A Maid's Compassion

"Joan was pious and she felt great pity at such massacres. Once, when a Frenchman was leading away some English prisoners, he struck one of the Englishmen on the head so hard that he left him for dead. Joan, seeing this, dismounted from her horse. She had the Englishman make his confession, supporting his head and consoling him with all her power."

Louis de Coutes, one of Joan of Arc's pages, related this tale at her Trial of Nullification, many years after her death. It left such a clear image in my head that I knew I had to draw it.

Since last week my interest in Joan and her life has seen a fresh revival. I've made many new drawings of her and even scanned in a bunch of old ones. I may post some of them later, but this was the one I wanted to show first. Louis' story showed me a side of "La Pucelle" that I had somehow missed. The English were her enemies, she was fighting them constantly and they wanted her dead. Yet here she was trying to help one of those same men. The poor man must have been very confused at first, but then very grateful to have her come to his aid and show concern for his soul. A witch would not do such a thing, would she? Maybe this girl really was sent by God.

Hmm ... now I feel a seed of a short comic taking root in my head. Or at least some color. Color would be good.

UPDATE: Added a parchment texture and sepia color scheme. Made some changes to the sketch, mainly on the soldier and his clothing. I wish I knew how to make it clearer that he's supposed to be English.