r, the ceremony was completed, and he had received on his knees
the anointing which separated him as king from every other class of men,
and while the lofty vaults echoed with the cries of Noel! Noel! by which
the people hailed the completed ceremony, Jeanne could contain herself
no longer. The object was attained for which she had laboured and
struggled, and overcome every opponent. She stepped forward out of
the brilliant crowd, and threw herself at the feet of the now crowned
monarch, embracing his knees. "Gentle King," she cried with tears, "now
is the pleasure of God fulfilled--whose will it was that I should raise
the siege of Orleans and lead you to this city of Rheims to receive
your consecration. Now has He shown that you are true King, and that the
kingdom of France truly belongs to you alone."

Those broken words, her tears, the cry of that profound satisfaction
which is almost anguish, the "Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart
in peace," which is so suitable to the lips of the old, so poignant from
those of the young, pierced all hearts. It is added that she asked leave
to withdraw, her work being done, and that all who saw her were filled
with sympathy. It was no doubt the irresistible outburst of a heart too
full; and though that fulness was all joy and triumph, yet there was in
it a sense of completed work, a rending asunder and tearing away from
life, the end of a wonderful and triumphant tale.

There is a considerable controversy as to the precise meaning of that
outburst of emotion. Did the Maid mean that her work was over, and her
divine mission fulfilled? Was this all that she believed herself to be
appointed to do? or did she expect, as she sometimes said, to _bouter_
the English out of France altogether? In the one case she ought to
have relinquished her work, and in not doing so she acted without the
protection of God which had hitherto made her invulnerable. In the
other, her "voices," her inspiration, must have failed her, for her
course of triumph went no farther. It is impossible to decide between
these contending theories. She did speak in both senses, sometimes
declaring that she was to take Paris, sometimes, her intention to
_bouter_ the English out of the kingdom. At the same time she betrayed a
constant conviction that her office had limitations and must come to an
end. "I will last but a year," she said to the King and to Alencon. The
testimony of Dunois seems to be the best we can