od. They passed in solemn procession round the city
walls, and then, while their retiring enemies were yet in sight, they
knelt in thanksgiving to God for the deliverance which he had vouchsafed
them.

Within three months from the time of her first interview with the
Dauphin, Jeanne had fulfilled the first part of her promise, the raising
of the siege of Orleans. Within three months more she had fulfilled the
second part also, and had stood with her banner in her hand by the high
altar at Rheims, while he was anointed and crowned as king Charles VII
of France. In the interval she had taken Jargeau, Troyes, and other
strong places, and she had defeated an English army in a fair field at
Patay. The enthusiasm of her countrymen knew no bounds; but the
importance of her services, and especially of her primary achievement at
Orleans, may perhaps be best proved by the testimony of her enemies.
There is extant a fragment of a letter from the regent Bedford to his
royal nephew, Henry VI, in which he bewails the turn that the war has
taken, and especially attributes it to the raising of the siege of
Orleans by Jeanne. Bedford's own words, which are preserved in Rymer,
are as follows:

"And alle thing there prospered for you til the tyme of the Siege of
Orleans taken in hand God knoweth by what advis. At the whiche tyme,
after the adventure fallen to the persone of my cousin of Salisbury,
whom God assoille, there felle, by the hand of God as it seemeth, a
great strook upon your peuple that was assembled there in grete nombre,
caused in grete partie, as y trowe, of lakke of sadde beleve, and of
unlevefulle doubte, that thei hadde of a disciple and lyme of the
Feende, called the Pucelle, that used fals enchantments and sorcerie.

"The whiche strooke and discomfiture nott oonly lessed in grete partie
the nombre of your peuple there, but as well withdrewe the courage of
the remenant in merveillous wyse, and couraiged your adverse partie and
ennemys to assemble them forthwith in grete nombre."

When Charles had been anointed king of France, Jeanne believed that her
mission was accomplished. And in truth the deliverance of France from
the English, though not completed for many years afterward, was then
insured. The ceremony of a royal coronation and anointment was not in
those days regarded as a mere costly formality. It was believed to
confer the sanction and the grace of heaven upon the prince, who had
previously ruled with mere