Note 137 — Chapter VI · Six of the Lesser Great Cathedrals: Bourges, Beauvais, Troyes, Tours, Lyons, Le Mans

The happy chance of travel led the writer, in May of 1914, to the ceremony of the unveiling of a statue of Jeanne d’Arc in the cathedral of this city, that has not known invasion—the military arsenal of France. As the preaching bishop exhorted modern France to remake her soul else she would perish, over that spellbound congregation seemed to pass a premonition of portentous events looming ahead. Within three months the World War opened, forte et aspre guerre, as they said in Jeanne’s day, war the chastiser, war the purifier: “Il y a des guerres qui avilissent les nations, et les avilissent pour des siècles; d’autres les exaltent, les perfectionnent de toutes manières,” wrote Joseph de Maistre.