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De Quincey, Thomas, 1785-1859

"The English Mail-Coach and Joan of Arc"

The guard's
horn, again--a humble instrument in itself--was yet glorified as the
organ of publication for so many great national events. And the
incident of the Dying Trumpeter, who rises from a marble bas-relief,
and carries a marble trumpet to his marble lips for the purpose of
warning the female infant, was doubtless secretly suggested by my own
imperfect effort to seize the guard's horn, and to blow the warning
blast. But the Dream knows best; and the Dream, I say again, is the
responsible party."

JOAN OF ARC

This article appeared originally in _Taifs Magazine_ for March and
August, 1847; it was reprinted by De Quincey in 1854 in the third
volume of his _Collected Writings_. It is found in _Works_,
Masson's ed., Vol. V, pp. 384-416; Riverside ed., Vol. VI, pp. 178-215.
64 10 LORRAINE, now in great part in the possession of Germany, is the
district in which Domremy, Joan's birthplace, is situated.
65 14 VAUCOULEURS: a town near Domremy; cf. p. 70.
65 28 EN CONTUMACE: "in contumacy," a legal term applied to one who,
when summoned to court, fails to appear.
66 13 ROUEN: the city in Normandy where Joan was burned at the stake.
66 25 THE LILIES OF FRANCE: the royal emblem of France from very early
times until the Revolution of 1789, when "the wrath of God and man
combined to wither them."
67 5 M.


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