SAINT JOAN Scene 3

It is the evening of 29 April 1429, near the city of Orleans, which is besieged by the English. Dunois paces restlessly on the bank of the river Loire. He curses the west wind which hampers his efforts to lift the siege. His page draws attention to kingfishers flying across the river.

Dunois has eagerly awaited the arrival of the Maid, and when Joan appears, dressed in fine armour, he is too agitated to notice that the wind has dropped. Joan is annoyed that her troops have led her to the wrong side of the river for the intended challenge to the English. Dunois reveals that they were following his orders. He tries to give her a lesson in soldering, but in response Joan simply asserts that she has come to do God’s bidding. He remarks that she is in love with war, and she recalls the archbishop’s insight that she is in love with religion.

Joan declares that she has no interest in romantic love or in money, supposedly the preoccupations of women. Instead, she is committed to soldering. She advocates use of artillery, but Dunois still regards her as a religious figure, not as a soldier. Reaffirming her divinely ordained mission, she declares that the time for action has come. She agrees to go to church to pray for a change in the wind’s direction, which will allow the river to be crossed on rafts. But the wind changes at once. Dunois takes this as a sign that Joan now commands the army. She embraces him, and they set off, ready for combat.

Taken from York Notes on "Saint Joan" by George Bernard Shaw.