mph which I read there, though there
was joy and rapture and peace, beyond all power of understanding.
It was the face of one who sees heaven open, and in the wonder and
awe of the beatific vision forgets all else, and feels not the
fetters of the flesh, heeds not those things which must needs
intervene ere the spirit can finally be loosed to enter upon
blessedness and rest, but soars upwards at once into heavenly
regions.

The town of Rheims lay before us. The inhabitants were pouring
forth to meet us. We saw them coming over the plain, as we watched
the walls and buildings, glowing in the mystic radiance of the
summer's evening, loom up larger and grander and sharper before us.
It was no dream!

And yet who would have thought it possible three months ago? In
mid-April the iron grip of the English lay all over the land north
of the Loire, and the south lay supine and helpless, stricken with
the terror of the victorious conqueror. Orleans was at its last
gasp, and with its fall the last bulwark would be swept away; all
France must own the sway of the conqueror. The King was powerless,
indolent, ready to fly at the first approach of peril, with no hope
and no desire for rule, doubtful even if he had the right to take
upon himself the title of King, careless in his despair and his
difficulties. The army was almost non-existent; the soldiers could
scarce be brought to face the foe. One Englishman could chase ten
of ours. The horror as of a great darkness seemed to have fallen
upon the land.

And yet in three months' time what had not been accomplished!

The King was riding into the ancient city of Rheims, to be crowned
King of France; Orleans was relieved; a score of fortresses had
been snatched from the hands of the English. These were fleeing
from us in all directions back to Paris; where they hoped to make a
stand against us, but were in mortal fear of attack; and now it was
our soldiers who clamoured to be led against the English--the
English who fled helter-skelter before the rush and the dash of the
men whom heretofore they had despised.

And all this was the work of yonder marvellous Maid--a girl of
seventeen summers, who, clad in white armour, shining like an
angelic vision, was riding at the King's side towards the city.

He turned and looked at her at the moment my gaze was thus
arrested, and I saw his face change. He put out his hand and
touched hers gently; but he had to touch her twice and to speak
t