Keith Tyler

Medieval Europe

Final

It is not unheard of for people of patriotic mind to mourn the passing of a triumphant hero. With battle such as that which we have faced for decades, one must provide for the loss of great countrymen.

What strikes our hearts more sharply, is to find our hero not stabbed or lanced by adversaries, not stolen from our people by the blows of the enemy, but by our own negligence.

What duty has a people to one who brings them to victory? Do the gifts of military triumph go without requite? Does it fit a people grateful for the return of their lands to send their own champion to the lions?

The most successful commander of our armies in memory now lies in a heap of dust in Rouen. This hero was not brought home to a celebration of our gratitude, but abandoned to the hands of a deplorable fate.

Not only did we let the leader of our troops be burned, but let one of our own French women be burned as well. As one in the same, we as French people owed double a duty to her liberty.

We will never realize our dream of a reunited France if we cannot keep ourselves from falling into judgment and fear. If we lose our country, we need not fear devils nor witches. The only demons with which we should concern ourselves are the English.

But the greatest exorciser of those demons lies in a pile of ashes in Rouen. May gracious God grant us a new hero, through whom we can reclaim ourselves and our country.