Soldiers and leaders now were equally eager for the march to Rheims; yet the King ingloriously held back, and the coronation seemed to be as distant as ever.  But Joan with unexampled persistency insisted on an immediate advance, and the King reluctantly set out for Rheims with twelve thousand men.  The first great impediment was the important city of Troyes, which was well garrisoned.  After five days were spent before it, and famine began to be felt in the camp, the military leaders wished to raise the siege and return to the south.  The Maid implored them to persevere, promising the capture of the city within three days.  “We would wait six,” said the Archbishop of Rheims, the chancellor and chief adviser of the King, “if we were certain we could take it.”  Joan mounted her horse, made preparations for the assault, cheered the soldiers, working far into the night; and the next day the city surrendered, and Charles, attended by Joan and his nobles, triumphantly entered the city.

The prestige of the Maid carried the day.  The English soldiers dared not contend with one who seemed to be a favorite of Heaven.  They had heard of Orleans and Jargeau.  Chalons followed the example of Troyes.  Then Rheims, when the English learned of the surrender of Troyes and Chalons, made no resistance; and in less than a month after the march had begun, the King entered the city, and was immediately crowned by the Archbishop, Joan standing by his side holding her sacred banner.  This coronation was a matter of great political importance.  Charles had a rival in the youthful King of England.  The succession was disputed.  Whoever should first be crowned in the city where the ancient kings were consecrated was likely to be acknowledged by the nation.

The mission of Joan was now accomplished.  She had done what she promised, amid incredible difficulties.  And now, kneeling before her anointed sovereign, she said, “Gracious King, now is fulfilled the pleasure of God!” And as she spoke she wept.  She had given a king to France; and she had given France to her king.  Not by might, not by power had she done this, but by the Spirit of the Lord.  She asked no other reward for her magnificent service than that her native village should be forever exempt from taxation.  Feeling that the work for which she was raised up was done, she would willingly have retired to the seclusion of her mountain home, but the leaders of France, seeing how much she was adored by the people, were not disposed to part with so great an instrument of success.

And Joan, too, entered with zeal upon those military movements which were to drive away forever the English from the soil of France.  Her career had thus far been one of success and boundless enthusiasm; but now the tide turned, and her subsequent life was one of signal failure.  Her only strength was in the voices which had bidden her to deliver Orleans and to crown the King.  She had no genius for war.