The Dawn - Chapter 69: A Whole Lotta Eggs

15 March 2026

On this Ides of March Sunday, I’m choosing to contemplate the fate of Joan of Arc.

One of the most fascinating aspects of my research for THE DAWN was the discovery of the use of Jeanne d’Arc by both the Free French and the Vichy regime as the cultural and national heroine of France.  Of course, it was only Charles de Gaulle who used the Cross of Lorraine for the official flag of les Forces françaises libres, the Free French Forces.  He reputedly, or his hand reputedly, played a major part in the design of that flag.  I’ve little doubt the masterful hand, la main magistrale, of General de Gaulle had the upper hand on that one.

When I first placed this fun faux chicken, and her little “eggs” in her Émile Henry piece of pottery (a Christmas gift from Hubby that I immediately deemed “a work of art”), my Dear Hubby said:

“That’s a whole lotta eggs for one chicken.”

Yes, it certainly is.

One poulet does the work of an entire brood of fat lazy hens.

That division of labor pretty much sums up the way things go — from time to time — in life.  After decades of mendacious sloth in America, a natural leader comes forth and shows the way to tomorrow.  And so it is, that after those endless wars — post WWII — a man who really didn’t want to have to enter the political fray, a flawed individual who is now more sinned against than sinning — he’s slaying more dragons than the patriots in America even knew existed.

Every day is a new awakening, for me, to a piece of my past that I subsequently revise, mentally, emotionally, historically, sometimes spiritually.  Today’s youngins sure aren’t the youngins of my era, and for that state of natural rebellion, I am forever thankful.  My peers questioned only what they were allowed to question, questioned only what was to their advantage to question — and called it Rebelling Against Authority.

They made me sick to my stomach.

A large portion of the moral burden that Guillaume de Vallon bears in extracting himself from his peers, aristocrats at that, to become a French resister, comes directly from my stance toward the spoiled brats of my adolescent age group.  Soooooo cool, sooooo “in” that I was pleased-as-punch to be uncool, and “out.”

Being “out” is something the sycophants of life cannot abide.  The herd mentality is their only mentality, even when it’s going off a cliff!

Just get a gander at the The American Media Machine, scattered in shattered pieces on the ground, and still trying, hysterically, to be relevant in an entire era that’s zoomed by them — with the technology they thought they’d mastered!

Comeuppance comes only once in a while to frauds, phonies, fakes, and philistines.  I’m getting a whole lot of “closure” on my “youth” as I witness the loudmouths that no one listens to anymore.  I do wonder why people listened to them in the first place, but being ahead of my time is the norm for me.

There was no Media Machine during World War II.  There were newspapers, known as The Press, and radio, but no television.  No memes, which have replaced actual printed verbiage.  The saying, “One picture’s worth a thousand words”, has been updated to “One meme’s worth a million words and just as many laughs.”

This passage from Chapter 69 of THE DAWN explains the inherent hypocrisy of The Politician, something that Charles de Gaulle never quite got the hang of, which, in my book, makes him an immortal hero, along with his stalwart supporter, Winston Churchill.

Lest we ever forget:  The Lion of Britain and the Cross of Lorraine saved England and France.

One must first understand the life, death, and legacy of this peasant girl who was born in 1412 in Domrémy-la-Pucelle in eastern France, a region which would become Lorraine.  Jeanne, she of the visions from God and the crucial victories during the Hundred Years War, was, after her valiant heroism, burned at the stake at the age of nineteen.  The charge of which she was found guilty was being a heretic.  It was only later, much later, that Jeanne d’Arc became beatified, in 1909.  She was canonized in 1920.  As a national heroine, Jeanne spent a very long time being overlooked, ignored, and neglected by the Church and by the leaders of France.  Perhaps all of this attention during World War II attempted to redress the balance.

The great Napoleon was the first leader of the French to make use of the martyred Maid of Orléans.  From that point, she and the memory and image of her became fair game for French politicians of all stripes, colors, and motives.  Her name as a symbol of patriotism was invoked by French patriots for both pure and impure reasons.  Significantly, the nation of France, which had always been a very Catholic nation, has historically held ambivalent attitudes toward this peasant girl who made French history truly French.  Joan of Arc has become one of the most popular saints of the Roman Catholic Church, the institution which burned her at the stake.

It therefore was not shocking for the Head of State for Life, Philippe Petain, to use the name of Jeanne d’Arc to remind the French people that England, and not Germany, was the hereditary enemy of France.  The Vichy regime, a propaganda machine second only to Nazi Germany, vilified the British bombing of Rouen with posters pointing out, “They Always Return to the Scenes of their Crimes.”  This stretch of historic corollary was intended to call to mind all the horrors of war extant since 1429, the year during which the Siege of Orléans ended with the first military victory won by Joan of Arc for France.

One can understand that the people of Occupied France did not wish to focus upon the atrocities that the English forces committed during this turning point in the Hundred Years War.  One can easily believe that the fears and concerns of the French during this war, the Second World War, involved the smelly German boots, marching down their streets and through their homes.  One can also cheer at the nearly unanimous support of the French for not only Great Britain, but Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

What remains stunningly incomprehensible and just plain stupid is the expectation by Petain and the other traitors of Vichy that their attempt to smear the English would prove at all effective.  Was there no one within the Vichy regime with any understanding of the French people?  Did no one stop to think, Avec les Français, ça ne prends pas.  With the French, that won’t work.