er of carrying on war successfully or of
inspiring that enthusiasm without which the most careful organisation
is as the twining of ropes of sand. It would need a miracle to inspire
Frenchmen with the belief that it was possible for them to defeat the
victors of Agincourt and Verneuil, and yet without such a miracle
irretrievable ruin was at hand.

6. =Jeanne Darc and the Relief of Orleans. 1429.=--The miracle was
wrought by a young maiden of seventeen, Jeanne Darc, the daughter of a
peasant of Domremi, in the duchy of Bar. Her home was at a distance
from the actual scenes of war, but whilst she was still little more
than a child, tales of horror, reaching her from afar, had filled her
with 'pity for the realm of France' and for its young king, whom she
idealised into the pattern of every virtue. As she brooded over the
thought of possible deliverance, her warm imagination summoned up
before her bright and saintly forms, St. Michael, St. Catherine, and
St. Margaret, who bade her, the chosen of God, to go forth and save
the king, and conduct him to Reims to be crowned and anointed with the
holy oil from the vessel which, as men believed, had been brought down
from heaven in days of old. At last in =1428= her native hamlet was
burnt down by a Burgundian band. Then the voices of the saints bade
her go to Vaucouleurs, where she would find a knight, Robert de
Baudricourt, who would conduct her to Charles. Months passed before
Baudricourt would do aught but scorn her message, and it was not till
February =1429=, when the news from Orleans was most depressing, that
he consented to take her in his train. She found Charles at Chinon,
and, as the story goes, convinced him of her Divine mission by
recognising him in disguise in the midst of his courtiers. Soldiers
and theologians alike distrusted her, but her native good sense, her
simple and earnest faith, and above all her purity of heart and life
disarmed all opposition, and she was sent forth to lead an army to the
relief of Orleans. She rode on horseback clothed in armour as a man,
with a sword which she had taken from behind the altar of St.
Catherine by her side, and a consecrated banner in her hand. She
brought with her hope of victory, enthusiasm built on confidence in
Divine protection, and wide-reaching patriotism. 'Pity for the realm
of France' inspired her, and even the rough soldiers who followed her
forsook for a time their debaucheries that they might be fit to fol