esiegers were practically defeated, and would have gone back, but Joan
staid before the city gates, and no one could make her turn back. Such
perfectly fearless conduct acted just as it has always acted, just as it
acted a thousand times in the civil war, in the Revolution, and
everywhere else. The men grew crazy with enthusiasm, and rushed again
and again after Joan at the defences of the city, with the result that
they finally captured it.

Then any one was ready to follow the young girl, except her enemies at
court; and when she ordered King, court, army, and all to go quickly
northward into the part of France within the English control, they
followed. The result was that Charles VII. was crowned King, and the
first man crowned meant a great deal then. It was all done by a
combination of shrewd common-sense, and the extraordinary willingness to
believe absolutely in inspired people and follow them with religious
enthusiasm, which always has been in history an irresistible force.

Afterward Paris was attacked, but as soon as Joan was wounded the attack
was dropped. Experienced generals could not make men fight the way this
girl could, though she knew nothing of military tactics, and had never
led anything but sheep before.

All this time the English were trying to capture Joan, and then prove
her to be a sorceress, in order to show that any person crowned through
her agency must of course be the wrong man. Hence Henry VI. could be
crowned and recognized as the real King of France. They did finally buy
her of one of the Duke of Burgundy's vassals; and then began a bogus
trial to prove she was a sorceress, since merely putting her to death
without proving some evil agency in her work would only make her a
martyr. Charles VII., once being King, did not know exactly what to do
with Joan, so he took no steps to rescue her from the English, and they
spent many weary days in trying to make her say something which could be
used to prove she was a sorceress. Failing in this, for she believed too
strongly in herself and in her visions to alter her statements, they
killed her by burning her alive in the streets of Rouen, in 1431, with
the result that she became a martyr at once, and her work for France
became the sacred belief of all French people. And in all the sad and
fascinating story, the most interesting and wonderful point is the
courage, the bravery, and the wonderful brain which a young girl of
nineteen or twenty had