c met some friends
who had arrived from Domremy; among them were two old village
companions, Gerardin d'Epinal and John Morel, to whom she gave her red
dress. In conversation with these she said that the only dread she had
in the future was treachery: a dread which seems to point in some
strange prophetic manner to the fate which was so soon to meet her at
Compiegne.

It was on the evening of the 16th of July that the royal host at
length came in sight of the massive towers of the great cathedral
church of Rheims. It was at Sept Saulx, about eight miles' distance
from Rheims, that the King waited for a deputation to reach him from
the town. Rheims was still filled with the English and Burgundian
adherents, and had Bedford chosen to throw, as he could well have
done, a force into that place, Charles might yet have been prevented
from entering its gates. Perhaps Bedford did not believe in the
possibility of Charles arriving at his goal, and had counted on the
King's well-known weakness and indecision, and on the hesitation of
such men as La Tremoille and others of his Council. The Regent had
received assurances from the officials in Rheims that they would not
admit Charles. But after what passed at Troyes and at Chalons, Charles
had not long to wait for a favourable answer from his lieges at
Rheims. Indeed, the deputation which met him at Sept Saulx were
effusive in their good offices and entreaties that the King should
forthwith enter his good city of Rheims.

The Archbishop (Regnault de Chartres), who had preceded the King by a
few hours to his town, came out to meet the King at the head of the
corporation and civic companies. From all sides flocked crowds eager
to welcome the King, and even more the Maid of Orleans. In those days
the people's cry of joy and triumph was '_Noel!_'--but why that cry of
Christmas joy had become the popular hosanna, it is not easy to
conjecture.

Throughout that night the preparations for the coronation were
feverishly made both within and without the cathedral. On the 17th of
July, with all the pomp and ceremony that the church and army could
bestow, the King was crowned and anointed with the holy oil which four
of his principal officers had brought to the cathedral from the
ancient abbey church of Saint-Remy.

There exist few grander fanes in Christendom than the great cathedral
of Rheims. The thirteenth century, so prolific of splendid churches,
had expended all its wealth of lavis