And the people believed in her, heart and soul.  Her fame spread far and wide, and had she lifted but a finger, she might have been at the head of an armed band of citizens and soldiers, yea, and many gentlemen and knights as well, all vowed to live and die in her service.  But this was not what was her destiny.

“I thank you, my friends,” she would say, if such a step were proposed by any ardent soul, impatient of this long delay; “but thus it may not be.  My Lord has decreed that the Dauphin shall send me forth at the head of his armies, and with a troop of his soldiers; and he will do this ere long.  Be not afraid.  We must needs have patience, as did our Lord Himself, and be obedient, as He was.  For only as we look to Him for grace and guidance can we hope to do His perfect will.”

Thus spoke the Maid, who, being without letters, and knowing, as she said, no prayers save the Pater Noster, Ave Maria, and Credo, yet could speak in such fashion to those who sought her.  Was it wonder that the people believed in her? that they would have been ready to tear in pieces any who durst contemn her mission, or declare her possessed of evil spirits?

Yet I will not say that it was fear which possessed the hearts of her judges, and decided their ruling in this matter.  I trow they could not look upon her, or hear her, without conviction of heart.  Nevertheless it is possible that the respect for popular enthusiasm led them to speak in such high praise of the Maid, and to add that she was in the right in assuming the dress which she wore.  For she had been sent to do man’s work, and for this a man’s garb was the only fitting one to wear.  And this ruling was heard with great acclamation of satisfaction; for her dress had been almost more commented upon than any other matter by some, and that the Church had set its sanction upon that which common sense deemed most right and fitting, robbed the most doubtful of all scruple, and gave to the Maid herself no small pleasure.

“I do in this, as in all other things, that which I have been bidden,” she said.  “But I would not willingly act unseemly in the eyes of good men and virtuous women; wherefore I am glad that my judges have spoken thus, and I thank them from my heart for their gentle treatment of me.”

It was ever thus with the Maid.  No anger or impatience overset her sweet serenity and humility.  She would not let herself take offence, or resent these ordeals to which, time after time, she was subjected.  Nay, it was she who defended the proceedings when we attacked them, saying that it behoved men to act with care and caution in these great matters, and that her only trouble in the delay was the sufferings and sorrows of the poor beleaguered garrison and citizens in Orleans, to whose help and relief she longed to fly.