But, really, as
the name was so exceedingly common, few people will detect a mystery in
calling a _boy_ by the name of Jack, though it _does_ seem mysterious
to call a girl Jack. It may be less so in France, where a beautiful
practice has always prevailed of giving a boy his mother's name--
preceded and strengthened by a male name, as _Charles Anne_, _Victor
Victoire_. In cases where a mother's memory has been unusually dear to
a son, this vocal memento of her, locked into the circle of his own
name, gives to it the tenderness of a testamentary relic, or a funeral
ring. I presume, therefore, that La Pucelle must have borne the
baptismal name of Jeanne Jean; the latter with no reference, perhaps,
to so sublime a person as St. John, but simply to some relative.])
D'Arc was born at Domremy, a village on the marches of Lorraine and
Champagne, and dependent upon the town of Vaucouleurs. I have called
her a Lorrainer, not simply because the word is prettier, but because
Champagne too odiously reminds us English of what are for _us_
imaginary wines--which, undoubtedly, La Pucelle tasted as rarely as we
English: we English, because the champagne of London is chiefly grown
in Devonshire; La Pucelle, because the champagne of Champagne never, by
any chance, flowed into the fountain of Domremy, from which only she
drank. M.
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