pouring out to welcome us and gaze upon the Maid.

Then, with a great fanfare of trumpets, the gates of the fortress
were flung wide open, and forth came a gay procession, in the midst
of which, we could not doubt, rode the King himself.

Yes, there was no doubt of it. The crowd parted this way and that,
and we saw how the young King himself was marching towards us, and
at the sight of the Maid, not only did every courtier in the train
uncover, but the King himself bared his head, and bowed low to the
MAID OF ORLEANS.

She was off her horse in a moment, kneeling at his feet; but he
raised her instantly, held her hands in his, gave her thanks with
true emotion in face and voice, and, turning to her brothers, who
rode amongst us of her household, he cried to them in loud tones,
saying how he had decreed that the family of the D'Arcs should
henceforth have the right to quarter the hues of France on their
arms! An empty honour, perhaps, to simple peasants; and yet an
honour that the proudest families in the land might envy!

They carried her into the fortress. The two Queens and the ladies
of the Court knew not how to make enough of her. They seemed to
think that our coming must be regarded as the signal for an
outburst of merrymaking and carousing, such as the King found so
much to his liking.

It amazed us to find him still wrapped in idle luxury, joyful, it
is true, over the relief of Orleans, over the discomfiture of the
English; but as indisposed as ever to take the field himself, or to
put himself at the head of an army and march to his coronation as
the Maid instantly urged him.

"Gentle Dauphin, the Lord would have you King of your realm; He
would set the crown upon your head. He has smitten your enemies and
scattered them. Then wherefore not do His will and march to the
appointed spot? All will be well if you but follow His counsels."

"But, Maiden, I have so few troops; and I have no money; and the
way lies through a hostile land," the King would urge, when day
after day she pleaded with him. "All my counsellors advise delay.
Is it not right that I should listen to them as well as to you?
Wherefore such haste? Is it not wiser to act with deliberation and
prudence?"

"It is right to follow the voice of the Lord," spoke the Maid with
grave and forceful earnestness, "and to put your trust in Him
rather than in any child of man."

But the King could not be persuaded; indolence and fear held him
captive,