of some kind.

It is not so surprising, then, that Joan, after spending several years
day after day alone in the fields, occasionally hearing about all the
troubles and wars in France, and having hours and hours when she could
do nothing but think, should have thought she was inspired with a
mission to save her country from the English invaders, and that, once
perfectly persuaded of this, she should have quickly had a lot of people
running after her and spreading her fame abroad.

Another thing was not so unusual as it seems to-day. Joan, when she
finally saw Charles VII. of France, and persuaded him that he was the
real King of France, and that all they had to do was to march to Rheims
and crown him--Joan wore a suit of man's armor. She was only eighteen
years old, and a delicate girl of middle height. It was unusual, of
course, for so young a girl to go to war, but in those days women led
bodies of men, and some of them wore armor. Women, who by birth and the
absence of male relatives had been left in charge of large feudal
estates, had to keep little armies to protect their lands and fields
from attack, and when such attacks did come they had to go out in many
cases and lead their men themselves.

So that while her visions, her calm confidence, and her male dress were
enough to attract attention, they did not seem so impossible to the
people of her time by a great deal as they would to the people of
to-day. And then, also, everybody was ready to follow any "inspired"
person who foretold anything which really happened, or who carried out
what he or she started to do. Joan, after going to the King and telling
him that if he followed her he would become the crowned King of France,
began to find everyone following her, believing in her just as calmly as
she believed in herself. The Englishmen had invaded the north of France
and held the city of Paris, and the great Duke of Burgundy was in league
with them. They wanted to crown Henry VI. of England, King of France
also, and they marched southward and captured Orleans, which practically
opened southern France to them.

Joan told King Charles VII. that she could recapture Orleans, and crown
him King at Rheims, and in a little while he gave her five or six
thousand men. Mounted on her white horse, in full armor, she led these
men on, and by her confidence and vigor and good common-sense, persuaded
the generals to attack Orleans in a certain way. Half a dozen times the
b