he already suspected the political enemies, the Archbishop of Reims and
La Tremouille, who were to spoil her mission.

As they went from Reims after the coronation, Dunois and the archbishop
were riding by her rein. The people cheered and cried _Noel_.

'They are a good people,' said Joan. 'Never saw I any more joyous at the
coming of their king. Ah, would that I might be so happy when I end my
days as to be buried here!'

Said the archbishop:

'Oh, Jeanne, in what place do you hope to die?'

Then she said:

'Where it pleases God; for I know not that hour, nor that place, more
than ye do. But would to God, my maker, that now I might depart, and lay
down my arms, and help my father and mother, and keep their sheep with
my brothers and my sister, who would rejoice to see me!'[21]

Some writers have reported Joan's words as if she meant that she wished
the king to let her go home and leave the wars. In their opinion Joan
was only acting under heavenly direction till the consecration of
Charles. Afterwards, like Hal of the Wynd, she was 'fighting for her own
hand,' they think, and therefore she did not succeed. But from the first
Joan threatened to drive the English quite out of France, and she also
hoped to bring the Duc d'Orleans home from captivity in England. If her
Voices had told her _not_ to go on after the coronation, she would
probably have said so at her trial, when she mentioned one or two acts
of disobedience to her Voices. Again, had she been anxious to go home,
Charles VII. and his advisers would have been only too glad to let her
go. They did not wish her to lead them into dangerous places, and they
hated obeying her commands.

Some French authors have, very naturally, wished to believe that the
Maid could make no error, and could not fail; they therefore draw a line
between what she did up to the day of Reims, and what she did
afterwards. They hold that she was divinely led till the coronation, and
not later. But it is difficult to agree with them here. As we saw,
Gerson told the French that by injustice and ingratitude they might
hinder the success of the Maid. His advice was a prophecy.

IV

HOW THE MAID RODE TO PARIS

WHAT was to be done after the crowning of the king? Bedford, the regent
for the child Henry VI., expected to see Joan under the walls of Paris.
He was waiting for the troops which the Cardinal of Winchester had
collected in England as a crusading army against the Hussite heret