famous monk of the preaching
kind, named Father Richard. Father Richard had been a pilgrim, and had
visited the Holy Land, and had made himself notorious by interminable
sermons, for he was wont to preach half-a-dozen hours at a time.
Crowds had listened to him in Paris and other places. The English, who
probably thought his sermons insufferably long, or too much leavened
with French sympathies, drove him out of Paris, and he had taken
refuge at Troyes. The monk had heard much of Joan of Arc, and was
eager to see and speak with her, but his enthusiasm was mixed with a
religious and even superstitious fear in regard to the heroine. He was
allowed to enter the royal precincts, and approached the Maid of
Orleans with many a sign of the cross, and with sprinkling of holy
water. Seeing the good man's terror, Joan told him to approach her
without fear.

'Come forward boldly!' she said to the monk. 'I shall not fly away!'

And after convincing him that she was not a demon in any way, she made
him the bearer of a letter from her to the people in the town. The
negotiations between the army and the burghers lasted five days; the
town refusing to admit the King, and the King unwilling to pass the
town, but unable to take it by force. Charles was on the point of
giving up the attempt to reach Rheims when one of his Council pointed
out that as the expedition had been undertaken at the instigation of
Joan of Arc, it was only fair her judgment should now be followed, and
not that of any one else. Joan was summoned before the Council, when
she solemnly assured the King that in three days' time the place would
be taken.

'If we were sure of it,' said the Chancellor, 'we would wait here six
days.'

'Six days!' said the Maid. 'You will enter Troyes to-morrow.'

Mounting her horse, the Maid rode into the camp, and ordered all to
prepare to carry out a general assault on the next morning. Anything
that could be used in the shape of furniture and fagots, to make a
bridge across the town ditches, was collected. Joan, who had now her
tent moved up close to the moat, worked harder, says an eye-witness,
than any two of the most skilful captains in preparing the attack. She
directed that fascines should be thrown into the moat, across which
the troops were to pass to the town.

Early next day everything was in readiness for the attack, but at this
juncture, just as she was preparing to lead the storming party, the
Bishop of Troyes, John