HKB
of five thousand men, to the relief of Orleans. The French, strongly convinced by so plain an interposition of Heaven, resumed the courage to which they had long been strangers.
"Such a phenomenon was exactly suited to the superstition and credulity of the age. The English were staggered with the rumors that every where went before her, and struck with a degree of apprehension and terror that they could not shake off. The garrison, informed of her approach, made a sally on the other side of the town, and Joan and her convoy entered without opposition. She displayed her standard in the market place, and was received as a celestial deliverer. She appears to have been endowed with a prudence not inferior to her courage and spirit of enterprise. With great docility, she caught the hints of the commanders by whom she was surrounded, and, convinced of her own want of experience and skill, delivered them to the forces as the dictates of Heaven. Thus the knowledge and discernment of the Generals were brought into play at the same time that their suggestions acquired new weight when falling from the lips of the Heaven-instructed heroine. A second convoy arrived, the wagons and troops passed between the redoubts of the English, while a dead, silence and astonishment reigned Among the forces so lately enterprising and irresistible. Joan now called on the garrison no longer to stand upon the defensive, but boldly to attack the army of the besiegers. She took one redoubt, and then another. The English, overwhelmed with amazement, scarcely dared to lift a hand against her. Their veteran Generals became, spell-bound and powerless, and their soldiers were driven before the prophetess like a flock of sheep. The siege was raised. Joan followed the English to a fortified town which they fixed on as the place of their retreat, and all the English were made prisoners. The late victorious force now concentrated themselves at Patay, in Orleanois. Joan advanced to meet them. The battle lasted not a moment; it was rather a flight than a combat. Fastolfe, one of the bravest of the English Generals, threw down his arms, and ran for his life. Talbot and Scales, the other Generals, were made prisoners.
"The siege of Orleans was raised on the eighth of May, 1429; the battle of Patay was fought on the tenth of the following month. Joan was, at that time, twenty-two years of age. This extraordinary turn having been given to the affairs of the kingdom, Joan next insisted that the King should march to Rheims, in order to be crowned. Rheims lay in a direction expressly through the enemy's garrisons. But every thing yielded to the marvellous fortune that attended upon the heroine. Troyes opened its gates. Chalons followed the example. Rheims sent a deputation, with the keys of the city, which met Charles on his march. The proposed solemnity took place amid the ecstasies and enthusiastic shouts of his people. It was no sooner over, than Joan stepped forward. She said, she had now performed the whole of what God had commissioned her to do. She was satisfied. She entreated the King to dismiss her to the obscurity from which she had sprung.
"The Ministers and Generals of France, however, found Joan too useful an instrument to be willing to part with her thus early, and she yielded to their earnest expostulations.