m something
almost too wonderful for belief, and yet of a most uplifting and welcome
nature.

It was long before we found out the secret of this conversation, but we
know it now, and all the world knows it. That part of the talk was like
this--as one may read in all histories. The perplexed King asked Joan for
a sign. He wanted to believe in her and her mission, and that her Voices
were supernatural and endowed with knowledge hidden from mortals, but
how could he do this unless these Voices could prove their claim in some
absolutely unassailable way? It was then that Joan said:

"I will give you a sign, and you shall no more doubt. There is a secret
trouble in your heart which you speak of to none--a doubt which wastes
away your courage, and makes you dream of throwing all away and fleeing
from your realm. Within this little while you have been praying, in your
own breast, that God of his grace would resolve that doubt, even if the
doing of it must show you that no kingly right is lodged in you."

It was that that amazed the King, for it was as she had said: his prayer
was the secret of his own breast, and none but God could know about it.
So he said:

"The sign is sufficient. I know now that these Voices are of God. They
have said true in this matter; if they have said more, tell it me--I will
believe."

"They have resolved that doubt, and I bring their very words, which are
these: Thou art lawful heir to the King thy father, and true heir of
France. God has spoken it. Now lift up thy head, and doubt no more, but
give me men-at-arms and let me get about my work."

Telling him he was of lawful birth was what straightened him up and
made a man of him for a moment, removing his doubts upon that head and
convincing him of his royal right; and if any could have hanged his
hindering and pestiferous council and set him free, he would have
answered Joan's prayer and set her in the field. But no, those creatures
were only checked, not checkmated; they could invent some more delays.

We had been made proud by the honors which had so distinguished Joan's
entrance into that place--honors restricted to personages of very high
rank and worth--but that pride was as nothing compared with the pride
we had in the honor done her upon leaving it. For whereas those first
honors were shown only to the great, these last, up to this time, had
been shown only to the royal. The King himself led Joan by the hand down
the great hall to th