n, my most just sovereign and Lord (_mon
droicturier souverain seigneur_), that the King of France and you make
peace between yourselves, firm, strong and that will endure. Pardon each
other of good heart, entirely, as loyal Christians ought to do, and if
you desire to fight let it be against the Saracens. Prince of Burgundy,
I pray, supplicate, and require, as humbly as may be, fight no longer
against the holy kingdom of France: withdraw, at once and speedily,
your people who are in any strongholds or fortresses of the said holy
kingdom; and on the part of the gentle King of France, he is ready to
make peace with you, having respect to his honour, and upon your life
that you never will gain a battle against loyal Frenchmen and that all
those who war against the said holy kingdom of France, war against
the King Jesus, King of Heaven and of all the world and my just and
sovereign Lord. And I pray and require with clasped hands that you
fight not, nor make any battle against us, neither your friends nor your
subjects; but believe always however great in number may be the men you
lead against us, that you will never win, and it would be great pity
for the great battle and the blood that would be shed of those who came
against us. Three weeks ago I sent you a letter by a herald that you
should be present at the consecration of the King, which to-day, Sunday,
the seventeenth of the present month of July, is done in the city of
Rheims: to which I have had no answer, nor even any news by the said
herald. To God I commend you, and may He be your guard if it pleases
Him, and I pray God to make good peace.

Written at the aforesaid Rheims, the seventeenth day of July, 1429.

When the letter was finished Jeanne put on her armour and prepared for
the great ceremony. We are not told what part she took in it, nor is any
more prominent position assigned to her than among the noble crowd
of peers and generals who surrounded the altar, where her place
would naturally be, upon the broad raised platform of the choir, so
excellently adapted for such ceremonies. Her banner we are told was
borne into the cathedral, in order, as she proudly explained afterwards,
that having been foremost in the danger it should share the honour.

But we have no right to suppose that the Maid took the position of the
chief actor in the pageant and stood alone by the side of Charles,
as the exigencies of the pictorial art have required her to do. When,
howeve