courage and
purpose, yet he still found it far easier to loiter through days of ease
in his chateau, than with prompt resolution to turn to the task in hand.

Had Charles the Dauphin been the man that Jeanne d'Arc would have had
him be, the history of the Maid of France would have been a different
one. But even his thrill at being aided to claim his throne, was not
strong enough to fire him with the proper spirit, and he continued to
waste long days in idle ease, while Jeanne was fretting her heart out
waiting for him to decide to let her start to raise the siege of
Orleans. But delay she must, and she whiled away the tedious days by
practising with crossbow and sword in the meadows near Chinon, and
although she refused to wear a woman's dress until she had accomplished
her mission, yet she was both graceful and beautiful in her knight's
costume, which she now wore in place of the simple page's suit in which
she had ridden to Chinon, and many admiring eyes watched her as she rode
up and down in the green meadows, alert and graceful in every movement.
And although he was wasting precious moments in deciding whether to
allow her to raise the siege of Orleans or not, the Dauphin spoke often
and intimately with her, as with a friend to whom he was deeply
attached, and Jeanne was treated with all possible deference both by
those of high and low degree. The young Duc d'Alencon, a noble and loyal
courtier, was so deeply won by her sweetness and charm that his wife
invited her to spend a few days at their home, the Abbey of St. Florent
les-Saumur, while waiting for the decision of the Dauphin. That little
visit was a bright spot in the long dark story of the Maid's fulfilment
of her mission, for there, with those whose every word and act spoke of
kindred ideals and lofty aims, the Maid unbent to the level of care-free
normal girlhood, and ever after that there was a close comradeship
between the Duc and Jeanne.

At last the Dauphin came to a decision. To Poitiers, Jeanne must go, and
there be examined by the French Parliament, and by the most learned men
in the kingdom, to prove that she was capable of achieving that which
she wished to attempt. When Jeanne heard this she cried out impatiently,
"To Poitiers? In God's name I know I shall have my hands full, but the
saints will aid me. Let us be off!" which showed that the Maid, for all
her saintliness had also a very normal human degree of impatience to do
as she had planned, a