They would have kept her with them for ever, if it might so have been.  They talked wildly, yet earnestly, of building her a palace, where she should live at ease all the rest of her days, the object of universal admiration and homage.

But the Maid listened to such words, when repeated to her, with a dreamy smile.  Her wound required rest; and for two days she consented to remain quiet in the house of the Treasurer, lying for the most part upon a couch in a great cool chamber, with the little Charlotte for her companion and playfellow.  She sometimes rose and showed herself at a window in answer to the tumultuous shoutings of the crowd without; and she received with pleasure some great baskets and bouquets of flowers which the wives and children of the citizens had culled for her.  But she gently put aside all suggestions of rewards for herself, which some would fain have bestowed upon the Deliverer, and which men of all ranks were but too ready to claim and receive for service rendered.

“I have all that I want, myself—­and more,” she said; “if any would offer gifts, let them be thank offerings to the Lord.  Let the poor receive alms, let Masses be sung for the souls of those killed in the war; but for me—­I want nothing but the love of the people of France.  I am come to do the will of my Lord.  I ask only His approving smile.”

And all the while she was eagerly desirous to return to the King, and urge upon him the need to repair instantly to Rheims, and there receive his crown.  To her he was not truly King till he had been anointed as such.  She knew that the blow to the English arms just struck must have a paralysing effect upon their forces, and that a rapid march with even a small army would be accomplished without resistance, if only it were quickly made.

I need not say that the city of Rheims lay in the very heart of territory owning the English sway.  To reach that city we must perforce march right through a hostile country, garrisoned by the enemy.  But of that the Maid made light.

“The hearts of the people will turn towards us,” she said.  “They have submitted to the English yoke; but they are Frenchmen still.  Once let them see that the power of the enemy is broken, and they will rally to our standard.  But precious time should not be lost.  The Dauphin should place himself at the head of such an army as he can spare for the march, and journey forthwith to Rheims.  There shall the crown be set upon his head—­the pledge and earnest that one day he shall rule the whole realm of France, as his fathers did before him!”

And so, before a week had passed, we set forth with the Maid to go to the King, who had by this time moved his Court from Chinon to Loches, another fortress upon the Loire, where there was space for his train, and which could, if necessary, be fortified against a siege.