by D. J. Holmes
***
The rules of the war game had been changed as long as Jehanne had led the French soldiers. Her goal was to do what her angels had asked her to do. So many of the French and English nobles were full of greed and self adulation; Jehanne had no personal agenda.
Months have gone by since she had been captured and then sold to the English; imprisoned in cold harsh conditions within their castle walls. With guards surrounding her, many times within her own cell, she is strung up. Her arms and legs are chained against a wall. In this situation with no weapons or soldiers of her own, she is vulnerable to whatever the lowest of the low decide to make her endure. With orders from the English to do anything to break her spirit and make her admit that the French need to bow to English power, the guards take full advantage of the situation.
During this time of imprisonment the waiting game is becoming unbearable for Jehanne. “My angels are with me. But where are my soldiers? Why do they not come for me?” Off to her right, Jehanne sees a glint of sunlight. Still chained to the wall she closes her eyes and imagines turning toward the light that her body seems to be crying out for. In her mind, the sparkling rays have pushed their way through the clouds and into her cell, specifically for her and her alone. “Ah… this reminds me of my mother wrapping her arms around me, as if she is covering me in a warm blanket of love.”
Moments later, the prison warden walks into her cell and asks, “Will you ask the French to bow to the English, Jehanne?”
“Never!” she answers defiantly.
“You sound as strong as ever, Jehanne. Would you like to continue to receive the same type of treatment that you have had for the last several days?” he threatens.
“What I would prefer is to be put into a prison with women guards, as I was promised in the first place!”
“I can’t do that, Jehanne. I have a job to do and this is how I can get it done.”
“It is not the job. It is because you are weak. It is easier for you to do what is wrong, than to stand up for what is right,” she says looking at him directly with no fear of reprisal.
“Why do you say I am weak, Jehanne?”
“Because…it is only the morally strong who do what is right, with no regard as to what will happen to them. And it is only those who do what is right who will be able to stand and look at God face to face, with no shame emanating from their soul. Can you say to yourself that you are strong? Will you be able to stand before God, knowing what you have allowed to be done to me?”
Shocked at what she has just said, and the question she has just asked him, he gives no answer. Though he is only following orders from his superiors he now sees himself through her eyes. Ashamed of the part that he has played in trying to break her spirit, he looks down at the ground and slowly leaves her cell.
A few weeks later, after continually enduring physical, emotional and mental abuse, Jehanne sinks to her lowest spiritual level. Though her angels have been with her, the lack of respect that she as a human being has been accorded has finally hit its limit. Her eyes become glassy and downcast. Her breathing is slower. There is no longer a smile on her face. “Why has no one come to set me free?” she wonders. “I never expected to be a prisoner for this long. How long am I supposed to endure this type of treatment? How much is one person expected to take in the eyes of God?”
A warm comfortable feeling begins to fill her body. In her mind she remembers Pierre. Pictures of him flinging his mud and branch covered arms trying to scare the hawk off the rock and away from her breakfast, continue to flash over and over in her mind, bringing a smile to her face. Finally, laughter can be heard coming from her cell as she continues to laugh louder and louder.
“She’s gone mad,” a soldier remarks as he and the other guards watch her behavior.