whilst his villages were
pillaged, and his rivers flashed red in the
sun with the blood of his slaughtered subjects. When all was confusion and fear,
when the horrors of war were: abroad,
and every eye turned appealingly to the
weak and powerless monarch,surrounded
by his weak and thoughtless court, then,
Joan of Domremi arose, and sought the
royal presence, to lay before the king her
mighty visions, that foretold and pointed
the way to victory and achievement.
Cleopatra’s, and her brother’s claim,
were to be judged by Cesar. They did
not trust his unswayed justice, but sought