s. The inhabitants
were expecting the King. They had hung up tapestries ready for his
entrance.[1297] But the King and his Chamberlain, fearing and not
without reason, some aggressive movement on the part of the Constable,
held themselves secure in the Chateau of Sully.[1298] Thence they
started for Chateauneuf on the 22nd of June. That same day the Maid
joined the King at Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire. He received her with his
usual kindness and said: "I pity you because of the suffering you
endure." And he urged her to rest.

[Footnote 1297: _Chronique de la Pucelle_, pp. 307-308. _Journal du
siege_, p. 105.]

[Footnote 1298: De Beaucourt, _Histoire de Charles VII_, vol. ii, p.
222 _et seq._; E. Cosneau, _Le connetable de Richemont_, p. 172.]

At these words she wept. It has been said that her tears flowed
because of the indifference and incredulity towards her that the
King's urbanity implied.[1299] But we must beware of attributing to
the tears of the enraptured and the illuminated a cause intelligible
to human reason. To her Charles appeared clothed in an ineffable
splendour like that of the holiest of kings. How, since she had shown
him her angels, invisible to ordinary folk, could she for one moment
have thought that he lacked faith in her?

[Footnote 1299: _Trial_, vol. iii, p. 116 (evidence of S. Charles).
"_Et audivit ipse loquens ex ore regis multa bona de ea ... rex habuit
pietatem de ea et de poena quam portabat._"]

"Have no doubt," she said to him, confidently, "you shall receive the
whole of your kingdom and shortly shall be crowned."[1300]

[Footnote 1300: _Trial_, vol. iii, pp. 76, 116.]

True, Charles seemed in no great haste to employ his knights in the
recovery of his kingdom. But his Council just then had no idea of
getting rid of the Maid. On the contrary, they were determined to use
her cleverly, so as to put heart into the French, to terrify the
English, and to convince the world that God, Saint Michael, and Saint
Catherine, were on the side of the Armagnacs. In announcing the
victory of Patay to the good towns, the royal councillors said not one
word of the Constable, neither did they mention my Lord the
Bastard.[1301] They described as leaders of the army, the Maid, with
the two Princes of the Blood Royal, the Duke of Alencon, and the Duke
of Vendome. In such wise did they exalt her. And, indeed, she must
have been worth as much and more than a great captain, since the
Constable attempted to