Michelet being somewhat of a mystic himself knew well how to appreciate and interpret the life of Jeanne d'arc. To him, the historian, the Maid of France was patriotism personified, the symbolic spirit of the French people of her time. The mem ory of the Maid had almost fallen into decay and bad repute (compare Voltaire's La Pucelle). It was only in the nineteenth century that her fame has undergone rehabilitation. A French historian has said of her: The story of her career is the most marvelous episode in our history and in all histories.