t of success of the army before Paris was now
laid at the door of Joan of Arc; and the creatures of the Court, who
had long waited for an opportunity of this kind to show their bitter
jealousy of the heroine, now made no secret of their enmity. Foremost
of these was the Archbishop of Rheims, who now, in spite of Joan of
Arc's entreaties, was allowed by the King to make a truce with the
enemy. Another powerful foe was La Tremoille, who (as has been
pointed out by Captain Marin in his work on Joan of Arc) thought it to
be against his personal influence that the French should take Paris.
La Tremoille had shown, from Joan's first appearance at Court, his
entire want of confidence in her mission. He had unwillingly, after
the examination of the Maid by the doctors and lawyers at Poitiers,
conformed to the King's wish that a command should be given her in the
army. He had done all in his power to induce the King not to undertake
the expedition to Rheims. He had told the King, when nothing else
could be urged against the journey, that there was no money in the
royal coffers, and that consequently the soldiers would not receive
their pay. As it turned out, volunteers offered their services
gratuitously to escort Charles to his crowning. At Auxerre, La
Tremoille concluded a treaty with the citizens, which prevented Joan
from taking that town. At Troyes he tried to create a like impediment;
but here he was foiled, for Troyes capitulated. After the coronation,
he persuaded Charles not to go to Paris, but to go instead to linger
in his castle on the Loire; and thereby prevented what might then have
proved a successful attack on the capital. And he again succeeded in
thwarting the Maid of Orleans when he resisted her wish to make a
second attack upon Paris. Later on it was La Tremoille who tried to
make Joan of Arc fail at the siege of Saint Pierre-le-Moutier. When
she was unsuccessful before La Charite-sur-Loire, and when the blame
of that failure was laid at Joan's door, La Tremoille for very
shame was obliged publicly to acknowledge the heroic zeal with which
she had carried out the operations of that siege. The higher Joan's
popularity rose among the people and in the army, the more her two
bitter enemies, La Tremoille and the Archbishop of Rheims, shared
between them their jealous dislike.

[Illustration: XV CENTURY HOUSE--COMPIEGNE.]

Thus, even before her capture and trial, Joan of Arc met with some of
her worst foes among