e miracle according to the promise in
her letter; and they were fully as much astonished to find that she was
not overcome by the pomps and splendors about her, but was even more
tranquil and at her ease in holding speech with a monarch than ever they
themselves had been, with all their practice and experience.

As for our two knights, they were inflated beyond measure with pride in
Joan, but nearly dumb, as to speech, they not being able to think out any
way to account for her managing to carry herself through this imposing
ordeal without ever a mistake or an awkwardness of any kind to mar the
grace and credit of her great performance.

The talk between Joan and the King was long and earnest, and held in low
voices. We could not hear, but we had our eyes and could note effects;
and presently we and all the house noted one effect which was memorable
and striking, and has been set down in memoirs and histories and in
testimony at the Process of Rehabilitation by some who witnessed it; for
all knew it was big with meaning, though none knew what that meaning was
at that time, of course. For suddenly we saw the King shake off his
indolent attitude and straighten up like a man, and at the same time look
immeasurably astonished. It was as if Joan had told him something almost
too wonderful for belief, and yet of a most uplifting and welcome nature.

It was long before we found out the secret of this conversation, but we
know it now, and all the world knows it. That part of the talk was like
this--as one may read in all histories. The perplexed King asked Joan for
a sign. He wanted to believe in her and her mission, and that her Voices
were supernatural and endowed with knowledge hidden from mortals, but how
could he do this unless these Voices could prove their claim in some
absolutely unassailable way? It was then that Joan said:

"I will give you a sign, and you shall no more doubt. There is a secret
trouble in your heart which you speak of to none--a doubt which wastes
away your courage, and makes you dream of throwing all away and fleeing
from your realm. Within this little while you have been praying, in your
own breast, that God of his grace would resolve that doubt, even if the
doing of it must show you that no kingly right is lodged in you."

It was that that amazed the King, for it was as she had said: his prayer
was the secret of his own breast, and none but God could know about it.
So he said:

"The sign is su