ent to Tours, and, falling
before him, she begged him to go and receive his crown, saying, that
when her voices gave her this message she was marvelously rejoiced.
Charles did not seem much rejoiced to receive it. He said a great deal
about the dangers of the way, and preferred that the other English posts
on the Loire should be taken first. It must have been very trying to one
so quick and eager as Joan to deal with such a person, but, good or bad,
he was her king. She was not idle because she could not do exactly as
she wished; she set out with the army at once.

The news flew onwards. The inhabitants of Chalons and of Rheims rose and
turned out the Burgundian garrisons. The king's way to Rheims was one
triumph, and, amidst the shouts of the people, he entered Rheims on the
16th of July. The next day Charles VII was crowned. The visions of the
Maid had been fulfilled. By her arm Orleans had been saved, through her
means the king stood there. She was beside the king at the high altar,
with her banner displayed; and when the service was over, she knelt
before him with streaming eyes, saying, "Gentle king, now is done the
pleasure of God, who willed that you should come to Rheims and be
anointed, showing that you are the true king, and he to whom the kingdom
should belong."

All eyes were upon her as the savior of her country. She might have
secured every thing for herself; but she asked no reward, she was
content to have done her duty. And of all that was offered her, the only
thing she would accept was that Domremy should be free forever from any
kind of tax. So, until the time of the first French Revolution, the
collectors wrote against the name of the village, as it stood in their
books, "_Nothing, for the Maid's sake_."

Joan of Arc said that her work was done. She had seen her father and her
uncle in the crowd, and, with many tears, she begged the king to let her
go back with them, and keep her flocks and herds, and do all as she had
been used to do. Never had man or woman done so much with so simple a
heart. But the king and his advisers knew her power over the people, and
their entreaties that she would stay with them prevailed. So she let her
father and her uncle depart without her. They must have had enough to
tell when they reached home.

We have little heart to tell the rest of the story. At length the king
reached Paris, and the Duke of Bedford was away in Normandy. Joan wished
to attack the city, and it