he face which she lifted in
adoration and thanksgiving. I trow that none in that vast assembly,
who could see her as she thus stood, doubted but that she stood
there the accredited messenger of the Most High. The light from
Heaven itself was shining on her upturned face, the reflection of
an unearthly glory beamed in her eyes. From time to time her lips
moved, as though words of thanksgiving broke silently forth; but
save for that she scarcely moved all through the long and solemn
ceremony. Methinks that she saw it rather in the spirit than in the
flesh; and the knights and nobles who had poured in from the
surrounding country to witness this great function, and had not
companied with the Maid before, but had only heard of her fame from
afar, these regarded her with looks of wonder and of awe, and
whispering together, asked of each other whether in truth she were
a creature of flesh and blood, or whether it were not some angelic
presence, sent down direct from Heaven.

And so at last the King was anointed and crowned! The blare of the
thousand trumpets, the acclamations of a vast multitude proclaimed
the thing done! Charles the Seventh stood before his people, their
King, in fact as well as in name.

The work of the Maid was indeed accomplished!

CHAPTER XVII. HOW THE MAID WAS PERSUADED.

The ceremony was over. The Dauphin stood in our midst a crowned and
anointed King. We were back in the great hall of the Archeveche,
and the thunders of triumphant applause which had been restrained
within the precincts of the sacred edifice now broke forth again,
and yet again, in long bursts of cheering, which were echoed from
without by the multitudes in the street and great square Place, and
came rolling through the open windows in waves of sound like the
beating of the surf upon the shore.

The King stood upon a raised dais; his chiefest nobles and peers
around him. He was magnificently robed, as became so great an
occasion, and for the first time that I had ever seen, he looked an
imposing and a dignified figure. Something there was of true
kingliness in his aspect. It seemed as though the scene through
which he had passed had not been without effect upon his nature,
and that something regal had been conveyed to him through the
solemnities which had just taken place.

The Maid was present also; but she had sought to efface herself in
the crowd, and stood thoughtfully apart in an embrasure of the
wall, half conceale