s task; and therefore she prayed that there might be no
delay in starting for Rheims.

Charles was now staying at the Castle of Loches, that gloomy
prison-fortress whose dungeons were to become so terribly notorious in
the succeeding reign. Joan, whose impatience for action carried her
beyond the etiquette of the Court, entered on one occasion into the
King's private apartment, where the feeble and irresolute monarch was
consulting with his confessor the Bishop of Castres, Christophe
d'Harcourt, and Robert de Macon. Kneeling, the Maid said:--

'Noble Dauphin, hold not such long and so many councils, but start at
once for Rheims, and there receive your crown.'

'Do your voices inspire this advice?' asked the King's confessor.

'Yes,' was the answer, 'and with vehemence.'

'Then,' said the Bishop, 'will you not tell us in the King's presence
in what way your voices communicate with you?'

To this Jesuitical query, Joan, in her simple and straightforward
manner, answered the priest, that when she met with people who doubted
the truth of her mission she would retire to her room and pray, and
then voices returned and spoke to her:--'Go forward, daughter of God,
and we will assist you,' and how hearing those voices and those words
she would rejoice and take courage, and only long that her then state
of happiness might last always. While telling them these things she
seemed a being transformed, surrounded by a something Divine and holy.

It was not unnatural that the King and his councillors should hesitate
before making up their minds to undertake the journey to Rheims, for
the English were posted in force at Beaugency, at Meun, where Talbot
was encamped, and at Jargeau. They also held a strong position on the
Loire; it would be difficult to reach Rheims without encountering some
of their forces. Jargeau had been attacked, indeed, by Dunois and
Xaintrailles, but unsuccessfully; and there was real danger in going
northwards while the English were still so plentiful and so strongly
entrenched in the towns of the centre and south of France. Another
reason for delaying the journey to Rheims and the ceremony of the
coronation, was that some time must elapse before the princes and
great nobles, who would have to take part in the coronation, could
assemble at Rheims.

Joan, thus thwarted in her wish of marching directly on to Rheims,
suggested driving the English from their fortresses and encampments
on the Loire. To this s