the fish: she took a little bread dipped in wine and
water, her wound was dressed, and she slept. Next day the English drew
up their men in line of battle. The French went out to meet them, and
would have begun the attack. Joan said that God would not have them
fight.

'If the English attack, we shall defeat them; we are to let them go in
peace if they will.'

Mass was then said before the French army.

When the rite was done, Joan asked: 'Do they face us, or have they
turned their backs?'

It was the English backs that the French saw that day: Talbot's men were
in full retreat on Meun.

From that hour May 8 is kept a holiday at Orleans in honour of Joan the
Maiden. Never was there such a deliverance. In a week the Maid had
driven a strong army, full of courage and well led, out of forts like
Les Tourelles. The Duc d'Alencon visited it, and said that with a few
men-at-arms he would have felt certain of holding it for a week against
any strength however great. But Joan not only gave the French her
spirit: her extraordinary courage in leading a new charge after so
terrible a wound, 'six inches deep,' says d'Alencon, made the English
think that they were fighting a force not of this world. And that is
exactly what they were doing.

HOW JOAN THE MAID TOOK JARGEAU FROM THE ENGLISH

The Maid had shown her sign, as she promised; she had rescued Orleans.
Her next desire was to lead Charles to Reims, through a country
occupied by the English, and to have him anointed there with the holy
oil. Till this was done she could only regard him as Dauphin--king,
indeed, by blood, but not by consecration.

After all that Joan had accomplished, the king and his advisers might
have believed in her. She went to the castle of Loches, where Charles
was: he received her kindly, but still he did not seem eager to go to
Reims. It was a dangerous adventure, for which he and his favourites
like La Tremouille had no taste. It seems that more learned men were
asked to give their opinion. Was it safe and wise to obey the Maid? On
May 14, only six days after the relief of Orleans, the famous Gerson
wrote down his ideas. He believed in the Maid. The king had already
trusted her without fear of being laughed at; she and the generals did
not rely on the saints alone, but on courage, prudence, and skill. Even
if, by ill fortune, she were to fail on a later day, the fault would not
be hers, but would be God's punishment of French ingratitude. 'L