e. Then
Charles, urged by Joan, went to Rheims with twelve thousand soldiers,
and there, with splendid ceremonies, was crowned king. Joan holding
her white banner, stood near Charles during the coronation.

When the ceremony was finished, she knelt at his feet and said,
"O King, the will of God is done and my mission is over! Let me
now go home to my parents."

But the king urged her to stay a while longer, as France was not
entirely freed from the English. Joan consented, but she said,
"I hear the heavenly voices no more and I am afraid."

[Illustration: THE CORONATION OF CHARLES VII AT RHEIMS]

However, she took part in an attack upon the army of the Duke of
Burgundy, but was taken prisoner by him. For a large sum of money
the duke delivered her into the hands of the English, who put her
in prison in Rouen. She lay in prison for a year, and finally was
charged with sorcery and brought to trial. It was said that she
was under the influence of the Evil One. She declared to her judges
her innocence of the charge and said, "God has always been my guide
in all that I have done. The devil has never had power over me."

Her trial was long and tiresome. At its close she was doomed to
be burned at the stake.

So in the market-place at Rouen the English soldiers fastened her
to a stake surrounded by a great pile of fagots.

A soldier put into her hands a rough cross, which he had made from
a stick that he held. She thanked him and pressed it to her bosom.
Then a good priest, standing near the stake, read to her the prayers
for the dying, and another mounted the fagots and held towards her
a crucifix, which she clasped with both hands and kissed. When
the cruel flames burst out around her, the noble girl uttered the
word "Jesus," and expired.

[Illustration: JOAN OF ARC BOUND TO THE STAKE]

A statue of her now stands on the spot where she suffered.

Among all the men of her time none did nobler work than Joan. And
hence it is that we put the story of her life among the stories
of the lives of the great _men_ of the Middle Ages, although she
was only a simple peasant girl.

GUTENBERG

LIVED FROM 1400-1468

I

While Joan of Arc was busy rescuing France from the English, another
wonderful worker was busy in Germany. This was John Gutenberg,
who was born in Mainz.

The Germans--and most other people--think that he was the inventor
of the art of printing with movable types. And so in the cities
of Dresden