118 WORKMEN AND HEROES with the bravest of the English army. But Joan replied, " I, too, have been at council with God, and we shall fight to-morrow." They did fight, the English with fury, the French " as if they believed them- selves immortal." After three hours of warfare Joan saw her men hesitate undei the fierce attack of the enemy. She seized a ladder, planted it against a wall, and began to ascend it. At that moment an English arrow struck her between the neck and shoulder, and she fell to the ground. The disheartened soldiers bore her from the field, and dressed her wound, from which she extracted the ar- row with her own hand, shedding womanly tears meanwhile. After the wound was dressed, a vision came to her, and with sudden strength she remounted her horse and rode back to battle. The English, believing her nearly dead from her wound, were terrified to see her return, and lost courage from that moment ; while the French, electri- fied by her unexpected presence, fought with such zeal that before nightfall the maid led her army into Orleans crowned with triumph. It was only seven days since she had entered the city, and Joan had already verified her assertion that she could and would " raise the siege of Orleans." The indolent and unworthy dauphin, however, refused to go to Rheims and be crowned and so fulfil the second part of Joan's mission. He said there were ports along the Loire which needed to be taken first so the girl general laid out her campaign and added Beaugency and Jargeau to her other conquests. The English had become filled with superstitious fear of her power, attributing it to the devil. But the Dauphin of France still dallied with light women in his cas- tle, and treated Joan with coldness and suspicion. The army now became so unanimous in the desire that the king should go to Rheims, that he finally, with reluctance, consented. On July i6th, after having taken Troyes and Chalons on the way, the French army entered Rheims ; and there, on the following day, the dauphin was anointed with holy oil and received the crown of France. Happy, but modest and humble in her happiness, rejoicing only in the pros- perity of the king and the country, the sublime saviour of her land knelt before her sovereign after the ceremonies were concluded and said, " Gentle king, I wish now that I might return toward my father and my mother, to keep my flocks and my herds as heretofore." Alas for the happiness of the poor girl and the honor of two countries, that her request was not granted ! Joan's father was present on this occasion, and the inn where he lodged at the king's expense, and the cathedral where the dauphin was crowned, still exist in Rheims. During all Joan's life as a soldier and general, she exhibited a most touching humanity toward the conquered enemy. She would spring from her horse to sooth the wounds of a suffering English soldier, and it is recorded of her that she carried a dying enemy -in her arms to a confessor, and remained with him till his soul took flight. The people adored her, the soldiers of her army idolized her, and the king realized that she was of too great value to him to permit her to go in peace to her old humble home. So Joan remained, asking that the king
